The Society of the Holy Child Jesus is an international community of Roman Catholic sisters founded in England in 1846 by Philadelphia-born Cornelia Connelly.
Born Cornelia Peacock in Philadelphia, she was raised a Presbyterian.[1] In 1831, she married Pierce Connelly, an Episcopal priest.[2] They converted to Catholicism in 1835 and separated in 1844, when her husband decided to become a Catholic priest. Cornelia was invited to England to educate girls. There she drew up a set of rules for a new religious congregation, which she called the "Society of the Holy Child Jesus".[3]
Bishop Nicholas Wiseman sent her to a convent at St Mary's Church, Derby, where she was soon running a day school for 200 students and training novices for her new institute.[4] In December 1847, she took her perpetual vows as a religious sister and was formally installed as superior general of the society. In 1848, Wiseman, unable to meet expenses connected with the schools, had Cornelia relocate to his district at St. Leonard's-on-Sea in Sussex.[5]
The Society was approved in 1887 by Pope Leo XIII, and the rules and constitutions were confirmed and ratified by him in 1893.
In 1862, six sisters from England came to the Society to the United States. In 1930, three sisters brought the Society to Nigeria, and in 1967 four sisters began the Society’s life in Chile.[6]
^Mother Marie Thérèse. Cornelia Connelly: A Study in Fidelity. p. 91.
^McDougall, Roseanne (2008). Cornelia Connelly's Innovations in Female Education, 1846–1864: Revolutionizing the School Curriculum for Girls. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen. ISBN9780773451872. OCLC222543661.
