The congregation began as many others of the time:  women gathered together to “do something" about the plight of the children of New York’s poor.  For Mary and her companions it was through their “Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls."  The group provided shelter, training and religious education to girls left to fend for themselves or sent by their families into the street to beg.  Most importantly, the women provided safety, love and hope.   Over time Mary and Msgr. Preston recognized that the future of this work depended on the stability of the organization that provided it, and so, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion came into being.  Mary Starr became Mother Mary Veronica.  The first ministry of the little congregation was at the House of the Holy Family on Second Avenue in New York. 

EXPANSION

By the last decade of the 1900’s the Congregation and its ministry to children and young women were flourishing.  At the same time, the area around 2nd Avenue was becoming increasingly commercialized and less conducive to the work at hand.  With the advent of commuter rail travel and widespread use of the telephone the “country” was becoming the “suburbs."   Since country estates were within her experience and frame of reference, it was not surprising that Mother Veronica decided on an expansive property and estate in White Plains for a novitiate and relocation of the ministry. 

THE VENTURE INTO EDUCATION

As social conditions for children improved, emphasis moved away from rescue and reform to insulating children from the strong anti-Catholic sentiment that prevailed.  Suburban parishes sprang up like dandelions, and the Catholic school system grew, built on the foundation of early efforts at evangelization and protection.  In the decade of the 20’s the Sisters of the Divine Compassion were invited to staff some seven parish schools and at the same time were developing and solidifying a private high school, Our Lady of Good Counsel Academy, and a woman’s college, Good Counsel College.

Over the years, the congregation opened a second high school, Preston High School, this time in the Bronx, and served as educators in over 25 parishes in Manhattan, the Bronx Westchester and Putnam counties

VATICAN II AND BEYOND

The decade of the ‘60’s was characterized by social unrest, growing dissatisfaction with civic leadership, opposition to an unpopular war.  While not quite as dramatic as social upheavals, the church and religious congregations were not spared.  Traditions a thousand years old were stood on their heads as John the XXIII and the world’s bishops invited renewal and refreshment.  The Sisters of Divine Compassion, along with most American congregations of women religious, responded to the invitation to study the signs of the times.  And as they were earlier in the century, congregational ministries were shaped by looking into the faces of men women and children; Mexican migrants, the rural poor, people hungry for spiritual renewal, the socially disenfranchised, men and women who had worn out their welcome at most doors.

MORE INFORMATION
For more information about the life of Mother Mary Veronica, Foundress of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, read "The Fruit of His Compassion," by Sister Mary Teresa, RDC, published by Pageant Press in 1962.