BAYSIDE — After more than two centuries serving Brooklyn, the Daughters of Charity will soon leave the diocese to serve in other parts of the United States, leaders of the order recently announced.
The last four remaining sisters in the diocese — Donna Marie Smith, Nora Gatto, Patricia Evanick, and Margaret Tuley — who live at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Bayside, will disperse and move on to their new duties by the end of summer.
The four sisters are the last of their community still serving in the diocese, after all of the other members of the religious order left in 2014.
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Sister Michelle Loisel, who is the religious order’s Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representative to the United Nations, where she works on issues like eradicating poverty in underdeveloped nations and stopping human trafficking, resides in Manhattan and will remain there.
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament held a special Mass on June 7 to say goodbye to the Daughters of Charity and thank the sisters for their service.
“It’s hard because knowing we’re the last daughters here is not easy,” said Sister Donna, the assistant principal of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Academy. “It’s also hard for each one of us to leave our ministries because we put our heart and soul into everything we do.”
The Daughters of Charity first arrived in Brooklyn in 1831 from Emmitsburg, Maryland, to teach at St. Mary’s Asylum and School in what is now Downtown Brooklyn.
At the time, which predated the founding of the Diocese of Brooklyn by 22 years, they were known as the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph; the name was changed to Daughters of Charity in 1850.
The sisters taught at many schools in Brooklyn, including Cathedral Free School, St. Mary’s Institute, St. Paul’s Industrial School, and St. Philomena’s Academy.
They were called away from the diocese to work at a military hospital in Montauk, Long Island, during the Spanish-American War in 1898. In the following years, they served in various parts of the nation as nurses and teachers.
The sisters returned to the diocese in 1933 to direct the School of Nursing at St. Mary’s Hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant. That same year, the sisters began an affiliation with the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers at St. John’s University to teach at the School of Nursing.
In 1952, the sisters opened the DePaul House of Studies at St. John’s University, and over the next 20 years, sisters from around the world earned their degrees there. The house was open until 1972.
By the early 1970s, the sisters were working with the Vincentians at St. John the Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant and serving at other churches and schools, including Holy Rosary School in Bedford-Stuyvesant and St. Anthony-St. Alphonsus Parish in Greenpoint.
In addition, the sisters helped establish St. John’s Bread and Life, the food pantry and social service assistance center, worked with Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens on various service projects, and taught at New Horizons, an adult education program.
The sisters were constantly busy, Sister Patricia recalled.
Sister Patricia said the sisters ran religious education programs, New Horizons, adult education, a nursing students’ assistance program, and reading and writing classes for people whose formal education had ended after third grade.
Since 1984, the sisters have been living and serving at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in a variety of roles, including religious education, visiting the sick, and serving as Eucharistic Ministers.
“It’s going to be very hard to leave,” Sister Donna said.
Sister Teresa George, the provincial superior of the Daughters of Charity Province of St. Louise (the province to which the sisters belong), said she understands that saying goodbye will be difficult.
“As we always do when grappling with difficult decisions, we look to the guidance of our founder, St. Vincent De Paul,” she said, quoting his famous saying, “I belong neither here nor there, but wherever God wants me to be.”