The first American Dominican
Sisters to go to Jamaica were sent from Blauvelt, New York and New Jersey. In 1869 Mary Ann Sammon entered a Dominican
convent of German nuns on Second Street in New York City. “Seeing the many
children wandering the streets, Sr. Mary Ann, herself an orphan, saw the need
to establish a home where these youngsters could be cared for and educated. Accompanied by her Superior, Mother Hyacinth, Sister Mary Ann sought a suitable
location for an orphanage. The ideal spot was found in Blauveltville, New York
where Sr. Mary Ann and Mother Hyacinth found a house for sale. In the parlor
hung an oil painting by Alexandre Grellet depicting Saint Dominic raising a
child to life. Upon seeing the painting of the founder of the Order with
children, Sister Mary Ann knew it was a sign from God.”
Not long after they
established orphanages and schools in New York, they were staffing schools and
orphanages in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Florida. Wherever there were orphans in need they were
moved by the charism of their foundress to respond. “Before many communities of Religious were
seeking merger for the sake of mission, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt
were involved with this undertaking.
A small group of previously cloistered
Dominicans from Union City, New Jersey had responded to a call from the bishop
of Kingston, Jamaica in the West Indies to staff the Catholic hospital there.
In October of 1911 a group of Dominican Sisters arrived in Kingston and
established a hospital, farm and school.
