The Sons of Our Mother of Peace

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 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary are a community of Catholic women called to live the mission of Jesus through core values of: Freedom, Charity, Education, and Justice.

The Archdiocese of Sr. Louis has been the home of initial formation for the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, Texas since September of 1990. 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word was founded in Galveston, Texas, in 1866 by Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis, second bishop of Texas. At that time the diocese encompassed the whole state of Texas with its See in Galveston. (Today there are 15 dioceses in Texas!) The first three sisters came from Lyons, France to establish the Congregation. In 1926, the Motherhouse moved to the newly built Villa de Matel Convent in Houston where it still is today. The Sisters serve in ministries of education, health care, social concerns, and spirituality in five countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Ireland, Kenya, and the United States of America.

A visible sign of God’s love often is evidenced in the promotion of human dignity. And that’s exactly what the Sisters of Charity of Incarnate Word embrace as their charism.

That’s the same charism that sisters are helping to live out at Incarnate Word Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school, located in the north St. Louis County suburb of Bel-Nor. The sisters’ community founded the school here in 1932.

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 Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, rooted in the spirit of St. John Eudes and St. Mary Euphrasia, are a reconciling presence of Jesus the Good Shepherd, affirming the dignity of all people and creation, empowering women and girls, and responding to those impacted by poverty and injustice. 

The Congregation is enriched by the presence of apostolic sisters and contemplative sisters who express the call to the mission of reconciliation and the charism of merciful love in their own style of life in different ways.  

Contemplative sisters bear witness to God and seek to be a means of reconciliation through prayer, faithfulness to the Gospel, solitude and silence, holding in prayer the whole Universe and supporting the endeavors of our sisters who are engaged in active ministry. 

Apostolic sisters live the mission and charism through active ministry, addressing the pressing global and local needs in the spirit of the congregation’s core values of mercy, reconciliation, individual worth and zeal.  

While the central office of the newly formed U.S. | Toronto Region (2025) is in St. Louis, the region is part of a global Congregation present in 67 countries. The region’s 16 sponsored ministries across the United States and Canada serve the vulnerable and those on the margins through relationship-based, outreach programs that support those in need, including programs that lift up girls, women and children.  

Together, the apostolic and contemplative sisters, along with partners-in-mission, share in a unified vision: to be witnesses of God’s merciful love, to promote justice and reconciliation, and to ensure the vitality of the mission for generations to come. 

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 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.