Saint Mary’s at Asbury Ridge Saint Mary’s at Asbury Ridge opened on a beautiful 34-acre site in Millcreek Township on October 2, 2001. The facility included 74 apartments, an Alzheimer’s residential living unit for 16 residents, and an 80-bed skilled nursing facility with private rooms.

Erie’s Historic Little Italy neighborhood, once a thriving mecca of culture and community, had become distressed and plagued with poverty, crime, blight, vacant buildings, and struggling families. The Sisters of St. Joseph began a grassroots ministry to address the neighborhood’s needs. Sisters Mary Herrmann and Carol Wilcox developed an innovative model of service that started…

Since 1997, when it was founded by a group of SSJ Associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania in Meadville, PA, St. James Haven has been a place of welcome refuge for homeless men in the Meadville area.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania announced the beginning of the Courage To Come Back campaign in the Erie Diocese. The idea originated at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh and expanded to Philadelphia, Buffalo, Toronto, Erie, and Vancouver. The initiative’s purpose was two-fold: to honor individuals who showed remarkable courage in recovery from…

In 1995, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Benedictine Sisters, and the Sisters of Mercy collaborated to establish Erie DAWN in response to a housing crisis for women and children in Erie. In partnership with area landlords, Erie DAWN provides safe, affordable, independent, transitional housing for low-income women and children. The ministry offers advocacy and…

In 1993, a generous benefactor donated a house in southwest Erie to the Sisters of St. Joseph with the provision that it be used for ministry. That gift, and the timely need for housing for disadvantaged women and children, led to the establishment of Bethany House. “Bethany” means house of welcome. Its mission was to…

The Sisters dedicated their new Community Living Center (CLC) in Millcreek Township, just outside of Erie.

On Good Friday, April 1, 1983, a rainbow appeared as Sister Benita Repasky,67, drove into the Shenango Valley to establish a new ministry to serve the poor. Her notes indicate, “I seemed to hear these words . . . ‘My child, take my hand, and I shall bring you into a new life and give…

Peter Lyons, owner of the Marketplace Grill restaurant in downtown Erie, and Sister Theresa Marie Bohren, SSJ, teamed up to offer dinner at the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day to those who might otherwise not enjoy the tradition. Nearly 140 meals were served that first year, and the ministry became an annual tradition. Home deliveries were…