Save the Date! Springfield Catholic Sisters Armchair Tour is November 7

Three groups of Catholic Sisters plan a special event for Springfield, Ill.

The Springfield Sisters Armchair Tour is a gift to the city from the Ursulines, Franciscans, and Dominican Sisters who began transforming lives in the city in 1857.

Global pioneers

The Ursuline Sisters established what would become Ursuline Academy three weeks after a handful of sisters arrived in Springfield from Ireland in 1857, and later opened the first institution of higher learning in the Springfield area. They were the first women religious to come to North America, having arrived in Quebec in 1639 and in New Orleans in 1727.

The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis came to Springfield from Germany in 1875 and quickly began receiving patients at a house on South Seventh Street. The cornerstone was laid for St. John’s Hospital at 9^th and Carpenter in 1878. The sisters also had the distinction of founding St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing, the first Catholic school of nursing in the United States, in 1886.

“The armchair tour is a chance for the sisters to celebrate one another and welcome guests who may be unaware of just how important the ministry of the sisters has been to the growth and development of Springfield.” —Maira Herrera, archivist

Educating on the margins

From 1873 the Dominicans were present in central Illinois—though not in Springfield. It wasn’t until 1890 that the first teaching sisters arrived in the Capital City from their motherhouse in Jacksonville, to staff St. Mary’s School—the precursor to the Cathedral School. Three years later their motherhouse moved to its present location on W. Monroe Street.

“Thousands of lives have been touched by the ministry of these three congregations of Catholic sisters,” said Maira Herrera, the archivist for the Dominican sisters who has been assisting with the project. “The armchair tour is a chance for the sisters to celebrate one another and welcome guests who may be unaware of just how important the ministry of the sisters has been to the growth and development of Springfield.”

The Nov. 7 event is free and open to the public, but registration is required because of limited space in the venue, Aquinas Center at the Dominican sisters’ motherhouse, Sacred Heart Convent, 1237 W. Monroe, Springfield.