“God will give you something special to do that he won’t ask of someone else,
so pay attention.”
— Mother Bernard, C.S.J.
Founded in 1650, arrived in California in 1912, settled in Orange County in 1922, the 375-year journey of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange has been dedicated to education, spiritual development, health care, and reconciliation and justice.
Their mission – to bring all people into union with God and with one another – has found them addressing the ills of society, adapting to the needs of the time, and improving the well-being of every community they find themselves in.
The congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph began in 1650 in small communities established near Le Puy, France, by women of whom little more than their names are known, and by a Jesuit priest, Jean-Pierre Medaille.
In 1836, Mother St. John Fontbonne sent several sisters to the United States to meet the needs of people in this country as they moved westward.
Education brought the Sisters of St. Joseph to California. In 1912, Mother Bernard Gosselin and eight sisters left LaGrange, Illinois, to establish a school in Eureka, California, at the request of the local bishop. Throughout the United States, congregations of Sisters of St. Joseph were known for education, including higher education. Sisters of St. Joseph had opened Saint Catherine University in 1905, and would open eight more colleges and universities throughout the country by 1928.
The congregation also opened St. Joseph’s College of Orange. It is this institution that would merge with Marymount College and then Loyola University, creating present day LMU.
As the congregation grew, the sisters were better able to address more of the needs of the area. The 1918 flu epidemic presented a new challenge to the community. Although none of the members were trained in medicine, the sisters knew that the people of the area needed practical nursing care as well as consolation and reconciliation in the presence of death. In response to the 1918 flu, the sisters opened their first hospital: St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka (Orange was their second), as well as a nursing school in 1920.
By 1922, the sisters were teaching in several Southern California areas and recognized that the community could better develop its ministries by moving the Motherhouse to Orange. The Congregation continued in the same spirit of charity, simplicity, and humility characteristic of the Sisters of St. Joseph throughout the world.
The first ministries of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were in education and health care. Their effective service came within a system characterized by centralized authority, limited personal choice of ministry, and structured ministerial activity. Schools and hospitals were staffed primarily by the sisters and in the 1940s and 1950s the number of institutions directed by the Congregation increased. In the 1940s the sisters extended their work in health, education and religious instruction to the people of Papua New Guinea and Australia.
The 20 acres that the sisters had purchased in Orange in 1922 had enough space to build a sizable hospital. While Mother Bernard was not eager to take on a major building project, as soon as Mother Francis was elected, she contacted the architect that they had used in Eureka to create a plan for a large new hospital in Orange. The initial budget for the project was $200,000; the hospital was completed for $650,000 in 1929.
St. Joseph Hospital opened with 39 employees — 38 Sisters of St. Joseph and an engineer, Mr. Pestalosi. The sisters held every possible position. Their first hospital in Eureka started what is now one the largest Catholic health care systems in the U.S. – Providence St. Joseph Health, which includes 125,000 caregivers serving in 51 hospitals and 1,014 clinics.
In 2022, C.S.J. celebrated 100 years on Batavia Street in Orange, California. Today, their ministry extends beyond education and health care, to include such things as helping immigrants, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, and fostering spiritual development.
