Waltham, Massachusetts 1922-1973

This province has experienced a long development. Already in 1849, at the request of the Bishop of Boston, some Belgian sisters from Cincinnati  were sent to Massachusetts.  In 1922, the decision was made to divide the Cincinnati Province into two provinces. The new province, called Waltham , included the houses in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C. 

The Sisters of Notre Dame founded Emmanuel College, the first Catholic college for women in New England, as well as numerous schools at different levels of education. Sisters from Waltham became missionaries to Japan.  

In 1934, the more southern areas of the province were separated from Waltham to create a new, independent province: Baltimore which became Maryland in 1959. In 1946, the Waltham Province responded to a call for sisters to go to Hawaii by sending six sisters to Honolulu. Sr. Clare Bernadine Lynch was named superior of the community at “Star of the Sea”. A primary and secondary school was opened in 1946. 

In 1959, due to Waltham’s growth in the number of sisters and ministries, the decision was made to divide the province into two provinces:  Massachusetts and Connecticut. As for the mission in Hawaii, its jurisdiction passed to the California Province (until it closed in 2002). 

The 1970’s introduced a period of rapid, astonishing changes in society, in the post-Vatican church and in the Congregation of Notre Dame. Within this context and with province membership again over 1,000, in 1973, the Massachusetts Province was again divided into two provinces, establishing the Ipswich and Boston Provinces.