Sisters of St. Joseph
In 1902 nine Sisters of St. Joseph from the mother-house at Le Puy took charge of the school in the French parish of St-Roch, Fall River, Massachusetts. The accession of other members from the mother-house enabled the community to take charge of three other schools in the city attached to French parishes. In 1906 St. Theresa's Convent was formally opened as the provincial house of the community, which was legally incorporated in the same year, and a novitiate was established. In the mid 1970s, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Fall River merged with the Springfield Congregation.
Notre Dame de Lourdes Church (Fall River, Massachusetts)
With the loss of the church Masses were moved to St. Joseph's Orphanage till a new church could be built. Saturday & Sunday masses were held at Bishop Connolly High School. When the ruins were searched it was found that very little remained from the fire. One stained-glass window, "The Flight into Egypt", was spared destruction due to being in Connecticut for repair. The third Notre Dame was designed and built around this window. The three Angels that had adorned the Sanctuary Lamp and two candlesticks, though in the middle of the blaze, managed to survive the inferno. These too are part of the new church. The Sacred Heart Monument also miraculously survived the blaze even though it was in close proximity to the church. It wasn't until 1986 that the new church was built and ready for use. The orientation of the new building is reverse what the old one was. The new churches "front" sits in the footprint of the old churches "rear". In 2012, it was revealed that the parish of Notre Dame de Lourdes would be merging with the parish of Immaculate Conception in Fall River. This occurred in June 2012 and they will be using Notre Dame as their church, taking on the name St. Bernadette.