Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul

In 1828, at the request of then St. Louis Bishop Joseph Rosati, four sisters set out from their Motherhouse in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in September to journey to St. Louis.  Bishop Rosati requested the sisters to take charge of a hospital.  When the sisters arrived, they found an expanding city and many in need of health care.  The sisters established the first hospital west of the Mississippi River; today, it is known as DePaul Hospital.  The sisters then began to serve in education and in needed social ministries.  Mental health, care for orphans, and schools for the needy were opened and staffed.  

The Congregation of Mary, Queen is a religious institute of diocesan right, with our Motherhouse located in Vietnam and our regional/provincial house located in Springfield, MO.  In 1991, the sisters began discerning the possibility of establishing a local convent in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Then, Archbishop John L. May, visited with three of the sisters in the Congregation’s Regional Council.  It was evident that St. Louis was an ideal place for establishing a new community of sisters and strengthening the Formation Program of the younger sisters. 

We Sisters of Divine Providence are a community of women religious rooted in our confidence that God is provident. We participate in the mission of Jesus by responding to the needs of the time through ministry and service. We live our lives with complete trust in a provident God –guiding, loving, and caring for all creation.
We believe in the reality of Providence. We believe that the movements of history in which we participate are guided by the loving power of God. We believe that God cares for all creation. We believe that we have an active role in this creative redemption because God works in us and through us.

The Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus (Carmelites DCJ) were founded in 1891 in Berlin, Germany, to blend the contemplative spirit of Carmel with the active apostolate.  Their charism is comprised of four facets – contemplation, reparation, spiritual motherhood, and mission. Their life has a deeply contemplative dimension. The life of a Carmelite is one devoted to penance, reparation, silence, and, most importantly, seeking union with God in prayer. In addition to chanting the Divine Office four times a day in community, their way of life also calls them to a half hour of silent contemplative prayer before the tabernacle in both the morning and the evening, a time to simply remain in His presence and love.

From this prayer flows their active works, which as Carmelites DCJ takes the form of being mothers who provide homes of love for the old and the young where they can be close to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and experience daily His love for them. All they do, whether in active works or in prayer, is done in a spirit of reparation and with a burning desire for the salvation of souls. 

Our work primarily takes the form of two apostolates: Saint Louis Priory* School and Saint Anselm Parish. Both of these long-standing apostolates are all located on the Abbey grounds. About 15 monks work in the 400-student high school, two monks run the 1000-family parish and some brothers have specific jobs within the monastery proper.

The apostolates of teaching and ministering have been a major part of English Benedictine monasticism for centuries.

Although the works are demanding, they are balanced and sustained by the prayer life. In fact, the works are inspired and fueled by faithfulness to prayer in all its forms, and before any and all work that we engage in, we are first of all monks dedicated to prayer, worship, and growth in holiness.

* When the school was founded our monastery was a priory. When we became an abbey the community decided to retain the name of The Saint Louis Priory School for the school since by this name it had achieved a considerable reputation in colleges and universities across the country.

The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Congregation of religious women that claims Mother Clelia Merloni as its foundress, first arrived in St. Louis to bring the Faith to the Italian immigrants. Since those early years downtown when they were known as “Missionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart,” the Sisters have served in over 20 different locations in greater St. Louis.  The Apostles’ role in the great story of the Archdiocese of St. Louis began on January 24, 1913. 

Founded by St. Maria de Mattias in 1834 in Italy, the mission of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ worldwide is to collaborate with Christ in His work of redemption. The sisters strive to build up the Body of Christ so that all creation can move toward “that beautiful order of things in which the great Son of God came to establish in His blood,” according to St. Maria.

In the world today, the Adorers specifically live this out by witnessing to God’s love and ministering that love to others, especially to the poor, oppressed and deprived.

The Adorers have 12 sisters in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. They serve in community leadership, parish ministry, counseling, social services and tutoring.

Eight centuries ago St. Dominic de Guzman founded a new religious Order whose contemplative framework was to support its active mission of preaching for the salvation of souls. Today, the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation live out this mission through a life of prayer, study and community, which nourishes a contemplative spirit and bears fruit in their teaching apostolate.

In the spirit of Saint Dominic, the community embraces the Church’s call to the New Evangelization, responding creatively to the needs of our time. The Sisters’ apostolate includes classroom teaching preschool through college; family formation programs; campus ministry and work with young people; retreats and other catechetical efforts that encourage growth in the faith and in the spiritual life.

Serving in 15 U.S. states, and in Canada, Australia, Italy, Scotland, and the Netherlands, the Sisters seek to inspire students and their families to engage and transform the culture with the saving truths of the Gospel.

Founded in 1860 in Nashville, Tennessee, the Congregation of St. Cecilia today numbers over 300 Sisters. The community is marked by joyful fidelity to the Church, devotion to Christ in the Eucharist and to his Blessed Mother, and zeal for teaching the truth.

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.

“You must be Saint Paul living today.” These words from Blessed James Alberione, founder of the Daughters of St. Paul, capture the life and mission of the sisters to “live and give Christ” to the people of today.

Living a profoundly Eucharistic spirituality and immersed in the culture of communication, the Daughters of St. Paul use media—print, visual, digital, music, and more—so that every person may encounter Christ, be transformed by His love, and in turn bring Christ’s love, peace, and justice to the world. The Daughters have been present in Saint Louis since 1973 and have operated Pauline Books & Media in Crestwood since 1989, where they offer Catholic resources from their publishing house (Pauline Books & Media Publishing) and host faith formation and prayer opportunities. Saint Louis is also the home of the Daughters of St. Paul postulancy, where young women beginning their life as Daughters of St. Paul start the initial formation process.