The Amityville Dominicans

In 1853 four women stood with joy and hope, undaunted in their sense of mission despite being forgotten at the docks of New York City. Throughout their travels from Holy Cross Convent in Regensburg, Germany to the present day, the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic, Amityville have been women whose prayer has moved them to action. Within a week of their arrival at Most Holy Trinity Parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the founding mothers began their ministry to the immigrant children and took charge of the parish school. Today, Most Holy Trinity School is still administered by Amityville Dominicans.

By 1863 the Sisters began to care for orphans in every convent. In those early years, though many Sisters died from tuberculosis, they continued to expand their ministries to include orphanages, parish and trade schools, and hospitals. In 1875 Schlegel farm in Amityville was donated for "the care of orphans and old people." Dominican Village stands on that property today. Additional property was purchased for a church and novitiate which would in time, become the Motherhouse, hence the name "Amityville Dominicans."

St. Dominic founded the Order to preach the Gospel in response to the crisis and problems of his day. In their day, Mother Josepha and the founding mothers, faced with official decrees to return to Europe and threats of excommunication, worked with the local church in order to stay and respond to the needs of the people of God. One risk lead to another. The Civil War created many orphans. So the Sisters opened their hearts and every convent had orphan children. Quite a departure for a cloistered community! The health care needs of the times led the Sisters in new directions: building and staffing St. Catherine’s Hospital, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Consolation Home, and St. Joseph’s in Monticello. It was to the credit of the Sisters’ care that the influenza death toll in Brooklyn during the early 1900’s was the lowest in the nation. All of these ministries took their toll on the young congregation, for many of the early Sisters died of tuberculosis.

Today, the women of the worldwide Order of Preachers continue to stand in joy and hope, ready to respond to "the signs of the times" and to expand the Mission as needs arise. Today the Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville, are an active and vital congregation of over 600 Sisters located primarily in Nassau, Suffolk, Brooklyn and Queens with ministries in other states, a Province in Puerto Rico and missions in Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

In the early 1900’s, many schools and convents were built. It was in 1917 that the Amityville Dominicans came to open St. Agnes School in Rockville Centre. They have continued in various ministries here for an unbroken succession of eighty-seven years. Mother Petra was the founding superior and first school principal. While hundreds of Dominican Sisters served here over these many years, four are presently on staff: S. Kathy Carlin, S. Jean Gregor, S. Kathleen Murphy and S. Gena Travers (who is also a graduate of St. Agnes High School). 

Called to be signs of joy and hope, the Sisters of St. Dominic, Congregation of the Holy Cross, Amityville, New York stand with and for the people of God in tragic and painful times of crisis in the Church and the world. Hope is born of standing in the pain, waiting with expectation for God’s word, and opening our minds and hearts in order to listen to ideas and foster necessary changes. The Sisters work to encourage dialogue and fruitful discussion in many arenas by sharing the gifts and questions that confront our age. The social work begun in the 1850’s continues today through social justice advocacy, consciousness raising, and parish social ministry programs.

"To Praise, To Bless and to Preach" is what The Amityville Dominicans seek to do for the sake of the Gospel and a future full of hope.