05/11/09

S. Anthony O’Connell’s medical bag

Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati
Featured in National Exhibit
by Donata Glassmeyer

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati are featured, along with 20 women religious congregations from Southwest Ohio, Southeast Indiana, and Northern Kentucky, in a nationally touring exhibit that celebrates the contributions of Catholic women religious in the United States. The exhibit, “Women & Spirit, Catholic Sisters in America,” opens at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, May 16 and runs through Wednesday, August 30, 2009. The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. will also host the traveling exhibit at a later date.

The exhibit tells the story spanning three centuries of Catholic Sisters in America who served with compassion, dedication, determination and faith in education, healthcare, and social services. Sisters ministered as missionaries, serving the poor and marginalized. They embraced the tide of immigrants in the 18 th and 19 th centuries, welcoming all nationalities into neighborhoods, schools and parishes.

Artifacts collected for the exhibit include the nurse’s bag used by Sister of Charity Anthony O’Connell during the Civil War when she ministered to soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and the first medical license provided to a woman in New Mexico, issued to Sister of Charity Mary De Sales Leheney in 1901.

The Women & Spirit exhibit displays numerous artifacts that have never before been on public display. Items assembled from more than 400 communities include traveling trunks, journals of immigration experiences, pioneering healthcare developments, diaries, samplers, musical instruments, clothing and more.

Sister Barbara Hagedorn, President of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, remarked, “The exhibit was developed by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization representing 60,000 women religious in the United States.” The exhibit is significant for several reasons, Sister Barbara said, “It tells the story of the lives and spirituality of women religious since the founding of our country. The local exhibit names some of the significant contributions of the communities in our area since the early 1800s. It coincides with important anniversary celebrations of several congregations: The Sisters of Charity, 200 years; the Sisters of the Precious Blood, 175 years; The Sisters of Mercy and the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, 150 years. The fact that the exhibit tours in Cincinnati as we celebrate these important milestones in our history is a wonderful time for us.”

Sister Barbara added, “The exhibit depicts the Sisters as women of faith and courage; women who acted with ingenuity and managed with the little they had to begin ministries such as the Catholic school system in the United States, Catholic hospitals in Cincinnati and throughout the country and many social service agencies responding to emerging needs. Today that same legacy continues as the Sisters respond to the needs in parish ministry, ministry to immigrants and responding to human rights, just to name a few.”

The exhibit includes educational materials available for teachers in public as well as parochial K-12 schools, group showings, video presentations, interactive media, as well as books and films available for special programs. For more information, visit www.womenandspirit.org; www.cincymuseum.org; and www.srcharitycinti.org

“Women & Spirit, Catholic Sisters in America. Discover a world few have seen, but millions have shared.”

 

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