The British Province of the Daughters of Charity recently marked the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first sisters in London in 1859. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, concelebrated a special Mass with hundreds of members of the Vincentian family at the St Vincent’s Centre, Carlisle Place, Westminster.

During the Mass, Archbishop Nichols said that while the Sisters’ first Superior in London, Sr Marie Chatelaine, had faced hostile shouts and boys throwing stones at her when she first arrived, when she died 46 years later, crowds came out to pay their respects as her hearse was taken through the streets to the church for her funeral.

Fr Fergus Kelly, Provincial Director, gave the homily. In it he spoke of the first group of six sisters (Marie Chatelain, Anne Farrell, Georgina Robinson, Georgina O’Shea, Mary Clarty and Fanny Piperson), and asked how they managed to devote themselves so tirelessly to "the poorest of the poor", especially as some of them came from relatively wealthy backgrounds.

Beginning with one small house, the Sisters went on to establish more than 50 projects in London, among them schools, hostels, hospitals and orphanages. Today their work with the poor continues to thrive across the capital as well as around the UK. Their flagship centre, The Passage, in Carlisle Place, is now the largest homeless project in London, offering food, clothing, medical care, shelter, support and advice to thousands of people each year.

"They were inexperienced but they did it," Fr Kelly remarked. "They did it by putting their trust in God under the patronage of St Vincent, and by rolling up their sleeves and, as the man said, they “put one foot after another.”

Fr Kelly then recounted contemporary accounts of the painstaking work which these first sisters undertook, and he commented: "St Vincent de Paul on many occasions used the phrase 'kindness is the key go hearts'. He knew that the kind of cold charity sometimes meted out in orphanages and workhouses did not move the recipients to smiles and laughter. The love of Christ – which is a heart bursting with kindness – was what was to urge the Daughters of Charity on. Whether it was to be in the Crimea or Cork, Lyon or Liverpool, Westminster of Washington – it was to be the love of Christ, which was to spur the Daughters of Charity to greater efforts to serve all people with kindness."

To read the full homily, see Independent Catholic News.