Religious Orders Serving St. Louis

The Sisters of Loretto, one of the first religious communities of women founded in the United States, began on the Kentucky frontier in 1812.  From this beginning, the Loretto charism of loving service, rooted in Jesus on the cross and Mary at the foot of the cross, has shaped and formed this community and keeps it alive today.

Founded more than 180 years ago, the Sisters of Mercy is an international community comprised of 9,000 Sisters of Mercy who live and minister in 46 countries. Through the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Sisters of Mercy serve those in need in the U.S., Central and South America, Jamaica, Guam and the Philippines. In the St. Louis Archdiocese 61 Sisters of Mercy live and serve in a number of ministries including health care, social services, education, spiritual direction, prison and prayer ministry. Sisters of Mercy sponsor Mercy Conference and Retreat Center, a spacious complex for individual and group retreats as well as meeting space and overnight accommodations on 70+ acres in west St. Louis County.

In December 1923, 5 Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George came to America to serve at Fr. Dunne’s Home for Newsboys in St. Louis, MO.  For 2 years they lived and worked with these boys, learning English and getting a start in this new land.  Their roots were deep, planted in the soil of northern Germany, in a village called Thuine, yet they willingly answered the call to come to America. 

A combination of circumstances contributed to the first establishment of the Sisters of St. Joseph in America.  Through her work with the Propagation of the Faith, Felicite’ Duras, a Countess, was greatly moved by a letter from Bishop Rosati, the first Bishop of St. Louis, asking for sisters who would undertake instruction of deaf-mutes.  She offered to defray the expense of establishing a community of Sisters of St. Joseph in this diocese of St. Louis.  She had a great love and admiration for Mother St. John Fontbonne and asked her to send the sisters to America. 

The apostolic Good Shepherd sisters are located in Normandy. There currently are seven sisters who make up the core community, and nine international sisters going through the English as a Second Language program to prepare them for future leadership roles for the congregation. The campus also houses the offices of the Province of Mid-North America and includes a retirement residence for members of the community’s apostolic and contemplative branches.

Opened in 1979 and operated by the Good Shepherd Sisters, Maria Droste provides a residential program for women who are battling drug and alcohol addictions. It’s a quiet, homelike setting that can take up to 11 women at a time. The average stay is about four months to a year, and residents receive in-house support from the 24-hour staff and sisters, while they receive professional treatment outside. The ministry is just one example of the apostolic community’s charism, which is to foster reconciliation and Jesus’ mercy among those the sisters serve.

When St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier founded the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in France in 1831, she envisioned the contemplative community as a “powerhouse of prayer.”  They have been in St. Louis since 1859.

Established as a contemplative community within the Congregation of the Good Shepherd, the Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd are called to live in union with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and to continue his redemptive mission in the Church. Prayer is of the very essence of their vocation. They pray for their apostolic sisters engaged in the ministry of reconciliation, for the Church and for the entire world. Zeal for souls is the special gift bequeathed to them by their foundress.

The contemplative sisters spend time together in prayer five times a day, with additional opportunities for individual prayer and reflection. They generally receive prayer requests via fax, phone calls and emails from the public throughout the week.

For many years the nuns made altar breads for parishes in the St. Louis Archdiocese and beyond.  In 1999, the sisters were chosen to make the altar breads for Blessed John Paul II’s papal visit to St. Louis.

In 1845, a group of young German women began the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Missouri in Steinerberg, Switzerland because their native Germany was hostile to the formation of new religious congregations. Magdalena [Mother Theresa] Weber and Rev. Karl Rolfus are revered as their founders. They were founded as a contemplative order dedicated to prayer, simple tasks, and devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.

The Society of Christ for Poles living abroad is a family made up of priests, brothers religious, and seminarians. They are popularly referred to in North America as the Society of Christ Fathers.

The main aim of the Society of Christ for Poles living abroad is to worship God and achieve holiness through the imitation of Jesus Christ. In a special way, members of the society take an active part in the apostolate of caring for the souls of Poles living outside the borders of Republic of Poland.

St. Agatha Parish exists primarily to serve the spiritual needs of those of the Polish language and ethnicity living in the St. Louis area.  We live our faith in union with the supreme pontiff and the Archbishop of St. Louis.  While living in american society, we celebrate our heritage of rich cultural traditions.  Through the intercession of Our Lady of Częstochowa, the queen of Poland, and St. Agatha, the patron of our parish, we seek to fulfill our calling in Jesus Christ by living out our Catholic faith in love, justice and peace.

The Society of the Divine Word is a Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work.

St. Arnold Janssen, whom Pope John Paul II canonized in 2003, founded our religious order in 1875. A German diocesan priest, Father Janssen recognized the need for a German missionary order. Because of friction between the Catholic church and the Bismarck government, he had to establish his base in the Netherlands in a little town named Steyl. At the time of his death in 1909, The Society of the Divine Word had missionaries in 15 countries on six continents. today, we serve the people of 71 countries on six continents.  (The Divine Word Missionaries arrived in North America in October 1895.)

Our work can be described as contemporary missionary work.  We follow the second vatican council’s “decree on the church’s missionary activity” in our efforts to bring the gospel message of salvation to all people while simultaneously respecting their human dignity and cultural heritage.  Within the Catholic Church, we are known for working with indigenous people, immigrants, refugees and the disenfranchised. Our specific ministries vary because we respond to the needs of the individual communities in which we serve.

In some corners of the globe, we have helped to develop education systems. In other parts, we provide humanitarian and social development programs. We also give pastoral care, which includes working as retreat directors, counselors and chaplains. The common thread that binds us is that we recognize the sacred in each human being and attend to those most in need.

The Society of the Sacred Heart was founded in France in 1800 by Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat. Four years later, Rose Philippine Duchesne entered the new community. In 1817, American Bishop William Du Bourg came to call at the motherhouse in Paris to recruit religious to open schools for Native Americans.  Rose Philippine Duchesne and her four companions arrived at the Market Street landing in St. Louis on August 22, 1818, the first women religious in St. Louis. On September 14, 1818, Philippine and her companions opened the first free school west of the Mississippi, with twenty-two girls too poor to pay any tuition. This was the beginning of the Academy of the Sacred Heart and international Sacred Heart education, which now spans the globe.

History of the Society of the Sacred Heart

The Society of Our Mother of Peace was founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1966 by Father Placid Guste. The original foundation was transferred to Springfield Missouri in 1976. In the meantime, in 1971 a second foundation was made in High Ridge Missouri, approximately twenty miles from St. Louis Missouri. A third foundation was made in 1998 in the Philippines and a fourth in Nigeria in 2002.

 The Society is composed of three separate Communities: the Sons of Our Mother of Peace for Religious Priests and Brothers; the Daughters of Our Mother of Peace for Religious Sisters; and the Lay Members Community for lay, married or single men and women. It was born of an inner call to combine the contemplative and apostolic lives in a context of material simplicity in such a manner that the apostolic call would express rather than submerge the contemplative spirit.

We Passionists proclaim God’s love for the world revealed through the Passion of Jesus Christ.

The Passionists, a family of priests, brothers and laity, reach out with compassion to the crucified of today. We keep alive the memory of Christ’s passion through our commitment to community, prayer, ministries of the word, and service to those who suffer. We welcome all who seek renewed life through the power of the cross and the hope of the resurrection.

The Passionists are a Roman Catholic religious order of vowed priests and brothers, sisters and nuns operating with the full support and approval of the vatican and the Holy Father.  Our mission is the communication of the saving message of the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Passionists are scholars, preachers, spiritual directors, retreat masters, teachers, chaplains, authors, musicians, artists, researchers, gardeners, poets and ministers to the suffering people of the world.

Paul Francis Daneo, an italian mystic and saint known popularly as St. Paul of the Cross, founded the Passionists in 1720.  For St. Paul of the Cross, the Passion of Jesus was “the most overwhelming work of God’s love.”  He was convinced that renewed awareness of the suffering of Christ could lead persons to deepened faith and help them to find meaning in the midst of their suffering and distress.  Through ministries of preaching and communication, St. Paul of the Cross worked to renew the religious awareness of his time, particularly among the neglected groups of his society.  Today Passionists everywhere continue the mission of their dedicated founder.

The Passionist Congregation came to America in 1852, settling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Holy Cross Province celebrated 100 years in 2006.

The Society of Our Mother of Peace was founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1966 by Father Placid Guste. The original foundation was transferred to Springfield Missouri in 1976. In the meantime, in 1971 a second foundation was made in High Ridge, Missouri, approximately twenty miles from St. Louis, Missouri. A third foundation was made in 1998 in the Philippines and a fourth in Nigeria in 2002.

The Society is composed of three separate communities: The Sons of Our Mother of Peace for religious priests and brothers; The Daughters of Our Mother of Peace for religious sisters; and the lay members community for lay, married or single men and women. It was born of an inner call to combine the contemplative and apostolic lives in a context of material simplicity in such a manner that the apostolic call would express rather than submerge the contemplative spirit.

The Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union, Central Province, are members of a worldwide community whose lives and mission are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus and the spirit of its foundress, St. Angela Merici. Grounded and empowered by their relationship with God and with one another, the Ursulines seek to be a compassionate, reconciling presence of God in the world.

Angela Merici, a visionary and practical woman, founded this company of women in 1535 in Brescia, Italy, to renew the church from within during the religious conflicts of the 16th century.

At the request of Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick, the Ursuline Sisters came to Missouri from convents in Austria and Germany in 1848 to establish a convent and school in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. update

The Visitation Community, serving in the Archdiocese of St. Louis since 1833, blends a contemplative and apostolic way of living, in the spirit of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. Sisters pray the Liturgy of the Hours four times a day and share in the community’s work, which includes teaching at Visitation Academy.