Whereas 19-year-old Catherine Spalding, born in Charles
County, Maryland, and Bishop John Baptist David, born in France, responded to
the need for education on the Kentucky frontier by founding the Sisters of
Charity of Nazareth (referred to in this preamble as the
Sisters
), on December 1, 1812;
Whereas, after Ellen O’Connell, a gifted teacher from
Baltimore, Maryland, and daughter of a college professor, joined the Sisters
and prepared Catherine Spalding and Harriet Gardiner for teaching, the 3
Sisters opened their first school, in 1814, at St. Thomas Farm, in Nelson
County, Kentucky;
Whereas, after 2 years of teaching, the school serviced
both boarding and day students with a total enrollment of 37 girls, including
13 non-Catholic students;
Whereas, in 1822, the Sisters purchased property located 3
miles north of Bardstown, Kentucky and named that property Nazareth;
Whereas, at Nazareth, the Sisters built log houses and a
new school, known as Nazareth Academy;
Whereas, in 1825, Henry Clay, Kentucky statesman and
orator, gave the first commencement address at Nazareth Academy, where his
daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter eventually received an
education, along with Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of President Zachary
Taylor;
Whereas, during the Civil War, the Sisters nursed both
Union and Confederate soldiers;
Whereas Dr. J. O. Murray, a physician in the Union Army in
Louisville, Kentucky, wrote to Nazareth, “I regret very much to inform you of
the death of Sister Catherine Malone on January 31, 1862, at General Hospital
No. 1 in this city. She, as well as the other sisters at this hospital, have
been untiring and most efficient in nursing the sick soldiers. The military
authorities are under the greatest obligation to the sisters of your
order.”;
Whereas, in 1861, at the request of a commanding officer
of the Union Army, 22-year-old Sister Mary Lucy Dosh and the other Sisters at
St. Mary’s Academy in Paducah, Kentucky closed their school to nurse Union
soldiers and Confederate prisoners of war;
Whereas, while nursing, Sister Mary Lucy Dosh consoled
patients and often gave up her own food to provide nourishment for the sick and
wounded;
Whereas Sister Mary Lucy Dosh contracted typhoid fever and
died on December 29, 1861, resulting in doctors and soldiers from Union and
Confederate forces calling a truce to mourn her death and officers from both
sides accompanying her body up the Ohio River on the U.S. Gunboat Peacock, for
burial at St. Vincent’s Academy, in Union County, Kentucky;
Whereas, on January 17, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln
sent the following letter to Nazareth as a precaution against any military
intrusion: Let no depredation be committed upon the property or
possessions of the Sisters of Charity at Nazareth Academy, near Bardstown,
Kentucky.
;
Whereas, in 1878, a yellow fever epidemic besieged the
people of the Mississippi River Valley, during which time approximately 120,000
cases of yellow fever were reported and 20,000 people died;
Whereas, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the Sisters closed
a local parochial school to nurse the sick, with 6 of the Sisters succumbing to
yellow fever between September 22 and October 11, 1878, which prompted the
townspeople to erect a monument at the gravesites of the 6 Sisters, honoring
their service and sacrifice;
Whereas, in 1918, 29 Sisters, along with sisters from
other orders, helped nurse over 10,000 wounded and sick World War I soldiers at
Camp Taylor, in Louisville;
Whereas the Sisters, finding the soldiers sleeping on bare
mattresses and dressed in uniforms and boots, requested bed linens and hospital
clothing for the sick and wounded at Camp Taylor;
Whereas 90 soldiers, many with Spanish Influenza and
battle wounds, died during the night that the Sisters first arrived at Camp
Taylor;
Whereas deaths at Camp Taylor noticeably declined as the
Sisters provided skilled nursing and a commitment to hygiene;
Whereas an officer remarked that he knew when a Sister was
in the barracks at Camp Taylor, because the men were especially quiet and
well-mannered;
Whereas, by the mid-20th century, the Sisters were located
in 10 States, taught in more than 100 elementary schools, 30 secondary schools,
2 colleges, and 6 schools of nursing, and cared for the sick in 12 hospitals
and children in 6 orphanages;
Whereas the Sisters opened their first foreign mission in
India in 1947, and subsequent foreign missions in Belize in 1975, Nepal in
1979, and Botswana in 2000;
Whereas, in 1986, Nazareth Home, a nursing care facility
that the Sisters opened in 1976, in Louisville, became the first long-term care
facility in Kentucky to accept HIV/AIDS patients;
Whereas, as of November 2012, the Sisters—
(1)staff an HIV/AIDS
hospice and administer 2 preschools in Botswana; and
(2)provided disaster
relief and housing assistance in many places, including—
(A)New Orleans,
Louisiana;
(B)Joplin,
Missouri;
(C)Nelson County,
Kentucky;
(D)Appalachia;
and
(E)Belize;
and
Whereas the Sisters find inspiration and strength for
their service in the words of 2 Corinthians 5:14, Caritas Christi urget
nos
(the charity of Christ urges us
): Now, therefore, be
it
That the Senate—
(1)commemorates the
200th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
(referred to in this resolution as the Sisters
), on December 1,
1812;
(2)commends the
dedicated service of the Sisters who provided nursing care during the Civil
War, World War I, and epidemics of yellow fever, cholera, and smallpox in the
South;
(3)recognizes the
service of the Sisters in providing health care on the frontier of Kentucky and
elsewhere through the establishment of hospitals in Kentucky, 4 other States,
the District of Columbia, and abroad;
(4)lauds the role
that the Sisters continue to play in providing education, health care, and
nursing home care in response to the needs of economically and socially
disadvantaged individuals, families, and communities; and
(5)directs the
Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the
Sisters.