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Volume 074-3 - July 2020 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin July 2020
St. Vincent’s Orphanage (Sisters of Mercy)
the convent academies were the only form of higher
education available to girls and women. The academies
were highly favored schools of Protestant elites for
their daughters. The academies were by design open
to students from all backgrounds and faiths.'? When
the “Select Day School for Young Ladies” was first
advertised the Sisters acknowledged the “great pecuniary embarrassment” that necessitated their decision,
but the new school proved popular and financially
successful. By December 1870 the Sisters were finally
to pay off the debt in full.!* The academy continued to
operate until 1965.
The Church was a patriarchal institution that in all areas
favored men, and funneled funds to their institutions
over the institutions of women. Working within the considerable constraints imposed by the Church hierarchy,
the Sisters tried to put the best interests of their charges
and the community first by pushing back against
diocesan decisions they thought would be disadvantageous. Consequently male leaders in the diocese did not
always view the Sisters’ independence and adaptability
as a positive. The Sisters of Mercy archives in Omaha, Nebraska, contains a letter from Patrick Manogue,
Bishop of Grass Valley, to James Gibbons, Archbishop
of Baltimore, in which Manogue complains that some
of the Sisters thought themselves “impregnable” and
“really laugh at authority.” Although he doesn’t call out
any of the Grass Valley Sisters by name, Manogue had
had several bitter disagreements with their Mother Superiors over the years. In his letter he laments: “In many
places, and especially on this coast, where parochial
schools cannot be sustained the small communities
of Sisters of Mercy are most useful, but unfortunately
from lack of proper novitiate and training some of them
not rarely cause bitter annoyance. The good should be
encouraged by having a proper correction at hand for
the unruly.”"
Pneumonia and Poverty
In addition to caring for orphans and educating the community’s Catholic children the Sisters visited the sick.
Surviving Sick Call Registers from 1867-1897 document
nearly three thousand home visits. For each visit the
Sister recorded the date of the visit, the person’s name,
religion, nationality, how they were referred, their residence, disease, and outcome (whether they recovered or
died). Although the majority of visits were to Catholics,
they visited patients of other religions as well.
The dangers of mining and other manual labor are
reflected in the number of injuries listed. Common
too are diseases such a consumption (tuberculosis),
pneumonia, dropsy (edema), cancer, and asthma. The