The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary was founded in 1610 in Annecy, France by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane de Chantal “to give to God Daughters of prayer, and souls so interior, that they may be found worthy to serve His infinite majesty and to adore Him in spirit and in truth. . . .” It was June 6, the Feast of the Holy Trinity when Mother de Chantal and her two companions entered into the place “of their delight”, the little house called the Gallery.

“. . . he (Saint Francis de Sales) put into our blessed Mother’s hands a summary of our Constitutions written out in his own holy hand: ‘Follow this way,’ he said to her, ‘my very dear Daughter, and make all those follow it whom heaven has destined to follow in your footsteps’.”

The Visitation came to Toledo in 1915 from our Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) Monastery at the invitation of Bishop Joseph Schrembs, the first bishop of the Diocese. He told the sisters that his object in bringing the Visitation Order to Toledo was that “the sisters should remain upon the mountain-top in prayer and sacrifice pleading for the salvation of souls, particularly those of the diocese, clergy, religious and laity.”

The sisters resided in the bishop’s former residence on Collingwood Ave until 1917 when they moved into the monastery on Parkside Blvd.