Sister Irene

Sister Irene (May 12th, 1823-August 14th, 1896) born Catherine FitzGibbon in London, England and died in New York, New York.

At the age of nine emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, with her parents, and in 1850 joined the community of the Sisters of Charity at Mount St. Vincent, New York, taking the name of Irene. During her novitiate she taught in St. Peter's parish school, and became a sister servant there. Sister Irene, noting the constant increase in number of waifs, advocated the establishment of a foundling asylum. At that time no public provision was made to take care of abandoned infants. When picked up in the streets, they were sent to the municipal charity institutions to be looked after by paupers. Many were left at the doors of the sisters' schools and houses, in the hope that they might receive from them some special consideration. Archbishop McCloskey sanctioned the project and in 1869 Sister Irene was assigned to put it into effect. After visiting the public homes for infants in several cities she organized a woman's society to collect the necessary funds for the proposed asylum. With those funds a house (17 East Twelfth Street) was hired, and on October 11th, 1869, the foundling asylum was opened with a crxche at its door. On the evening of the same day it received its first infant, and forty-four others followed before the end of the month. Within a year a larger house (3 Washington Square, North) had to be bought.

In 1870 the city was authorized by the Legislature to give the asylum the block bounded by Third and Lexington Avenues, Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Streets, for the site of a new building, and $100,000 for the building fund, provided a similar amount was raised by private donation. Of the required sum, $71,500 was realized by a fair held in 1871, and $27,500 came from three private donations. The new building was opened in October, 1873. The title of "The Foundling Asylum", under which it was incorporated in 1869, was changed by legal enactment in 1891 to "The New York Foundling Hospital". In addition to caring for the children, homeless and indigent mothers were also provided for by St. Ann's Maternity Hospital which was opened in 1880. Sister Irene's whole life was given to the care of foundlings, and just before she died she added the Seton Hospital for incurable comsuptives, the cost of which ($350,000) she collected herself.