The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity is a religious order of the Episcopal Church, founded in 1882 by the Reverend Charles C. Grafton. The order was established in Boston, Massachusetts, where Grafton was rector of the Church of the Advent and chaplain of the Society of St. Margaret. Grafton, ordained in the United States in 1858, went to England in about 1866 where he founded the Society of St. John the Evangelist, commonly known as the Cowley Fathers. He had a long-standing interest in developing women's missionary societies. While in England, Grafton became spiritual leader of several large women's societies, including the Society of St. Margaret, which he brought to the United States in 1873 in order to promote the development of such organizations in this country.
In 1882 Grafton severed his connections with the Cowley Fathers over questions of the English bishops' jurisdiction over the Cowley Fathers and the direction of mission work in the United States. When Grafton left the Cowley Fathers, members of the Society of St. Margaret requested him to resign from his post as their chaplain. Three dissenting sisters and six novices left the Society and joined Grafton to establish the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity. Sister Ruth Margaret Vose was elected first mother superior.
In 1888 Grafton resigned as rector of the Church of the Advent and the mother house of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity was moved to Providence, Rhode Island. The order was incorporated in Rhode Island in 1890. Grafton was elected Bishop of Fond du Lac in November 1888 and consecrated bishop on April 25, 1889. Shortly after Grafton's elevation to bishop, a Mission House of Visitation was established in Fond du Lac and a few sisters began mission work there. After temporary residence at 67 East Division Street in Fond du Lac, a permanent home for the sisters at 101 East Division Street was acquired in 1985. A large brick building, to be used as a convent, was added to the residence in 1905 and the mother house was moved from Providence to Fond du Lac. Although ten sisters and the mother superior moved to Fond du Lac, some members of the order remained in Providence to continue mission work there. The order was incorporated in Wisconsin on May 29, 1921.
The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity is not a cloistered order and the Rule allows mission work only under the direction of the clergy. Therefore, the order does not organize or administer its own mission institutions. Its primary work is of a parochial nature and includes teaching Sunday School, preparing theology candidates for the sacraments, and teaching in parochial schools. The records also indicate that the sisters were involved in relief work such as emergency aid following natural disasters and distributing food and clothing to indigents.
All sisters in a given location are members of the Chapter, the legislative body of the order. Chapters may have a Council of at least four members, which assists the mother superior as an advisory body. The order has been incorporated in states where incorporation is necessary to transfer personal and real property. In such cases, all sisters are members of the corporation and the mother superior serves as its president. The order has chapters or does mission work on the eastern seaboard, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; several cities in California; and several other locations in the Midwest. Mission work in Wisconsin has been centered at the cathedrals in Fond du Lac, North Fond du Lac and Milwaukee, and at Grafton Hall, an Episcopal girls' school in Fond du Lac. From 1890 until the 1940s, two or three sisters lived at the Oneida Mission on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Outagamie and Brown counties. For a time, work on the reservation was discontinued because the sisters were needed elsewhere, but some mission activity resumed there in 1967. Activities at the convent in Fond du Lac include training novices, making altar breads, artistic devotional cards and embroidered altar cloths for distribution throughout the United States and abroad, and a rigorous schedule of study, devotion, and recreation.
