Sisters Mary Blandine, Mary Joseph and Mary Ange arrived in Galveston, Texas, and started Charity Hospital, the first Catholic hospital in Texas. This would later become St. Mary's Infirmary & St. Mary's Hospital. Later, as a result of the yellow fever epidemic that struck Galveston, the St. Mary's Orphanage was started, first in the hospital, and was later moved just outside town, away from the epidemic. This epidemic also struck two of the sisters: Mother Mary Blandine would die of yellow fever on August 18, 1867; Sister Mary Ange also contracted yellow fever but recovered and returned to France. In 1867 and 1868 other sisters, educated and professed in the same convent at Lyons, came to offer their assistance.