Sisters of Social Service

The Sisters of Social Service (SSS) are a Roman Catholic religious institute of women founded in Hungary in 1923 by Margaret Slachta. The sisters adopted the social mission of the Catholic Church and Benedictine spirituality with a special devotion to the Holy Spirit.

The institute was founded by Margaret Slachta, who was a pioneer in social service, and a leading political figure, who trained other women for political action and in 1920 became the first woman elected to the Hungarian Parliament, where she actively promoted workers’ rights, stressing the well-being of women, children and families. She was inspired by the social and economic turmoil in Europe following the First World War, when tens of thousands of people were living in wretched conditions across the continent. Hungary had seen its territory reduced by some sixty percent by the Allies and was also suffering from waves of political terror by competing forces, as well as conquest by Romania of much of its eastern regions.

Margaret and the other founders of the Sisters of Social Service were strongly influenced by their experiences working in the Social Mission Society which was founded by Edith Farkas in Budapest in 1908. In 1923 Edith implemented a number of changes in the organization including a planned merger with a Jesuit women's society. As a result, Margaret, Sister Frederica Horvath (future founder of the SSS in California) and four other sisters to left the society and seek to form a new organization founded on the same principles as the original Social Mission Society of working in the world with the poor, but with a greater emphasis on working in politics.

A dedicated Catholic, Margaret was led to form a religious institute along with some of her coworkers to carry out their commitment to care for the needy and suffering around them. This congregation was established in 1923 under the name of the Sisters of Social Service. The members of the Society made the social mission of the Church the motivating thrust of their lives. They embraced Benedictine spirituality and had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit. The Sisters dedicated themselves to God by vows.

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