Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sisters of the Congregation of St Joseph'

This thesis reports on and analyses the first fifty years, 1887-1937, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph’s ministry in Tasmania. The design of the study is qualitative in nature, employing ethnographic techniques with a thematic approach to the narrative. Through a multifaceted approach the main figures of the Josephite story of the first fifty years are examined. The thesis attempts to redress the imbalance of the representation of women in Australian history and the Catholic Church in particular. The thesis is that as a uniquely Australian congregation the Tasmanian Sisters of St Joseph were focused on the preservation of the original spirit and tradition articulated at their foundation rather than on the development of a unique Tasmanian identity. The thesis argues that it was the formative period that impacted on their future development and the emerging myths contributed to their search for identity. Isolated from their foundations through separation and misunderstanding, they sought security and authenticity through their conservation of the original Rule. The intervention of cofounder Father Tenison Woods in the early months of their foundation served to consolidate a distinctive loyalty to him to the exclusion of Mary MacKillop. Coupled with the influence of Woods were the Irish and intercolonial influences of significant Sisters from other foundations which militated against the emergence of a distinctive Tasmanian leadership. As a Diocesan Congregation the Tasmanian Josephites achieved status as authentic religious within Tasmania and yet were constrained by their Diocesan character. The study identifies the factors that contributed to their development as a teaching Congregation through the impact of the Teacher and Schools’ Registration Act 1906, influence of government regulations on the Woods-MacKillop style of education, and the commitment of the Church to provide Catholic education in the remote areas of Tasmania. The thesis identifies two major formative periods as occurring at the instigation of Archbishops Delany and Simonds at both the foundation and then more significantly after the consolidation phase at the end of the period under examination.

This thesis reports on and analyses the first fifty years, 1887-1937, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph's ministry in Tasmania. The design of the study is qualitative in nature, employing ethnographic techniques with a thematic approach to the narrative. Through a multifaceted approach the main figures of the Josephite story of the first fifty years are examined. The thesis attempts to redress the imbalance of the representation of women in Australian history and the Catholic Church in particular. The thesis is that as a uniquely Australian congregation the Tasmanian Sisters of St Joseph were focused on the preservation of the original spirit and tradition articulated at their foundation rather than on the development of a unique Tasmanian identity. The thesis argues that it was the formative period that impacted on their future development and the emerging myths contributed to their search for identity. Isolated from their foundations through separation and misunderstanding, they sought security and authenticity through their conservation of the original Rule. The intervention of cofounder Father Tenison Woods in the early months of their foundation served to consolidate a distinctive loyalty to him to the exclusion of Mary MacKillop. Coupled with the influence of Woods were the Irish and intercolonial influences of significant Sisters from other foundations which militated against the emergence of a distinctive Tasmanian leadership. As a Diocesan Congregation the Tasmanian Josephites achieved status as authentic religious within Tasmania and yet were constrained by their Diocesan character. The study identifies the factors that contributed to their development as a teaching Congregation through the impact of the Teacher and Schools' Registration Act 1906, influence of government regulations on the Woods-MacKillop style of education, and the commitment of the Church to provide Catholic education in the remote areas of Tasmania.;The thesis identifies two major formative periods as occurring at the instigation of Archbishops Delany and Simonds at both the foundation and then more significantly after the consolidation phase at the end of the period under examination.

Sociology
Ph.D.
Since the Vatican’s widely-publicized criticism of American Catholic nuns in 2012, religious sisters have risen into the public consciousness. For decades, thousands of religious sisters in the United States have served within a rigid patriarchal Church that does not always recognize their contributions, yet relies on them to carry out its ministries. Through an emphasis on their missions of service to the poor and work for social justice, religious sisters emerged from this contentious situation with Rome as intelligent and dedicated women who lead dynamic lives that often go unnoticed. Through a case study of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, I analyze individual sisters’ lived experiences. In this research, I seek to understand the congregation’s institutional culture to uncover how religious sisters develop strategies to live out their mission of service to the poor and marginalized, and how they continue to advocate for social and structural change in the Catholic Church and in secular society. Specifically, I conducted interviews with 23 Sisters of St. Joseph and analyzed archived writings, letters, and congregational documents dating back to the late 1960s. I submit that over the past 50 years since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), the Sisters of St. Joseph actively embraced gender consciousness and social justice as a means of empowerment toward social change, despite the institutional pressures within the Church and society that discourage this. I argue that the progressive spirit and commitment to social justice indicative of a feminist orientation created a dissonance between religious sisters and Church leadership, while simultaneously increasing their integration into secular society. Ultimately, I contend that their congregational mission of unity and reconciliation, their status as sisters in a religious community, and privilege as educated women allows the Sisters of St. Joseph to be courageous risk-takers in advancing social and structural change in both the Catholic Church and the world. In addition to the 23 semi-structured interviews, I used qualitative content analysis to explore the congregation’s primary archival documents, especially those published from the periodic general chapters just after Vatican II through the most recent chapter in summer 2014. These chapter meetings are called roughly every five years, during which time the Sisters of St. Joseph elect congregational leadership and articulate the community’s organizational vision and direction. At each chapter’s conclusion, the congregation publishes a document(s) that informs its mission and work for the next several years. In addition to these public documents, I was granted access to the Sisters of St. Joseph congregational archives, where I analyzed notes, letters, minutes, voting records, proposals and enactments, and personal recollections of the general chapter meetings. In total, I analyzed nearly 300 documents from the Sisters of St. Joseph congregational archives. In my textual analysis, I used subjective interpretation of language in the text with particular attention placed on its content and contextual meaning in order to identify themes or patterns. Once I identified the major themes, I grouped them into three theoretical areas, which became the empirical chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this study. Chapter 4 argues that the sisters’ move toward active social justice work and advocacy after Vatican II is evidence of lived religion for this congregation. Chapter 5 analyzes how the Sisters of St. Joseph navigate issues of gender and sexuality in the Church, in their congregation, and in society. Chapter 6 looks at how the congregation contends with race and ethnicity within their own community, but also in the lives of the people they serve in their various ministries. Finally, in chapter 7, I conclude by examining how the congregation moved toward a more democratic, corporate structure focused on long-term viability in the decades after the Second Vatican Council. Ultimately, I argue that as the congregation evolved after Vatican II, they broke through what I call a “glass cloister.” Through the renewal process, the Sisters of St. Joseph emerged from decades of restriction as sisters reborn, reclaiming their original congregational focus and eager to live out their lives in service to others. As convent rules loosened and the sisters claimed their voices within the Catholic Church structure and in secular society, the congregation defined itself as a dynamic community of women dedicated to social justice and advocacy for the poor and marginalized.
Temple University--Theses

This grounded theory study explored the experiences of lay faculty, administration and Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) to capture how the spirit of the CSJ continues in the organizational culture of their sponsored secondary schools. Since 1950, CSJ in the Los Angeles Province, have experienced a very similar decline as other orders of religious across the United States. In order to preserve the culture and history of the CSJ in their sponsored secondary schools, the researcher conducted twenty semi-structured interviews to capture the lived experiences of those currently serving, and those who have served, on the four secondary school campuses.

Utilizing the literature on preserving organizational culture from Edgar Schien, and Lee Bolman and Terrance Deal, the research seemed to conclude that this charism has been preserved even through transitions to lay leadership. A series of seven distinct themes emerged indicating that a CSJ school: consistently incorporates the gospel values into all aspects of the school community; seeks out opportunities to model service to the dear neighbor in how faculty, staff and students serve one another, and in turn impact the broader community; serves a diverse population of students and intentionally creates a culture of unity and support, and a sense of belonging, to cultivate a community of acceptance, love and sisterhood; fosters an environment of excellence through the intentional actions of teachers and leaders to be capacity builders, assisting all young women to become all of “which woman is capable”; recognizes the essential role that leadership plays in fostering a gospel-driven, nurturing environment, evidenced in the faculty, staff and sisters as models; is marked by a spirit of joy and fun that is tangibly felt among the students, the faculty and staff, and throughout the entire school community, and recognizes the challenges with living out the gospel values and being called to building a spirit of unity and love.

The results of the study suggest that the organizational school culture has been able to preserve the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, echoing their foundational spirituality dating back to 1650 Le Puy, France.

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CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Esta dissertação se propõe a analisar as relações internas de poder no Hospital Psiquiátrico São Pedro, em Porto Alegre, ao longo do século XX, buscando entender como as religiosas da Congregação de São José conquistaram seu espaço em uma instituição voltada para o tratamento científico da loucura. A narrativa acompanha duas trajetórias, a de uma dessas freiras e uma paciente. Ambas viveram seus primeiros anos na região de colonização e imigração do Rio Grande do Sul e, posteriormente, por razões diferentes, de trabalho missionário e internação, respectivamente, passaram décadas dentro do hospital. Irmã Paulina está a 60 anos atuando no São Pedro, enquanto Anninka esteve internada na mesma instituição, em quatro períodos intermitentes, por cerca de 38 anos. Através destas personagens tentou-se reconstituir os momentos de tensão e harmonia entre estes dois campos teoricamente distintos, ciência e religião, mas que durante muitos anos andaram tão ligados no espaço manicomial gaúcho. No cotidiano de uma instituição de grandes proporções, com todos os problemas comuns aos demais hospícios construídos no Brasil a partir da segunda metade do século XIX, os próprios internados assumiram papéis de destaque em diversas áreas, tornando-se importantes auxiliares dos responsáveis pela administração do local, especialmente as Irmãs. A pesquisa para este trabalho foi construída por meio de documentação oficial vinculada ao Hospital, da historiografia especializada sobre o tema e, fundamentalmente, através de entrevistas realizadas com médicos, um funcionário, uma ex-paciente e Irmã Paulina, as quais foram concedidas ao autor especialmente para esta investigação.
This dissertation intends to analyze the internal relations of power in Hospital Psiquiátrico São Pedro, in Porto Alegre, throughout the twentieth century, seeking to understand how the religious of the Congregation of St. Joseph earned its place in an institution for the scientific treatment of insanity. The narrative follows two trajectories: one of these nuns and a patient. Both lived the first years of their lives in the colonization and immigration region of Rio Grande do Sul, and later, for different reasons, spent many time in the hospital. Sister Paulina is more than 60 years working in São Pedro, while Anninka was hospitalized in the same institution during four intermittent periods, for about 38 years. Through these characters, I tried to reconstruct the moments of tension and harmony between these two theoretically distinct fields (science and religion), fields that, for decades, have walked so closely linked in Rio Grande do Sul asylum space. In the routine of an institution of great proportions, with all the problems common to other asylums built in Brazil since the second half of the nineteenth century, even the internees themselves took roles in several areas, becoming important aides of São Pedro ́s administration staff – especially the Sisters. Research for this work was made by official documentation linked to the Hospital, the specialized historiography on the subject and, crucially, through interviews with doctors, staff, a former patient and Sister Paulina, which were granted to the author especially for this investigation.

Locations associated with prominent individuals may become destinations with sufficient drawing power to become the principal motivation for visiting. Events following the deaths of such individuals may further enhance the numbers of people visiting such sites. The Beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop as Australia's first Saint in 1995 was the catalyst for growing public interest in the Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph. Increasing numbers of 'guests' (as the Sisters describe pilgrims and other visitors) now visit Mount Street, North Sydney, the location of the Memorial Chapel containing the tomb of Mary MacKillop.

My principal purpose was to understand the Sisters' experiences of visitor impacts through a qualitative investigation. The research commenced in 1999 and was on-going until 2002 as field materials were analysed and this public text written. In adding to the knowledge of tourism social impacts, the investigation is distinguished by the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of constructivism (in both constructivist and constructionist forms). Through the construction and interpretation of their stories, gathered during informal, minimally structured topical life history interviews with Sisters who voluntarily shared their experiences, a richly textured bricolage was created. How visitors and their impacts are experienced by a host community comprising members of a religious Order, has not been widely researched, especially at emerging, rather than long-established, pilgrimage destinations. No comparable research has focused on the Sisters of St Joseph following the Beatification of Blessed Mary MacKillop.

The study postulates a theory of 'touristic ministry', a term offered by one Sister, and with which the views of others coalesced, to describe the Congregation's activities in seeking innovative ways to extend traditional Josephite ministries. The Sisters have experienced relocation; the effects of commercialization; the redefinition of formerly private places into public-ised spaces; and the ambiguity of traditional spatial and social boundaries. Touristic ministry is founded on using the impacts of increasing visitor numbers in positive ways to achieve higher purposes with which the community concurs, and in ways that fundamentally transcend the mere catering to visitors. The Sisters' supportive attitudes towards visitors, and their tolerance of visitor impacts, reflect five Cs: Concurrency with wider social, and especially religious, changes; Congruence with prevailing social norms characteristic of the Congregational community; Compliance with the decisions of Congregational Leaders; Confluence with intrinsic factors such as age and proximity to the development; and Consensus regarding the higher altruistic purposes of the development of Mary MacKillop Place. This notion has wider implications in understanding community attitudes toward visitors and their social impacts. Despite disruptions and potentially negative impacts, visitors may be perceived more positively when host community members see them as a means to a greater end.

Thesis (PhD) -- Australian Catholic University, 200?
Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Bibliography: p. 300-316. Also available in an electronic format via the internet.

The Dominican Sisters of St Catharine of Siena arrived in South Africa in 1877. White women joined the congregation. In 1928 the first black woman entered the congregation but because of the policies affecting the different race groups in South Africa, the full integration of black and coloured women was not achieved until 1983. Chapter 1 introduces the topic of the integration of the black and coloured sisters. Chapter 2 traces the origin of the congregation and looks at its development. A brief overview of the story of the black sisters is given in Chapter 3. In the next chapter archival sources are used to understand what happened. Interviews that were conducted with some of the sisters involved in the story are given in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 there is a look at the current situation and some of the implications for the future as the process of integration continues.
Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology
M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This thesis describes the formation of religious communities (orders, congregations) and their development in the world and in our country. They are described with a view to their charitable activities. It further deals with the persecution of the church in general and the persecution and the life of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo with regard to Prague in the period of 1945-1989. This section is divided into six particular periods according to the importance of the influence of the state on the activities of the church and the Congregation. Each of these periods is divided into two parts. The first part illustrates the development of the relationship between the state and the church generally. The second part describes the relationship between the state and womens` orders and with the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in particular. The thesis utilizes relevant literature and archives. Archival documents come from the National Archives in Prague, mostly from the funds of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, the Military Historical Archives and the archives of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in Prague. The thesis is closed with some thoughts of the role of religious communities in today's world. Key words...

This thesis aims to capture the life and activities of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius from its foundation until present time. Utilising both the archives of the congregation and secondary literature this thesis attempts to chart the complete history of the congregation. Current state of the congregation is described primarily by using the method of oral history, this method being the most suitable for this purpose. The aim of this thesis is also to highlight the pastoral and social workings of the Congregation, which has been its foundation since the beginning of the Congregation and continues to this day. KEYWORDS: Congregation - Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius - Religious history - Spirituality - Social activities - Pastoral activities

Current state: The Congregation of Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo is the largest congregation of nuns in the Czech Republic. Its charism living mercy in contemplation is still valid. Religious sisters mainly care for sick people, the aged and the needy people, as they were serving them in the beginning of their history. The topic of this paper 'Education and care of nurses Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo operating in the Czech Republic' is original and has not yet been treated to such extent and with this focus. Some works have been written and published, but they cover our topic only partially. This study is a compilation of information, enriched with memories of those sisters who remember the early days. The aim of the thesis: The first aim of this thesis is to map education and care of nurses of The Congregation of Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in the Czech Republic in its historical development with emphasis on health care and social facilities. The second aim is to compare education, care and status of religious sisters in the health-care team in each historical period. Methodology: In this thesis qualitative research was employed. There were two procedures of data collection used: exploration of written documents and narrative interviews. The research file for narrative interviews consists of ten persons. All respondents are women, members of The Congregation of Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo, who attained appropriate education for the profession of a nurse and carried out this job in a hospital. Respondents were segmented into three groups according to respective historical periods. The first historical period starts with the arrival of religious sisters from France to Prague in 1837 and finishes in 1948. The second historical period follows up the previous one and ends in 1989. The third historical period spans the time from 1989 till the present. The total number of recorded and assessed interviews is ten. Narrative interview were recorded on a voice recorder and consequently transcribed into the written form and further processed. To analyze the text we used open coding, performed by the paper-and-pencil tests. Findings were interpreted using 'card sorting' technique. Results: Education and care of nurses of Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo have always met the requirements of concrete times. Specific aspects of care for the sick and the needy was also influenced by other factors. Among others the development od medical science and political situation of individual historical periods. The care of Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo has always been based on their dedication and the vow of mercy. Conclusion: This is a compact work, describing education and care of nurses of Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in contexts of different historical periods and in broader connection with the history of nursing care.

The dissertation deals with the historical activities of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in České Budějovice between the years 1850 - 1956. The thesis is especially based on the study of archival materials. Each chapter comprehensively describes the history of the three branches where the religious Sisters performed their activities. The branches are listed in chronological order of when they were established in the city. A public hospital is mentioned first, followed by an institutional complex of orphanages and schools at the former Vienna gate, and the group is concluded with an asylum for elderly people in need established in 1888. Particular attention is paid to the circumstances concerning the establishment of each branch, its background, ordinary and extraordinary days that were mostly mentioned in local chronicles; and two local superiors who had a major impact on the development and character of the community are also mentioned in the dissertation. Besides the observation of the beginnings and subsequent unprecedented development of community activities within the city frame, the text also includes an independent final chapter focused on events associated with the definitive end after the year 1948. Orientation in the topic and logical sequence of...