Biography

The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) was founded by Mary Frances Clarke. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1802 where she established a school, Miss Clarke’s Seminary, for poor girls in Dublin in 1832. Soon after, Clarke and companions travelled to the United States where they met Reverend Terence Donaghoe. The women founded another school, Sacred Heart, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rev. Donaghoe helped them establish a religious community in 1833: the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Clarke was chosen to be the Mother General of the organization, a position she retained for over 50 years.

In 1843, Clarke and her congregation were invited by Bishop Mathias Loras to move to Dubuque, Iowa. The first BVM motherhouse, St. Joseph on the Prairie, was established just outside of Dubuque. The sisters established their first school in Iowa, St. Mary Female Academy, in 1843; this school later became what is now Clarke University in Dubuque. Originally wanting to educate Native American children but barred from doing so by legislative constraints, BVM primarily educated the children of farmers, miners, and settlers in the Iowa Territory.

BVM continued to establish and teach in parish schools across the Midwest including Iowa, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. By the 1880s, their ministry had expanded outside of the Midwest with schools in New York, California, and Arizona.

In the 1960s, a Second Vatican Council was called to meet by Pope John XXIII to discuss reform in the Catholic Church. BVM responded to the Second Vatican Council’s calls for renewal and expanded their ministry outside of the United States, establishing ministries in Ecuador and Ghana. One of these ministries was the Centro del Muchacho Trabajador (“Working Boys’ Center”) in Quito, Ecuador. The Centro del Muchacho Trabajador aimed to educate and support young working boys, and later girls, in Ecuador. BVM sisters served there as teachers, administrators, and volunteers since 1967.

Additionally, after the Second Vatican Council, BVM expanded their mission beyond education to include health care, pastoral services, and social justice. BVM has taken congregational stances on nonviolence, the death penalty, human trafficking, and immigration. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) raided the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa in northeastern Iowa. In response, BVM sisters housed and supported refugees and called for comprehensive immigration reform.

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