The origins of our Congregation can be traced back to a log cabin in Monroe, Michigan. There Reverend Louis Florent Gillet, a Redemptorist missionary, having searched in vain for religious to teach the spiritually and educationally abandoned immigrants on the Michigan frontier, resolved to found a community of Sisters of his own. In 1845, shortly after settling into the newly constructed St. Anthony Church, in Monroe, Father Gillet was joined by Sister Theresa Maxis. Thus, the humble beginnings of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary began to take root at the hands and hearts of these two founders, who were on fire with love of God and love of neighbor.
On November 10, 1845, Father Gillet officially welcomed three women, Mary Theresa Maxis, who became Mother M. Theresa, Charlotte Ann Schaaf, (Sister M. Ann), and Therese Renauld, (Sister M. Celestine) to begin a community based on the spirit of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Father Gillet envisioned an educational apostolate conducted by women religious who would give witness to prayerfulness, simplicity, forgetfulness of self, humility, and a deep love and respect for each individual soul.
With people on the prairie starved for spiritual meaning and instruction, the original community of sisters called to serve the people of God thrived and expanded to many new geographic locations and instructional settings. Mother Maria Alma, our tenth Mother General, tells us: “The tiny seed planted in 1845, in the unpromising soil of pioneer Michigan, had become a great tree whose branches spread within three separate sections of our country, sheltered within their shadow, thousands of souls under the care of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM).”
The nineteenth century saw the rise of immigration to several industrial centers creating an increasing need and demand for services, including basic education, religious instruction and meeting spiritual as well as physical needs. With parishes forming at the rate of nearly one a month, the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia, John Neumann looked to staff the associated parochial schools in his expanding diocese with teachers from religious communities. The newly formed IHM Sisters agreed to staff Saint Joseph School in Susquehanna, PA, formerly taught by the Holy Cross Sisters. In 1859, a second mission was undertaken in Reading, PA, and in a short time, many applicants, having come to know the IHMs through this early formation, sought to join the community. This resulted in a new site for the Motherhouse in what is now St. Peter’s Parish, Reading. The third and final division of the Congregation came in August 1871, when The Most Reverend William O’Hara, Ordinary of the newly formed Diocese of Scranton (1868), asked a number of the Sisters already teaching within the diocesan limits to form a new Motherhouse located in Scranton, PA.
Because of the increased number of Sisters in the Reading Motherhouse, the formation building was transferred to West Chester, PA, in 1872. There it remained until 1966, when the present Motherhouse, Villa Maria House of Studies, was built at Immaculata, PA. Today approximately over 500 Sisters comprise the Immaculata branch of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart.
The Sisters minister in the Congregation’s corporate apostolate of Catholic education on all levels as well as in catechetical, pastoral, hospital and prison ministries, parenting programs, adult spirituality programs, counseling, literacy instruction, care of the elderly, infirm and immigrants, retreat work and campus ministry. In their lives and in their work, the Sisters strive to continue to offer Praise, Love, and Thanksgiving as they carry out the Gospel mandate of Jesus, the Redeemer, to go and teach all nations.
IHM History Brochure – English version
IHM History Brochure – Spanish version