Sisters of Charity of Australia - wikipedia Sisters of Charity of Australia Mother Mary Aikenhead, Founder of the Sisters of Charity The Sisters of Charity of Australia ( formally the Religious Sisters of Charity, who use the postnominal initials of R.S.C. ) is a congregation of Religious Sisters in the Catholic Church who have served the people of Australia since 1838. Contents 1 History 2 Services 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links History Mother Mary Aikenhead, who had founded the Religious Sisters of Charity in 1815 in Dublin, Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was requested by John Bede Polding, O.S.B., the first Catholic bishop in Australia, to send some Sisters to help the many female convicts who had been transported to Australia as penalty for their crimes. Arriving in New South Wales, then still a colony of the British Empire, on the Francis Spaight on 31 December 1838 the Sisters who had volunteered to go to Australia from Ireland were the first Religious Sisters to set foot on the Australian continent. The Sisters of Charity of Australia have operated independently of the congregation in Ireland since 1842. The spirituality of the Sisters of Charity derives from the life of St. Vincent de Paul and the vision of Mary Aikenhead, their foundress. In addition to the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the Sisters of Charity take a fourth vow, of service to the poor. For the Sisters of Charity, `` Service of the Poor '' denotes not only the alleviation of a present affliction by immediate action, but also includes having a `` preferential option for the poor ''. Services The ministries of the Sisters of Charity have been quite varied in nature from the beginning of their founding. From ministering in prisons to managing hospitals and acting to conserve environments, they have been quick to move to where they have been most needed, and to where they have been of the greatest service to the poor. One of their most prominent ministries has been the establishment of St Vincent 's Hospital, Sydney in 1857, which they have administered ever since. In 1957, the Sisters opened Mt Olivet Hospital as a hospice in Brisbane. It now provides a wider range of hospital services and has been renamed St Vincent 's Private Hospital. See also Religious Sisters of Charity References Jump up ^ `` Our History : Origins ''. Sisters of Charity of Australia. Retrieved 17 January 2013. Jump up ^ `` St Vincent 's Hospital, history and tradition, sesquicentenary - sth.stvincents.com.au ''. Exwwwsvh.stvincents.com.au. Retrieved 2012 - 09 - 02. Jump up ^ `` Sisters of Charity Australia -- The Love Of Christ Impels Us ''. Sistersofcharity.org.au. 2002 - 06 - 14. Retrieved 2012 - 09 - 02. Jump up ^ `` Our Story ''. St Vincent 's Hospital ( Brisbane ). Retrieved 28 October 2013. Further reading Cullen, John H., 1938 ' The Australian daughters of Mary Aikenhead : a century of charity, 1838 - 1938 ', Pellegrini, Sydney Donovan, Margaret. M. ( 1979bc ). Apostolate of Love : Mary Aikenhead, 1787 -- 1858, Foundress of the Irish Sisters of Charity. Melbourne : Polding Press External links Religious Sisters of Charity of Australia Website Religious Sisters of Charity Website St. Vincent 's Hospital, Sydney Website Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sisters_of_Charity_of_Australia&oldid=806585611 '' Categories : Religious organizations established in 1842 Religious institutes in the Vincentian tradition Roman Catholic female orders and societies Talk Contents About Wikipedia Italiano Edit links This page was last edited on 22 October 2017, at 23 : 39. About Wikipedia

Question: when did the sisters of charity come to australia
Answer: 1838