Founding of the Visitation Order

The Visitation Order was founded in 1610 in Annecy, the district of Savoy, which is now a part of France. The Order honors two founders who balance the spirit they wished to implant for their sisters in a very beautiful way – the feminine and the masculine are here united for the glory of God and the good of the Sisters through two great saints, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal.

The Visitation Order in the United States

In 1799 the Order was established in the United States in Washington D.C., again by two founders who expressed the feminine and masculine through their gift to the Order: Rev. Leonard Neale, SJ , president of Georgetown College on whose property the nuns’ convent was built, and Mother Alice Lalor, an immigrant from Ireland who had been assisting Leonard Neale in his work in Philadelphia. The Sisters of Georgetown have been living on the same property for more than two hundred years. They established a school for girls that became the model for all Visitation schools founded after that. Certainly, the school in Wheeling, following Bishop Whelan’s wishes, endeavored to provide for its students the same kind of education given at Georgetown where many of the first sisters had been students.

The Sister of the Visitation in Wheeling, WV

Later they entered the Georgetown community, were sent on a foundation to Baltimore, and then to Wheeling, where they established their monastery and academy on April 4, 1848. The Sisters found Wheeling a great contrast to their well-equipped monastery in Baltimore, and the thing that caused the most consternation for them was the coal dust. "It is everywhere," they wrote home, "and we have to change our gimps every day."

Arriving in Wheeling on April 4, 1848, the Sisters were informed by the bishop that school was to begin on April 10. By some miracle they were ready, and the eight sisters welcomed the few pupils who were the first to attend the new "Female Academy." As time went on and more sisters joined the community and young women also began their novitiate, the sisters started Wheeling’s first parochial school, St. Joseph’s Free School. It was set up in the basement of the Cathedral, which was next door to the convent. The sisters used the Cathedral for Mass and a make-shift choir in it for office and meditation where one of them said "The first point and the last point of our meditation is the cold."

There were many ups and downs during the years in the city. One particular frightening event took place on a night when the Know-Nothings, a prominent political party at the time, tried to raid the Bishop’s residence to do harm to the Apostolic Delegate, Msgr. Bedini, who was visiting the city. Bishop Whelan asked the sheriff for protection for the Cathedral and the convent but was told there would be none. Undaunted, the Bishop gathered together about two hundred Irish parishioners who armed themselves with guns and clubs and surrounded the Cathedral and the convent. Msgr. Bedini escaped by using the back door of the bishop’s residence and was safely escorted out of town by a few of those Irish guards.

Early Challenges for the Mount

The Bishop’s fondest hope was to have an academy the proportions of which would resemble those he knew of in the East, especially Georgetown and Baltimore. He persuaded the sisters to approve of his plans to build a first-class academy on property they would purchase about three miles from the city. It would be healthier in the country and presumably there wouldn’t be all that coal dust to contend with. The Bishop, acting as the banker for his parishioners, used their money for construction costs with the intention that the first couple of years' tuition would repay him, and he could return the money to his people and all would be well. Too many things were against that scenario: they began to build when the Civil War started; the architect ran off with the plans and some of the money; construction and materials quadrupled in cost because of the War and the enrollment was so small when the building was ready for the scholars that it looked like the Bishop would be disgraced unless somehow money was obtained to pay back his parishioners. Because of the possibility of scandal, church authorities agreed that several Sisters could leave the cloister and solicit money from the general public. Before leaving Wheeling the Sisters chosen for the task of collecting money read about a Mister Tweed of Tammany Hall fame who had donated money for an orphans’ picnic. The Sisters thought that said a lot about his generous character and so they wrote to him. "Come to New York," he wrote back. And he promised they would have great success. Among other things, he offered them his livery and driver for their use while in New York. More than that, he gave them a list of names, told the Sisters to call on all his wealthy friends and tell them "I sent you."

The campaign for funds was a great success. Not only did the sisters collect enough to pay their outstanding construction costs, but they also returned to the bishop the amount he had "borrowed" from his parishioners. With a considerable surplus the sisters established the "Southern Fund" in order to give financial assistance to their old pupils from the South.

The Sisters through the Late 19^th and Early 20^th Centuries

Peaceful times then followed; the enrollment increased and Mount de Chantal became a well-known school that attracted many students from every part of the country. The end of the 18th century saw a grand reunion of friends and alumnae who returned to the school to celebrate the Golden Jubilee with the Sisters on April 4, 1898. It was a gratifying occasion and wonderful for the sisters to welcome "old girls" who were now successful mothers of families, teachers, nurses and representatives of all possible careers for women at the time.

The next fifty years seemed to be one like the last one. The community fluctuated in numbers. Some of the original foundresses died; some returned to Baltimore, but always there were a few eager young women who entered the community and eventually took their place as teachers, administrators and leaders of the group. At its height the sisters numbered over sixty women all living peacefully with one another at Mount de Chantal. The average number of sisters remained between forty and forty-five most of the time.

Vatican II Brought About Many Changes for the Sisters

After Vatican II the numbers began to decrease as they did across the country among religious women. This fact necessitated the enlisting of lay men and women to assist with operating the academy. The work of these colleagues assured that the standards and traditions of the school would continue, despite fewer sisters at the helm. The sisters lived through many changes as they endeavored to follow the direction of the Church and put the decrees of Vatican II into their daily lives. This meant an up-dating of their spiritual, psychological and physical needs. No small task, the changing of customs centuries old, but good will, good humor and the love they had for one another played a big part in the peaceful settlement of community affairs.

Mount de Chantal's Sisters of the Visitation Today

Today the community is small and depends very much on the assistance of lay administrators and faculty members. All strive to live the Salesian virtues and pass them on to their students as well. A modern plant within the ancient building is not an easy thing to maintain, but some of the problems for the sisters' living conditions were solved when they had a residence building erected in 1972. Later, in time for the 150th anniversary of their founding in Wheeling, the sisters were able to renovate the "new" building, making it more functional and more comfortable for the aging community.

The sisters at Mount de Chantal entered the new century with high hopes, having done all in their power to provide for the continuation of the academy and to insure its standing as a Catholic school in the Salesian-Visitation tradition. They never forget their reason for being a presence at the Mount: their service to God and His people. They see it as a holy calling for themselves, for the Board of Trustees, and for the administration and faculty. These latter have been true partners in the sometimes overwhelming tasks of making Mount de Chantal all it should be. The future is entrusted to Divine Providence as each one – the sisters and their lay colleagues - together look for and carry out the Will of God. He has abundantly blessed the community through the years; His assistance in good times and bad has never failed, and faith assures all that God’s love and His blessings will continue to surround the Sisters of the Visitation as He works out His eternal designs in their regard.