Looking Back
On an icy morning 70 years ago on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, November. 21, 1949, the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary were born! Click here for some history details.
Founding of Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary
Sr. Mary Schutz, foundress of the HVM, wrote this account in an article celebrating our 50th anniversary in 1999:
A one inch notice in “The Michigan Catholic” was the initial seed that eventually came to fruition as the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary. Miss Josephine Brownson asked for an after-school instructor for Wednesdays – which was my afternoon off from work at Van Antwerp library. Dr. George Hermann Derry, president of Marygrove College, inspired in me the reality of the Indwelling Presence of the Trinity and a growing awareness that the laity must share in the work of the bishops.
Miss Brownson introduced me to my class. All the students were Colored (the term of the time). I would walk the students a few blocks from the school to St. Peter Claver church (now Sacred Heart Parish) to make a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Peter Claver was treated as a national parish for all Colored Catholics in Detroit east of Woodward. Later, Fr. Thiefels invited me to take over the Sunday School at the parish. I invited Lou Murphy to teach with me.
Ten years later, my mother died and I was searching to join a religious congregation that would assure ministering in the Black community. I consulted Msgr. Ryan, head of CCD in the archdiocese. He said, “I’ve had an idea itching the seat of my pants. Why not start a community that will go house to house inviting people to the Church and be responsible for catechetics!”
