Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in Ghent, Belgium, on November 4, 1803 by the Rev. Canon Peter Joseph Triest, the pastor of Lovendegem at that time. Triest, who was to found two other religious institutes for the relief of the poor, recruited a group of young women, from among whom the co-foundress Mother Placida van der Gauwen came. Mother Placida later became the first superior of the congregation.

The Congregation has as its main apostolate helping the needy and the sick, as an enclosed religious order. Late in the 19th century, they established missions in the Belgian Congo and India. They were also invited to open a house in England by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan. Their traditional habit was a white tunic with a black veil and scapular.

From this Congregation came Sister Marie Louise Habets, the Religious Sister portrayed as Sister Luke / Gabrielle Van der Mal in the book by Kathryn Hulme entitled The Nun's Story. Her character was played by Audrey Hepburn in the film adaptation of the book.

Famous quotes containing the words sisters, charity, jesus and/or mary:

    “Woe to my sister, false Helen!”
    Unknown. Binnorie; or, The Two Sisters (l. 55)

    Opening the door of charity can create problems.
    Chinese proverb.

    Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesus would absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The first general store opened on the ‘Cold Saturday’ of the winter of 1833 ... Mrs. Mary Miller, daughter of the store’s promoter, recorded in a letter: ‘Chickens and birds fell dead from their roosts, cows ran bellowing through the streets’; but she failed to state what effect the freeze had on the gala occasion of the store opening.
    —Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)