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.
St. Joseph's Church (Fall River, Massachusetts)
During all these years the parish had been a mixed one, but with the increasing roll of French-Canadians they began to agitate for the formation of a church of their own, and so on December 1, l887, they were set apart as a new parish to be called Saint Matthew's and with Reverend Father J.A. Payan as their spiritual head. The death of Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken had occurred in the meantime, and in April 1888, his successor, Right Reverend Matthew Harkins, made an official visitation to Saint Joseph's. He read the 8 o'clock Mass, gave Holy Communion to the children, assisted by his presence at the High Mass of the Sunday and preached on the feast day - the Patronage of Saint Joseph.