THE ORIGINS OF the Cleveland community of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Saint Mark go back to 1845 with the foundation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Mark in the Diocese of Strasbourg. The community grew and several provinces were established including that of Saint Trudpert in Baden, Germany in 1920. Bishop Joseph Schrembs invited members of this community to come to Cleveland to take charge of the domestic department at Saint Mary Seminary. By 1926 twelve Sisters had arrived to take this ministry. In 1927 they began cared for the aged residing at Saint Joseph Hospice in Louisville, Ohio. 

In the 1930's, the Nazi government persecuted religious communities, especially those with missionaries abroad. This persecution hindered the acceptance of vocations and the German community needed the services of those in America. Not knowing how the Sisters would be treated by the Americans, the German provincial requested that the Sisters return home. Bishop Schrembs was concerned not only about the ministries the Sisters had established here, but about their safety in Germany since they had become American citizens. He petitioned His Holiness Pius XI for assistance. On April 16, 1937 the Sacred Congregation of Religious replied that the Sisters would be permitted to stay in the Diocese of Cleveland. Furthermore, the Sacred Congregation had declared that the sisters were now directly subject to the General Motherhouse at St. Mark in France rather than to the German province. On September 11, 1937 the Sacred Congregation of Religious gave permission for the sisters to establish an American Province. Those who did not wish to join the new province could return to the Province of Saint Trudpert in Germany. Only two did so, the twenty-seven remaining sisters became the nucleus of the new American province.