The Hospitaller activities of the Sisters of Charity of St Joan Antide in the Maltese islands

Abstract

Christianity from its initiation looked at nursing of the sick and infirm as a Christian duty and several communities dedicated to the service of the sick and infirm were founded throughout the centuries. One such community of nursing sisters was founded in Paris in 1633 by St Vincent de Paule and St Louise de Marillac under the title of "Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor". This order was the first of the non-enclosed congregations of nuns whose charitable domains involved nursing, moral and social welfare, and teaching. It was to serve as a model to other non-enclosed congregations, which were founded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of these congregations was that of the Sisters of Charity founded in 1799 by St Joan Antide Thouret in France. St Antide was a French peasant girl who at the age of 22 years joined the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. Shortly thereafter, the French Revolution broke out and all of the Sisters were disbanded and set back to their hometowns. St Antide was requested by the Vicar General of Besancon, France to begin work among the people of his diocese. On the 11 th April 1799, St Joan Antide Thouret opened a free school for the education of girls and organised a soup kitchen for the poor. From its humble beginnings in 1799, the community eventually spread from France to other European countries and ultimately to America and Asia. In 1810, Jeanne Antide was asked to begin the same works in Savoy, Switzerland and Naples, Italy. In 1868 they were asked to come to Malta to care for orphans and later to nurse the sick in government hospitals and hospices. In 1932 the Sisters of Charity of St Joan Antida extended their works to the United States where they ministered to the Italian immigrants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the height of the depression. The Order has continued to branch out across 25 countries.