(Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from “One With”— Magazine of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia, Spring 2013)
By Sister Roberta Archibald SSJ
Their ministry of healing had its roots in a centuries-old tradition of caring for those who were sick and poor. Although Sisters of Saint Joseph were founded to do “all that woman is capable of,” in particular they were to give special attention to “the sick poor.”
In 1849, two years after Mother St. John Fournier SSJ established the community in Philadelphia, the St. Joseph’s Hospital board asked the Sisters of Saint Joseph to staff the hospital. In the mid-1800s, most nursing care was done at home; the sisters had no formal training.
Because the first sister nurses at St. Joseph’s were not well prepared for the demands of nursing, their initiation was challenging. Mother St. John acknowledged “our sisters were so afraid of the dying that I had to stay with them during the night. If there was a festering sore to dress, the sister would faint. Little by little [they] got accustomed to working for the sick and the dying.”
Gradually, the sisters who served at the hospital became proficient nurses under the guidance of Mother St. John and the founding physicians: Dr. William Edmonds Horner, who was the dean of the medical department at the University of Pennsylvania; and his son-in-law, Dr. Henry Hollingsworth Smith, also on the faculty at Penn, who served on staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
In Doctors Horner and Smith, the sister nurses had the best mentors that 19th century medicine could offer. Unfortunately, Mother St. John had to withdraw the sisters from the hospital in 1859 because the board wanted the community to be responsible for the debts of the hospital—a responsibility that the Daughters of Charity were able to assume.
Sister Nurses Tend to Wounded Civil War Soldiers
Two years later, on April 15, 1861, the Union defeat at Fort Sumter brought President Lincoln’s declaration of war. Pennsylvania was among the first to respond to the appeal for troops. At Camp Curtin outside Harrisburg, volunteers began training by the thousands. When Governor Andrew Curtin appointed Dr. Henry H. Smith as Pennsylvania’s surgeon general, Dr. Smith looked to the sisters who worked with him at St. Joseph’s.
Dr. Smith had great gratitude for the sisters, especially for Mother Monica Pue SSJ, superior of the hospital community. At a meeting with her in December 1861, he asked if Mother St. John would release a band of sisters to serve as nurses in the camp hospital. Sister Assisium McEvoy SSJ recounted that “she [Monica] immediately fell in with the idea and assured him his request would be granted.” When asked if she would go with him, Sister Monica replied, “If I be sent.”
Dr. Smith contacted Mother St. John immediately and received her blessing on his proposal. On January 22, Doctor Smith arranged for the sisters’ journey. In his letter to Mother St. John, he wrote in his customary formal style:
“The Doctor hopes the Sisters will not disappoint him . . . Whilst beset by applicants, he has refused every female nurse, being unwilling to trust any but his old friends, the Sisters of St. Joseph. There is waiting for them a large field of usefulness, but it can be cultivated only by those whose sense of duty will induce them to disregard all personal comfort. The living will be rough, the recompense poor, and nothing but the sentiments of religion can render the nurses contented.”
Leading the first band of volunteers were those sisters who had worked with him at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Mother Monica Pue, was joined by Sister Camillus Phelan SSJ, and Sister Philomene Meagher SSJ. They left on January 23rd for Harrisburg and then, Camp Curtin.
- On January 22, 1862, Doctor Henry Hollingsworth Smith arranged for the sisters’ journey to Camp Curtin and the Church Hospital in Harrisburg. In his letter to Mother St. John Fournier he wrote: “The Doctor hopes the Sisters will not disappoint him…Whilst beset by applicants, he has refused every female nurse, being unwilling to trust any but his old friends, the Sisters of St. Joseph.
- In recognition of their extraordinary service, Sisters Ignatius Farley and de Chantal Keating were awarded the Grand Army of the Republic’s Bronze Medal at the close of the war.
- In 1924, the Ancient Order of Hibernians erected a monument in Washington the honor the memory of the “Nuns of the Battlefield.”
- The sisters contributed to advances in nursing practice and to the social acceptance of American Catholics. Sisters’ nursing of such diverse groups in the Civil War was the single greatest influence in overcoming prejudice against Catholics and breaking down the walls of separation that isolated Catholics from the rest of society.
(To see the entire article about the “Sisters of St. Joseph Nurses in the Civil War,” visit www.ssjphila.org)
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia Who Were Nurses in the Civil War: Of 14 Civil War nurses, 11 were Sisters who were born in Ireland. Three others were born in France, England, and Pennsylvania.
Sisters Baptismal Name Birthplace Age
Mary John Kieran Elizabeth Armagh, Ireland 37
Monica Pue Mary Elizabeth Philadelphia, PA ?
Ignatius Ryan Elizabeth London, England 33
Xavier Walker Mary Limerick, Ireland 34
Laurentia O’Donnell Ellen Tipperary, Ireland 24
Mount Carmel Egan Eliza Killoughy, Ireland 31
Camillus Phelan Julia Kilkenney, Ireland 31
Philomena Maher Margaret Kilkenney, Ireland 37
Bruno McMahon Ellen Cavan, Ireland 31
Anselm Jennings Katherine Galway, Ireland 22
St. John Fournier Julie Alexise Arbois, France 48
Constantia Mcmenamin Eliza Donegal, Ireland 30
Patrick Ward Mary Tyrone, Ireland 40
Felix Haverty Anne Donegal, Ireland 28
On January 22, 1862, Doctor Henry Hollingsworth Smith arranged for the sisters’ journey to Camp Curtin and the Church Hospital in Harrisburg. In his letter to Mother St. John Fournier he wrote: “The Doctor hopes the Sisters will not disappoint him . . .Whilst beset by applicants, he has refused every female nurse, being unwilling to trust any but his old friends, the Sisters of St. Joseph.”