Sisters of the Holy Faith
The Sisters of the Holy Faith is a Roman Catholic religious congregation, originally for the care of Catholic orphans. It now works broadly in the areas of education and faith development.
History
It was founded at Dublin, in 1857, by Margaret Aylward,[1] under the direction of Rev. John Gowan, C.M.
The foundress was called a confessor of the Faith by Pope Pius IX, because of the imprisonment of six months she endured. She was convicted of contempt of court, but acquitted of a charge of kidnapping, after having refused to produce and return an abandoned child to its mother.[2]
The congregation is especially active in the Archdiocese of Dublin, the residence of the superior general being at Glasnevin, where the sisters conducted a boarding-school for young ladies.
The original foundation was St. Brigid's Orphanage, Dublin.
Notes
- Holy Faith Sisters - Beginnings Archived 2007-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
- Margaret Helen Preston, Charitable Words: Women, Philanthropy, and the Language of Charity in Nineteenth-Century Dublin (2004), p. 88.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Sisters of the Holy Faith". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. This enty cites: - Irish Directory (1909)