She was born in Bickenriede, Saschen, Prussia, the daughter of Bartholomew Joseph Saul and Maria Christina Pfeil. She emigrated to the U.S. with her family at age 6 in 1839. They settled on a farm near Hecker, St. Clair County, Illinois. On February 2, 1850, at the age of 16, she entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet near St. Louis, Missouri. She adopted the religious name of Sister Mary Stanislaus and professed vows on August 24, 1852. During her career, she played a major role in the expansion of the Sisters of St. Joseph into frontier communities in both the West and the East. At the age of 23, she was appointed Mother Superior and from then on led pioneering "advance teams" of sisters to found schools and orphanages. By the end of her life, she had created, financed and administered at least 10 schools and orphanages in four states. She also administered the St. Paul (MN) Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph for one term, overseeing the sisters and their institutions in the upper Midwest. At a time when women did not work outside the home, she was creating and administering institutions, personnel and financial resources. Her education, travels and work experiences far exceeded anything available to her biological sisters. In 1884, she founded the parish school at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Newton with an initial enrollment of 70 students. Mother Stanislaus Saul died at the St. Thomas Convent of typhoid fever, a bacterial infection spread by contaminated food or water.
She was born in Bickenriede, Saschen, Prussia, the daughter of Bartholomew Joseph Saul and Maria Christina Pfeil. She emigrated to the U.S. with her family at age 6 in 1839. They settled on a farm near Hecker, St. Clair County, Illinois. On February 2, 1850, at the age of 16, she entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet near St. Louis, Missouri. She adopted the religious name of Sister Mary Stanislaus and professed vows on August 24, 1852. During her career, she played a major role in the expansion of the Sisters of St. Joseph into frontier communities in both the West and the East. At the age of 23, she was appointed Mother Superior and from then on led pioneering "advance teams" of sisters to found schools and orphanages. By the end of her life, she had created, financed and administered at least 10 schools and orphanages in four states. She also administered the St. Paul (MN) Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph for one term, overseeing the sisters and their institutions in the upper Midwest. At a time when women did not work outside the home, she was creating and administering institutions, personnel and financial resources. Her education, travels and work experiences far exceeded anything available to her biological sisters. In 1884, she founded the parish school at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Newton with an initial enrollment of 70 students. Mother Stanislaus Saul died at the St. Thomas Convent of typhoid fever, a bacterial infection spread by contaminated food or water.
