Franciscan Sisters of Allegany

The congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, with its motherhouse at St. Elizabeth's Motherhouse, Allegany, New York, was founded in 1859 by the Very Rev. Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.F.M.

Father Pamfilo had come to the United States at the invitation of Bishop John Timon, C.M., of the Diocese of Buffalo, in order to provide education for the young Catholics of Western New York. To this end, he founded the College of St. Bonaventure (now St. Bonaventure University).

The bishop had reservations about having mixed classes of boys and girls being taught by the friar. He therefore suggested that Father Pamfilo should establish a group of Religious Sisters for this work. In keeping with this, the friar accepted the request of Mary Jane Todd to commit herself to the consecrated life, and, on April 25, 1859, in the chapel of the new college he gave her the habit of the Franciscan Third Order Regular and the name of Sister Mary Joseph. She was joined by two other women by the end of the year, Sister Mary Bridget and Sister Mary Teresa, a native of New Jersey, who, at the age of 15, had been recruited for this vocation by Father Pamfilo. This allowed the formation of a new congregation.

The Sisters opened St. Elizabeth Academy in the town of Allegany in 1860, followed soon by a parochial school at the parish of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan, staffed by the friars.

The Sisters remained under the authority of Father Pamfilo until 1865, when he gave them a set of statutes to govern their life which he had adapted from the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, Scotland. At that time, the Sisters held their first Chapter and elected Mother Mary Teresa as the first Superior General of the congregation. She served in that position for the next 55 years.

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