The Sisters of Divine Providence were founded in Germany in 1851 by Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, (1811-1877) Bishop of Mainz and Stephanie Amelia Starkenfels de la Roche (Mother Marie), a convert to Roman Catholicism.

Committed to deep trust in a Provident God who loves and cares for all, the Sisters taught young girls in rural areas of Germany and nursed the sick poor. When the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, passed the infamous “May Laws” prohibiting women religious from acting as teachers, the young Community focused their attention on home nursing and nursing in institutions.

In 1876, the Sisters of Divine Providence were invited to Dungannon, Ohio. When the Ohio mission failed to materialize, the Sisters established themselves in Pittsburgh, PA, at Saints Peter and Paul Parish, in the East Liberty section of the city, at the time, a thriving German community. Since both teachers and nurses were among those early German pioneer Sisters to the United States, they ministered in education and health care.

Initially, the Sisters served as German speaking nurses to German speaking patients at Mercy Hospital and Saint Francis General Hospital in Pittsburgh. In time they would staff Saint John General Hospital (establishing a school of nursing there in 1905), and Braddock General Hospital. Later the Sisters owned and operated Divine Providence Hospital in the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and San Rosario Nursing Home in Cambridge Springs. Each of these health care ministries began with a call to serve a German speaking population, but would eventually serve the general public. Their ministry would also take them to hospitals in Alabama and Missouri where they would encounter anti-Catholic prejudice, not unlike what they had experienced in Germany at the time of the Kulturekampf (May Laws).

The Sisters of Divine Providence sold San Rosario in 1982 and Divine Providence Hospital in 1993. The money realized from the sale of the latter, was used to create a Foundation that would allow the Sisters to continue to serve the needs of the people of the North Side of Pittsburgh. Since the time of their founding, Sisters of Divine Providence have continued to respond to the needs of the time to make God’s Providence more visible in the world.

For additional information on the Sisters of Divine Providence, please visit their homepage by clicking here.