The Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon (SSMO) are a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1886 in the U.S. state of Oregon.[1] Their convent is located in Beaverton.[1] They administer Valley Catholic School, Little Flower Development Center, Valley Catholic Grade School, the Bethany Center, and Maryville Nursing Home.[1]
In 1885, several young women in Jordan, Oregon, who were members of a German schismatic religious colony from Minnesota began to doubt the beliefs of the group and sent to the Benedictines of Mount Angel Abbey for advice.[1][2] Archbishop William Hickley Gross visited the colony and laid out a plan for reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church.[1][2] The group's elders rejected the plan, but the women asked to come along with the bishop, who wanted them to become a formal religious community.[1][2] Nine women secretly escaped and moved to Mt. Angel.[1][2] After several months of living with the Catholic order of the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel at the Queen of Angels Monastery, the sisters moved to Sublimity and began their new life as the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood.[1] They changed their name to Sisters of St. Mary in 1905.[1]