School Sisters of St. Francis history

St Antoninus Parish, Newark, was founded in 1875 by the Dominican Fathers.

He began the college building in 1877.

Bishop Winard Wigger established them as an independent community of the Second Order at St Dominic’s Convent and Academy, Jersey City in 1881.

Many women joined the community in the next decade and by 1887, our sisters staffed schools in five states.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Newark, founded in England in 1888, was received in the Church of Newark that same year.

1889 The sisters started St Joseph School without any diocesan assistance and labored for 5 years without a priest.

21, 1891, the first community of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary in America was founded with a convent in Union City.

In 1893, the community expanded into health care ministry with the opening of Sacred Heart Sanitarium adjacent to the motherhouse.

In 1899 the Sisters of Charity opened the College of St Elizabeth.

The Capuchin Franciscans began their work as parish priests and missionaries to Italian immigrants in the early 1900’s.

Arriving in Newark in 1898, the Cabrini Nuns organized Mt. It closed in 1903 when the Sisters opened St Anthony’s Orphanage in Arlington.

At the request of Father Alphonse Schaeken, pastor of St Paul’s Parish, Jersey City, the Sisters of Charity of Providence opened St Ann’s Home for the aged in 1911.

1913 St Thomas the Apostle Church had originally served the white population was established as an African American parish when the sisters arrived.

Members of the Society of St Francis de Sales, known as the Salesians of Don Bosco, opened Don Bosco High School, Ramsey, in 1915.

The Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary, Summit, an off-shoot of the Dominican Sisters Convent, Union City, established the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in 1919.

The Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus opened Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, Summit, in 1924.

In 1929 the School Sisters of St Francis began to staff area classrooms.

Responsibility of the St Walburga Orphanage, Roselle, was given to the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in 1931.

In 1938 permission was granted to establish the first college for women in the Archdiocese.

They expanded their mission in 1947 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Elizabeth.

There came a time in the 1950’s when both Catholic Charities and the State Board if Childern’s Guardians began to place orphans in foster homes, as more conductive to child’s development, than placing children in institutions.

In September 1959, Saint Francis Academy opened its first Kindergarten.

St Elizabeth Home closed in 1960.