Sisters of Saint Joseph of Baden

The Sisters of Saint Joseph trace their origins to Le Puy, France, and arrived in Pennsylvania in eighteen sixty-nine, establishing a convent in Ebensburg before relocating to Baden in the early nineteen hundreds. For generations they dedicated themselves to education, healthcare, and social welfare across the region. Their mission extended far beyond Pennsylvania.

From nineteen twenty-six to nineteen forty-eight, Sisters served as missionaries in China. Their work in public schools drew controversy, when a public dispute erupted over whether Sisters could wear their religious habits while teaching in state-funded classrooms, a debate that reached well beyond Baden and touched on the constitutional boundary between church and public life.