Sisters of Charity

“ O my dear Sisters, Daughters of the Visitation of Our Lady and of St. Elizabeth, since you have Mary for your Mother, you should have nothing so much at heart as to imitate her particularly in her humility and charity. These are the two virtues which especially animated her when she visited the house of Zachary. Like her, you should visit, diligently and joyfully, your Sisters, when they are suffering, and endeavour to aid each other in your spiritual and temporal infirmities. Be most careful and diligent in those things in which humility and charity are most required. ”

“ The Sisters of Charity and the Friends, each with their different costume of plainness and self-denial, and other noble-hearted women of no particular outward order, but kindred in spirit, have shown to womanhood, on the battle-field and in the hospital, a more excellent way,—a beauty and nobility before which all the common graces and ornaments of the sex fade, appear like dim candles by the pure, eternal stars. ”

“ Wherever there is sorrow, suffering, or sin, in our own or in other lands, these heaven-appointed Sisters of Charity will find their mission and their work.
Glorious indeed will be the results of such labors of love and Christian charity. Society will be purified and elevated; giant evils which have so long thwarted human progress, overthrown ”

“ And before Sister Celeste had any time for preparation or remonstrance, the young man added:
"'You have been my guardian angel; you have saved my life. The world will be all dark without you. You can serve God and, humanity better as my wife than as a lowly and poor Sister here. Some women have higher destinies and a nobler sphere to fill on earth than as Sisters of Charity; you were never meant to be a nun, but a loving wife. Be mine. If it is the poor you wish to serve, a thousand shall bless you where one blesses you here ”

“ Whatever their faults may have been, whatever their frailties, if overtaken by want or sickness—if, deserted and trampled upon, they sink without any visible hand being stretched out to save them from despair and death—then do the Sisters of Charity interpose to succour and to save. ”

“ Of these charitable communities there are many orders, which differ from the above chiefly in name, and in the Sisters never quitting their sanctuary or the precincts of their gardens. The Sisters of Charity, properly so called, not being vowed to seclusion, are more generally known to the world, who see them, and therefore believe that they exist for charitable purposes, while of those of whom they see nothing they know nothing ”

“ There are upward of fifty of these Sisters of Charity in Cadiz, they having the sole charge of the hospitals, schools, workhouses, etc.; and the admirable cleanliness, order, and comfort in each which is the result, must commend them to the intelligent approval of every visitor, even should he be unmoved by the evidence of that unpaid charity which, with its soft finger-touch, stamps all their works with the very essence of divine love. ”

“ I am burning with impatience to be in it; for though we are extremely comfortable with the good Sisters of Charity, who are truly sisters to us, we nevertheless long to be at home, where we can live in conformity to our rule and customs. ”

“ Sisters of charity are seen to cross over the ocean to the extremity of the world, that they may work in combination with missionaries, whose task it is to live among savages, and to make them first men, in order that they may hereafter be Christians ”

“ Such, Florry, is their boasted charity; and I might add, their lives are little in accordance with the spirit inculcated by our Saviour, who said, 'When ye do your alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.' There are thousands who daily dispense charities of various kinds; yet they do not term themselves Sisters of Charity; neither promenade the streets in a garb so antiquated and peculiar as to excite attention, or elicit encomiums on their marvelously holy lives and charitable deeds. ”

“ The actual number of Catholic Sisters who laid down their lives during the civil war, that their fellow-creatures might live, will probably never be known, but there is no question that hundreds did so. Their names are not cut upon any earthly monuments, but they are surely emblazoned in letters of gold in the great book of the Recording Angel. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, as Mother Carroll could have testified, furnished their full quota of fair martyrs. ”

“ Going through the city, looking after poor girls; inducing them to attend school, and instructing them in their religion; and, further, visiting, relieving, and consoling the sick poor in their own homes and in the public hospitals—duties analogous to those now discharged by the Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Mercy. ”

“ St Vincent de Paul is considered to have begun the new era with his institution of “Sisters of Charity” in 1634. Another modern feature is the fuller recognition of family ties: Rule 29 of the Clewer sisters directs that “the sisters shall have free intercourse with relations, who may visit them at any time.” But in most essential respects modern sisterhoods follow the ancient traditions. They devote themselves to the celibate life, have property in common, and observe a common rule of prayer, fellowship and work. Government is by a sister superior, assisted by various officers. ”

“ It is unnecessary to multiply examples. It is not the splendour of the Papacy or the episcopate that is the true glory of the Church of Rome, but the steady and modest devotion of her working Orders. What is more beautiful than the life of a Sister of Charity or a “Little Sister of the Poor”? Good Catholics call them “My Sister” when speaking to each of them individually, and so do I who am not a Catholic, for are they not sisters of all of us who may be laid one day on a bed of sickness? If we do not need their gentle watching for ourselves, it soothes our suffering brethren. ”

“ Yes, I know when I show charity to others, it is simply Jesus acting in me, and the more closely I am united to Him, the more dearly I love my Sisters. If I wish to increase this love in my heart, and the devil tries to bring before me the defects of a Sister, I hasten to look for her virtues, her good motives; I call to mind that though I may have seen her fall once, no doubt she has gained many victories over herself, which in her humility she conceals. It is even possible that what seems to me a fault, may very likely, on account of her good intention, be an act of virtue. ”

“ It is especially in this respect that we should endeavor to reduce to practice what has already been advanced on the importance of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the people, and the necessity of loving them in order to our being qualified to address them to good purpose. {198} We must make ourselves Sisters of Charity to the souls of men ”

“ When they go back to their homes it is expected that they will wear the garb of the Sisters of Charity, and teach their people as the devoted white Sisters have been doing since 1892; and if they do well, they will ultimately take the place of those pale-faced women from Europe, who suffer from the trying climate. ”

“ If some person died at the hospital and left some clothes that were not claimed by anyone, they would be given to some poor person and call it "charity." If some patient could not or would not pay all of their bill, it would be entered in the books as "charity." But, God forbid that I should blame the poor sisters for what they do not do. It is the sisters who do the charity—not for the poor people—but for the church, by giving their life's service. ”

“ This establishment was greatly run down a few years ago, but through the efforts of the late Señor Matute, and other patriotic and public-spirited citizens, it has been regenerated, and now holds within its walls sixteen-hundred human beings, from the foundling just brought in from the street, to the young woman or man ready to go forth into the world as a teacher, artizan, house-servant, husband or wife. It is superintended by the Sisters of Charity, of whom there are some twenty in the establishment, and managed with an amount of economy and skill wonderful to witness. ”

“ The tender regard with which the Sisters cherish the poor on whom they wait, calls forth the best feelings of their hearts, so long dead to every human charity. They respond by the most refreshing cordiality; but truly hearts could not resist the winning kindness with which they are invariably treated. One little incident may illustrate how above all selfish considerations the law of kindness prevails: One old woman was anxious to be received among the 'Little Sisters' somewhere in France. ”

“ New institutions are annually struggling into existence to supply this demand. Among the most important by their social and religious nature are those of the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Francis, which may serve as a type of what we would urge concerning the superiority of piety and charity—those daughters of the Christian church—over secular calculations, in this work. ”

“ A number of girls of my acquaintance went to school to the nuns of the Congregational Nunnery, or Sisters of Charity, as they are sometimes called. ”

“ It was a most touching sight to see so large a number of sisters and novices in worship together before the Host. Here then, I thought, were before me so many female hearts offering up to God daily the sacrifice of themselves in works of charity; they have made the voluntary surrender of the pleasures of home, of feelings dearest to the natural man; there is no holding back in their offering: it is complete, and penetrated with charity. ”

“ Her institute is remarkable for the charity and zeal by which its members are animated, their zeal being in a certain sense the spirit of the priesthood, which is par excellence the order of Jesus Christ himself, who was the High Priest of the New Law. The Sisters of the Congregation are bound to co-operate with the pastors of the Church in the discharge of such duties of charity as come within the spirit of their rule, making, however, a specialty of instructing youth, to which Sister Bourgeois devoted all her energies from girlhood. ”

“ The extraordinary thing is that the Sisters, though most of them are in their education and previous habits ladies, literally go about begging for the means of maintaining these poor people. Everything is done, indeed, by begging; for on entering the sisterhood they renounce all earthly possessions. They have begged the means of furnishing their house, and paying their rent, which is not an inconsiderable sum; they daily beg for the food, clothes, and cordials required for themselves and the objects of their charity. ”

“ Without entering into a detailed account of all the labors performed by the sisters since their arrival, it is enough to state that cleanliness and order prevail and true charity shows itself everywhere. The poor creatures, who formerly revelled in filth and disorder, now see about them decency and cleanliness. They are induced to be submissive and obedient by the hourly example of the sisters; their modesty and reserve, their virtue and careful speech, their watchful care and devotion, their tender attention to the sick, teach the inmates of the hospital the best of lessons. ”

“ The English public is peculiarly alive to the services of Sisters devoted to works of Charity. You cannot walk through the streets now, or travel by railway, without meeting them, and everywhere they are respected. Their costume provokes no ridicule, their youth and good looks (if such they have) are secure from insult. Their crucifix and beads are badges of which all know the import, and involuntary blessings attend their steps. They are, in their way, the apostles of England. ”

“ There is no charity that calls more urgently in these times for the countenance and help of pious souls living in the world than this twofold task undertaken by these good sisters—the raising of fallen women to lives of purity, and providing a place of refuge from temptation for destitute young girls. ”

“ Sometimes (more often than not) the Superior will keep the sisters there an hour or two accusing some sister, whom she has some special spite against, of faults she never committed or even thought of, and the least transgression of rule is severely punished; while want of true charity, and the Superior’s temper, are highly praised as in accordance with the will of God.
Besides these daily “chapters,” each day we had to write down every transgression of rule, and to [111] present the record to the Novice-mistress every Saturday morning. ”

“ If some community of Sisters would establish a house for the old [22] and infirm in some large town, I believe they could do a world of good; as the older people are more thoughtful, they would gladly open their hearts to our Holy Faith on beholding Faith practised in Charity. ”

“ Of course it must never be forgotten that through all the centuries since the Christian Church was founded, there had been Catholic sisterhoods with whom the real and the ideal were one—Sisters of Mercy, who were not only refined and cultivated gentlewomen, but the most devoted and self-sacrificing of human souls. ”

“ Those of us who cavil at Catholic pretensions, sneer at their assumption, and ridicule their observances, must acknowledge that the Sisters are far ahead and above any organization of the sort of which Protestantism can boast. The self-sacrifice, the devotion, the single-mindedness, the calm trust in a Power unseen, the humility of manner and rare unselfishness which characterize the Sisters, has no parallel in any organization of the reformed faith. ”