The Sisters of Charity have received a new honor – the 2009 New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been dedicated to them in recognition of their service to the poor of New York City over the past 200 years.

The Sisters are being honored for their many charitable works which began in New York City in 1817. Many members of the Congregation were Irish-born or Irish-American New Yorkers.

This year will be the first time the Sisters march in their own Congregational contingent. They have marched up New York’s Fifth Avenue in many past parades, but always as part of a delegation representing a school, a ministry or an Irish county.

Several Sisters attended the January 14th installation ceremony for this year’s Grand Marshall Michael J. Gibbons and his aides. When John Dunleavy, Parade Chairman, introduced the Congregation’s representatives, they received a standing ovation from the other attendees who were well familiar with the Sisters’ long history of good works.

Over 600 people will march in the Sisters of Charity contingent, which will be directly behind the family of the Grand Marshall. The Sisters’ group will include:

• almost a third of the New York Congregation itself, including Sr. Dorothy Metz, President, and the six members of the Council
• many family members and friends of the Sisters
• colleagues from health and child care ministries established by the Sisters
• current students and alums from schools founded by the Sisters, including the College of Mount Saint Vincent (Bronx)
• representatives from five other congregations that trace their roots back to the founding in 1809 by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton:
  • Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth (Convent Station, NJ)
  • Sisters of Charity – Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada)
  • Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill (Greensburg, PA)
  • Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth (Kansas)
  • The Daughters of Charity, Northeast Province (Albany, NY)

Dressing for Success

Those marching in the Sisters’ contingent will wear a green and white rosette badge featuring a likeness of foundress St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Sisters Alice Darragh, Jane Iannucelli and Dominica Rocchio of the New York Congregation will march directly behind the contingent’s banner…dressed in the distinctive, traditional habit which includes the iconic black bonnet. They will represent the first three Sisters sent to New York by Mother Seton in 1817:  Sr. Felicité Brady, Sr. Cecilia O'Conway and Sr. Rose White.

These three pioneering women came to Manhattan to take charge of St. Patrick’s Asylum, also known as the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. At that time, parentless Catholic children were lost to the faith if they were taken in by Protestant orphan societies.

With this mission, the Sisters of Charity become the first congregation of women religious to establish a permanent community in what was then the Diocese of New York. Elizabeth Ann Seton, herself a native New Yorker, would become the first native-born American saint when she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1975.

The Sisters’ Ministries
Since 1817, over 4,000 Sisters of Charity of New York have served Irish and other immigrant groups and their descendants in New York City and beyond. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sisters founded and taught in almost every parochial school in New York City. They also helped establish the large, well-run Catholic school system in the Archdiocese. St. Patrick's Old Cathedral School is still in operation on Mott Street in lower Manhattan, in a building dating from the 1820s.

Since 1817, the New York Congregation has established a total of 285 missions, including elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the aged.

Among today’s sponsored ministries are:

• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers (Manhattan & Westchester)
• St. Joseph’s Medical Center (Yonkers)
• The New York Foundling (Manhattan)
• The Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center (Manhattan)
• The John A. Coleman School (Manhattan & Westchester)
• supportive housing for the elderly, low income families, and the chronically mentally ill
• a soup kitchen, multi-service center, and an organic farm in Dutchess County

About the Parade
This year will be the 248th consecutive year that New York’s Irish Catholics march to celebrate their faith and culture.

The Sisters of Charity consider it very special to march in the largest parade in the world during the bicentennial of their founding. They appreciate this honor and the unique chance it offers them to share their story of service with those who might not be familiar with it. The Congregation’s Parade Committee is chaired by Sr. Mary Ellen O’Boyle.

The parade can be viewed on March 17th via a link that will be available from the home page of the official parade site at http://nyc-st-patrick-day-parade.org. So if you’re not able to watch WNBC-TV New York, channel 4, directly that day, you can still enjoy a live streaming of the parade as it is broadcast.