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| Founded at
Dublin, in 1857, by Margaret Aylward, under the direction of Rev. John
Gowan, C.M., for the care of Catholic orphans. Pope Pius IX called the
foundress a confessor of the Faith because of the imprisonment of six
months she endured on account of her efforts to save some Catholic
orphans from the hands of proselytizers. The congregation is especially
active in the Archdiocese of Dublin, the residence of the superior
general being at Glasnevin, where the sisters conduct a boarding-school
for young ladies. In the original foundation, St. Brigid's Orphanage,
Dublin, nearly three thousand orphans have been trained and placed in
trades and situations. The members of the congregation also conduct
primary schools, private day schools, infants' schools, and junior boys'
schools. In their Coombe and Strand Street (Dublin) houses, which have
an attendance of 1200 and 800 respectively, the poor receive their
breakfast daily, and are also provided with clothing. Altogether the
sisters in the fourteen convents of the archdiocese have charge of about
seven thousand children. In the Diocese of Ossory a community of eight
sisters conducts two primary schools and a private day school, with an
attendance of 160. -Irish
Directory (1909) |
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