HISTORY The year 1822 marked the founding of the first North American congregation of Dominican women at St. Catharine's convent in Sienna Vale, Kentucky. Fifty-one years later, on August 19, 1873, six Sisters from St. Catherine's arrived in Jacksonville, Illinois at the request of Father P.J. Macken, who was seeking teachers for his parish school. These six Sisters established the congregation now known as the Springfield Dominicans.
CHRONOLOGY
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1873 | Six Sisters from St. Catherine's Kentucky, arrive at Jacksonville, Illinois to teach at St. Patrick's School. Most of their students are children of poor Irish immigrants. |
| 1874 | Sister Josephine Meagher and Sister M. Rachel Conway respond to President U.S. Grant's request for Catholic Sisters to unveil the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Monument, Oak Ridge Cemetary, Springfield, Illinois. |
| 1875 | The Sisters learn they are now a new community, independent of the Kentucky Dominicans. |
| 1893 | The congregation moves from Jacksonville, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois, which later becomes the see for a new diocese. |
| 1895 | Sacred Heart Academy for girls opens at the newly built mothershouse. The school is now the co-educational Sacred Heart Griffin High School in Springfield, Illinois. |
| 1929 | The congregation enters the health care ministry when it contracts to operate St. Joseph's Hospital in Wellington, Texas. |
| 1951 | Five Sistesr begin ministry in what is now known as St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers, Arkansas. |
| 1953 | Bishop William O'Connor of the Springfield Diocese requests the Sisters' help estaslibhing centers for the Confraternity of Religious Doctrine in the rural areas of the diocese. |
| 1958 | The first co-educational high school sponsored by the congregation, Marian Catholic High School, opens in Chicago Heights, Illinois. |