Sisters of Christian Charity 175th Anniversary

On August 21, 2024 the Sisters of Christian Charity will celebrate the 175th anniversary of their Founding in Paderborn, Germany.  Mother Pauline von Mallinckrodt, together with three other Sisters, were invested in the parish Church in Paderborn on August 21, 1849.  On this coming anniversary there will be a special Holy Mass celebrated for the occasion in the same Church.   Sisters are arriving from North and South America to join the German Sisters at the celebration.   A new reliquary will be installed in the parish Church near her memorial portrait.  

The Generalate currently resides in Paderborn on the original property where the first Motherhouse was built and still exists.  Mother Pauline's grave is located there,  in the cemetary chapel of St. Conrad.   Part of the day's celebration will also be a prayer service with all the Sisters at the site of her grave, prayed in German, English and Spanish.

Originally Mother Pauline founded the Sisters of Christian Charity to minister to poor blind children.  This work continues today and the original home for the blind is now a museum.  The school for the blind itself is totally staffed by lay persons.  Other ministries begun in the founding years were retreats, schools, hospitals, and orphanages and other charitable works.   

The Sisters of Christian Charity today number just over 300 Sisters in Germany, the United States, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and the Philippines where there is a home for the blind.