What does it take to begin something that will last 175 years?

In 1851, St. Paul was a small, rugged settlement on the Mississippi River. Minnesota was still a territory, seven years away from statehood. There were few roads, no public transportation, and during the winter, the frozen Mississippi was essentially the only route in or out of the settlement.

St. Paul itself was still finding its identity. Only a decade earlier, Father Lucien Galtier had celebrated Mass in a tiny log chapel on the river bluff and given the settlement the name St. Paul. The chapel was simple—just 25 feet long and 18 feet wide—but it represented the beginnings of a community taking shape along the Mississippi. By the 1850s, the settlement had become the center of a newly established diocese, and its first bishop was looking toward the future.

Bishop Joseph Cretin, the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of St. Paul, knew the young diocese needed priests, sisters and schools to serve the growing community. Having worked with the Sisters of St. Joseph in France, he appealed to Mother Celestine Pommerel, superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Louis. She responded by sending four sisters to St. Paul.

On the night of November 2, 1851, Mother St. John Fournier, Sister Philomene Villaine, Sister Scholastica Valasquez and Sister Francis Joseph Ivory arrived by steamboat at Lambert Landing. They stepped into a settlement of just over a thousand people, largely Native Americans and French Canadians, with smaller numbers of Irish and Swiss settlers. Campfires burned in tepees and log cabins, while snow covered the bluffs and ice floated on the river.

The sisters moved into a small log shanty that had previously been Bishop Cretin’s home. It was tiny with just two rooms downstairs, an attic for sleeping, and an attached kitchen. The nearby log church served as their schoolhouse.

And yet, within one week of their arrival, the sisters opened a school dedicated to St. Joseph—the first Catholic school in Minnesota. Fourteen girls attended that day. Native American children and children of white settlers sat side by side on logs, while Sister Francis Joseph taught in English and Sister Philomene taught in French.

They chopped their own wood, carried water from the community well, slept on blankets spread over hay and endured hunger, inadequate shelter and deep snow. The Mississippi froze, cutting the settlement off from outside communication for much of the winter. The nearest place to obtain provisions was hundreds of miles away in Dubuque.

Sister Francis Joseph Ivory later remembered the experience with a mixture of humor and wonder. Their small stove could not keep out the cold, and the pipe ran through the roof so that they could see the stars through the opening. When rain poured through the roof, they gathered up their beds and moved to another floor. Sometimes there was no food until late in the afternoon. Yet, she wrote, “We kept the vow of poverty well, and indeed, we were happy with all the hard work.”

There was hardship, but there was also a remarkable willingness to be part of the community around them.

The sisters’ undertakings grew quickly. Within three years of their arrival, they had established an academy, a hospital/orphanage, and other services in the region. Over the years, their ministries expanded into more than one hundred institutions serving education and health care throughout Minnesota and neighboring states.

Today, 175 years after those four Sisters arrived by steamboat, the legacy of that first small community can still be seen in schools, universities, hospitals, social service organizations and ministries throughout the region. Many institutions begun by the Sisters over these years continue their work today.

But perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is not how much the Sisters eventually accomplished. It is how little they had when they began.

Four women. A drafty shanty. A log church. Fourteen students. One community well. A frozen river. And a conviction that there was work to be done.

As we celebrate 175 years of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul, we will spend the year telling the story of what grew from these beginnings. Future articles will explore the ways the Sisters’ ministries developed and changed, and will take a closer look at the schools, hospitals, institutions, and other works they founded and nurtured.

Our story began in a small settlement in 1851. It is a story of courage, adaptability, service, and an enduring response to the needs of the dear neighbors around us.

And it is still being written.