SRES 606 ATSCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

112th CONGRESSCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

2d SessionCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

S. RES. 606CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, on December 1, 1812.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

November 30, 2012CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. MCCONNELL) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed toCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

RESOLUTIONCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, on December 1, 1812.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas 19-year-old Catherine Spalding, born in Charles County, Maryland, and Bishop John Baptist David, born in France, responded to the need for education on the Kentucky frontier by founding the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (referred to in this preamble as the ‘Sisters’), on December 1, 1812;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, after Ellen O’Connell, a gifted teacher from Baltimore, Maryland, and daughter of a college professor, joined the Sisters and prepared Catherine Spalding and Harriet Gardiner for teaching, the 3 Sisters opened their first school, in 1814, at St. Thomas Farm, in Nelson County, Kentucky;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, after 2 years of teaching, the school serviced both boarding and day students with a total enrollment of 37 girls, including 13 non-Catholic students;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1822, the Sisters purchased property located 3 miles north of Bardstown, Kentucky and named that property Nazareth;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, at Nazareth, the Sisters built log houses and a new school, known as Nazareth Academy;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1825, Henry Clay, Kentucky statesman and orator, gave the first commencement address at Nazareth Academy, where his daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter eventually received an education, along with Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of President Zachary Taylor;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, during the Civil War, the Sisters nursed both Union and Confederate soldiers;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas Dr. J. O. Murray, a physician in the Union Army in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote to Nazareth, ‘I regret very much to inform you of the death of Sister Catherine Malone on January 31, 1862, at General Hospital No. 1 in this city. She, as well as the other sisters at this hospital, have been untiring and most efficient in nursing the sick soldiers. The military authorities are under the greatest obligation to the sisters of your order.’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1861, at the request of a commanding officer of the Union Army, 22-year-old Sister Mary Lucy Dosh and the other Sisters at St. Mary’s Academy in Paducah, Kentucky closed their school to nurse Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners of war;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, while nursing, Sister Mary Lucy Dosh consoled patients and often gave up her own food to provide nourishment for the sick and wounded;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas Sister Mary Lucy Dosh contracted typhoid fever and died on December 29, 1861, resulting in doctors and soldiers from Union and Confederate forces calling a truce to mourn her death and officers from both sides accompanying her body up the Ohio River on the U.S. Gunboat Peacock, for burial at St. Vincent’s Academy, in Union County, Kentucky;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, on January 17, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln sent the following letter to Nazareth as a precaution against any military intrusion: ‘Let no depredation be committed upon the property or possessions of the Sisters of Charity at Nazareth Academy, near Bardstown, Kentucky.’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1878, a yellow fever epidemic besieged the people of the Mississippi River Valley, during which time approximately 120,000 cases of yellow fever were reported and 20,000 people died;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the Sisters closed a local parochial school to nurse the sick, with 6 of the Sisters succumbing to yellow fever between September 22 and October 11, 1878, which prompted the townspeople to erect a monument at the gravesites of the 6 Sisters, honoring their service and sacrifice;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1918, 29 Sisters, along with sisters from other orders, helped nurse over 10,000 wounded and sick World War I soldiers at Camp Taylor, in Louisville;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Sisters, finding the soldiers sleeping on bare mattresses and dressed in uniforms and boots, requested bed linens and hospital clothing for the sick and wounded at Camp Taylor;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas 90 soldiers, many with Spanish Influenza and battle wounds, died during the night that the Sisters first arrived at Camp Taylor;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas deaths at Camp Taylor noticeably declined as the Sisters provided skilled nursing and a commitment to hygiene;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas an officer remarked that he knew when a Sister was in the barracks at Camp Taylor, because the men were especially quiet and well-mannered;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, by the mid-20th century, the Sisters were located in 10 States, taught in more than 100 elementary schools, 30 secondary schools, 2 colleges, and 6 schools of nursing, and cared for the sick in 12 hospitals and children in 6 orphanages;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Sisters opened their first foreign mission in India in 1947, and subsequent foreign missions in Belize in 1975, Nepal in 1979, and Botswana in 2000;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, in 1986, Nazareth Home, a nursing care facility that the Sisters opened in 1976, in Louisville, became the first long-term care facility in Kentucky to accept HIV/AIDS patients;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, as of November 2012, the Sisters--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(1) staff an HIV/AIDS hospice and administer 2 preschools in Botswana; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(2) provided disaster relief and housing assistance in many places, including--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Ì (A) New Orleans, Louisiana;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Ì (B) Joplin, Missouri;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Ì (C) Nelson County, Kentucky;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Ì (D) Appalachia; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Ì (E) Belize; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Sisters find inspiration and strength for their service in the words of 2 Corinthians 5:14, ‘Caritas Christi urget nos’ (‘the charity of Christ urges us’): Now, therefore, be itCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Resolved, That the Senate--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) commemorates the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (referred to in this resolution as the ‘Sisters’), on December 1, 1812;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) commends the dedicated service of the Sisters who provided nursing care during the Civil War, World War I, and epidemics of yellow fever, cholera, and smallpox in the South;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) recognizes the service of the Sisters in providing health care on the frontier of Kentucky and elsewhere through the establishment of hospitals in Kentucky, 4 other States, the District of Columbia, and abroad;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) lauds the role that the Sisters continue to play in providing education, health care, and nursing home care in response to the needs of economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, families, and communities; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(5) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Sisters.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink