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Our Beginnings

From the Heart of Douai to the Heart of the World

In the north of France many years ago, four skilled needle workers, Louise Mennecier, Lucie Contraine, Marie Garçon and Josephine Pollet came together in their desire to deepen their spiritual life.

Their parish priest, Abbé Jean Baptiste Debrabant, supported them and they soon welcomed other women and children for instruction in their faith and other practical skills. Eulalie Ramon joined the group and she and Father Debrabant collaborated to reveal God’s love through the Christian education of youth in the turbulent years after the French Revolution.

Their numbers quickly grew and Father Debrabant set out to obtain the recognition of the Church for this group of pious young women. In 1843 one hundred women first pronounced public vows as Holy Union Sisters.

Proximity to the Belgian border led the group to establish communities and schools in Tournai and surrounding areas of Belgium. These schools responded to the needs of the area, rural or urban; to the desires of the families; boarding or day schools. The sisters taught children of all social classes. Before the 19th century closed, Holy Union Sisters were meeting spiritual and educational needs of Catholics in England, Ireland, Argentina and the United States.

Holy Union in the United States

In 1885 Father Matthias McCabe wrote to Archange Lebrun, the Superior General of the Holy Union Sisters in Douai requesting sisters to staff Sacred Heart Parish School in Fall River, MA. Ten sisters set sail from France to New York City. They landed in Fall River on October 19, 1886

Who were these pioneering women? Fortunately we know their names: Sisters Mary Eucharia Curran, Theodosie Woisard, Mary Michael Grogan, Ernestina Nolan, Mary Aloysia O’Brien, Therese Louise Warburton, Mary Brigitta Cooney, Benilda Devlin and Marie Octavie Canny. The superior was Marie Helena Daumerie, a Belgian woman who as yet knew no English, the language spoken by eight of the sisters. Mary Eucharia had been included in the group specifically because she could help the others in preparing their classes and continuing their education.

Mother Marie Helena Daumerie, first US Provincial

Soon the sisters went to Taunton, MA and Pawtucket, RI to offer religious education classes and to staff parish schools. They also established boarding schools in Fall River and Pawtucket and girls' high schools. In the 1920s sisters began to move out of New England to teach in parish schools in Baltimore and Patchogue, Long Island.  

Prior to World War II, new missions had to be approved by the congregational leaders in Tournai, Belgium. Since contact with the Motherhouse was difficult during the war, only after 1945 did the sisters respond to calls from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Holy Union Sisters also went to New York City to teach in two already established parish schools.

In 1946 two provinces were formed: the Sacred Heart Province and the Immaculate Heart Province. In the Sacred Heart Province, the Country Day School of the Holy Union began in Groton in 1949. This school continues to serve children in the Nashoba Valley area. A novitiate community for young women was also located on the same property. Cardinal Cushing invited the sisters to staff Rose Hawthorne Elementary and High School in Concord, MA in 1950.

In the 1960’s and 70’s educational ministry was broadened to include religious education and pastoral work in parishes. Sisters also began to work in health care. While parish schools always had numbers of immigrant children, mainly French Canadian, Irish, and Italian, the 1970’s saw the sisters’ working with newer immigrants, including Haitians and Vietnamese. Sisters also went to Appalachia to work among the rural poor.

In the late 1990’s sisters from the two US provinces decided to create a new reality by forming one province. With the theme of “The Journey Is Home”, project groups comprised of members from the two provinces worked toward creating a new reality. At a moving ritual during the annual province gathering, each sister signified her willingness to form once again one United States Province. On October 16, 1999 sisters of the new United States Province with international Holy Union visitors joyfully celebrated the new reality. Today Holy Union Sisters can be found in varied ministries. Whatever their circumstances, they seek to respond to the call to be at the heart of the world revealing God’s love.

Call to Ministry: Urban and Rural

Sister Grace Donovan, SUSC, Archivist emeritus, will write occasionally on a topic dealing with Holy Union history.

From the first years of Holy Union to the present, sisters have tried to witness to God’s love for all creation by serving in cities and countryside. The founding locations Douai, France and Tournai, Belgium are outstanding cities for Holy Union centers. During those first decades, surrounding towns and villages also welcomed the sisters. In the initial years the decision was made to concentrate on education of the young because women in the provinces of 19th century France and Belgium were better gifted to teach children.
When the first move beyond the continent occurred, sisters were sent to Bath and London in England. As in France and Belgium, other convents were soon established in less urban areas such as Grays, England. Sisters shortly went to Banagher, Ireland to teach the children of the town and surrounding rural area. By 1880 Athlone, Ireland was also a chosen site. Mother Imelda O’Donohoe’s letters from Highgate and Buenos Aires show how strongly she advocated the spread of Holy Union to the urban centers of Cork and Dublin. Such expansion was delayed by the fears of the hierarchy that this “foreign” group would attract young women who would then be sent to other countries.

From the beginning, Holy Union’s ministries in Argentina centered on the Province of Buenos Aires. From the era of Vatican II the sisters have not only included the urban poor in their concern but some have also chosen to identify themselves with their people in style of living. Today sisters share life with the many migrant groups who have come to Buenos Aires.

In the United States the early concentration of sisters was in industrial immigrant areas of New England in cities and towns of varying populations. Early congregational leaders greatly desired a foundation in the New York area, a major port of entry. When Holy Union sisters went to Patchogue, Long Island, legally a village in 1923, the Superintendent of Schools assured the provincial superior, Mother Marie Helena Daumerie that she would soon be offered a school in a more populated region such as Brooklyn. Two decades later, sisters were staffing schools in both Manhattan and Queens.

Demographically: urban and/or rural? Holy Union heritage has fostered “and” as the connective rather than “or” as the distinction.

Statue of Father Jean Baptiste Debrabant in the courtyard at St. Clotilde School in Douai, France

Holy Union’s Growth  in the 19th Century

1840's

• France and Belgium

• Diocesan approval of a canonical institute of apostolic women religious

• Formal title, Holy Union Sisters, signifying union with one another like that of Jesus and Mary

• Moved beyond diocesan and national boundaries to reach out to the needs of the times

1860's

• England and Ireland

• First welcomed by the Benedictine Fathers in Bath and soon went to London

• Invitation to begin ministries in Ireland, first at Banagher in County Offaly

1880's

When Father Debrabant died in 1880 at the age of 79, the Holy Union Sisters were firmly established in Europe. By the end of the 1880's there were foundations in North and South America.

In 1890 in response to a request made to the General Council, sisters were missioned to the West Indies.