[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16050]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 606--COMMEMORATING THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
  FOUNDING OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF NAZARETH, ON DECEMBER 1, 1812

  Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. McConnell) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 606

       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
       Resolved, 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.

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