The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth are a Roman Catholic apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in the Convent Station area of Morris Township, New Jersey, USA. The religious order was established in 1859 in Newark, New Jersey, following the example of Elizabeth Ann Seton's community that was founded in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. History In 1858, the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, James Roosevelt Bayley, a nephew of Elizabeth Ann Seton, applied to Mount Saint Vincent's, New York, for sisters to form a separate mother-house in his diocese. Mary Xavier Mehegan, a member of the Sisters of Charity of New York was placed in charge of St. Mary's, Newark. At the request of Bishop Bayley, Sister Mary Xavier was appointed superior of the new foundation, with Sister Mary Catherine Nevin assistant. The habit and the constitutions of the Sisters of Charity in New York were retained. On 29 September, 1859, the new community was formally opened in St. Mary's, Newark, the first superior general being the Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid, later Bishop of Rochester, New York. Bishop Bayley had strongly advocated a change in the head-dress of the sisters. This, however, was not carried into effect until 1874, when the black cap adopted by Mother Seton was replaced by a white one with a black veil. Education The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth founded the Academy of Saint Elizabeth, the first secondary school for young women in the state, near Morristown in 1860 during the same year that they established their motherhouse at that location. Eventually, the nearby community became known as Convent Station because of a railway station built during the 1870s with funds provided by the order, to accommodate their needs. In 1899 the religious order also established the College of Saint Elizabeth on the same campus, becoming the first four year liberal arts college for women in New Jersey and one of the first Catholic colleges in the United States to award degrees to women. That same year, they established St. Aloysius Academy, a private school for women, in Jersey City. St. Aloysius closed in 2005. The Saint Anne Villa is the retirement facility on the campus for members of the order. Later in 1935 the Sisters of Charity also sponsored another academy, Marylawn of the Oranges, a college preparatory school for young women in the Essex County area. From