(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

St. Mary's Convent

established New York, 1865

BiographyThe oldest indigenous Anglican (Epicopalian) order in the United States, it was founded in New York City in 1865 by Harriet Starr Cannon and a small group of fellow nuns. It was formally constituted by Bishop Horatio Potter of New York as the Sisters of St. Mary. The Episcopal Church was initially slow to recognize the order, and they only found wide support after four of the sisters died nursing victims of a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. These four sisters are now commemorated by the Episcopal Church on September 9 as the Martyrs of Memphis or as Constance and her Companions. The community now consists of three independent provinces: Eastern, Western, and Southern. In April of 2021, the Eastern province left the Episcopal Church (TEC) and joined the Anglican Church of North America's Diocese of the Living Word.[1][2]

Rule of life
Their rule of life is very similar to the Benedictine rule, and they live a mixed life of prayer and service. The sisters in the Eastern Province pray the Divine Office five times each day, and the community's Monastic Diurnal Revised [3] is a popular prayer book for many outside of the community as well. From their foundation in 1865 the first sisters took charge of the "House of Mercy" in New York. Then and now the sisters have felt called to the care of "the lost, forgotten, and underprivileged"[4] after the example of many Christian saints, including St Vincent de Paul.

Provinces
Eastern
The Eastern Province sisters moved in 2003 from Peekskill, New York to Greenwich, New York, where they own a 175-acre (0.71 km2) facility adjoining the Spiritual Life Center of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany.
accessed 6/1/2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_St._Mary

Person TypeInstitution

Last Updated8/7/24

Terms