The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a

Catholic religious order In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute. Subcategories of religious orders are: * canons regular (canons and cano ...

that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

, France. The religious sisters belong to a Catholic international congregation of religious women dedicated to promoting the welfare of women and girls. The Congregation has a representative at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

, and has spoken out against

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extr ...

. In some countries' laundries and other institutions that were run by the Sisters, it was found that historically they incarcerated young girls, forcing them to do industrial work, with no pay and much mistreatment.

History

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd began as a branch of the Order of Our Lady of Charity (''Ordo Dominae Nostrae de Caritate''), founded in 1641 by

John Eudes John Eudes, CIM (french: link=no, Jean Eudes; 14 November 1601 – 19 August 1680) was a French Roman Catholic priest and the founder of both the Order of Our Lady of Charity in 1641 and Congregation of Jesus and Mary, also known as The Eudi ...

, at

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,"St. Mary Euphrasia", Good Shepherd of North America
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd was founded by Rose Virginie Pelletier in

, France, in 1835. Rose was the daughter of a medical doctor and his wife, known for their generosity to the poor. At the age of eighteen, she joined the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Charity in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

and was given her the name Mary of Saint Euphrasia. At the age of twenty-nine, she became mother superior of the convent.

Contemplative community

While superior at Tours, Mary Euphrasia formed a contemplative nuns group, named the Magdalen Sisters (based in a devotion to

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

's conversion), now known as the Contemplative Communities of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, for penitent women who wished to live a cloistered life, but were ineligible to become Sisters of Our Lady of Charity."Rose Virginie Pelletier (St. Mary Euphrasia)", Catholic Information Network
/ref> On November 11, 1825, four young women began their novitiate with a short rule given to them by Archbishop de Montblanc of Tours, which followed the Rule of the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,Le Brun, Charles. "Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 22 Feb. 2015
/ref> and earned their own way with intricate embroidery and production of altar bread.

Angers, France

In 1829, the Bishop of Angers, in France, requested a home be established in his diocese. Soon requests arrived from other cities. Each

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Angl ...

of the Order of Our Lady of Charity was independent and autonomous, with neither shared resources nor provisions for transferring personnel as needed. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier envisioned a new governing structure that would free the sisters to respond more readily to requests for assistance. She appealed to Rome for approval to establish a new

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of relig ...

, and the congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd was founded in 1835, with the motherhouse in Angers. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier was Mother-General of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for 33 years, and at her death in 1868, she left 2067 professed sisters, 384

novices A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

, 309 Touriere sisters (outdoor sisters who were not cloistered), 962 Sisters Magdalen, caring for 6372 "penitents", and 8483 children. In her lifetime 110 Good Shepherd convents were established in places as various as Rome, Italy (1838), Munich, Germany (1839) and Mons, Belgium (1839).

Expansion

Sister Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering

The first convent of the Good Shepherd in Great Britain was founded in London in 1841 and then in Dalbeth,

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

in 1851, moving to

Bishopton, Renfrewshire Bishopton (/bɪʃəptən/) ( sco, Bishoptoun; gd, Baile an Easbaig) is a village in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is located around west of Erskine. History There was a Roman Fort at Bishopton which was discovered from aerial photographs in 19 ...

in 195

They arrived in Montreal, Canada in 1844, and in Toronto in 1944. The sisters arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 1862. Additional convents were founded in El-Biar, Algeria (1843), Cairo, Egypt (1846), Limerick, Ireland (1848), Vienna, Austria (1853), Bangalore, India (1854), San Felipe, Chile (1855), Malta (1858), Leiderdorp, Holland (1860), and Rangoon, Burma (1866). Under her successor, Mary Saint Peter Coudenhove, in twenty-four years, eighty-five houses were founded, and thirteen new Ecclesiastical province, provinces established: eleven in Europe, two in Africa, nine in North America, five in South America and one in Oceania. The Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Mission was founded in 1869 and the convent continues to function as a religious community and school. From Ceylon, the Good Shepherd Sisters went to Singapore in 1939 and to Malaysia in 1956. Starting around 1938, over time eleven monasteries of Our Lady of Charity in four countries joined the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Since 1939 the Sisters have operated a convent in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Since then they diversified into other ministries ranging from education to social welfare. In 1958 they opened Marymount Convent School, a girls' primary school. In Thailand in 2021, Piyachat Boonmul of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd was appointed by the

Thai government The Government of Thailand, or formally the Royal Thai Government ( Abrv: RTG; th, รัฐบาลไทย, , ), is the unitary government of the Kingdom of Thailand. The country emerged as a modern nation state after the foundation of t ...

to a national advisory role in a committee with tasks of coordinating plans for the prevention and suppression of prostitution, establishment of shelters and protection, and setting regulations for detainees' acceptance and care.

In the United States

In 1842 Mary Euphrasia sent the first five Sisters to

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, to establish houses in the United States. From Louisville new foundations spread across the country. From 1893 to 1910 authorities in Davenport, Iowa placed 260 underage girls in Good Shepherd Homes in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

, Peoria,

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a ...

, and elsewhere. Some of these girls were taken from brothels or dangerous home environments. This was seen as an alternative to sending them to the Iowa Industrial School for Girls in Mitchellville. According to Sharon E. Wood, "Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, reformers increasingly promoted private institutions as the best way to deal with problem girls." When the Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrived in St. Paul in 1868, their mission was to serve the needs of the homeless, wayward, and criminal girls and women. The Sisters developed two distinct programs: the first, was the care of girls who came from failing homes. The second served former prostitutes or delinquent girls, a majority of which were sent there by the civil courts. At the conclusion of their court-ordered stay, most women returned to their communities. However, they had the option to remain with the sisters in a semi-religious status, living at the House, praying, assisting with chores, and easily able to come and go, or to become a full-fledged “Magdalen” nun, contemplative and cloistered within the House of the Good Shepherd. Lovina Benedict opened a home in Des Moines under the auspices of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. It was based on the Good Shepherd Home she had visited in St. Paul, Minnesota. In Wood's view the Davenport use of the Good Shepherd Homes "anticipated the juvenile court system created by Progressive reformers a few years later". By 1895, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd cared for numerous poor elderly men including disabled

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

veterans at a large asylum at 5010 North Avenue in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

. They later moved to a facility at 8730 W. Bluemound Road. New York City Police Commissioner

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

(1895) was a firm supporter of the work of the Congregation. From 1928 to 1975, the Sisters operated Villa Loretto in

Peekskill, New York Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from ...

. On February 14, 2000 the four Provinces of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Washington and St. Paul merged to become the Province of Mid-North America."Our History", Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Province of Mid-North America
/ref> The Good Shepherd Sisters in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

ran a home for young women, most of whom were runaways, referred to the nuns by

juvenile court A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern lega ...

s that deemed them "incorrigible". "The perception was that unwed mothers were sent there, but they weren't," said Sister Vera Gallagher. "In order to protect the girls, we really didn't tell the community much about what we were doing; and, because nobody knew, that was what they imagined. But they were just high-energy girls who had no place to go.".MacDonald, Sally. "Good Shepherd Nuns Retire -- `Wayward' Girls Got Help, Hope At Home Run By Convent", ''The Seattle Times'', July 31, 1997
/ref> Deborah Mullins, the youngest of twelve from a divorced family, said the Good Shepherd nuns " re the best thing that ever happened to me. ...They never screamed at you when you did something wrong. They'd be just totally disappointed in you, and that would make you know what you needed to do." They ran a laundry, washing the sheets and tablecloths used by the railroad. The Sisters also gave the girls money to buy new clothes. "We weren't all rosaries and stations of the cross," said Sheilah Nichols Castor. "You had to be able to type, you had to be able to take

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...

, and you had to be able to cook something. When I came out, of course, I could only cook in batches of 30." In 1867, the Sisters came to the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston The Archdiocese of Boston ( la, Archidiœcesis Bostoniensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New England region of the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the whole of ...

, where they ran the House of the Good Shepherd on Mission Hill in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

for nearly a century. The Sisters moved their school to

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high technology industry in the ...

in 1964, where they provided a therapeutic residential program for girls until 1985. In 1993, the Woburn-based Cummings Foundation purchased the property and renovated it into the upscale independent and

assisted living An assisted living residence or assisted living facility (ALF) is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who cannot or who choose not to live independently. The term is popular in the United States, but the setting is si ...

community, New Horizons. The Sisters continue to live there today rent-free, and offer residents daily Masses in the Cardinal Cushing Chapel.

Abuse of inmates

Australia

At the request of the Melbourne bishop James Goold, four sisters, led by Mary of St Joseph Doyle, arrived in Australia in 1863. They established the

Abbotsford Convent The Abbotsford Convent is located in Abbotsford, Victoria, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The Convent is in a bend of the Yarra River west of Yarra Bend Park, with the Collingwood Children's Farm to its north and east, the rive ...

, and the first women's penitentiary and reform school for girls. From the early 1890s to the 1960s, most Australian state capitals had a Magdalene asylum, also known as Magdalene laundry, a large convent where teenage girls were placed. According to James Franklin, the girls came from a variety of very disturbed and deprived backgrounds and were individually hard to deal with in many cases. The asylums were initially established as refuges, with the residents free to leave. In the early 1900s, they reluctantly began to accept court referrals. "They took in girls whom no-one else wanted and who were forcibly confined, contrary to the wishes of both the girls and the nuns." Like orphanages, they received almost no government funds. Laundry work was regarded as suitable as it did not require much training nor substantial capital expense. The nuns shared the conditions of the inmates, such as bland food, hard work, the confinement and the long periods of silence. Education for residents was either of poor quality or lacking altogether. The state-run

Parramatta Girls Home The Parramatta Girls Home, also known as the Industrial School for Girls, Girls Training School and Girls Training Home, was a state-controlled child-welfare institution located in , New South Wales, Australia which operated from 1887 until 1 ...

, which also had a laundry, had similar harsh conditions but a worse record for assaults. The Good Shepherds were among the organisations running these institutions and laundries, for example at

. In 2004 the Australian Parliament released a report that included Good Shepherd laundries in Australia for criticism. ''"We acknowledge"'' rites the Australian Province Leader Sister Anne Manning''"that for numbers of women, memories of their time with Good Shepherd are painful. We are deeply sorry for acts of verbal or physical cruelty that occurred: such things should never have taken place in a Good Shepherd facility. The understanding that we have been the cause of suffering is our deep regret as we look back over our history."''

United Kingdom

The Congregation ran institutions which provided residential accommodation for children and adults in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

and

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Armagh, Armagh and County Down, Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

. These institutions were the subject of the two-week Module 12 of the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry into sexual and physical abuse of children—not taking into account young women over the age of 18, the majority of residents—starting on 7 March 2016. The inquiry, under retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, published its report on 20 January 2017. In regard to the Good Shepherd Sisters facilities in Belfast, Derry and Newry, Hart said there had been "unacceptable practices" of young girls being forced to do industrial work in the laundries. He recommended state-backed compensation of £7,500 to £100,000 per person for victims of historic child abuse in Northern Ireland, with the maximum for those who had experienced severe abuse or been transported to Australia in the controversial

Home Children Home Children was the child migration scheme founded by Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The programme was largely discontin ...

migrant scheme. An apology on behalf of the Sisters said "we regret that some of our former residents have painful memories of the time spent in our care." The Sisters also ran residential institutions in Scotland, and were involved in transportation of children to Australia, as there was a Catholic presence there.

Ireland

The Ireland branch of the congregation has been accused of labor abuse, with inmates forced by nuns to perform laborious work in laundries and factory-like setups for pocket-money pay for companies such as

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

. In Dublin in 1993, the order sold land to property developers in High Park, Drumcondra, that partly included a graveyard containing the mass grave of former inmates of its

Magdalene Laundry Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were initially Protestant but later mostly Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, ostensibly to house "fallen women". The term referred to fema ...

. After seeking an exhumation order from the authorities to remove 133 bodies from the mass grave, it was found that the grave actually contained 155 bodies. They were eventually cremated and the ashes reinterred in

Glasnevin Cemetery Glasnevin Cemetery ( ga, Reilig Ghlas Naíon) is a large cemetery in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland which opened in 1832. It holds the graves and memorials of several notable figures, and has a museum. Location The cemetery is located in Glasne ...

. The resulting scandal caused a re-evaluation of the Order's work in Ireland, though the order still has to pay promised compensation to former inmates.

The Netherlands

The Dutch branch of the congregation has been accused of labor abuse, with inmates forced by nuns to perform unpaid labor in laundries and sewing workshops between 1860 and 1973. One of the interviewed victims also mentioned rape, claims on the heritage of orphans to pay for living costs, while performing unpaid labour. Questions have been submitted in parliament; after a dismissive ministerial response a civil claim in court was announced in 2018 by 19 victims.

Apology

On 11 March 2022 ministers from the five main political parties in Northern Ireland and six abusing institutions made statements of apology in the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = S ...

. The six institutions that apologised for carrying out abuse were De La Salle Brothers, represented by Francis Manning; the Sisters of Nazareth, represented by Cornelia Walsh; the Sisters of St Louis represented by Uainin Clarke; the Good Shepherd Sisters, represented by Cait O'Leary; Barnardo's in Northern Ireland, represented by Michele Janes; and Irish Church Missions, represented by Mark Jones. In live reporting after the apology, BBC News reported that Jon McCourt from Survivors North West said "If what happened today was the best that the church could offer by way of an apology they failed miserably. There was no emotion, there was no ownership. ... I don't believe that the church and institutions atoned today." He called on the intuitions to "do the right thing" and contribute to the redress fund for survivors, saying that institutions have done similar for people in Scotland. McCourt praised the government ministers' apologies; they had "sat and thought out and listened to what it was we said.", but said that the institutions had failed to do this, leading to some victims having to leave the room while they were speaking, "compound ngthe hurt." Others angry at the institutions' apologies included Caroline Farry, who attended St Joseph's Training School in Middletown from 1978-1981, overseen by nuns from the Sisters of St Louis, Pádraigín Drinan from Survivors of Abuse, and Alice Harper, whose brother, a victim of the De La Salle Brothers, had since died. Peter Murdock, from campaign group Savia, was at Nazareth Lodge Orphanage with his brother (who had recently died); he likened the institution to an "SS camp". He said "It's shocking to hear a nun from the institution apologising ... it comes 30 years too late ... people need to realise that it has to come from the heart. They say it came from the heart but why did they not apologise 30 years ago?"

Apostolate

The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd was a cloistered order in the past, but is now mostly apostolic. Members follow the

Rule of Saint Augustine The Rule of Saint Augustine, written about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The rule, developed ...

. The contemplative and apostolic branches were once separate but have since merged . There are now two lifestyles in one institute. The sisters work in the areas of: community outreach, special education, social work, youth development, nurses, and post abortion counseling. They serve as administrator, psychologists, hospital chaplains, and prison ministers. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd are active in fighting against prostitution and human trafficking in poor countries of Asia. They also work in an international fair trade partnership with women and those in social and economic distress through Handcrafting Justice. * The sisters in Canada initiated the "Sharing Fair" Program which markets goods produced by women in developing countries. * In 1976 the sisters in Ethiopia started the Bethlehem Training Center. A group of women was selected to learn rug and carpet weaving in the traditional Ethiopian style; teenagers started needlework, basket-making and cotton-spinning classes. Literacy classes were also added. * since 1987 sisters in the Philadelphia area have run CORA (Counseling and Referral Assistance) Services. Programs include a job-placement program for youths, a counseling service for pregnant adolescents and an assistance program for both employers and employees to help workers with drug, alcohol or other problems.Byrd, Jerry W., "A Service Agency Close To The Heart", ''Philadelphia Inquirer'', March 26, 1987
/ref> The contemplative sisters continue to be devoted to prayer and they support themselves by: making vestments, supplying altar breads to parishes, artistic works, creative computer work – designing graphics, cards and composing music. the Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd was an international order of religious women in the Roman Catholic Church with its some 4,000

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s work in 70 countries across the world.

Notes

References

*Smith, James M (2008). Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's architecture of containment. Manchester: Manchester University Press. .

External links

Official website of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

Sisters of Good Shepherd – Contemplative communities

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Montréal

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Ireland

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Bangkok

Religious of the Good Shepherd in the Philippines

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Brasil

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Portugal

Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Germany
{{Authority control Catholic female orders and societies Religious organizations established in 1835 Catholic religious institutes established in the 19th century 1835 establishments in France Independent Augustinian communities