Sisters of Life

Sisters of Life is a female Roman Catholic religious institute, following the Augustinian rule. It is both a contemplative and active religious community, dedicated to the promotion of pro-life causes. The abbreviation S.V. stands for Sorores Vitae, Latin for Sisters of Life.

Origins

The Sisters of Life were an order first conceived of by Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York, on a visit to the remains of a Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. There he placed his hands inside a crematoria oven, “felt the intermingled ashes of Jew and Christian, rabbi, priest and minister,” and is recorded as proclaiming, “Good God, how could human beings do this to other human beings?” Several years later, he decided to begin a new religious community in the Church, one dedicated to the promotion of pro-life causes, specifically working for an end to abortion and euthanasia. He proclaimed his intentions in an article entitled “Help Wanted: Sisters of Life” written for the newspaper Catholic New York, in which he asked for women of higher education to especially consider joining. Many women responded to the article, and on Foundation Day, June 1, 1991, eight women joined the order. For thirteen years they remained a public association of the lay faithful—a non-religious Catholic community—until March 25, 2004, when they were formally established as a religious institute of diocesan right by Edward Michael Egan, Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus of New York. The first Superior General of the order was Mother Agnes Mary Donovan.