Student’s Needlework

At St. Joseph’s school in St. Louis, Missouri, the School Sisters of Notre Dame introduced needlework to their students in 1859. View some of their work hanging in St. Joseph’s today. Marvel at the creative potential of American children. Mother Caroline would have seen this work and was undoubtedly pleased. Read (below) what Father Barnaby Faherty, SJ says about their work.

Needlework of Student Holy Family

Needlework of Student Ishmael's Banishment

Needlework of Student King David

Needlework of Student Queen of Heaven


The St. Louis German Catholics
by: William B. Faherty, S.J. – St. Louis, Reedy Press c. 2004, p.26

“In 1858 Father Joseph Parschowski,S.J. pastor of St. Joseph’s Church, brought the School Sisters of Notre Dame to St. Joseph’s.[St. Louis, MO] Mother Caroline opened the school on May 10, 1858, on land donated by Ann Mullanphy Biddle. Over the years, among other areas of excellence, girls from the school did such superb needlework that displays held places in musea a century later.”

Editor’s note: In a personal conversation with Father Faherty he said that the School Sisters’ students’ work was displayed in the Jesuit Museum in Florissant, Missouri. Archivists from the St. Louis Arch Museum visited and asked for permission to display the exceptional needlework in a special exhibit under the Arch on German Immigrants.

To learn more about Needlework, explore the following options.
Josepha Learns to Sew Needlework in America Students' Needlework Holy Rule of 1924 German Teachers Mission Today Facilitator Directions Return to Needlework