This new history of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, focuses on the growth and evolution of the Congregation through the years 1944–1999. This book attempts to look at the Congregation, an ecclesial group of Catholic women religious, from the particular perspectives of spirituality, ministry, and governance. This history provides a view of the experience of women religious within a particular time and place. The Catholic in the pew and researchers alike will gain insight into the life of the Philadelphia Sisters of Saint Joseph in this important era of their transformation.

"This work demonstrates well how religious life for the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Chestnut Hill, evolved over the years. Indeed, given the changes that came about in the Roman Catholic Church during those years, it is more or less true for all congregations of women religious actively involved in ministry outside their congregation. And this study brings home the depth of change that women religious both brought about and experienced. . . .The book is excellent in its detail of how influential the documents of the Second Vatican Council were in reframing religious life and making it more relevant to the twentieth and twenty-first century." - American Catholic Studies