College, now Fontbonne University, all were founded by the sisters at the convent at Carondelet. In 1847 the first foundation outside St. Louis was made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, followed shortly by foundations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1851); Hamilton, Ontario (1852); Wheeling, West Virginia (1853); and Canandaigua (1854); Flushing (Brentwood)(1856); Rochester; and Buffalo, all in New York state, which had received many Irish Catholic immigrants. In 1851 Bishop Joseph Cretin went to Carondelet to ask Mother Celestine to send the Sisters of St. Joseph to his new diocese in St. Paul, Minnesota; four sisters reached there by steamboat on 3 November. In 1853 Bishop John McCloskey of Albany, NY requested sisters for Cohoes, New York. On April 15, 1858, one German, one Irish, and two native-born sisters arrived by train in Oswego, New York in the midst of a snowstorm, to establish a school for Catholic immigrants. In 1869 the Flushing community sent three pioneer sisters to Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. Because of the rapid growth of the institute and the increasing demand for sisters from all parts of the United States, the superiors of the community called a general chapter in May 1860, to which representatives from every congregational house in America were summoned. Mother St. John Facemaz was elected first superior general for a term of six years. Shortly afterward, she traveled to Rome to present a copy of the Constitution for Vatican approval. In September 1863, Pope Pius IX issued a degree of commendation. Final approbation was received, dated May 16, 1877. This approval established the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a congregation of pontifical right, and unified their communities in various dioceses with the mother-house at Carondelet (now part of St. Louis, Missouri). During the Civil War, the order sent nuns to serve as Army nurses. According to Civil War medical historian George Adams, Dorothea Dix, the head of Army nurses distrusted them; her anti-Catholicism undermined her ability to work with Catholic nurses, lay or religious. In 1910 the congregation divided into four provinces. The Sisters are known for their work in education and health care, and their opposition to the death penalty. Present day The congregation is composed of almost 1,200 vowed sisters who minister in four provinces (Albany, New York; Los Angeles, California; St. Louis, Missouri and St. Paul, Minnesota) and a vice province in Peru. The Congregational Center is located in Sunset Hills, Missouri,