The Good Samaritan Sisters Flashcards
Who was John Bede Polding and what did he start?
John Bede Polding, Australia’s first Catholic Archbishop, founded the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict in Sydney on February 2.
What year was this Order founded?
1857
Why was this Congregation formed?
This new Congregation, the first to be founded on Australian soil, was formed to care for disadvantaged and abused women.
What did Polding hope for by giving them the name, “Sisters of the Good Samaritan”?
By giving it the name, Sisters of the Good Samaritan, he indicated that the sisters were to have a Christ-like attitude of compassion and care for those they served.
What did Polding believe the Good Samaritan Sisters would do?
The Good Samaritan Sisters would be “ready to teach in schools, to visit and assist the sick in their own homes and in hospitals, to instruct ignorant persons in the faith, to conduct orphanages, to reform the lives of regretful women, and to apply themselves to every other charitable work”
What was at the heart of the Congregation’s mission?
From the very beginning, commitment to women and the education of young people has been at the heart of the Congregation’s mission.
What happened after just five years of their foundation?
In 1861, just five years after their foundation, sisters began teaching in a school in Sussex Street, Sydney.
What did the following decade entail for them?
The following decades saw the ministry of Good Samaritan education spread to other Australian States, to Japan, the Philippines and Kiribati. Education in the faith and adult education are features of Good Samaritan ministry.
What did the Sisters of the Good Samaritan bring to the community?
Hundreds of thousands of Australians have been educated as a result of the partnership between the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and dedicated staff.
In Australia, in 2011, the sisters’ ministry in Catholic education comprised ten schools in five dioceses: the Archdioceses of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and the Dioceses of Broken Bay and Wollongong.
Where were the Catholic schools originally conducted?
From the earliest days of the colony, Catholic schools, including most of the schools conducted by Good Samaritan Sisters, were administered initially through local parishes and then later through diocesan systems.
Others, however, were owned by religious orders.
By 2011, the Sisters of the Good Samaritan had retained ownership of ten schools. These schools share a common foundation, story and spiritual tradition.
What is the purpose of Good Samaritan Education?
The purpose of Good Samaritan Education is to foster ecclesial communion “of life, of charity and of truth” and to share in the mission of God through the ministry of Catholic education.
Ecclesial Definition:
Relating to or constituting a Church or denomination
Summary of the Parable of the Good Samaritan:
When the Samaritan saw the man, he took pity on him. He bandaged him and cleaned his wounds. He then put him on the back of his donkey and took him to an innkeeper, whom he paid to look after him. Jesus gave a commandment to go out and do the same as the Samaritan had done.
