The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, colloquially known as the "Good Sams", is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women commenced by Bede Polding, OSB, Australia’s first Catholic bishop, in Sydney in 1857. The congregation was the first religious congregation to be founded in Australia. The sisters form an apostolic institute that follows the Rule of Saint Benedict. They take their name from the well-known gospel parable of the Good Samaritan. Under the guidance of Polding’s co-founder, Mother Scholastica Gibbons, a Sister of Charity, the sisters cared for needy, homeless women at a refuge, the House of the Good Shepherd in Sydney, and orphans at the Roman Catholic Orphan School, a government institution at Parramatta. Foundations were made throughout Sydney and New South Wales as bishops urgently requested staff for Catholic schools. The first foundation outside New South Wales was made at Port Pirie, South Australia, in 1890. Under the leadership of Mother Berchmans, who was superior general from 1898 to 1916, the order expanded greatly, from nineteen communities to thirty nine, with expansion into four additional states. She added new congregations to serve the poor in urban areas like Brisbane and Melbourne, and set up missions in rural areas, such as the outback of Queensland and in farming communities in Victoria. Over time, sisters have served in all states and territories of Australia. More information...
According to PR-model, goodsams.org.au is ranked 510,246th in multilingual Wikipedia, in particular this website is ranked 288,578th in English Wikipedia.
The website is placed before montanasnewsstation.com and after carnegie.lib.oh.us in the BestRef global ranking of the most important sources of Wikipedia.
