Irene, Sister (1823–1896)

Roman Catholic Sister of Charity who established the first foundling home in New York City. Name variations:Sister Irene Fitzgibbon. Born Catherine Fitzgibbon in Kensington, London, England, on May 11, 1823; died in New York City on August 14, 1896; attended parish schools in Brooklyn, New York; entered novitiate of Sisters of Charity, 1850.

Born in London, England, in 1823, Catherine Fitzgibbon came to the United States as a child and was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she attended parish schools. At age 27, she joined the Sisters of Charity, serving as a teacher at St. Peter's Academy in New York City until 1858, when she became mother superior of St. Peter's Convent. During and after the Civil War, when the care of foundling children became a problem in the city, then Archbishop John McCloskey proposed that the Sisters of Charity, under the direction of Sister Irene, establish a home for such children. Until then, the common practice was to place abandoned children in the care of prisoners or residents of the poorhouse. Thus, in October 1869, Sister Irene, with a staff of four sisters, opened the Foundling Asylum, which later became the New York Foundling Hospital. In 1873, the institution was moved to a larger quarters on land donated by the city, and Sister Irene received a state appropriation to help build a new facility.

Sister Irene's compassion and ingenuity were the driving force of the institution. Shortly after the opening of the first home, she organized a group of laywomen to support its work. She took in unwed mothers and encouraged them to keep and care for their babies if at all possible. She also initiated a program of placing children in foster homes when necessary, making provisions for legal adoptions when feasible. As her programs expanded, she established three allied institutions: St. Ann's Maternity Hospital (1880), the Hospital of St. John for Children (1881), and Nazareth Hospital for convalescent children at Spuyten Duyvil, New York City (1881). In 1894, the 25th anniversary of the opening the first foundling home, it was estimated that 26,000 children had been helped. Sister Irene died in 1896.

sources:

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1983.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts