In Part I, the author Sister Josephine Marie Peplinski, SSJ-TOSF, takes the reader on a historical tour of what the world was experiencing in the late 1800s and early 1900s. With the influx of immigrants into the United States and the Council of Baltimore's mandate to establish a school in connection with every parish, church communities were having a hard time finding qualified teachers, especially for those children whose parents did not speak the English language. This opened the door to a new ministry to which the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis gave a fitting response.
In Part II, the author traces the development of the congregation against the backdrop of each of the major superiors up to 1960. It was a time of incredible growth in the congregation. The spirit of the foundresses was formalized into an approved constitution and the embracing of the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. The early ministry of the congregation was in teaching, but by 1960 had expanded to include health care, pastoral ministry and missionary work. Part II takes the reader up to the time of Vatican II.
