July 31: Foundation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph’s
On this day in 1809 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton began the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, in Emmitsburg, MD, on the same grounds which today house the Emmitsburg Campus of the Daughters of Charity and the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. They were the first native community of religious women founded in the United States.

(Edward Augustus Seton, View of St Joseph’s Academy, 1825. Oil on canvas. From Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives).

The White House and St. Joseph’s Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Courtesy of John Miller and the Emmitsburg Historical Society. This view was taken facing southeast circa the 1860s.