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610-626-1400
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History of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus In the American Province
 In 1862 the Society of the Holy Child Jesus came to America, and made its first home in Towanda, Pennsylvania. After opening schools on the East Coast, the sisters traveled west where schools were opened in Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming. Here, Native American children were among the students. By 1931 the Society had spread to the West Coast, and schools were opened in California. In the Northwest there had been Sisters of the Holy Child from 1913. At the same time that the work was beginning in California, some of the sisters answered a call to work among the African Peoples of Nigeria and Ghana in 1930. In 1967 sisters began a ministry of education in Chile. Many of these works continue today; some have been handed over as the sisters moved in response to needs.
With the impetus of Vatican II to read the "signs of the times" the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus joined with men and women around the world in responding to the needs of God's people in a changing world and a changing church.
Although in the American province the sisters had been primarily involved in schools, today education includes adult centers, parishes and seminaries. New areas of ministry arose in the fields of health services in hospitals, homecare and hospice; in legal assistance for those who have limited access to the justice system; and in spiritual ministries including spiritual direction, retreat work and chaplaincy. The increasing racial, social and cultural divisions led sisters to areas of social ministry in which they both directly aid the poor in schools, neighborhoods and prisons as well as working to effect structural changes that arrest poverty and promote justice and unity within the human family.
Some sisters continue Holy Child educational philosophy in classrooms and through educational endeavors at all levels. In Holy Child schools as well as diocesan and parish schools, sisters find the work of collaboration with parents, Board of Trustees, administrators, faculty and staff to be key to their efforts. The support of a praying community in the Holy Child Infirmary remains a constant source of strength to all the sisters in ministry and to many friends of the Society around the world.
For further information see Publications and Archives.
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