Earliest Days of the United States Province

 
In the late 1800's the United States welcomed masses of people from all over Europe. Like many religious who came to serve the immigrants of their home country, our Sisters, at the invitation of the Pallottine Fathers, came from Italy to the city of New York to service the Italians who had come to settle here.

But as in the case of the Pia Casa di Carità,, the little community of Sisters had very trying beginnings: adaptation and adjustments were required when the original plans did not work out. There was need for a school at the new parish and the language barrier could not be overcome quickly enough so that our Sisters could provide the kind of assistance the pastor desired. Yet Italian immigrants kept pouring into that part of the city. If their gifts were not suited to the work they had been brought here to do, there was work suited to their gifts. Their love and generosity, coupled with initiative and enterprise, led them to establish nurseries and settlement houses in which the newly arrived Italians could continue to use their language and customs while adapting to their new cultural surroundings. Though finances were a burden, there were those who provided generous support and gradually the new venture took root in a new country.

   
Pallottine Sisters of the Catholic Apostolate  |   Monroe, NY    |     (845) 492-5076