Sr. Blandina Segale Pt 2: The Sisters Segale of Cincinnati and the Santa Maria Institute

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sister Blandina Segale had a second chapter to her life. After spending 20 years bringing civility and the light of Christ to the Wild West, Sister Blandina and her biological sister, Sister Justina, worked hard for immigrants and those in need in Cincinnati, Ohio. They began their work in 1896 and organized the Santa Maria Institute in 1897 to provide catechesis, social services, and homes for those in need. They worked initially among the immigrant Italian population, but their scope expanded as more and more people in need flooded into Cincinnati in the first quarter of the 20th century. They fought against bigotry, religious persecution and opposition, and sometimes an adverse legal system. But their efforts became one of the largest and most important social services organizations in Ohio, Santa Maria Services.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners
0:10.2	like you.
0:11.2	If you like American Catholic History, please become a supporter at Americancathichistory.
0:17.6	Also, if you don't already, be sure to follow the podcast and give us a five-star rating
0:23.1	and a great review wherever you get your podcasts.
0:26.6	I'm Newell Heister Crow.
0:28.1	And I'm Tom Crow.
0:29.2	Now, I will, I will pause before Newell continues, just to point out.
0:32.5	We are recording this episode, though Noelle is not quite feeling well.
0:36.6	So, but we knew we had to get this out
0:38.4	because we talked about sister blandina a few weeks ago and really wanted to get this one out
0:43.0	soon so thank you for doing this in spite of not feeling well noelle oh i'm okay okay
0:52.9	today we're telling part two to to get back on topic, of the amazing story of
0:58.9	Sister Blandina Sagali, the pite-sized native of Italy who became a sister of charity
1:03.8	and really had two major parts to her story.
1:07.6	The first 20 years from 1872 to 1892 were spent taming a portion of the
1:14.2	Wild West. Yes. And what she did out there was worthy of an episode all its own. Which is why we
1:20.7	told it in its own episode. Right. It just worked out that way. We released that episode a few weeks ago.
1:26.8	Sister Blandina stared down
1:28.1	lynch mobs, ministered to dying outlaws, tamed classrooms of unruly kids, something we understand,
1:34.6	fought injustice and brought the light of Christ into a land where kill or be killed was, for many,
1:40.7	the law of the land. Yes, and by contrast, her law was love that God may be loved.
	...

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