Historia Dominicana

Misiones contemporáneas en el extranjero

• Bangladesh: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Bolivia: Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Camboya: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Canadá: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian
• Chile: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• China: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Columbia: Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville
• República Dominicana: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian, Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville
• Timor Oriental: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Ecuador: Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• El Salvador: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Guinea Ecuatorial: Frailes Dominicos de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús
• Francia: Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Guatemala: Hermanas Dominicas de Houston, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Frailes Dominicos de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús
• Haití: Hermanas Dominicas de la Paz, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Honduras: Hermanas Dominicas de Grand Rapids, Hermanas Dominicas de la Paz
• Hong Kong: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Italia: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Japón: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Kenia: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Corea: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Lima: Hermanas Dominicas de Springfield
• México: Hermanas Dominicas de la Misión San José, Frailes Dominicos de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús
• Myanmar: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Nigeria: Hermanas Dominicas de la Paz, Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Noruega: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian
• Pakistán: Hermanas Dominicas de Sparkill
• Panamá: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Perú: Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville, Hermanas Dominicas de Grand Rapids, Hermanas Dominicas de la Paz, Hermanas Dominicas de Springfield, Hermanas Maryknoll de St.
• Filipinas: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Puerto Rico: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian, Frailes Dominicos de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús
• Suiza: Frailes Dominicos (Provincia de San Alberto Magno)
• Taiwán: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Tanzania: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Zimbabue: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo

Colaboración dentro de la Orden (2010-actualidad)

A medida que la Conferencia de Liderazgo Dominicano (DLC) continuó desarrollándose y creciendo, se hicieron evidentes las necesidades cambiantes de los dos grupos (frailes y hermanas), así como los diferentes tipos de problemas a los que se enfrentaban. Además, los frailes, las monjas y los laicos tenían sus propias conferencias particulares, que las hermanas no tenían. Así que, tras un proceso de dos años de estudio y consulta, una votación de los miembros de la DLC en 2009, y una votación de la Federación en 2010, la DLC celebró su última reunión en Maryknoll, NY, en octubre de 2010, y nació una nueva organización: Los Dominicos Hermanas (DSC). Para saber más sobre la Conferencia de Hermanas Dominicas, por favor pulse aquí.

Colaboración dentro de la Orden (1935-2010)

Desde el momento en que los frailes invitaron a las mujeres a participar en su misión dominicana en Kentucky, la colaboración entre las ramas de la orden ha seguido siendo un factor importante, a veces ignorado en la historia dominicana estadounidense.

De importancia fue el Conferencia de Liderazgo Dominicano (DLC), que comenzó en 1935 como una conferencia de madres dominicas generales de Estados Unidos. Reunía anualmente a las responsables de hermanas y frailes de las congregaciones y provincias americanas. La Conferencia fomentó diversas formas de colaboración a través de los siguientes grupos:

• Proyecto OPUS Una Historia de la Orden de Predicadores en los Estados Unidos. Investigadores de las cuatro ramas de la Orden participan juntos en esta empresa: la primera historia integrada de los dominicos estadounidenses.
• Promotores de la predicación
• Colaboración entre EE.UU. y la República Dominicana. Un comité para promover conferencias y acciones regionales en la Familia Dominicana.
• Noviciado Dominicano de Colaboración
• Las Casas - Dominicans in Ministry with Native Americans, Inc.

Las iniciativas de colaboración en programas de formación inicial comenzaron en 1976 con conferencias nacionales de internoviciados.

Esto ha llevado a la puesta en marcha de un noviciado común para las dominicas, y de un noviciado y un Studium combinados para los frailes de las provincias de San Alberto y San Martín de Porres.

Los monasterios de dominicas contemplativas iniciaron en 1983 la Conferencia de Monjas de la Orden de Predicadores de Estados Unidos, que organiza semanas de estudio monástico y publica Dominican Monastic Search para promover la vida contemplativa.

A partir de su tradicional asociación con universidades de Europa y América, los dominicos han ejercido como administradores y profesores en la enseñanza superior en todo Estados Unidos. Han fundado más de dieciocho colegios y universidades, incluida la única escuela de posgrado para hombres y mujeres, el Instituto de Teología Aquinas. El reciente movimiento de colaboración en Estados Unidos ha dado lugar a un Consorcio.

Alcanzando más allá de las fronteras nacionales, los frailes y hermanas que son Promotores Dominicos de Justicia y Paz para Norteamérica se unen a los promotores de toda la Orden para educar, defender y coordinar la campaña por la paz mundial a través de la justicia.

La colaboración mundial entre las ramas de la Orden se vio estimulada a mediados del siglo XX, cuando los Capítulos Generales dieron un nuevo énfasis a una vieja realidad: la Familia Dominicana. La revisión de las Constituciones de los frailes en 1968 dio un énfasis renovado a la familia dominicana, declarando que todos los frailes, hermanas, monjas y laicos "comparten la misma vocación común y cada uno, a su manera especial, sirve a la misión de la Orden en el mundo". Los capítulos sucesivos continuaron con este énfasis, llevando al primer Simposio internacional de la Familia Dominicana en Bolonia en 1983, dirigido por Vincent de Couesnongle O.P., Maestro de la Orden. En este evento histórico, en el que los dominicos estadounidenses participaron plenamente, los delegados produjeron el Documento de Bolonia definitivo sobre la Familia Dominicana como base para continuar la colaboración mundial en la Orden de Predicadores.

Misiones en el extranjero (1908-2000)

No fue hasta 1908 cuando la Iglesia de Estados Unidos salió de su antiguo estatus de misión. Poco después, los dominicos estadounidenses comenzaron a enviar miembros en misión a otros países. Las primeras fueron las hermanas de la Misión de San José, que en 1910 abrieron una escuela y luego un noviciado en México.

En 1912, el Hermanas de Maryknoll de Santo Domingo fueron fundadas por Mary Joseph Rogers en Hawthorne, Nueva York para ser la primera congregación de hermanas dominicas estadounidenses fundada específicamente para servir en las misiones extranjeras. Recibieron la aprobación oficial de la Iglesia en 1920.

Los primeros frailes estadounidenses que trabajaron en una misión extranjera fueron los de la provincia de San José, que en 1924 enviaron hombres a Kienning-Fu, en el sur de China, y más tarde invitaron a las Hermanas de Santa María de los Manantiales (Ohio) a unirse a ellos.

Las monjas dominicas de Los Ángeles abrieron en 1959 el primer monasterio de estadounidenses en Karachi (Pakistán), siguiendo la iniciativa misionera de los frailes de la provincia de San José.

Mientras todas las ramas de la Orden escuchaban la llamada de los pueblos fuera de los Estados Unidos, el Papa Pío XII hizo un llamamiento especial a las tierras de América Latina en la década de 1850. Muchas hermanas y frailes respondieron; y muchos lugares continúan siendo atendidos por congregaciones y provincias dominicanas.

A finales del siglo XX, los dominicos y dominicas ofrecen una variedad de ministerios en los siguientes campos de misión:

• Bahamas: Hermanas Dominicas de Caldwell
• Belice: Hermanas Dominicas de Kentucky
• Bolivia: Frailes Dominicos de la Provincia de San Alberto, Hermanas Dominicas de Colón, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Sinsinawa, Hermanas de la Presentación de Santo Domingo (Dighton)
• Brasil: Hermanas Dominicas de San Rafael, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Chile: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• China: Hermanas Dominicas de Colón, Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo
• Colombia: Hermanas Dominicas de Amityville
• República Dominicana: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian
• El Salvador: Hermanas Maryknoll de Santo Domingo, Hermanas Dominicas de Sinsinawa
• Guatemala: Dominican Sisters of Akron, Dominican Sisters of Houston, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
• Honduras: Dominican Friars of St. Albert, Dominican Friars of St. Martin de Porres
• Jamaica: Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
• Kenia: Dominican Friars of St. Joseph, Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Dominican Sisters of Newark, Dominican Sisters of North Guilford, Dominican Sisters of Racine, Dominican Friars of St. Albert, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
• México: Dominican Friars of Holy Name, Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, Dominican Sisters of Racine, Dominican Sisters of San Rafael
• Nigeria: Dominican Friars of St. Albert, Dominican Sisters of Great Bend
• Pakistán: Dominican Friars of St. Joseph, Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, Los Angeles Monastery
• Panamá: Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Dominican Sisters of Adrian
• Perú: Dominican Friars of St. Joseph, Dominican Friars of St. Martin de Porres, Dominican Sisters of Columbus, Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Dominican Sisters of Kentucky, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
• Filipinas: Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic; Los Angeles Monastery, Summit, Corpus Christi
• Puerto Rico: Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Dominican Sisters of Amityville, Dominican Sisters of Columbus, Newburgh
• Romania: Hermanas Dominicas de Kentucky
• South Africa: Hermanas Dominicas de Adrian
• Trinidad: Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa
• Virgin Islands: Dominican Sisters Adrian

Additionally, Maryknoll Sisters are the only Dominicans in these places: Chile, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicaragua, Samoa, Sudan, Taiwan, and Tanzania.

Laicos en el siglo XX

The Dominican Laity in the United States, through the leadership of their members, have developed their contemplative-apostolic role in the Order of Preachers within each province of the friars. Chapters are now established in 33 states, and their members collaborate with Canadian laity in the CANAM organization. In 1985 the North American groups welcomed lay Dominicans from all continents to Montreal in 1985 to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Third Order in 1285. With a thrust toward the future they emphasized the elements of Dominican spirituality which many lay Catholics seek to live.

A broad vision of the laity was proposed at the first International Conference of the Dominican Family in Bologna in 1983. There, led by the Master of the Order, Vincent de Couesnongle, the members enlarged the concept of "lay Dominican" to include all men and women who "look to Dominic and the Order for inspiration." In the United States these include women and men invited to be associates of many congregations of Dominican Sisters.

Misiones en Estados Unidos en el siglo XX

Dominicans have come on mission to the United States from other lands since the first Spanish friars arrived in the southeast and southwest. In the nineteenth century members of the Order from England, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain joined the Americana to proclaim the Gospel to natives and immigrants alike. At the close of the twentieth century Dominican women and men continue to come from other nations to minister to people of the United States. The following list shows the nation and Dominican group from which they come, and the location of their provincial or regional headquarters in the United States:

• Canadá: Dominican Friars of Canadian Province; Lewiston, ME
• France: Dominican Rural Missionaries; Abbeville, LA
• Francia: Presentation Sisters of St. Dominic; Dighton, MA
• France: Roman Congregation; Iowa City, IA
• Ireland: Dominican Sisters of Cabra; New Orleans, LA
• Italia: Religious Missionaries of St. Dominic; Corpus Christi,TX
• Philippines: Dominican Sisters of Manila; Pen Argyl, PA
• Poland: Dominican Sisters of Poland; Justice, IL
• South Africa: Dominican Sisters of  Oakford
• Spain: Dominican Friars of Spain Province; San Diego, TX
• Viet Nam: Dominican Sisters of Ho Nai, Houston, TX
• Viet Nam: Dominican Friars of Viet Nam: Houston, TX

New Developments for New Needs (1939 to 1995)

On the eve of World War II the friars of St. Joseph Province had grown in membership and expanded geographically from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. The Master of the Order, Martin Gillet, proposed the formation of a new province of friars which, with headquarters in Chicago, was established in 1939, taking the title of St. Albert the Great.

Friars of the three American provinces served as chaplains for the armed forces in World War II. During and after the war they served increasing numbers of Catholics who moved to the cities and required new or expanded parishes.

American provinces of the friars took part in the post-war period in promoting the study of theology among the laity by means of Thomist Associations, regional study groups, and courses in theology in colleges for women and men throughout the country.

In the decade of the 1940's four monasteries of nuns were formed from existing foundations: Elmira, NY from Buffalo; Lufkin, Texas from Farmington Hills, MI; and North Guilford, Connecticut from Summit, New Jersey. The fourth foundation, from Catonsville, Maryland, brought an interracial, inter-cultural monastery to Marbury, Alabama.

The same decade of the 1940's was marked by the initial conferral of bachelor's degrees in five Dominican institutions of higher education; Aquinas Institute of Theology, sponsored by the Province of St. Albert the Great, in 1941; and in 1942 three institutions: Aquinas College, founded by the Grand Rapids Dominicans; Barry College, founded by the Adrian Sisters, and Colegio Edgewood founded by the Sinsinawa Dominicans. The fifth institution granting first degrees that year was Caldwell College, sponsored by the Caldwell Sisters. In 1959 degrees were granted by the Dominican College of Blauvelt, founded by the Blauvelt Sisters. In 1961 the Nashville Dominicans granted associate degrees earned at Aquinas Junior College.

During the 1950's two communities of Dominican Sisters became independent of their European motherhouses.

One whose members came originally from Czechoslovakia to Pennsylvania in 1923 became the congregation of Oxford, Michigan, in 1950, under the leadership of Mary Joseph Gazda. The second group, from an Irish community in Lisbon, Portugal, became in 1952 the Dominican congregation of Kenosha, Wisconsin, with Mary Vincent Mullins as their major superior.

In the same decade two new communities were established for ministries other than education or health care. The Marian Dominican Catechists of Boyce, Louisiana were founded in 1954 by Bishop Charles Greco to serve in the diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana. Another Louisiana foundation, the Eucharistic Missionaries, had been established for catechetics and related ministries in 1927 by Catherine Bostick and Margaret Grouchy. Thirty years later they were affiliated to the Order of Preachers.

In 1979 the friars of the eastern and central provinces collaborated in a foundation unique to the Order: the combination of their personnel and resources to form the southern province of St. Martin de Porres, centered at New Orleans. The friars of the new province launched their mission of preaching and teaching in the South with a verbal motif given by the Master of the Order: "A New Birth in Hope."

Dominican Sisters who had come from Speyer, Germany in 1925 to serve in the northwestern states became the American congregation of Spokane, Washington in 1985. The Spokane Dominicans merged with the Sinsinawa Dominicans on February 26, 1995.

Early Foundations in the Twentieth Century (1904-1936)

One of the deterrents to full Dominican life among the early friars on the frontier was the lack of traditional emphasis on study, one of the basic elements given to the Order by St. Dominic That emphasis was sacrificed for many decades to the founding of the Church in parishes and dioceses, whether in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, or other places. Some friars were sent to Europe to study; and Regents of Studies were sometimes appointed for brief periods. But not until the turn of the century was a proper House of Studies set up in 1905. Adjoining the new and struggling Catholic University of America. Degrees were conferred on the first graduates in 1906.

Dominican Sisters in the early 1900's were attending colleges and universities in increasing numbers at home and abroad, and beginning to establish colleges for young women. The Sinsinawa congregation opened St. Clara College (later Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois) which granted its first bachelor's degrees in 1904. The San Rafael Sisters opened their college in and conferred the first degrees in 1917.

The first decade of the century was marked by a foundation in Kansas, far from the concentration of Dominican men and women on the east and west coasts. It was from Brooklyn, however, that the former prioress of the Dominican community of Holy Cross, Antonina Fischer, founded in 1902 the congregation of Dominican Sisters of Great Bend who would offer ministry in education and health care.

Mother Mary Walsh

In 1910 Mary Walsh obtained the official recognition of the Church for the community of women she had gathered in New York in 1879 to offer health care to the poor in their homes. These Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor later moved their central house to Ossining on the Hudson. In July, 1995 three Dominican Congregations, Fall River, Newburgh, and Ossining joined to become the Hermanas Dominicas de la Esperanza.

The friars who began the California foundation in 1850 were obliged by frontier limitations on personnel and resources to set aside their status as a full province in 1864 and assume that of a congregation or vicariate. But by 1912 the Province of Holy Name was fully restored, with their central house in Oakland and ministries along the coast from Mexico to Alaska.

Monasteries of nuns of the Order multiplied in the decade between 1915 and 1925, with eight new foundations established from coast to coast.

Nuns from Newark opened a monastery in Cincinnati in 1915 and another in Los Angeles in 1924. From the monastery of Farmington Hills, Michigan nuns formed a new community in Albany, New York in 1915; and in New Jersey a group from Union City opened a house in Summit in 1919. From the Bronx monastery a foundation was made in Menlo Park, California in 1921. Nuns from Catonsville, Maryland opened a monastery in West Springfield, Massachusetts in 1922 and another in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1925. In the same year, the monastery at Camden opened a daughter house at Syracuse, New York.

Between two world wars five colleges were founded. Providence College conducted by the Province of St. Joseph, granted its first degree in 1923. In succeeding years Siena Heights College, founded by the Adrian Dominican Sisters, granted degrees in 1924, Ohio Dominican College at Columbus in 1927, and Albertus Magnus in New Haven, both conducted by the Dominicans of St. Mary of the Springs, gave bachelor's degrees in the following year. At Berkeley, California the Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy, conducted by the Holy Name Province, gave degrees in 1936. The pioneer congregation among American Dominican Sisters, St. Catharine's, Kentucky, opened a junior college of the same name and first granted associate degrees in 1931.

Two widely separated provinces of the Newburgh congregation became autonomous congregations in 1923. The first, which was founded at Aberdeen, Washington in 1890, now became the Dominican congregation of Everett, and later Edmonds, Washington. The second group had become a Michigan province of the Newburgh congregation in 1892, centered at Adrian. In 1923 they became autonomous and their provincial, Camilla Madden, became the first prioress of the new Adrian congregation. At the end of the 1920's the Caldwell sisters, by arrangement of the bishops of Cleveland and were given the choice of joining a new branch of the Order at Akron, Ohio or remaining in their New Jersey community. This second Dominican congregation in Ohio, which came into being a century after the first one at Somerset, was established in 1929.

Capítulos emergentes del laicado dominicano en el siglo XIX

Records of Dominican laity in the early nineteenth century are sparse, and limited to the reception or profession of individual women and men. In the second half of the century there are records of chapters of lay Dominicans who met regularly, studied and prayed, and introduced others to the spirituality and apostolic charity of the Order of Preachers. Chapters were encouraged by the Dominican friars in their parishes, and by Dominican sisters and nuns in their institutions or monasteries. Notice of such chapters was given in the Rosary Magazine from the time of its inception in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Large and active chapters of men and women were found during that period in parishes in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, St. Paul, Louisville, New York City, Lewiston, Maine, and Boston. Records of individual tertiaries are even less available than those of certain chapters, although both were zealous about introducing others to the spirituality and apostolic charity of the Order of Preachers.

Introducing the Monasteries of Contemplative Nuns (1880-1909)

The earliest foundation of women in the Order of Preachers was that of the contemplative nuns established as a part of the Preaching of Jesus Christ by St. Dominic at Prouille, France, Theirs was the fourth branch of the Order to be established permanently in the United States. The nuns who came from monasteries in Germany and Ireland at mid-century were cloistered contemplatives. Their active apostolate had compelled the nuns to live in ambiguity, dependent upon dispensations, until each foundation, encouraged by successive Masters of the Order, made the decision to become an active congregation of Dominican Sisters.

In 1880 four nuns from Oullins in France, a monastery whose origins went back to Prouille, came to Newark, New Jersey to make the first permanent American foundation of cloistered nuns, the Monastery of St. Dominic. The founding prioress, Mary of Jesus, was an American. By 1889 members of the Newark foundation opened a second monastery in the Bronx, New York; and in 1906 another in Michigan at Farmington Hills.

New Jersey was the site in 1891 of a second monastic foundation from Europe. Four nuns of the Perpetual Rosary, founded in Belgium, opened a monastery in Union City. By 1910 they had established five more monasteries in as many states: Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1897; Catonsville, Maryland in 1899; Camden, New Jersey in 1900; Buffalo, New York in 1905; and in 1909, La Crosse, Wisconsin. The La Crosse monastery moved in 1984 to Washington, DC.

Beginnings in the Second Half-Century (1867-1896)

In 1873 seven sisters from the original Dominican community in Kentucky traveled to mid-Illinois to open a school and convent at Jacksonville. A year later, two of these sisters were requested to participate with President Ulysses Grant in an unusual event: the unveiling of a statue of Abraham Lincoln at his tomb in Springfield, the state capital. Grant asked them to represent all the religious women who had served during the Civil War in prisons and hospitals and on the battlefields; women whom President Lincoln had warmly praised, as Grant recalled. The sisters of Jacksonville returned to their less public Jacksonville ministry, but later moved their motherhouse to Springfield.

As immigration increased and the move from farm to city accelerated, new needs were met by new and old Dominican foundations. The urban ministry of the friars was expanded with their move to New York City in 1867, followed by the transfer of their provincial center from Kentucky to that city. Added to the founding of new urban parishes were the numerous week-long missions undertaken by preaching teams of the Province of St. Joseph in various cities.

Catherine Antoninus Thorpe

Attention to evolving human needs moved Catherine Antoninus Thorpe in 1876 to found a new community in New York, with the guidance of the Dominican provincial John Rochford. These Dominican Sisters, who later moved to Sparkill, New York, were founded to offer two much-needed ministries: giving food and shelter to indigent women, and caring for dependent children. The numbers of orphans had multiplied rapidly after the Civil War, owing not only to its fatalities and recurring epidemics, but also to the many deaths of immigrants en route to the United States.

Lucy Eaton Smith, a convert, was another who was challenged by new needs, especially among women. In 1880 she founded in Albany New York a Dominican congregation which would offer women the opportunity for spiritual retreats, related to the contemplative aspects of the sisters' lives; and also to provide residences for working women in the cities. Under the patronage of St. Catherine de Ricci the sisters of this community continue this dual ministry, centered at the motherhouse now located at Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Four congregations of American Dominican Sisters, all dedicated primarily to education, formed new branches in the 1880's. Sisters from Newburgh, New York established a community in Jersey City in 1881. These became a congregation which moved their motherhouse later to Caldwell, New Jersey. From Columbus, Ohio a group of sisters led by Mary Agnes Magevny traveled to distant Galveston, Texas in 1882 to make a foundation which later moved to Houston. The record for long-distance travel to new beginnings was made when sisters from Brooklyn, urged by Joseph Alemany, the Dominican Archbishop of San Francisco, responded to the educational needs of German immigrants in California. By 1888 these sisters became the Dominican congregation of Mission San Jose, under the leadership of Maria Pia Backes. In the same year, sisters from the Jersey City community, led by Thomasina Buhlmeier, made a new foundation on the west coast at Tacoma, Washington.

During the final decade of the nineteenth century two more American branches of the "Ratisbon tree" rooted in Bavaria became new congregations.

From Newburgh came the sisters who formed the independent congregation of Blauvelt, New York in 1891. Their ministry for orphans had begun years earlier when Mary Ann Sammon, foundress of the new branch, brought homeless children into the Manhattan cloister to be cared for by the nuns.

The second new branch originated as a province of the Newburgh sisters in Michigan. In 1894 this province was separated from their motherhouse by the arbitrary action of their bishop to become a diocesan congregation, under the leadership of Aquinata Fiegler, the sisters' former provincial.

Mary Bertrand Sheridan

The initial ministry of Dominican Sisters among Franco-Americans began with a call from Canadian friars in New England. Mary Bertrand Sheridan and several Dominican sisters from Washington, D.C. responded to that call in 1892 by founding a community and school in Fall River, Massachusetts. In July, 1995 three Dominican Congregations, Fall River, Newburgh, and Ossining joined to become the Hermanas Dominicas de la Esperanza.

In 1896 a Dominican congregation unique in its single ministry was founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, (a.k.a. Mother Mary Alphonsa Lathrop) the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, out of her personal experience of the needs of the poor. Their compassionate ministry is found in their title: The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. Their motherhouse is at Hawthorne, New York.

Mission to the Immigrants (1853-1865)

In 1853, after the foundations of the Order in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and California, the first Dominican women came from Europe to serve in the American church. These were four cloistered nuns from the Monastery of Holy Cross in Regensburg, Bavaria, led by Josepha Witzlhofer. Putting the needs of others before the practices of their traditional cloistered life, they answered the urgent call for teachers sent to Europe by German Catholic immigrants in the United States. They settled in Williamsburg, New York, an incipient area of Brooklyn, and tried valiantly to combine their monastic way of life with the strenuous work of conducting a school. In 1868 the nuns met another urgent need of the people by opening the first hospital conducted by American Dominicans. By 1900 the Brooklyn community and the many foundations which stemmed from it across the United States had become congregations of active Third Order sisters. Many years later, in 1947, the Brooklyn sisters moved their motherhouse to Amityville, N.Y.

Another Dominican community for the education of German immigrants began in Racine, Wisconsin in 1862. The foundress was Mary Benedicta Bauer, who, when prioress of Holy Cross Monastery in Bavaria, had sent the four nuns from Regensburg to Brooklyn in 1853. The Racine sisters, like their predecessors in Brooklyn, evolved from a contemplative monastic community to become an active congregation.

Only six years after the coming of the nuns from Bavaria to the Brooklyn convent of Holy Cross, German Catholics in lower Manhattan requested sisters from Brooklyn to open a monastery and school at St. Nicholas Parish.

The reply was favorable. The sisters soon welcomed young women to their novitiate on Second Street, and in 1869 became an autonomous monastery, with Mary Augustine Neuhierl as prioress. By 1883 this community had developed into a congregation with branch houses and moved their motherhouse up the Hudson to Newburgh, New York. In July, 1995 three Dominican Congregations, Fall River, Newburgh, and Ossining joined to become the Hermanas Dominicas de la Esperanza.

Dominican nuns from Ireland also came to help immigrants to the United States at mid-century. In response to a call from New Orleans, Mary John Flanagan and five other nuns from Dublin opened a parish school in that city of French and Spanish culture in 1860. Coming from a contemplative monastery, as did the nuns from Germany, they struggled in this new environment with the ambiguities of a cloistered life in active ministry until they became the Congregation of St. Mary's of New Orleans.

Early Members of the Dominican Laity (1807-1833)

The foundations laid by Edward Fenwick included not only friars and sisters, but also members of the Dominican laity, then known as the Third Order. In 1807, the year after the beginnings in Kentucky, Fenwick wrote to Luke Concanen in Rome to ask about receiving men and women as lay Dominicans. He said, "I think the Third Order, if I understand it well, might be established with benefit to the pious people and much honour to our Lord."

Little is known about the first lay Dominicans in the United States. Among their sparse records from the early nineteenth century is that of the reception of one Betsy Wells by the Dominican friars at St. Rose in 1826. Another, in 1829, records the reception of two men, George Shock y John Roi, into the Third Order. In 1833 Bishop Flaget of Bardstown praised the Dominican women and men who nursed the cholera victims, including sisters, friars, and "virtuous lay women," presumably tertiaries, at St. Rose Priory. The lay Dominicans at Somerset, Ohio included two named Fanny and Theresa Naughton who served St. Joseph Convent all their adult lives. The early records pertained only to individuals. No references to early chapters or meetings of tertiaries have been discovered.