As we celebrate National Catholic Sisters Week, we honor the Sisters whose shoulders we stand on, who worked tirelessly with the Archdiocese and Catholic laity to serve the people of New York and beyond. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s final words to her sisters urged them to be united, to be faithful, and to be daughters of the church. The Sisters of Charity treasure these words as her legacy to us and to the Church of New York.
Sister Mary Angela Hughes, SC, was elected on December 8, 1855, and served as Mother General until 1861. She was reserved and gentle in speech and manner. Upon her fell the task of finding a new home for the New York community after the original motherhouse property was claimed by the city for the future Central Park. In addition to this responsibility, the six years of her administration were marked by an expansion of the community’s work in social work and education. Mother Angela was the biological sister of Archbishop John Hughes, a longtime protégé of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the fourth shepherd of the Church in New York.
Missions During Mother Angela’s Leadership
1855: St. Joseph’s School, Greenwich Village
1855: St. Mary Star of the Sea School, Brooklyn
1855: St. Peter’s Academy, Staten Island
1856: St. Joseph’s Academy, Manhattan
1856: St. James School, Manhattan
1856: St. Brigid’s School, Manhattan
1856: St. Brigid’s Academy, Manhattan
1856: Transfiguration School, Manhattan
The new motherhouse and Academy of Mount Saint Vincent opened in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1859.
1857: Holy Cross Industrial School, Manhattan
1857: St. Mary’s School, Yonkers
1858: Holy Cross Academy, Manhattan
1858: Holy Cross School, Manhattan
1859: St. Columba’s School, Manhattan
1859: Sisters move to new motherhouse in Riverdale
1860: St. Peter’s School, Poughkeepsie
1860: St. Gabriel’s Academy, Manhattan
1860: St. Gabriel’s School, Manhattan
The relationship of Sister Angela and her brother, the formidable Archbishop of New York, John Hughes, was an interesting one. Most people found him a daunting person, for good reason and to put it mildly. I think his two female siblings, both Margaret and Ellen (Sister Angela), knew how to live and work with him without being dominated or overwhelmed. They were clever women with a steady sense of self. To be sure, Archbishop Hughes had a high regard for Sister Angela and was grateful for her work overseeing the much-needed St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan and the schools in Manhattan and Riverdale. To visit her grave in Riverdale when I was writing the Archbishop’s biography was a very moving experience.
John Loughery, Author of “Dagger John: Archbishop John Hughes and the Making of Irish America” (Cornell University Press, 2018)