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diocese. He found five young women who wished to become
Sisters of Charity and sent them to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati for a year of formation. Upon their return, the Sisters of Charity of New York agreed to help establish an order of Sisters of Charity in New Jersey, with the understanding that in a few years each Sister of Charity of New York would be free either to remain in New Jersey or to return to New York. Fortunately, Sister Mary Xavier Mehegan and Sister Mary Catharine Nevin cast their lot with the new congregation in New Jersey.
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serving as its seat. The step-nephew of Mother Seton, he sought a congregation of women religious to care for orphaned children and to operate parochial schools in the
Diocese of Newark. Neither the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, MD nor any of its offshoots was able to provide sisters for his
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Mother Xavier served as Mother
General for 56 years. Under her leadership, the Sisters opened parish schools, academies, hospitals, a day nursery, orphanages, a home for the incurably ill, and a residence for working women.
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was opened the same year. During the Civil War
Sisters of Charity cared for soldiers on both sides in emergency hospitals set up at the train stations in Newark and Trenton.
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in
Ireland in 1825, one of the ten children of Patrick Mehegan and Joanna Miles. Along with a sister, Margaret, she emigrated to the United States in 1842, settling in
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67:, to her native city. Taking the name by which she is now known, Catharine Mehegan joined the Sisters of Charity of New York and took her annual
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Woman of decision: the Life of Mother Mary Xavier
Mehegan, Foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent, New Jersey
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of Mother Seton with a black veil. In less than a year the first
Catholic hospital in New Jersey was opened at St. Mary's, Newark.
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In 1858 Bishop Bayley requested of their superiors in
Emmitsburg that the Sisters in New Jersey be established as an independent
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In 1899 Mehegan founded the
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On 2 July 1860, the motherhouse was removed to the old Chegaray mansion at
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Neary SC, Noreen. "Celebrating the Life of Our Fouundress",
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Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
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in Maryland. A native of New York, in 1817 Seton sent
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