[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5380]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING SISTERS OF CHARITY OF SAINT ELIZABETH IN CONVENT STATION, 
                      MORRIS TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 13, 2010

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Sisters 
of Charity of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station, Morris Township, New 
Jersey, which is celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year.
  The Sisters of Charity were founded under the authority of the first 
American Catholic bishop, John Carroll, Bishop of Baltimore by Saint 
Elizabeth Ann Seton, in the spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint 
Louise de Marillac, in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1809. In 1859, Mother 
Mary Xavier Mehegan founded the New Jersey community known as the 
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth.
  For fifty-six years, from 1859 until her death June 24, 1915, Mother 
Xavier headed the Sisters of Charity. Parish schools, academies, 
hospitals, a day nursery, orphanages, a home for the incurably ill, and 
a residence for working women were established. In 1899, a time when 
New Jersey had no baccalaureate-degree-granting college for women, 
Mother Xavier founded the College of Saint Elizabeth, New Jersey's 
oldest four-year college for women and one of the first colleges for 
women in the United States.
  Since 1859, the Morristown location, now known as Convent Station, 
has become a center of learning, of spirituality, and of service to 
others and to the community as a whole. Convent Station is home to the 
Academy of St. Elizabeth, the Convent of St. Elizabeth, the College of 
Saint Elizabeth, Saint Anne Villa, and the Xavier Center.
  Today the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth are engaged in over 
100 education, health care, pastoral and social service ministries in 
15 states, and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, El Salvador, Central 
America, Juarez, Mexico and Haiti. These ministries include: Education, 
Diocesan and Parish Ministry, Hospitals, Homes for the Aged, Health 
Care, Community Centers and Social Services.
  Madam Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth as they 
celebrate 150 dedicated years of service.

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