CCVI Heritage Pilgrimage

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CCVI Heritage Pilgrimage

Caluire-et-Cuire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 69300, France

Created By: Heritage Center, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word

Tour Information

This tour is not a tour at all, but a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is defined as "a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience."

This pilgrimage is a journey to the places and through the lives of the women who write the story of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.

The places and the stories will reveal a culture of service, a love of God and sense of mission, that caused thousands of women to leave family, language, and sense of belonging for a "higher good." It is the purpose of this pilgrimage, that in coming to know their stories, and the stories of those with whom they served, the pilgrim will be inspired and emboldened to write their own story into the story of the Congregtion, and the One to whom they give their lives.

For more of the history of the Congregation, please visit www.heritageccvi.org


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What You'll See on the Tour

Today, Lyon is the second largest metropolitan area in France. The history of Lyon is linked to its geographical location at the confluence of two navigable rivers, the Rhone and the Saone. It was a center for Roman merchants as early a... Read more
Fourvière is a district of Lyon, France, a hill immediately west of the old part of the town, rising from the river Saône. The hill's landmark is the gleaming Notre-Dame Basilica, built in the late 1800s. Inside this ornate building, eve... Read more
The L'Antiquaille is now a cultural center and holds in its undercroft a museum dedicated to telling the story of the early Christian martyrs of the city. Lyon was the capital of Roman Gaul and the site of the first Christian foundation in ... Read more
Louise Chollet was born in Roanne on February 7, 1846, the same city in which Jeanne Chezard de Matel, foundress of the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament had spent her childhood. Jeanne had decided in 1625 to found her order... Read more
Jeanne Pierrett (Mother St. Pierre) was born May 22, 1845 in Beaujeu, France to Pierre and Claudine Cinquin - wealthy, cultured, well educated, and deeply religious. Jeanne's early education was received from the Ursuline nuns in Beaujeu, w... Read more
The first three Hospital Sisters arrived from Lyon, and began work immediately to open an infirmary, St. Mary's Infirmary, in Galveston, Texas. It was to this mission that other sisters came, from the Monastery of the Incarnate Word and Bl... Read more
Three Sisters, Madeleine, Pierre, and Agnes arrived in San Antonio sometime in April, 1869. Even before leaving Galveston, they received the news that their home and new hospital, still under construction, had burned to the ground. Undeterr... Read more
Arriving in San Antonio, the Incarnate Word foundresses found they had no place to live. They were given hospitality by the Ursuline Sisters, who had come to San Antonio in 1851. It was in the chapel at the Ursuline convent, that Sr. St. Pi... Read more
Santa Rosa Infirmary was built at the corner of Commerce and Cameron Steets. After the original building burned while under construction, work began anew, with the generous support of the people of San Antonio. Two prominent citizen of San ... Read more
The Sisters' care for children began in 1872 when four small children were left one day "homeless and alone" at the infirmary.The Sisters made room for the children, beginning a service which eventually led to the building of not one, but t... Read more
In 1890, Mother St. Pierre determined that a building of an orphange for boys could no longer be delayed. The new home woud be constructed on the site of Santa Rosa (now on the Houston Street property) "at the far end where the stables were... Read more
When St. John's Orphanage burned, the citizens of San Antonio stepped forward and plans were drawn up immediately to erect a new orphanage on a tract of land at Mission Concepción. Architect Fred Gaenslen prepared plans for a complex of bu... Read more
Santa Rosa Infirmary continued to expand as the needs grew. By 1884 the two-story stone building on Houston Street was filled to capacity. It was decided to construct a three-story addition, the beginning of “Old Main.” In 1894, the hos... Read more
San Fernando Cathedral was founded on March 9, 1731 by a group of 15 families who came from the Canary Islands at the invitation of King Phillip V of Spain and is the oldest, continuously functioning religious community in the State of Te... Read more
San Francisco de la Espada is one of the seven missions established in the 1700's along the San Antonio River by Franciscan missionaries. In 1915, it was restored to be used as a parish church; other buildings were restored to be used as a... Read more
What is known today as the Brackenridge Villa was first the Sweet Homestead, built near the headwaters of the San Antonio River by James R. Sweet, a city alderman whose purchase of the headwaters land effectively gave him control of the cit... Read more
The Chapel of the Incarnate Word was dedicated on May 30, 1907. A place of prayer and celebration, the Chapel stands both as the symbolic center of the life of the Congregation and of our presence in the community. The Chapel has been in co... Read more
The 154-acre main campus, located on Broadway, is at the urban core of San Antonio and situated in the enclave city of Alamo Heights. Established in 1893, Incarnate Word School was originally located just a few miles south on Government Hil... Read more
In 1940 the sisters established, with Fr. Carmelo Tranchese, SJ, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Community Center, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. The sisters had taught in the school since 1918, and shared Fr. Carmelo’s desire to do somethin... Read more
In 1924, st. Frances of Rome Parish was established in Cicero, Illinois and Rev. John Kelly, newly appointed pastor, requested the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word to provide teachers for his new school. A combination church and sch... Read more
Our first Sisters went to New Orleans in 1919 at the invitation of Archbishop John Shaw, to open St. Frances de Sales School. Seven years later, in 1926, the Congregation established St. Catherine of Siena in Metairie, a suburb of New Orlea... Read more
In 1925, the Congregation purchased 13 acres (along with a private residence) in Dunmore, County Galway, to receive candidates. Over the years, over 1,000 young women from Ireland traveled to Texas to participate in the mission of the Congr... Read more
Twenty years after their founding, the Sisters responded to a call to work at the Missouri Pacific Railroad Hospital in St. Louis. They worked hard to expand their work in St. Louis, serving at St. Joseph’s Sanitarium, and later at the Jo... Read more
In 1914, the Sisters were invited by Father Patrick Bradley to teach at Blessed Sacrament School on North Kingshighway. With growing numbers of Sisters, they requested to establish a Province in St. Louis. Cardinal Glennon granted that requ... Read more
A major development in the life of the Congregation began when in 1885, Bishop Montes de Oca of Saltillo, Mexico, asked the Congregation to open a school for girls of wealthy Catholic families. Because of the laws of reform in the governmen... Read more
By 1918, the Congregation had grown to over 600 members with 60 different places of ministry scattered across the United States and Mexico. The need for establishing provinces had become an urgency, in order to more effectively govern, mana... Read more
In the early 1960’s, leaders of the Catholic Church were ever more concerned with the plight of the people of Latin America who were living in extreme poverty and often under political oppression. The Holy See appealed to religious congre... Read more
In 1966, Archbishop Carboni, papal nuncio in Lima, asked the Congregation to give at least four Sisters to take over certain nursing services at the Hospital Central de Policía. The police force consisted of three different units, the larg... Read more
In 1982, the Sisters extended the mission in Chimbote to the rural area of Cambio Puente. Here, they organized a pastoral team in a parish, working with catechists. They also accompany various groups, advocating for social justice, and work... Read more
In 1973, the first comunidades de pastoral popular were established in Mexico by the Mexican Sisters, wanting to live with, accompany, and minister with the indigenouse people in remote parts of the country as well as to person living in ex... Read more
The year 2000 was a Jubilee Year for the Church, and as a gift to the Church on this occassion, the Congregation opened a mission in Zambia.  The Mother and Infant Care Program was established by the Sisters to prevent mother-to-child tra... Read more

 

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