The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania traces its history through three centuries to groupings of women drawn together to dedicate themselves to union with God and works of salvation and sanctification.

Sharing the call to move in humility and sincere charity toward ever greater love of God and to love of neighbor without distinction, six women in Le-Puy-en-Velay, a village in France, came together under the leadership of Francoise Eyraud. Their determination to follow Christ more closely was recognized and encouraged by Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ, a zealous missionary and an accomplished spiritual director.  

On March 10, 1651, Bishop Henri de Maupas, Bishop of Le Puy, granted ecclesiastical approval to these women.  They performed all spiritual and corporal works of mercy possible for women  including the care of orphans and the sick, attention to the needs of the poor, the care and education of young women, the direction of confraternities of mercy.  Some groups may even have begun as confraternities themselves.
 

Combining contemplation and action, this association grew and spread in France throughout the next century until the terror of the French Revolution brought to many groups the confiscation of property, the dispersal of members, and to some, even imprisonment and death.  Still other groups continued during the Revolution, sometimes because they had so aligned themselves with the people that the townspeople petitioned authorities to allow them to remain.

When order was restored in France, Cardinal Joseph Fesch called Jeanne Fontbonne to lead a new community of Sisters of Saint Joseph at Lyons.  It was to this Mother St. John Fontbonne that Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis wrote asking for Sisters to teach the deaf and to work with the Indians.  Six Sisters arrived at Carondelet, Missouri in 1836 to undertake this ministry.  American foundations began.
 

First convent of the SSJs in the United States. Corondelet, MO (1836) (Click to enlarge)

Again the Congregation knew years of growth and expansion.  Works of charity were everywhere calling to dedicated women.  The response was generous. 
 

Within the space of a few years Sister Agnes Spencer moved from Carondelet to Philadelphia to assist at an orphanage, to Wheeling to direct a hospital, to Canadaigua, New York, to establish a new foundation, and then to Buffalo where she organized St. Mary’s Institute for the Deaf.
 

Mother Agnes Spencer   (Click to enlarge)

On May 24, 1860, at the invitation of Bishop Joshua Young, Mother Agnes came to the Erie Diocese where she assumed  the direction of St. Ann’s Academy for Girls at Corsica.  Education became an important work of the Congregation and  within twenty years there were more than two thousand children under the Sister of Saint Joseph instruction.  Next, the care of orphans and of the sick was undertaken, first in Meadville and then in Erie.

Throughout the second century of their establishment in the Erie Diocese, the Sisters of Saint Joseph continued in the traditional works of education, health care and care of the needy.  The Congregation joined the Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, a voluntary association of Congregations tracing common origins to seventeenth century France.  The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania have contributed to the work of the Federation through membership on research teams, the executive board and in various Federation programs.

As the Congregation moves into its third century, the Sisters of Saint Joseph continue to undertake all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy possible for women.  Experiencing God’s love and alert to the signs of the times, they have responded through traditional and new ministries, undertaking whatever may best bring about unity.