The Four Sisters of Charity were four American educators known as Sisters Loyola Ritchie, Rebecca Delone, Felicia Fenwick, and Rosaline Brown. Catholic Bishop of Detroit, Michigan,

Peter Paul Lefevere Peter Paul Lefevere, or Lefebre (April 30, 1804 – March 4, 1869), was a 19th-century Belgian born bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He was a missionary priest in the states of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa before he served as c ...

saw a need for education and charitable work in Detroit in the late 1830s; the four women were sent there in 1844. The four women rebuilt Detroit's school system, educating 600 children in schools founded in 1844 and 1859. The first school was opened within two weeks of their arrival. In 1845, they founded St. Vincent's Hospital at Sister Delone's suggestion, the first hospital in Michigan and the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

. The hospital's first patient, Robert Bridgeman, went on to work as an orderly there helping other patients. A second hospital, St. Mary's, was constructed in 1850, and the following year the first outpatient clinic in Michigan, and the second in the nation. They also created the Michigan State Retreat for the Insane, the first private psychiatric hospital in Michigan, and The House of Providence, a home for unwed mothers and their children. They were inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.

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* {{Authority control Education in Detroit Educators from Michigan 19th-century American educators 19th-century American women educators Quartets