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CATHOLIC NUNS AND THE INVENTION OF SOCIAL WORK: The Sisters of the Santa Maria Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1897 through the 1920s
In 1897 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sisters of Charity Justina Segale and Blandina Segale founded the Santa Maria Institute, which resembled social settlements non-Catholic women established. Blending ethnic and religious traditions with skills obtained as members of a Catholic religious order, the sisters innovated cooperation with secular philanthropies. Although nuns have received little attention as leaders in the development of social welfare, Justina and Blandina invented a role for themselves in social work, shaping aid to the poor, especially women. But their integration into the new social welfare bureaucracy, like that of non-Catholic laywomen, came at the cost of female autonomy.
Introduction: Tradition and Innovation in Catholic Women's Religious Communities
In 1897, Sisters of Charity Justina Segale and Blandina Segale began three decades of social service to the immigrant poor in Cincinnati, Ohio. By the 1920s, the Santa Maria Institute, which Justina and Blandina founded, had become a thriving social service. 1 Historians have tended to focus on the Santa Maria's similarities to settlement houses non-Catholic laywomen created, although contemporary Catholics recognized the Sisters of Charity for their nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century service to children and the poor as teachers and missionaries. 2 Institution-building was not unusual; the order ran hospitals, orphanages, maternity homes, and schools in Cincinnati and the American Southwest. And, unlike many settlement women, American nuns were often familiar with immigrant life because many, including Blandina and Justina, were immigrants themselves. The sisters who founded the Santa Maria blended their ethnic and religious traditions with innovation in cooperating with secular charities, which previously had few positive contacts with Catholic organizations. 3 So successful were Blandina and Justina in adapting their vocation to the transformation of women's benevolent work into the profession of social work, that, in 1926, a representative of Cincinnati's secular Associated Charities reported to Justina "that Sister Blandina was held the very best social worker in Cincinnati!" 4
These nuns were but two examples of members of Catholic orders who organized social services, created innovative programs, and demonstrated leadership skills, often holding unusual levels of authority and respect for women in public administrative roles. Sisters Justina and Blandina, and their...