In 2007, following the aftermath of the first wave of priestly scandals in the northern U.S., the Congregation for the Clergy issued a document called “Adoration, Reparation, Spiritual Motherhood for Priests.” The Congregation issued this appeal to bring about in the Church a movement of prayer, with the intention of awakening a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priestly state, and at the same time uniting priestly vocations to the support of spiritual maternity, particularly on the part of consecrated feminine souls.
The charism of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother was conceived in seed form in the prayerful discernment of Sister Mary Raphael, formerly secretary of Bishop Robert Baker and then a Poor Clare nun. Her eight years in the cloister formed her interior contemplative life. Her years working in a Chancery gave her close-up contact with the spiritual and practical needs of priests—of their struggles, times of loneliness, joys, and successes. She witnessed men so dedicated to their pastoral work that sometimes they neglected their own practical needs. She saw other priests who were struggling to faithfully live their vocation and watched them in their darkness. Thus lit a flame of desire to give her life to be totally spent for the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and of those He has chosen to draw up into it, particularly in the local church of the Diocese of Charlotte.
With the permission and support of Bishop Peter Jugis, the Daughters were founded on May 13, 2015. With its own unique charism, the Movement known as the Daughters of the Virgin Mother provides care for bishops, priests, and seminarians, under the patronage of our Lady, the Mother of the Eternal High Priest and of Pope St. John Paul II. Through the support of spiritual maternity, the Sisters attend to the practical and spiritual needs of men preparing for the Priesthood, as well as those of the men already sharing in the Priesthood of Christ through Holy Orders. The life of active service to the Sacred Priesthood of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother is animated and impelled by a deep contemplative spirit that is sustained and nurtured through sacrifice and prayer in the school of our Lady, offered for the sanctification of bishops, priests, and seminarians, and for the rise of holy vocations to the priestly state.
Nine years later, they now have nine Sisters and serve at St. Joseph College Seminary in house administration, cooking, mending cassocks, and caring for the chapel and sacred linens. They also serve parish priests in various ways – spring cleaning sacristies, cooking, secretarial work, driving or running errands, visiting priests who are sick, and of course, daily praying for all bishops, priests, and seminarians.
