November 6, 2024

By Keith Benman
Contributing Writer

The Sisters of St. Joseph are in new homes in the Watertown area but still carrying out a mission that is centuries old.

“Our mission was never to a building, it was to the people,” said Sister Bernadette Marie Collins, SSJ. “To serve the people of God, it doesn’t matter what building we live in.”

The motherhouse for the Sisters of St. Joseph was put up for sale in the spring. The 18 sisters living there moved out over the summer.

They are now living in four locations in and around the city.

The expansive motherhouse and grounds at 1425 Washington Street once housed more than 100 sisters. But with just 18 left, it was no longer economically feasible to maintain the residence.

The new homes for the sisters are the Congregation Center on Arsenal Street (former rectory at St. Anthony’s Church); a house on Ives Street Road; and another house in Calcium. Fve sisters are now residents at Samaritan Summit Village. The facility offers both assisted living and skilled nursing care.

Summit Village offers what might be the best example of how the move allows sisters to continue to serve God’s people in both old ways and new.

Upon the sisters’ arrival, residents at Summit Village began asking them for prayers and other pastoral care, said Sister Shirley Anne Brown, SSJ, the order’s local major superior. The sisters were only too happy to oblige.
“They are making new friends and spreading the word of God among the people,” she said.

The order’s tradition of being “among the people” goes back a long way. The Sisters of St. Joseph were founded in 1650 in France. They were charged with being “in union with the dear neighbor.” That meant going out to neighborhoods to serve during the day, a radical concept as most orders of nuns were cloistered at the time. They also shunned religious habits in order to be one with those they served.

“Our founder told them to ‘circle the city with love,’” said Sister Bernadette.

The sisters are also able to continue their mission of prayer in their new homes.

Congregation Center and each of the purchased houses have their own chapels. The sisters still gather at each home for evening prayer and go on retreat together once a month in contemplation of the Blessed Sacrament. For Mass they go to local parish churches, which was the routine back when they were mainly teachers in the local schools.

At Summit Village a community room is used for Mass, and the sisters in assisted living are in the same suite.

Sister Bernadette admits it was hard to give up the chapel at the motherhouse. It was full of historical significance for the order, including stained glass, a marble altar, and woodwork fashioned in the 1800s. But everyone realized with their dwindling numbers it wasn’t feasible to keep the facility operating.

The sisters in Watertown have seen many changes like the above during their years of service, Sister Bernadette noted. But their devotion to their religious vocation has remained steadfast.

Sister Bernadette entered the order 62 years ago after graduating high school. She served as principal at several Catholic schools including 14 years at the former Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, in Watertown. Today, she is a pastoral associate and director of religious education at St. Mary’s Cathedral, in Ogdensburg. Among her other varied pastoral duties are bringing Holy Eucharist to people in their homes. She also serves as the diocese’s episcopal delegate for religious orders.

Nationally, the Sisters of St. Joseph have only a handful of novitiates currently. But if another young woman came to her asking about entering the order, Sister Bernadette knows just what her response would be.

“I’d tell her, ‘Go for it,’” she said. “A religious vocation is a tremendous gift, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”