Catholic Faith

Since their inception nearly 400 years ago, the Sisters of St. Joseph have been risk-takers, breaking away from society’s historically imposed restrictions on women and responding to the needs of the times. 

Until the seventh century, women called to religious life had to live behind cloistered walls, away from their communities and neighbors, and the struggles they endured. 

In 1647, Father Jean Pierre Medailly, a Jesuit priest in LePuy, France, gathered a group of religious women who designed the model for the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1650, the six sisters broke away from the traditional religious cloistered life and set out with a mission to accomplish “all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy of which women are capable.” To better serve everyone in their community, the sisters divided the city into different sections to identify the needs of the residents – including orphans, prisoners, the sick and the poor.

These six sisters worked throughout the day to serve the dear neighbor, gathering afterward to discuss their experiences and consider how their work and faith moved them as individuals and as a group. This “sharing of the heart” led the women deeper into their community, their mission, and into the mystery of God in their lives.

Some sisters in these early communities made ribbon and lace for income to support the group and their outreach. This income allowed them to do the work they felt called by God to do. The sisters also taught the poor women and children of the community to make lace as well, giving them the ability to earn their own livelihood.

By the late 1770s, the congregation had grown 100 fold, and so had the hostility toward the Catholic Church. With the French Revolution underway, convents were suppressed and the sisters were forced to live as laypersons. Many were imprisoned and executed. Mother St. John Fontbonne, an original sister, narrowly escaped death the day before her beheading, when Maximilien Robespierre fell from power and all prisoners were freed. 

In 1808, Mother St. John went on to restore the sisters so they could tend to post-Revolution needs. The congregation was re-founded when 12 women were formally received as Sisters of St. Joseph.

In the century leading up to the 1830s, the sisters opened schools, hospitals and missions throughout France.  

In 1835, French benefactress Countess de la Rochejacquelein contacted Italian-born Bishop Joseph Rosati to make a mission to the New World to share the spirit of the order with the sisters’ help. The following year, six young sisters endured seven treacherous weeks at sea and eventually reached St. Louis on March 25, 1836. They established residency in a humble log cabin in a nearby village named Carondelet, thus marking the start of the great missionary movement of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

By the 1860s, the Sisters of St. Joseph had established an American ministry that expanded into places such as Pennsylvania, New York, Mississippi and West Virginia. In 1866, the sisters established St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Quality Hill area.

Read more about STA’s history. 

Read more about CSJ’s history.

STA’s campus-wide Faith Formation program strengthens the understanding and embracing of Catholicism by those who teach, influence and guide students. The goal of the program is to integrate newly hired employees into STA’s Catholic faith community.

This program spans the first three years of an individual’s employment at STA. It includes Sharing of the Heart practices, instruction on the CSJ charisms and approach to interpreting the Bible, and other faith-based components. The first year of the program consists of structured monthly meetings, while years two and three consist of quarterly meetings, with programming based on individual interests and passions.