Sisters of the Good Samaritan Order of St Benedict SGS

The Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict were the first religious Congregation founded in Australia, and as our name suggests, our work and prayer are both enlivened by the Parable of the Good Samaritan and nourished by the ancient wisdom of the Rule of St Benedict.

We were co-founded in 1857 by Archbishop John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine monk; and Mother Scholastica Gibbons, an Irish Sister of Charity. From the outset, we committed ourselves to assisting vulnerable women and children in the fledgling penal colony of Sydney. Our work in responding to the call to be neighbour in different ways, times and places continues to this day, fulfilling Polding’s vision for us as missionary Benedictines.