The Dominican Congregation of Our Lady of the Rosary (known more commonly as the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill) was founded in 1876 to respond to the needs of destitute women and children in New York City by providing for them a home and opportunities for education. The foundress, Alice Mary Thorpe, along with pioneer Sisters, began a tradition of service to those in need, caring for abandoned and orphaned boys and girls at Holy Rosary Convent in Manhattan. In 1884, the Sisters moved to Rockland County to provide a safe and healthy environment for the children in their care. They established and ministered in St. Agnes Home and School for Children in Sparkill until its closing in 1977.
For decades, teaching and childcare were the Sisters’ primary ministries. The Dominican Sisters of Sparkill have been responsible for founding and staffing many elementary and secondary schools in New York, Missouri, and Maryland, as well as Pakistan. The Congregation also founded St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, which has grown from humble beginnings to serve tens of thousands of students and provide affordable, quality higher education in Rockland County, New York and beyond.
Following the call of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s to respond to “the signs of the times,” the community, like all Catholic Sisters, began expanding their ministries in many new directions. They embraced roles in healthcare, pastoral care and preaching, senior housing and services, advocacy for the poor and marginalized, and protection of our planet Earth. These ministries represent some of the many ways in which the Sisters have given their lives in service to God. From their home base in Sparkill, they have spread out across the globe to continue the mission of their founding Sisters to serve those in need. Today the community numbers more than two hundred Sisters and lay Associates living throughout the United States and in Pakistan.