A collaborative event sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union, the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, and our community, the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Ill., was a big hit in Springfield on Nov. 7, 2024. That night we welcomed more than 160 people for the Springfield Sisters’ Armchair Tour. Friends from all walks of life joined us: associates, former students, colleagues, civil servants, retirees and young people. A 17-year-old who feels drawn to religious life begged her mom to bring her in from the exurbs so she could be with us.

At the end of the evening Springfield Dominican Sister Denise Glazik, director of vocations, introduced the crowd the the acronym P.I.E. and invited the to pray for, invite, and encourage vocations to faithful married and religious life, and priesthood. Guests were then welcomed to the sisters' dining room for homemade pie.

The evening was hopeful and inspiring, confirming that Catholic Sisters have a future head of us, built on the warmth of our connections with people, the need for the witness of our lives, and our prophetic response to the call of the Gospel.

Our emcee, Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, a local civic leader and former elected official, was the perfect host. She attended an elementary school staffed by our sisters, attended Ursuline Academy, and worked in communications for the Hospital Sisters Health System, making her a one-person case study of the often-unrecognized impact of Catholic Sisters.

Sara began by helping us understand the context for the arrival of Catholic sisters in Springfield. The Ursulines were the first to come, in 1857; about the same time a circuit-riding lawyer named Abraham Lincoln was about to catapult to national fame. The Ursuline’s mission was to open a girls’ school under the motto Serviam, expand the global vision of their foundress, and make a difference in the capital city of the Prairie State.

When the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis Sister came to Springfield in 1875, according to Sister Jomary Trstensky, OSF, “They began a whole era of organization—not reorganization. There were many unmet needs. Our sisters could have come into Springfield and started anything and it would have been an improvement.”

When our Dominican sisters first arrived in Springfield in 1892, it was to teach children at St. Mary’s elementary school. A year later, our motherhouse relocated from Jacksonville to the very block on which the motherhouse currently sits. Among our greatest impacts have been that we’ve educated many leaders in the city, said Sister Kathleen Anne Tait that evening. “We provided an education that included the morals that came from the Gospel, an understanding of Christian community, and working toward the common good.”