 Many women responded to the article, and on Foundation Day, June 1, 1991, eight women joined the order.For thirteen years they remained a public association of the lay faithful—a non-religious Catholic community—until March 25, 2004, when they were formally established as a religious institute of diocesan right by Edward Michael Egan, Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus of New York.The first Superior General of the order was Mother Agnes Mary Donovan.