(Passage from the Provincial Annals of 1823 used with permission of the Daughters of Charity Archives)

On this first day of October we recall the first group of Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s who began the work of the Baltimore Infirmary in October of 1823. The Provincial Annals for that year recorded the beginning of the mission:

“In October of 1823, the Professors of the Medical Infirmary, Baltimore, offered the charge of this Institution to our Sisters. This was our first mission to take care of the sick. Sister Joanna Smith was appointed Sister Servant and as her companions, Sisters Ann Gruber, Adele Salva and three, not yet professed, namely Sisters Ambrosia Magner, Appolonia Graver and Veronica Gouch. As may be supposed our dear Sisters labored under many trials and difficulties. Everything was new to them, the Infirmary, at that time, and indeed for years, was small and inconvenient. But what cannot the love of God achieve, when it burns in the heart, as it did in these dear Sisters? And the consolation they experienced was so great, that these hardships were esteemed as pleasures.”

The Sisters served at the Baltimore Infirmary until 1876.