Saturday, November 23, 2013

American Dominicans in Jamaica



The first American Dominican Sisters to go to Jamaica were sent from Blauvelt, New York and New Jersey.  In 1869 Mary Ann Sammon entered a Dominican convent of German nuns on Second Street in New York City. “Seeing the many children wandering the streets, Sr. Mary Ann, herself an orphan, saw the need to establish a home where these youngsters could be cared for and educated. Accompanied by her Superior, Mother Hyacinth, Sister Mary Ann sought a suitable location for an orphanage. The ideal spot was found in Blauveltville, New York where Sr. Mary Ann and Mother Hyacinth found a house for sale. In the parlor hung an oil painting by Alexandre Grellet depicting Saint Dominic raising a child to life. Upon seeing the painting of the founder of the Order with children, Sister Mary Ann knew it was a sign from God.” 

Not long after they established orphanages and schools in New York, they were staffing schools and orphanages in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Florida.  Wherever there were orphans in need they were moved by the charism of their foundress to respond.  “Before many communities of Religious were seeking merger for the sake of mission, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt were involved with this undertaking. 

A small group of previously cloistered Dominicans from Union City, New Jersey had responded to a call from the bishop of Kingston, Jamaica in the West Indies to staff the Catholic hospital there. In October of 1911 a group of Dominican Sisters arrived in Kingston and established a hospital, farm and school.