Christian Charity, Sisters of, also called DAUGHTERS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, an institute for teaching poor schools and for the care of the blind, founded at Paderborn, Germany, on 21 August, 1849, by Pauline von Mallinckrodt (b. 3 June, 1817, at Minden, Westphalia; d. 30 April, 1881), sister to the famous Hermann von Mallinckrodt. The institute, which was confirmed 7 Feb., 1888, by Leo XIII, had attained great success throughout Germany when, in 1873, its members were forced into exile by the persecution of the Kulturkampf. Some went to South America, where there are now many flourishing communities. Others emigrated to New Orleans, U. S. A., where, in April, 1873, they founded a house and took charge of a parochial school. Mother Pauline followed shortly after and established a new provincial mother-house, at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Since then these sisters have opened houses in the Archdioceses of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and St. Paul, and in the Dioceses of Albany, Belleville, Brooklyn, Detroit, Harrisburg, Newark, Sioux City, and Syracuse. They have in these establishments 668 sisters, 46 novices, 25 postulants, conducting 2 academies, 54 parochial schools, 2 orphan asylums, and 1 industrial school. In 1887 the sisters were allowed to return to Germany. The mother-house at Paderborn was reopened and the activities of the religious extended with their former success throughout Germany. They have houses in Belgium and Bohemia.
Hitrrer, Pauline von Mallinckrodt (Minster, 1892); Brtssev in Kirchenlex., VII, 2001; Heimpucuer, Orden und Koncaicnes (Paderborn, 1897); Catholic Directory (Milwaukee, 1908).
F. M. Rudge.