The Sisters Servants of Mary convent in the East Bronx was established in 1931.
Photo ET Rodriguez
The Sisters Servants of Mary convent in the Country Club section of the Bronx, which has been serving the sick in the community for almost a century, is in the process of closing its doors due to a lack of vocation for the profession.
A congregation of the Catholic Sisters founded in Madrid, Spain in 1851, the Sisters Servants of Mary established a Province of the United States in 1913. The provincial government is based in the Kansas City, Kansas convent. The congregation currently has six convents in the U.S., including the one in the East Bronx, which fulfill the mission of caring for the sick and the dying in their own homes.
At the peak of its century in the Bronx, the convent housed anywhere from 25-30 sisters, who visited the homes of the sick in the community, usually staying overnight in order to care for them and resulting in a one-to-one system of sisters to families.
Sister Silvia Juarez first started at the Bronx convent in 2009, and has since left and returned three times. In an interview with the Bronx Times, Juarez said that during her time in the Bronx, she and her fellow sisters helped countless families, dealing with a minimum of three to four calls a day from families in need.
On June 9, Juarez said the Bronx convent had only nine sisters left at the convent, and just one week later that number was down to three. The sisters have been leaving for one of the other Sisters Servants of Mary convents across the country in order to live in a community where they can make the largest impact.
The Congregation of the Servants of Mary is currently in the process of selling the building that houses the Bronx convent, which is located on Country Club Road.
In an April letter to state Assemblymember Michael Benedetto, whose district includes the Country Club neighborhood, Juarez said, “Our foundress St. Maria Soledad Torres Acosta…
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