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W O M E N & S P I R I T: CATHOLIC SISTERS IN AMERICA TEACHERS GUIDE Introduction for Teachers 2 Strategies for Incorporating Women & Spirit in the Classroom 3 Classroom Materials 5 1 Who Are the Catholic Sisters? 5 2 Coming to America 9 3 Becoming American 4 Meeting Resistance 22 5 Courage and Care 28 6 Daring to Care: Leaders in Healthcare, Social Services, and Education 36 7 Signs of the Times 48 8 New Frontiers 55 Glossary 60 Resources 62 About Women & Spirit 66

Catholic sisters during the civil rights march on Selma, Alabama, 1965

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I. Introduction for Teachers Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America is an American history story and a womenʼs history story. This teachers guide and the traveling exhibit it is based on present the innovative women whose passion for justice helped shape our nationʼs social and cultural landscape. Since first arriving in America nearly 300 years ago, sisters established schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters, and many other enduring social institutions that addressed critical social needs. As nurses, teachers, and social workers, sisters entered professional ranks decades earlier than most other women. Their work provided blueprints for the nationʼs educational and healthcare systems that continue to serve millions of Americans from all walks of life. Religious commitment is integral to the story of Catholic sisters, and their spiritual life calls them to respond to those who are in need. Women & Spirit focuses on sistersʼ achievements in working with communities they have served. The exhibit brings to light hundreds of unsung heroes and documents a vital and significant perspective on American history. Catholic sistersʼ stories of everyday courage, self-sufficiency, sacrifice, and service resonate deeply with us today. Join us as we explore this world that few have seen but millions have shared.

The Sisters of Charity, faculty of the St. John school in Scottdale, PA, around 1920.

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II. Strategies for Incorporating Women & Spirit in the Classroom. We are all intrigued by mysteries and untold stories. The work that Catholic sisters has done is woven into the fabric of our nation, but very little of it is widely known. Some orders came from cloistered origins in Europe, others originated in the United States and were born and bred in the culture. Catholic sisters were influenced by the Americaʼs ideals of equality and justice. Like the nation, they faltered at times and their story, like the country they are part of, has its shadows. It is a story of determination and vision, when there were few public forums for the voices of women. The history of Catholic sisters can be incorporated into explorations of:

• Womenʼs history: individuals and the significance of their history to the nation

• Coming to America: an immigration story • The foundations of healthcare and educational institutions • Intriguing and inspiring stories of real women and communities • Womenʼs participation in times of national crisis, such as the Civil War, the

influenza epidemic of 1918, disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and the struggle for social justice and civil rights

Elementary classes studying American history will have an opportunity to investigate:

• Pioneers and immigration: What does it mean to leave home? To venture into the unknown? To be a stranger in a new land?

• Evolution of social, education, and healthcare services: services we take for granted

• The idea of service: family, community, local, state, & national—in times of crisis and everyday heroes

• What is the story of Catholic sisters and the impact they have on your local community?

Middle and high school classes can explore:

• The push / pull of immigration • Conditions in Europe and the Caribbean • Settlement of the United States • Conflict and crises: Know Nothings, Civil War, slavery, American Indians,

anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments, orphans • Growth of healthcare services • Origins of the U.S. educational system

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• The ferment of the 1960s in the context of Vatican II, Vietnam War, womenʼs movement, Civil Rights movement

• What is the story of Catholic sisters and the impact they have on your community? What are other organizations that play similar roles? (local, state, and federal government; other religious organizations, nonprofit service organizations) How do you provide service to others?

These materials can be used before and after a classroom visit to the Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America exhibit or can be used to supplement activities for Womenʼs History month or classroom American history studies.

About Community Names There are more than six hundred communities of Catholic sisters in the United States, and the names of these communities reflect each groupʼs rich heritage. The names reflect the values to which they are deeply committed—such as mercy, charity, and devotion—and pay tribute to religious figures. Franciscan sisters, for example, honor the work of St. Francis of Assisi, who devoted himself to the poor and the helpless. Community names such as the Little Company of Mary also embody humility, selflessness, and service.

Sister Elaine Fortin, Sisters of Charity, working on a construction project in Romania, c. 2004.

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1. Introduction: Who Are Catholic Sisters? “Catholic sisters are always pioneers. We donʼt set out to be pioneers. What we set out to do is to respond to the needs around us.” Simone Campbell, Sisters of Social Service1 “Need brings out our talent.” —Sister Hyacinth Le Conniat, Daughters of the Cross, letter, c. 1855

Sisters today: 150th Jubilee of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Agnes, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, 2008 Catholic sisters are women called to a life of Christian service in prayer and community. For centuries, women have left home and family to follow this way of life. Catholic sisters live in close contact with other members of their community or congregation and take vows of to live simply, and be obedient and celibate. In the past, some sisters wore habits, which were long dresses and head coverings that identified them as members of their community. Today, some sisters still wear habits, but most Catholic sisters in the United States choose to dress simply and modestly in ordinary clothing.

1 From Women & Spirit introductory video

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The same community more than a century earlier: Candidates for sisterhood peel potatoes on the grounds of St. Agnes Convent, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, c. 1880 From the republicʼs earliest days, approximately 220,000 Catholic sisters living in hundreds of religious communities participated in the building of America. Theirs is a story of womenʼs leadership, exercised when women did not even have the right to vote. It is a story of determination and vision, when there were few public forums for the voices of women. Here are some examples of the impact Catholic sisters have had on our nation: • Catholic sisters established the nationʼs largest private school system,

educating millions of young Americans. • More than 110 U.S. colleges and universities were founded by Catholic

sisters. • In 2005, approximately one in six hospital patients in the U.S. were treated in

a Catholic facility founded by Catholic sisters. • During the Civil War, the Sisters of the Holy Cross staffed the first U.S. Navy

hospital ship, the USS Red Rover. • Sister Pulcheria Wuellner (Wheaton Franciscan Sisters) developed the St.

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Joseph infant incubator for premature babies.

• More than 600 sisters from 21 different religious communities nursed both Union and Confederate soldiers alike during the Civil War.

• Mother Alfred Moes built St. Maryʼs Hospital and convinced Dr. W. W. Mayo to staff it. That "partnership" was part of the beginnings of Mayo Clinic.

• In the founding days of Alcoholics Anonymous, Sister Ignatia Gavin of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine successfully advocated that alcoholism should be treated as a medical condition.

• Sister Mary de Sales Leheney (Sisters of Charity, Cincinnati) received the first medical license given to a woman in New Mexico.

• Since 1995, numerous congregations have participated as nongovernmental

organizations (NGOs) at the United Nations, focusing on global issues such as climate change, human trafficking, and poverty

• Today, thousands of Catholic sisters work for social justice and human rights here and overseas.

Discussion Questions and Activities I was educated by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. They believed in the power of young women long before anyone else seemed to. The nuns had high standards––in academics, ethics, morals and in sports. I was scared to death of the nuns, but I admired their service commitment, and most of all their faith––plus most also had great senses of humor. I am the woman I am today in large part due to the fact I was educated by the nuns. So blame the nuns! ––Maria Shriver, First Lady of California statement, 2009 1. Maria Shriver gives credit to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart for teaching her and believing in her.

• Use your imagination and creativity for a tribute to someone or a group of people you have learned from or who helped you.

• Consider family members, friends, teachers, coaches, a member of an organization you belong to, or other people in your community.

Tributes can be:

• Essays

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• Graphic story (drawings or photos) • Poems • Songs • Raps • Videos • Collages • Drawings • Paintings • Prints

A Daughter of Charity reading Babarʼs Visit to Bird Island to nursery school students, c. 1950

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2. Coming to America Twelve French Catholic sisters—muddy, mosquito-bitten, but bursting with hope for the promise of the New World—arrived in New Orleans in 1727, having narrowly escaped pirates during their transatlantic crossing. These Ursuline sisters founded the first community of Catholic sisters in what is now the United States. From the 1830s to the early 1900s, sisters took part in a great migration along with millions of other European emigrants. Sisters came from France, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy, and other countries. In 1830, fewer than 500 sisters lived in the United States. By 1900, their numbers had increased a hundredfold to nearly 50,000. Most of these sisters had emigrated from other countries. Between 1820 and 1914, some 30 million European immigrants arrived in the United States. With them came sisters to work among their communities, educate their children, and care for them in their illnesses. Many sisters could not speak English, often settling in ethnic enclaves across the country. Some came in response to a bishopʼs plea to start a school, orphanage, or hospital. Others fled famine, religious persecution, or social upheaval. For example, when several million immigrants fled Irelandʼs devastating potato famine during the 1840s, hundreds of sisters came with them. Today, immigrant sisters echo the traditions of their European predecessors from past centuries. Increasing numbers of sisters from Asia, Latin America, and Africa are coming to the United States to work with people from their native countries. Continuing the spirit of service that began more than 300 years ago, Catholic sisters in America teach, protect, assist with citizenship classes, and find other ways to help new arrivals navigate the 21st century. More than 63,000 Catholic sisters are today carrying on a tradition of service that began more than three centuries ago.

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Mother Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852) Mother Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852) Throughout the winter of 1817-1818, a 48-year-old French Sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus made plans for a one-way trip to America. She left behind a country and church changed by the French Revolution. As Mother Philippine prepared to leave “all that was dear”—close friends, cloister, and comfort—she also eagerly anticipated her new adventure in the American Midwest. Throughout the 1800s, others like her responded to calls and journeyed from Europe to America.

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Sister Clare Joseph Dickinson (1755–1830) Sister Clare Joseph Dickinson (1755–1830) Her journal entries made light of stormy seas, encounters with pirates, and the attentions of a would-be suitor, but Sister Clare Josephʼs transatlantic crossing in 1790 had a serious purpose. She came to the United States from Belgium with three American-born sisters who had left Maryland during a period of anti-Catholicism and had always dreamed of returning home. Together, they established the Carmelite Nuns of Baltimore, the first community of women religious in the 13 original states. All longing to Sail for our destind home … Mr. p. (the shipʼs captain) returnʼd on board at 8 oclock in the Even. … he bought several kind of sweetmeats cakes etc. made by the poor Clares Living about 4 mile off the town of S. Cruce. 2 beautiful glass mass cruits … We were all very merry over our treasures, & with great alacrity Set to work to erect an altar…

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Elizabeth Clarisse Lange (c. 1784–1882) Displaced by Revolution Elizabeth Clarisse Lange (c. 1784–1882) Elizabeth Clarisse Lange was born free in the West Indies of a Haitian-born mother descended from enslaved Africans. In the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution, the petite woman landed at Baltimore harbor in the early 1800s. The island of Haiti had been colonized by France, and Mother Lange spoke French as well as Spanish, which she learned in Cuba. Well-educated and well-to-do, she co-founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first order of black Catholic sisters in America. The Oblates provided assistance to Haitian refugees and still teach members of Baltimore's African American community.

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Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917) Meeting the Need Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917) Three years before Ellis Island opened, a seemingly frail sister from Italy arrived in New York. Francis had hoped to go to China, but Pope Leo XIII had instructed her: “Your China is in the United States.” Under Mother Cabriniʼs guidance, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, traditionally a teaching order, worked in healthcare and immigrant services. By the time she died in 1917, the community had founded 67 missions in the United States, Italy, France, England, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and Nicaragua. The Catholic Church declared Mother Cabrini a saint in 1946. Discussion Questions & Activities Connections to National Standards

American History

ERA 4: EXPANSION AND REFORM (1801-1861)

Understands the sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform

movements in the antebellum period

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Language Arts

Understanding the Human Experience

During the Gold Rush, which began in 1849, the city of San Francisco erupted with hundreds of thousands new arrivals. The head of the Catholic Church in the city called for sisters to come from Ireland to provide nursing care and attend to other needs of the newly arrived. The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary left Ireland in 1854. They traveled by steamship across the Atlantic, crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and took another steamer to San Francisco. To tell their sisters back in Ireland about their adventures, they drew a fourteen-foot scroll that shows their journey, including falling off the back of a donkey. Here are some scenes from that scroll.

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• What is your familyʼs story of coming to America? If your family is

American Indian, what have your journeys been? • Talk to a recent immigrant in your community. Why did they leave home?

Why did they settle where they live now? What was the most exciting thing that happened on their journey? What was the most important thing?

• Make a scroll, book, or video that shows an adventure you have had. What was the most exciting thing that happened? What was the most amusing? What was the most dangerous?

Many of the Catholic sisters who came to the United States left their family and friends behind and never returned.

• What would it be like to travel to a place you have never seen before and donʼt know much about? Imagine what this might have been like and write a poem or story about it.

Middle School and High School Research Topics Connections to National Standards

American History

Era 4: Expansion and Reform

Understands how the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of

slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward

regional tensions

World History

Era 7: An Age of Revolutions, 1750-1914

• the causes and consequences of political revolutions in the late 18th and early

19th centuries.

• the causes and consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, 1700-

1850.

• the transformation of Eurasian societies in an era of global trade and rising

European power, 1750-1850.

• patterns of nationalism, state-building, and social reform in Europe and the

Americas, 1830-1914.

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Catholic sisters came to America because they were called here by the Catholic Church to meet the needs of church members. They also left their homes because of the promise of religious freedom in the United States and to escape political unrest, famines, or war. Some Catholic sisters were the descendants of enslaved Africans. Investigate one the following and present your findings:

• The Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe • The founding of the colony of Maryland by English Catholics • The French Revolution • Civil War in Haiti • The Irish Potato Famine • Partitions of Poland • Forging of the German and Italian states

Imagine what the experiences have been of a student or young person affected by these events. Presentations can be:

• Oral reports • PowerPoint demonstrations • Videos • Graphic stories • Skits

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3. Becoming Americans Religious Freedom The Ursulines were the first group of Catholic sisters to arrive in what is now the United States. When they sailed into the port of New Orleans in 1727, the city was part of the French-owned Louisiana Territory. With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New Orleans became part of the young nation. Anxious to know if they still had rights and could keep the property they owned once they became part of the United States, the head of the community wrote directly to the president. “Your institution will be able to govern itself,” President Thomas Jefferson responded, “without interference from civil authority.”

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Letter from President Thomas Jefferson to Sister Marie Thérèse Farjon of St. Xavier, an Ursuline nun, 1804 Transcription of letter from President Thomas Jefferson I have received, holy sisters, the letter you have written me wherein you express anxiety for the property vested in your institution by the former governments of Louisiana. The principles of the constitution and government of the United States are a sure guarantee to you that it will be preserved to you sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to itʼs own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority. Whatever diversity of shade may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your institution cannot be indifferent to any; and itʼs furtherance of the wholesome purposes of society, by training up itʼs younger members in the way they should go, cannot fail to

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ensure it the patronage of the government it is under. Be assured it will meet with all the protection which my office can give it. [Letterʼs original spelling and punctuation.] This important letter from the president to a group of Catholic sisters spelled out one of the basic rights granted to all Americans. In the years that followed, women crossed oceans, mountains, and prairies, becoming parts of existing congregations or founding new ones throughout America. Many sisters discovered they had to work quickly to adapt to social conditions in America. Sisters who had lived a life of prayer behind walls found themselves working hard in the outside world. Sisters trained to nurse the sick opened schools. Teachers ran hospitals. Sisters who dreamt of educating American Indians instead assisted a growing population of Catholic immigrants. Some struggled to make these changes; others met challenges with gusto.

Sister Blandina Segale (1850–1941) Spirited Adventures As sisters continued to arrive from Europe—enduring “the terrors of the sea”—others made cross-country journeys to start new communities farther west. Sisters “went right to work,” often starting the first hospitals, orphanages, and schools in frontier towns. Sister Blandina Segale (1850–1941)

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Although sisters usually traveled in small groups, Sister Blandina Segaleʼs superior sent her alone to Trinidad, Colorado, in 1872. During her years in the West, she taught school, wielded crowbars, hauled hod-buckets, and demonstrated her ability “to build without money.” Sister Blandinaʼs letters to her sister Justine, also a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, became the basis for her published memoir, At the End of the Santa Fe Trail. Her exaggerated accounts about befriending Billy the Kid have become the stuff of legend and her memoir is a classic eyewitness account of frontier life during the late 1800s. Sister Blandina called herself “the fit-into-any-assignment sister.” After she returned to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati Motherhouse in 1893, she taught school for several years and worked among fellow Italian immigrants from 1897 to 1933. Self-Sufficient Sisters brought a self-sufficient spirit to the frontier, often doing chores traditionally expected of men. In rural areas, sisters planted, hoed, raked, baled, and gleaned. They spun and wove and made their own shoes, habits, and music. Faced with poverty, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ provided for themselves by working in their fields, spinning, weaving, and doing leather work. As Sister Isabelle Hamrouge recalled in 1970: … we … made … shoes from shucks. The shoes were made by braiding damp shucks, then sewing them in the shape of a house slipper. They kept your feet warm.

Mother Joseph Pariseau (1823–1902)

Tools used by Mother Joseph Pariseau, late 1800s

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Mother Joseph Pariseau (1823–1902) Her father boasted that she could drive a nail as well as any man. Presenting his daughter Esther Pariseau to the Sisters of Providence in 1843, he also predicted that “she will make a good superior some day.” He was right. By the time Mother Joseph died in Vancouver, Washington, in 1902, she had supervised the construction of eleven hospitals, seven academies, five Indian schools and two orphanages. Mother Joseph designed hospitals and schools, jumped on beams to test their construction, and crafted wax sculptures for nativity scenes. A statue of Mother Joseph is the only one of a sister included in the U.S. Capitolʼs Statuary Hall. Toward end of her long life, Mother Joseph, a Sister of Providence, mused: “We would do much good on a mission where there would be misery, and where it would be necessary to make sacrifices. Nowadays, we look for too much comfort in this land which offers so much.” Discussion Questions & Activities Elementary Students explore what it means to make things themselves

Connections to National Standards

Language Arts

Participating in Society: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and

critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Most Catholic sisters came to America without many resources—there werenʼt stores on every corner to buy the food and materials they needed, and they didnʼt have much money. Discuss things you can make yourself: breakfast, for example, or a paper airplane. Tackle a bigger project: as a class, bake bread or make tortillas from corn meal and water. Plant sunflower seeds and raise a crop. Make a potholder. Power a lightbulb with a potato battery. Make a simple solar oven. Start a compost bin. How does it feel to be so self-sufficient?

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Middle & High School Discussion Questions Connections to National Standards

Civics

Foundations of the American Political System

What are the Foundations of the American Political System?

* What are the distinctive characteristics of American society?

* What is American political culture?

* What values and principles are basic to American constitutional democracy?

Some legal scholars interpret President Jeffersonʼs letter as a clear endorsement of religious freedom in a secular state: I have received, holy sisters, the letter you have written me wherein you express anxiety for the property vested in your institution by the former governments of Louisiana. The principles of the constitution and government of the United States are a sure guarantee to you that it will be preserved to you sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to itʼs own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority. Whatever diversity of shade may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your institution cannot be indifferent to any; and its furtherance of the wholesome purposes of society, by training up its younger members in the way they should go, cannot fail to ensure it the patronage of the government it is under. Be assured it will meet with all the protection which my office can give it. [spelling and punctuation are original]

1. What other rights are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights? How do people preserve those rights? What are some limits to these rights? Which rights are most important to you? Why? Develop a presentation that expresses your appreciation for freedom of the press, for example. Write the president or your congressional representatives and explain your point of view.

2. The founders of these United States did not take these rights for granted

and did not lightly include them in the nationʼs earliest documents. What do you think? Take a position for or against a right most might consider inalienable. Debate.

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4. Meeting Resistance In the mid-1800s, America faced deep rifts over slavery, immigration, and religion. Thirty years after Ursuline nuns in New Orleans received President Jeffersonʼs reassurance that they were free to practice their religion, a different Ursuline community was targeted in an outbreak of anti-Catholic violence. On a winter day in 1837, a mob set fire to the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and burned it to the ground.

Platform of the Know-Nothing Party, c. 1855 A decade later, a new political party, the American or “Know-Nothing” Party, established an anti-immigration, anti-Catholic platform. Newspaper editorials described Irish Catholic immigrants as “a burden and a misery to this country.” In response to prejudice and hatred, some sisters wore secular clothing to conceal their identities when traveling outside the relative safety of their convents. So called because members said “I know nothing” when asked about their party affiliation, the Know-Nothing platform called for “sending back of all foreign paupers,” “a pure American common school system,” and “more stringent & effective Emigration Laws.”

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It took Abraham Lincoln to dispel some of the prejudice against Catholic sisters. Knowing how effective the sisters were caring for the sick and that the women had experience running hospitals, in 1861 the president called on several communities to provide nurses for wounded soldiers in the Civil War.

Louis Gonzague had been an enslaved African American owned by the Ursulines in New Orleans. Photograph taken c. 1890. Slavery and Prejudice Many Catholic sisters were shocked to observe the slave trade when they immigrated to the United States or traveled in states in which owning slaves was permitted. Sister Frances Xavier Love never forgot her journey from Maryland to Missouri during the fall of 1828. Not long after leaving Emmitsburg, she and three other Daughters of Charity passed “nearly a hundred blacks; numbers of them chained together, half-naked, shivering with cold, men, women and children.” This scene of the domestic slave trade shocked them. Yet, like the country of which they are a part, Catholic sisters hold ideals of equality and justice in high esteem. As ordinary people, they have at times failed in practice. Some white religious communities owned slaves. Sisters came to their communities with a dowry. In the south, young women entering a community were an integral part of the 19th century culture, and a slave was, at times, part of the dowry as they were the “cultural servants” of the time. In

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addition, communities in the 19th century were sustained by agriculture and needed field workers; southern workers happened to be slaves. Virtually none knowingly admitted African Americans to full membership until the 1950s and 1960s. As the nationʼs slave population approached 2.5 million during the mid-1800s, Mary Elizabeth Lange in Baltimore and Henriette Delille in New Orleans found “plenty of work and not much time to do it” when it came to helping free and enslaved blacks.

Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore taught African American orphan girls who might otherwise have had little education. Photo taken c. 1910. They formed two religious communities, the Oblate Sisters of Providence and Sisters of the Holy Family, respectively. These communities educated the enslaved at a time when laws in southern states prohibited teaching literacy. Literacy was the key to freedom and allowed slave to function independently. Overcoming the barriers of being both black and female, Mother Lange and Mother Delille began works that continue to this day.

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Mother Henriette Delille, Sisters of the Holy Family Henriette Delille (1813–1862) In the early 1700s, a young African sold during the transatlantic slave trade arrived in New Orleans. Decades later, her great-great-granddaughter, Henriette Delille, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family. French colonial law forbade marriage between whites and blacks or between slaves and former slaves—even prohibiting them from “mingling” or living together. As a consequence, virtually no African Amercans gained entrance into religious communities in New Orleans during the 1800s. Delille and other members of her community struggled with poverty and racism from within, from the local Catholic community, and from society at large. That did not stop them from their work educating the children of slaves and caring for the sick, the poor, and the elderly. Today they run schools in Louisiana, Texas, Washington, D.C., and California and operate the oldest home for the aged in the United States. Discussion Questions & Activities Elementary School Connections to National Standards Language Arts: Multicultural Understanding Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles. American History: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

• Understands how the Industrial Revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions

• Understands the extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after 1800

• Understands the sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period

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Reading and writing are powerful tools. Literacy is a key to freedom: if you can read, you can form your own ideas; if you can read, you can use a map and find your way around. If you can write, you can tell other people what you are experiencing and you can find out about the world. For these reasons and others, laws in states that allowed slavery made it illegal to teach enslaved African Americans how to read and write. Communities of Catholic sisters sometimes taught the slaves who worked for them about Catholicism, but there is little evidence that they were taught to read and write. Frederick Douglass (a 19th-century reformer and author) tells the fascinating story in his Autobiography of how he taught himself to read and write:

The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. When I was sent of errands, I always took my book with me, and by going one part of my errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before my return.

Learning to read had a profound effect on young Frederick:

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. … The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.

[Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave. (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/07.html)] Douglassʼs autobiography, published in 1845, gave fuel to the movement to free slaves; his story was one of the first from the point of view of an enslaved African American. Read the excerpts from Douglass to the class, explaining vocabulary they might not understand.

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Discuss:

• What do you read? Consider that you read signs, game instructions, and text messages as well as books, comics, and magazines.

• What would you miss if you couldnʼt read? What would it be like to ask for help to read signs, menus, and instructions? What would it be like to pretend you know how?

• What do you write? What would it be like if you couldnʼt write and type anything at all? What would happen?

• Frederick Douglassʼs book helped convince many people that slavery was bad and that laws in states that allowed slavery needed to change. What are some things you would like to change? Why?

• Write a short essay, play, poem, or story that describes something you would like to change and the reasons why you think so.

Middle and High School Connection to National Standards American History: POSTWAR UNITED STATES (1945 TO EARLY 1970s) * Understands the economic boom and social transformation of postwar United States * Understands how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics * Understands domestic policies after World War II * Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil liberties In 2000, three communities of Catholic sisters in Kentucky held a prayer service to ask forgiveness for the involvement of their communities in owning slaves in the 1800s. The general public was invited. In the service they stated:

“As a religious community founded in Kentucky in 1812, we were a part of the culture from which we sprang. We cannot undo the mistakes of the past but we can, at this juncture of our history, acknowledge those mistakes and the injustice to which we were very complicit, and…ask forgiveness of our black African sisters and brothers. Even as we ask forgiveness, we pledge ourselves to work actively to remove all forms of racial discrimination within our own community, within our church communities, and in the society in which we live.”

Divide the class into groups. Ask them to reflect on the statement “we were a part of the culture from which we sprang.” Many owners of enslaved people or those who benefited from their labor took the institution for granted. What in our world today do we think are wrong but say: thatʼs the way things are? Ask each group

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to reach consensus by giving each person a chance to speak and listening respectfully. One approach to this might be for the teacher or a designated facilitator to invite each student to speak, continuing until all have spoken. Ask them to considers ideas objectively. If they cannot agree, take the example of the Supreme Court and present majority and minority opinions. Ask groups to report back to the class and with their conclusions, ask them:

• What is the situation? • What led to this situation? • What are barriers to change? • What are possible ways to remove these barriers?

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5. Courage and Care Skilled Nurses Catholic sisters provided skilled nursing during many of the nationʼs most difficult trials, from the Civil War to the flu epidemic of 1918. In the nineteenth century, the public that once perceived them as outsiders came to appreciate their care and skill.

Sister Colette O’Connor (Sisters of Mercy, Baltimore) with Union soldiers at Douglas Military Hospital in Washington, DC., 1861. Before the Civil War, nurses in the navy had all been men, and the U.S. Army operated only one hospital. After the secession of the Confederate states from the Union, the northern army had one hospital, the south had none. Catholic sisters, however, had run 20, and the Union called on them for help. More than 600 sisters served as nurses during the Civil War.

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The first Navy hospital ship, the steamer USS Red Rover, captured by the Union from the Confederates in 1862, was staffed by Sisters of the Holy Cross for the duration of the war. The U.S. Navyʼs first nurses included four Sisters of the Holy Cross and five African American women. The first Navy hospital ship—the steamer USS Red Rover, captured by the Union from the Confederates in 1862—was staffed by Sisters of the Holy Cross for the duration of the war. Sisters nursed the sick and wounded from both North and South. As he was tended by a Sister of Mercy, Private Hubbard from Massachusetts voiced the thought many soldiers shared: “I donʼt care what you are, youʼre a mother to me.” Since you weak women display such courage, I, too, will remain. —Shipʼs doctor following the Battle of Shiloh, when the hospital ship began to sink, 1862

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Sister Anthony OʼConnell, the “Angel of the Battlefield” Sister Anthony OʼConnell (1814–1897) At the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, North and South each suffered 10,000 casualties. Anthony OʼConnell (second from left, above), a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, pressured Army doctors to allow sisters to tend to soldiers on the frontlines. Her lobbying succeeded, earning her the title “Angel of the Battlefield.” According to lore, Sister OʼConnellʼs nursing field kit always contained a plug of tobacco she could offer to a soldier. Caring for Outcasts

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Mother Marianne Cope in the 1880s Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918) In July 1883, Mother Marianne Cope responded to a plea from the Hawaiian government to set up a hospital system for patients suffering from Hansenʼs disease (leprosy.) In Syracuse, New York, she had been the general superior of the Sisters of St. Francis. She gave up this position of responsibility to work in relative isolation in Kalaupapa, Hawaii, for the remainder of her life. Isolated from the rest of society by law, disfigured by disease, lepers had long been societyʼs outcasts. At the Bishop Home on the island of Molokai, Mother Marianne insisted on cleanliness, music, and beauty “to help put a little more sunshine into their dreary lives." Author Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) visited the island on his travels in 1889 and wrote this tribute to Mother Marianne:

“To see the infinite pity of this place, The mangled limb, the devastated face, The innocent sufferers smiling at the rod, A fool were tempted to deny his God.

He sees, and shrinks; But if he look again, Lo, beauty springs from the breast of pain! He marks the sisters on the painful shores, And even a fool is silent and adores.”

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San Francisco Earthquake and Fire

Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and students amidst the rubble of Presentation Convent and School at Powell and Lombard Streets, San Francisco, 1906 At dawn on April 18, 1906, an earthquake—later estimated at 8.25 on the Richter scale—struck San Francisco. Gas and water lines broke, causing a fire to rage for four days. Sisters and others responded by setting up relief stations and temporary schools in the Bay Area. They were a part of the relief effort that eventually allowed San Francisco to return to normal life. Letters from a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, San Francisco, to Mother Calasanctuis, San Francisco, 1906 … Well, dear Mother, we really cannot realize that we are living in San Francisco, the city looks like a graveyard & the walls of the buildings remind one of tomb stones. It would make your heart ache to view the city from the top of this hill. Here and there a lone person may be seen walking through the ruins. … Discussion Questions & Activities Connections to National Standards Social Studies Living and working together in families and communities, now and long ago * Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago

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* Understands the history of the local community and how communities in North America varied long ago This is an activity exploring monuments and memorials that can be extended to accommodate skill levels from early grades to high school. In 1924 a womenʼs club erected a monument to the “Nuns of the Battlefield” in Washington, D.C. The brave work of these sisters caring for the wounded and sick of the Civil War, sometimes losing their own life and often facing danger, was considered worth remembering.

Sisters from a variety of communities gathered in 1924 for a reunion at the dedication of the Nuns of the Battlefield monument in Washington, D.C. In Section 1 you created a tribute to someone who believed in you. Now, who are people who have helped you? Who in your community helps others? Who takes care of the sick or people who have been hurt in accidents? Who puts out fires? Who responds to other emergencies? Brainstorm a list of these people and invite one or a group of these people into your classroom. Consider inviting nurses, doctors, EMTs, fire fighters, humane society workers, police, social workers, crews who clean up after storms, and so on. Who are the Catholic

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sisters in your community? In what works are they involved? How do they help others? Consider inviting one or two for a Q&A session with your class. Questions you might ask:

• Why do you do what you do? • Was there one event that made you decide to be a nurse / fire fighter /

police officer etc.? • What tools do you use? • Who pays your salary? (city, state, private organization, volunteer) • What kind of education or training would we need to do your job? • Why kind of physical skills or other talents do you need? • What are some of the dangers? • What are some of the rewards?

After talking to your local heroes, brainstorm a tribute to them or people who do what they do. What would it look like? What form would it take? Consider that Robert Louis Stevensonʼs tribute to Mother Marianne Cope is a poem. Other tributes have taken the form of plaques and sculpture, such as the Washington, D.C., Nuns of the Battlefield monument. Other heroes have songs, films, and books created about them, such as “John Henry.” Using your imagination and creativity, write poems, songs, short illustrated books, or create animated films as a tribute. If you class decides that a monument is the right thing to recognize your heroes, consider this process. Cities that decide to create monuments often hold a competition to select the work that will eventually be displayed. Form teams to develop different designs. Keep in mind that memorials are not always representational, which means they can be abstract as well as realistic. Artists who create monuments first sketch their designs. The next step is to sculpt a maquette (which means “scale model” in French. Make maquettes out of clay, recycled scrap wood or other recycled materials, or any other three dimensional medium. Teams present their maquettes to the class, explaining the choices they made and what they discovered as they tried to assemble their work. What materials would they propose for the final piece? What worked? What didnʼt? What did they learn from their successes and failures? Ask someone from the outside of the class to judge the maquettes and choose one that could be finalized. Ask them to say why they chose the one they did. What were some outstanding features of the other maquettes? Which were

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creative? Which showed enthusiasm? Craftsmanship? Artistry? Good planning? Good concept? Display the classʼs maquettes with labels and explanations and invite others to view at an open house or other event. Extensions: 1. What would it take to get the classʼs monument built in a public place? Who are the people and organizations to talk to? Are permits needed? Who pays? How much? If you and your class have the enthusiasm and energy to have your monument erected in public, go for it! 2. Research monuments world-wide. What are some well-known monuments? (The Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, the Vietnam Memorial, are some U.S. examples.) What are some representational monuments? Which are more abstract? What materials are they made of? Why do you think these materials are chosen? Assemble a slide show or PowerPoint presentation of monuments, including monuments in your local area. How are they the same? How are they different? How do they reflect their time or culture? Do they mean anything different now? Who gets recognized? Who doesnʼt? 3. Many communities have existing memorials. Explore the local area looking for plaques, statues, or parks, buildings, and streets named for people. Who are/were the people memorialized? What do they do? Are they or the events still known or did they happen long ago? Are there people you can interview? Are there oral histories in the local library or historical society? Are there places where everyone knows something happened, but there is no plaque or memorial? Write a newspaper story, short story, or make a video that imagines who they might have been and what they did.

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6. Daring to Care: Leaders in Healthcare, Social Services, and Education “The future of the world will be what women make it.” Mother Margaret Anna Cusack, Sister of St. Joseph of Peace The life of a logger in mid-1800s Minnesota was risky, and lumberjacks suffered serious injuries from working with sharp saws and big trees. Before most state governments or employers provided health insurance, laborers had little money for their healthcare. To meet this need and help pay for their new hospital, the enterprising Benedictine Sisters of Duluth sold hospital insurance to loggers.

Benedictine Sisters anticipate the completion of St. Anthonyʼs Hospital, Bemidji, Minnesota, 1900 During the nineteenth century, few women worked outside the home. Yet Catholic sisters entered the workforce decades earlier than most women. They founded and ran hospitals and opened schools. At a time when people who were very sick were cared for by family members, sisters started training programs for nurses. To become better teachers, sisters pursued degrees and founded womenʼs colleges. Sisters offered social services that government agencies typically provide today. The first Ursulines in New Orleans cared for abused women and orphans. Mother Cabrini's Missionary Sisters helped Italian immigrants and started a prison ministry at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York. The Sisters of St. Francis started a day care center for cannery workersʼ children in Sacramento, California, in 1920. When they saw that people in their community needed help, communities of Catholic sisters found innovative ways to raise money. They begged. They negotiated loans. They initiated an early version of health insurance. Before most women in the United States could legally own land or buildings, Catholic sisters found ways to remove obstacles and get to work.

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“Lumberjack tickets” ranged in price from one to nine dollars and guaranteed medical care at Benedictine hospitals in northern Minnesota for a period of one year. Following the Gold Rush Mother Mary Baptist Russell (1829 – 1898)

Mother Mary Baptist Russell in 1861 Eight sisters left Ireland for San Francisco in 1854 during the height of the California Gold Rush. A teacher by training, Mother Russell led the group. The Mercy Sisters soon focused on helping abandoned wives, single mothers, and prostitutes. Their work during the 1855 cholera and the 1868 smallpox epidemics so impressed civic leaders that they asked Mother Russell to assume operations of the San Francisco County hospital in 1856. When the county failed to pay the sisters for the care of patients over an extended period of time, she opened St. Maryʼs Hospital, the first Catholic hospital on the West Coast, in 1857. The New York Foundling Hospital

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A Safe Harbor Throughout the mid-19th century, crowded cities, poor sanitation, and insufficient healthcare resulted in devastating epidemics. Disease, epidemics, waves of immigrants to overcrowded city tenements, and the toll of the Civil War brought a new challenge to Catholic sisters. Children were becoming orphans in staggering numbers; 30,000 were estimated to be parentless or abandoned in the streets of New York City in the 1860s.

A Sister of Charity of New York at the Foundling Hospital in the 1950s. On a fall night in 1869, three sisters found a baby girl on their doorstep. “Sarah H.” became the first of several hundred thousand children cared for by the New York Foundling Hospital, established by the Sisters of Charity of New York. Now, in the 21st century, the New York Foundling continues its mission to shelter children and help families in crisis.

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A note left with a baby given to the New York Foundling, 1870. “This is Little Augusta. Born Jan. the 30. 1870. O Crule Poverty.” As sisters unwrapped the first bundled baby left in their care, they discovered a simple note: “The childʼs name is Sarah H.” This and scores of other notes pinned to babiesʼ blankets spoke volumes about a troubled parentʼs predicament. Sometimes there was just a name, at other times a plea to “please keep track of this baby.” Partners in Healthcare

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The Mayo Clinic & Mother Alfred Moes

Sisters assist doctors with surgery at the Mayo Clinic in the late 19th century. In 1883 a violent tornado razed the small farming community of Rochester, Minnesota. The ensuing devastation inspired Mother Alfred Moes, a Sister of St. Francis, to do more than simply rebuild. She proposed to Dr. William Mayo and his sons that she would build and staff a hospital if they would agree to provide the medical care. This collaboration was a significant milestone in the development of what is now known as Mayo Clinic, one of the most highly respected hospitals in the United States.

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African American nurses and Dominican Sisters at St. Dominicʼs Hospital, the first private hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, to integrate its nursing staff in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. FROM KINDERGARTEN TO COLLEGE More Americans have come to know Catholic sisters in classrooms than in any other setting. From the arrival of the first sisters in 1727, millions of children have attended schools taught by—and in many cases founded by—Catholic sisters. Many schools were made up of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Eastern European countries and classes were often taught in a second language as well as English.

A Sisters of St. Joseph class in Springfield, Missouri, in 1940. Many schools led by Catholic sisters focused on educating girls and women. In these girlsʼ schools, young women had a chance to flourish. Not everyone had

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equal access to education: Schools for African American children often focused on vocational training, such as sewing and farm work. Poorer girls were trained to work as servants, but they also learned to read and write. Advancing womenʼs education became a particular focus for many American religious communities. Throughout the early 1900s, a higher percentage of Catholic sisters earned college degrees than most women of their era.

Graduates of Dominican College in San Rafael, California, in 1936. The college was founded in 1890 by the Dominican Sisters Young women who attended academies and colleges sponsored by Catholic sisters attained more than their diplomas. They witnessed powerful role models of leadership and community service. By the mid-1900s, millions of students attended Catholic school, sometimes more than the system could handle. Some sisters arrived in crowded classrooms with little or no training. In response, religious communities promoted higher education for their members, establishing more than a hundred womenʼs colleges by the middle of the century. Schools established by Catholic sisters thrive today, although most instructors in these schools are lay teachers, some of whom were taught by the sisters. The influence of these pioneering women still, however, remains strong. Education for Everyone Katharine Drexel (1858–1955)

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Mother Katharine Drexel plays with children on the grounds of Xavier University in the late 1920s. Mother Drexel founded the university to serve African American students in New Orleans. Heiress to a banking fortune, Katharine Drexel used her wealth to fund schools for American Indians and African Americans. She first considered joining a contemplative order, but heeded Pope Leo XIIIʼs suggestion, "Why not, my child, yourself become a missionary?" The order she founded, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, expanded rapidly. In 1915, Mother Mary Katharine Drexel founded Xavier University, the only Catholic higher education institution for African Americans in the United States at that time. She died in 1955, having built 62 schools and 49 convents. The Catholic Church declared her a saint in 1988. . Into the West As a young woman in France a Sister of Charity of St. Augustine, imagined going to America to “care for the little Indians.” Many sisters went into the American West with similar missionary zeal. Those who worked among American Indians did so primarily through Catholic missions and government-funded boarding schools. For American Indian children, “away schools” meant separation from family, rules against speaking their own languages, and usually the eradication of their cultures. While being true to their own values, sisters took part in a system now seen as cruel and insensitive.

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In the mid-1890s, two Sisters of Providence undertook a begging tour in British Columbia to raise funds for a school for Kootenay children. Schools for American Indians were an important part of religious work and remain controversial today. Mary of Nazareth (left); Mary Conrad (right); guide (far right) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS & ACTIVITIES Elementary School Our School Students investigate the person, place, or event for which your school is named and create a mural to celebrate the schoolʼs heritage Connections to National Standards Social Studies Living and working together in families and communities, now and long ago * Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago * Understands the history of the local community and how communities in North America varied long ago Ask students if they know for what or whom their school is named. If it is named for a community, how did it get its name? How can they find out? List some important points about that person, place, or event. For example, if the school is named for Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, some attributes might be:

• She was born in 1951 in the Los Angeles area • Flew in the space shuttle Challenger in 1983

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• She was also the youngest astronaut at the time she flew • She was the first to use a robot arm in space • She has a Ph.D. in physics • Her photo shows her wearing a space suit and holding a space helmet • After she left the astronaut corps, she was a physics professor • What do students think about what she did? • Include yourselves in the mural!

Brainstorm how you would show these on a mural. This group effort could be a large collage on a bulletin board, a series of tiles, or a collaborative poster painting. Have fun showing it off to other classes and to parents! Middle & High School Our Town Students question institutions they take for granted and are encouraged to look deeply and closely at their local web of social services Connections to National Standards Social Studies Living and working together in families and communities, now and long ago * Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago * Understands the history of the local community and how communities in North America varied long ago We often take the institutions that provide services to us for granted. What are some of the services that are available to members of your community? Brainstorm a list:

• Water • Electricity • Internet access • Schools • Trash collection • Health clinics • Hospitals • Fire fighting • Humane society • Disaster assistance (Red Cross, FEMA, etc.) • Postal service

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• Library • Nature center

Do people in your community get these services for free? If not, who pays for them and how? In teams or individually, research one of these services and report back to the group. Questions to research could include:

• How was this service founded? • Who is in charge of it? • Who works there? • What is their training? • How is the service funded? • Are any run by volunteers? What makes them give their time? • What do members of your community think about these services? • Were any of these services founded by Catholic sisters? Were any

founded by other faith-based organizations? When and by whom? Researchers can access information from the servicesʼ websites, newspaper sites, and the local library. Interview staff and invite them to talk to your class. Do any of these organizations accept student volunteers? If so, consider working as a volunteer and keeping a journal about your experiences. Share your insights with your classmates.

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7. Signs of the Times How then will the cry of the poor find an echo in your lives? —His Holiness Pope Paul VI, 1971 In 1962, Catholic bishops from around the world gathered in Rome. Although only a few sisters attended the Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II), it changed the lives of women religious at home and abroad.

Mother Mary Luke Tobin (Sisters of Loretto) was the only American sister to attend the Vatican II council in Rome. The council challenged Catholic sisters—as well as Catholic brothers—to take a close look at why their communities were founded. It also urged them to respond to the “signs of the times” and to go where they were needed. This took place during the tumult of the 1960s, when people throughout the United States and the world were asking questions about the state of the world. The changes transformed Catholic sistersʼ lives and some left their communities, realizing that religious life was not right for them. Other sisters became more deeply committed to their calling and for many sisters, peace and social justice became more central to their mission. As communities evolved inwardly, they also reflected outward change. Some chose to wear contemporary clothes, some modified their habits, while still others dressed in traditional garb. Returning to the original intention of those who founded their communities, sisters were to go about doing their works of charity

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and mercy unnoticed and dressed the same as those they served. Renewal and growth accompanied the call for sisters to adapt to the changed conditions of their time.

Catholic sisters, including Sister Antona Ebo (second from left) march at Selma, 1965

Sister Madeleva Manzanares, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, works with the elderly in Peru, 2003

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Sister Corita Kent She made the 1985 Love stamp, painted a gas tank in Bostonʼs Back Bay in rainbow colors, and influenced the lives of hundreds of art students. Few heeded the call to examine “the signs of the times” as visibly as Corita Kent, a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Sister Corita Kent (Immaculate Heart of Mary) in the art room with her work at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. As both a practicing artist and a teacher at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles during the early 1960s, Sister Corita used images from popular culture and current events to express her beliefs about the Vietnam War and social justice. She left her religious community in 1968 and moved to Boston.

Love stamp, designed by Sister Corita Kent, 1985

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Serigraph of manflowers by Sister Corita Kent, 1969

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Serigraph of the king is dead by Sister Corita Kent, 1969 Discussion Questions & Activities Colors & Questions Students at all levels celebrate creativity or reflect on social questions important to them and express them in vibrant prints Connection to National Standards American History: POSTWAR UNITED STATES (1945 TO EARLY 1970s) * Understands the economic boom and social transformation of postwar United States * Understands how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics * Understands domestic policies after World War II

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* Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil liberties In her work, Sister Corita Kentʼs commented on what she saw in the world around her: the tragic loss of life in the Vietnam War, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., segregation, injustice. But she also commented on flowers in spring, the miracle of creativity, and LOVE. She frequently worked with quotes that resonated with from the Bible but also from poets and musicians. Her work is a brilliant combination of words, images, and color. (See more here: http://www.corita.org/) Ask students to select a word or quote that inspires them. Then, they can select an image from a collection of postcards, magazine photographs, pictures you or they have taken, or images selectively downloaded from the internet. Sometimes a random combination of words and images can be inspiring. Text and images can be combined and colors chosen using a computer illustration program. But it is much more satisfying to work by hand. Print-making tools can include:

• Styrofoam trays and the blunt end of a skewer • Linoleum blocks • Potato prints • Soap prints

Fonts and colors should be bold and strong. As Sister Corita said in her art department rules: “Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.” Older students tackle more complex print making materials, much like those Sister Corita used: silk-screen and large wood-block prints Sister Corita Kentʼs art department rules: 1. Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while. 2. General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher, pull everything out of your fellow students. 3. General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students. 4. Consider everything an experiment. 5. Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way. 6. Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.

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7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. Itʼs the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things. 8. Donʼt try to create and analyse at the same time. Theyʼre different processes. 9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. Itʼs lighter than you think. 10. “Weʼre breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” - John Cage. Helpful hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything always. Go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully often. Save everything, it might come in handy later. There should be new rules next week.

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8. New Frontiers The moral measure of a great nation is not found in the mighty power of its military or even the heights its stock market reaches, but in that hopeful place where compassion and justice meet … —Sister Catherine Pinkerton, Sisters of St. Joseph, statement to press, 2007 Leaders within their own communities for centuries, sisters today participate in many arenas. For example, they advocate for policies that advance the dignity of all persons, domestically and internationally. As of 2000, many religious communities held non-governmental status at the United Nations.

Anne Curtis, a Sister of Mercy, speaks out for NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, c. 2005 Continuing the spirit of service that began more than 300 years ago, Catholic sisters in America teach, protect, assist with citizenship classes, and find other ways to help new arrivals navigate the 21st century. More than 63,000 Catholic sisters are today carrying on a tradition of service that began more than three centuries ago.

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Advocate

Sister Jean Prejean (Sister of St. Joseph) visits a prisoner on death row. Translated into 10 languages, sung as an opera, and dramatized in an award-winning film, Dead Man Walking, the firsthand account of Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph, provoked a national debate about the death penalty. Shelter

The Little Sisters of the Assumption have worked for poor and homeless families in upstate New York and other areas for more than 100 years. In Denver, Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family provide temporary housing for homeless families, elderly women, and on occasion, prostitutes. In Ruma, Illinois, the motherhouse of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ serves as a sanctuary for refugees. In Philadelphia, Project H.O.M.E. helps formerly homeless persons get a new start on life. “We can't walk by people on the street and think that's OK,” reflects Sister Mary Scullion, a Sister of Mercy and co-founder of Project H.O.M.E. “Itʼs not OK. It degrades me as well as the person who's on the street.”

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Witness Since 1980, nine American sisters working overseas have been murdered. In El Salvador, one Ursuline and two Maryknoll sisters assisted refugees displaced by civil war. In Liberia, five Adorers of the Blood of Christ worked in orphanages and schools. In Brazil, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur spoke out for land reform and rainforest protection. Their lives bear witness to the struggle for human rights and social justice.

Sister Dorothy Kazel, an Ursuline Sister; Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Maryknoll Sisters; and lay missionary Jean Donovan were murdered by military forces in El Salvador on December 2, 1980.

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Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, was murdered for her work in land reform in Brazil in 2005. Renew In Webster Groves, Missouri, Eileen Fuchs, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, works with high school students. She helps them invent a simple device to give people access to clean drinking water.

Sister Eileen Fuchs with students from Nerinx High School display the simple, low-cost water filter they have developed.

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Funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), students at Nerinx High School designed a simple solution to a complex problem—access to clean drinking water for people living in developing countries. Inexpensive household materials such as PVC pipe, clay, sand, and charcoal cleanse dirty water to drinking-quality standards. In Stanfordville, New York, surplus from an organic farm sponsored by sisters is shared with needy families. In Monroe, Michigan, a motherhouse renovated with sustainable materials stands ready for the 21st century. Across the country, sisters are advocating earth-friendly practices and working to heal the planet. Discussion Questions & Activities How can YOU be of service? Elementary & High School Students Social Studies Living and working together in families and communities, now and long ago * Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago * Understands the history of the local community and how communities in North America varied long ago There are many ways that students have been involved with their communities or help others in different countries. As a group, identify local issues that concern students, such as waste and recycling, pollution, homelessness, abandoned animals, endangered species, hunger, and so on. Come to a consensus as a whole or in groups about a project to tackle. Be sure every group member has a chance to speak their piece and that everyone listens and comments respectfully. Choose projects that resonate with everyone; they can be linked with celebrations such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day or Cesar Chavez Day. A collection of links to potential service projects are listed here: http://energizeinc.com/prof/events/eventsNA.html Chronicle your groupʼs work on Twitter, with a blog, or in a class journal. Let your work inspire others!

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GLOSSARY APOSTOLIC COMMUNITIES: groups of religious engaged in activities, called ministries, that answer a need in society CANONIZATION: the process by which a deceased person is declared a saint by the Catholic Church CHARISM: spirit of the community resulting from the founderʼs experience of God CLOISTER: enclosed building, set of buildings, or part of a building into which only members of a contemplative religious community may enter CONSTITUTION: document, approved by the Vatican, establishing the legal existence of a community CONTEMPLATIVE COMMUNITIES: those communities whose primary work is prayer CONVENT: shared residence for a religious community FOUNDRESS: a woman who establishes a religious order or congregation HABIT: distinctive clothing worn by members of some religious communities MINISTRY: public service rendered by members of the church MOTHER: title of respect given in some religious communities to sisters elected or appointed to leadership MOTHERHOUSE: administrative headquarters of a religious community NOVICE: a person preparing to profess vows in a religious community NUN: a member of a religious community whose primary focus is prayer in an enclosed cloistered setting; sometimes the terms sister and nun are used interchangeably POSTULANT: a person at the first step toward full membership in a religious community RELIGIOUS: a person, either male or female, who pledges to live in accordance with a communityʼs vows, most often poverty, chastity, and obedience

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RULE: guidelines for sistersʼ lives specific to each community; sometimes the terms constitution and rule are used interchangeably SISTER: a woman who is a professed member of a religious congregation; sometimes the terms sister and nun are used interchangeably SUPERIORS: elected or appointed women who are responsible for the governance of a congregation VOCATION: an inclination, or calling toward a particular state of life VOW: a solemn promise made directly to God

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RESOURCES Books Augenstein, John, ed. One Hundred Years of Catholic Education. Washington,

DC: National Catholic Education Association, 2003. Ault, Julie. Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita. London: Four Corners

Books, 2006. Brown, Dorothy M. and McKeown, Elizabeth, The Poor Belong to Us: Catholic

Charities and American Welfare, Harvard University Press, 1996. Burton, Katherine. The Eighth American Saint: The Story of Saint Mother

Theodore Guerin. Skokie, IL: ACTA Pub., 2007. Caspary, Anita M. Witness to Integrity: The Crisis of the Immaculate Heart

Community of California. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003. Chittister, Joan. The Way We Were: A Story of Conversion and Renewal.

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006. Clark, Emily, ed. Voices from an Early American Convent: Marie Madeleine

Hachard and the New Orleans Ursulines. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.

Clark, Emily. Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans Ursulines and the Development of New World Society, 1727-1834. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

Coburn, Carol K. and Martha Smith. Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Daly, Robert J., et al., eds. Religious Life in the U.S. Church: The New Dialogue, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1984.

Deggs, Sister Mary Bernard. No Cross, No Crown: Black Nuns in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

Doyle, Mary Ellen. Pioneer Spirit: Catherine Spalding, Sister of Charity of Nazareth. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006.

Doyle, Mary Katherine. Like a Tree by Running Water: The Story of Mary Baptist Russell, Californiaʼs First Sister of Mercy. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin Press, 2004.

Farren, Suzy. A Call to Care: The Women Who Built Catholic Healthcare in America. St. Louis, MO: Catholic Healthcare Association of the United States, 1996.

Fisher, James T. Communion of Immigrants: A History of Catholics in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Fitzgerald, Constance. The Carmelite Adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinsonʼs Journal of a Trip to America and Other Documents. Baltimore: Carmelite Sisters, 1990.

Gottlieb, Martin. The Foundling: The Story of the New York Foundling Hospital. New York: Norfleet Press, 2001.

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of the Americas, 1994. Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change, PBS Home Video, 2007. The Student, the Nun, and the Amazon, dir. by James Newton, 2005. Web Resources Virtually every community of Catholic sisters in the United States has a website that discusses community history, current projects, and more.

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Bill of Rights Lesson Plans Constitutional Rights Foundation http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/ Catholic Chicago, Chicago History Museum http://www.chicagohistory Corita Art Center http://www.co

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About Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America is a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in Association with Cincinnati Museum Center. Check www.womenandspirit.org for updates on exhibit venues and dates. With Gratitude The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) extends special thanks to Dr. Katherine Ott, Mellissa Berry, and Bob Weis who nurtured the dream, and to the LCWR staff, whose steady support sustained the project as it moved from idea to reality. Women & Spirit relied heavily upon historyʼs guardians and storytellers: the congregational archivists who shared rarely seen treasures, and the advisors who reviewed content for accuracy and balance. All images are used with kind permission from their sources. LCWR History Committee The following sisters lived the exhibit for four years, contributing their wisdom, vision, and unwavering commitment: Jane Burk, SSND Barbara Cervenka, OP Mary Charlotte Chandler, RSCJ Mary Dacey, SSJ Helen Maher Garvey, BVM Karen M. Kenelly, CSJ Constance Pheps, SCL Annmarie Sanders, IHM Project Advisors The following scholars and practitioners guided the exhibit content development for accuracy, balance, and compelling storytelling: Mary Madonna Ashton, CSJ Dr. Carol Coburn Mr. Mike Devine Mr. Jerome A. Enzler Constance FitzGerald, OCD

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Mary Denis Maher, CSA Judith Metz, SC Dr. Diane Batts Morrow Mary Oates, CSJ Design and Production Team Bob Weis Design Island, Original Concept Design Seruto & Co., Exhibit Production John Palmer Low, Exhibits Design Harvest Moon Studio, Writing and Website Design Island, Media Production Hunt Design, Graphic Design and Production Kathy Talley-Jones, Curator and Education Content Cincinnati Museum Center, Artifact Registration Services, Artifact Mounts Visual Terrain, Lighting Design Luna Red Media and Design, AV Systems and Sound Design Benchmark Scenery, Inc., Exhibit and Case Fabrication Crush Creative, Graphic Production www.womenandspirit.org