Continued Growth
Since the beginning, education had been the dominant charism of the BVM community. This became no less true as the sisterhood continued to grow. Over the next several decades, community leaders spent significant resources on improving the education of the sisters, who were responsible for teaching a large number of students. In the early 1900s, the superior sent teaching sisters to summer school programs at De Paul, Marquette, and the Catholic University of America, as well as to special institutes run at St. Mary’s, one of the community run high schools in Chicago. This ongoing education was especially important for those sisters who taught at Mt. St. Joseph; in 1901 the school received permission to begin granting three-year college degrees.
To honor Mary Frances Clarke, in 1928 the name of Mt. St. Joseph was changed to Clarke College. The following year, construction began for another college, Mundelein College in Chicago. This school remained open until 1991, when it became part of Loyola University. During this time, the community continued to focus on the education of both the students, and the teaching sisters. Beginning in 1957, BVM novitiates received two and a half years of additional education and formation to prepare them for classroom teaching.
During the later half of the twentieth century, the BVM community continued to grow in both size and number of missions. 1937 saw the opening of a school in Memphis at which the sisters began working directly with the African American community. A few years later, in 1945 a small group of sisters opened a school in Hawaii, and by 1961 there were sisters serving in Latin America. With sisters serving in so many locations, the community developed into a well-networked educational system that spanned the country, from New York to California, and beyond.
Throughout its history, the community has faced a number of fires. In addition to the 1849 fire at St. Joseph Prairie, there was a 1955 fire at the infirmary at the Dubuque motherhouse, a 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels, a BVM grammar school in Chicago, and a 1984 fire at Clarke College.
Read more about this topic: Sisters Of Charity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary
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