• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Irish America

Irish America

        • Who We Are
          • About Us
          • Irish America Team
        • The Lists
          • Business 100
          • Hall of Fame
          • Health and Life Sciences 50
          • Wall Street 50
        • Highlights
          • History
          • In This Issue
          • Music
          • Politics
          • Sports
          • Travel
        • Columns
          • First Word
          • Hibernia
          • Quote Unquote
          • Slainte
          • Those we Lost
          • What are you like?
          • Wild Irish Women
          • Window on The Past
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • About This Magazine
    • Irish America Team
  • In This Issue
  • Hall of Fame
  • The Lists
    • Business 100
    • Hall of Fame
    • Health and Life Sciences 50
    • Wall Street 50
  • Archives
    • Magazine
    • Highlights
  • Travel
  • Events

How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New York

By Mary Pat Kelly, Contributor
August / September 2017

August 1, 2017 by 2 Comments

I was able to sniff back tears during most of the moving presentation of the 200 years history of the Sisters of Charity, entitled How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New York, at the Sheen Centre on June 3, but I couldn’t stop myself from sobbing when a group of children dressed in 19th century costumes sang “Where is Love” from the movie Oliver. They represented some of the thousands of orphans saved by the sisters from the city’s mean and dangerous streets. Their parents, who had, against all the odds, saved them from Ireland’s Great Hunger, had perished and they too would have died if not for the women whose service was being celebrated in song, dance, and story.
How much we Irish Americans owe to the nuns, I thought, and felt grateful to Turlogh McConnell who worked with the sisters to commemorate their bicentennial (1817 – 2017) in this theatrical presentation, which was directed by George Heslin, founder of the Origin Theatre Company, and narrated by Orlagh Cassidy and Ciaran Byrne.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity.

The piece dramatizes the early days of the sisters. Their founder, Elizabeth Seton, a widow with five children who converted from her prominent family’s Episcopalian faith to Catholicism after her husband died, started the first American congregation of religious women and sent three sisters to open an orphanage in New York in 1817.
How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New York, “explores through words, music, and dance the impact of the work of the sisters that grew out of the original 19th century work of healing, teaching, and housing Ireland’s Great Hunger refugees,” McConnell said.
“These remarkable women hold a distinguished place in our city’s history and they will continue to play a critical role, now and in the years to come.”
Two Academy Award winners, director Martin Scorsese and writer John Patrick Shanley, attributed their pursuit of the arts to the inspiration of their Sister of Charity teachers.
St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School, c. 1978. (Photo: Museum of the City of New York)

Scorsese attended St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School on New York’s Lower East Side, which was built as an orphanage and convent by the Sisters of Charity in 1826 remained in their care until 2010 when it closed due to low enrolment.
“Prior to that, I had no religious training,” Scorsese said in a 2013 interview with National Endowment for the Humanities president Jim Leach. He also recalled equating the vibrant ceremony and beauty of the church with the glamor of the cinema: “I found some comfort in the old cathedral of St. Patrick’s, and, of course, some comfort in the movie theater.” (The building was sold by the Archdiocese of New York in 2015 and now contains condominiums.)
John Patrick Shanley was educated by the sisters in the Bronx, and based his 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt on his experiences with them and the Christian Brothers. The play is dedicated to Sister Peggy McEntee, Shanley’s Sister of Charity first grade teacher.
“This play is dedicated to the many orders of Catholic nuns who devoted their lives to serving others in hospitals, schools and retirement homes,” he wrote in the playbill. “Though they have been much maligned and ridiculed, who among us has been so generous?”

_______________

The Sheen Center plans to stage the performance again in February 2018. Details to come.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marie says

    August 21, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    The founder of the Sisters of Charity was Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton,
    is that correct, thus they have no relation to the “Daughters of Charity”
    founded by Ste. Louise and St. Vincent de Paul in Paris in the 1600’s.
    I forget the exact year however the date was the 29th of November, in
    the church of St. Nicolas de Chardonnay.
    Reply needed, thank you.

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      October 6, 2017 at 5:38 pm

      At some point, Mother Seton’s sisters in Baltimore formally affiliated with the Daughters of Charity in France. One of the results was a change of habit to that of the French Daughters. Other foundations of Mother Seton, including the Sisters in New York chose not to formally affiliate with the Daughters. However, all congregations of the Seton Sisters of Charity see themselves as part of the wider family of St. Vincent de Paul.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

News
Articles and stories from Irish America.....
MORE

Hibernia
News from Ireland and happenings in Irish America.....
MORE

Those We Lost
Remembering some of the great Irish Americans who have passed.....
MORE

Slainte!
Discover Irish ancestry, predilections, and recipes.....
MORE

Photo Album
Irish America readers share the stories of their ancestors....
MORE

More Articles

  • <b>Moores Creek Bridge: A small battle with huge implications</b>Moores Creek Bridge: A small battle with huge implications
    Small bands of Patriots and Loyalists who fought with fierce devotion were formed during the early ...
  • <b>Mick Moloney Remembered at Irish Arts Center</b>Mick Moloney Remembered at Irish Arts Center
    Mick Moloney, a legend in the history of Irish music, who passed away suddenly on July 30, 2022, wil...
  • <b>Meet the man who will lead the 2023 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade</b>Meet the man who will lead the 2023 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade
    Kevin J. Conway, the grand marshal of the 2023 New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade is the gre...
  • <b>News Roundup January 14, 2023</b>News Roundup January 14, 2023
    Banshees of Inisherin Takes Home 3 Awards at the 2023 Golden Globes The Banshees of Inisherin pro...

Footer

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Newsletter
  • Customer Service

Additional

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · IrishAmerica Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in