The social justice advocates, both around 60 years old, gave notice early this year that they were leaving at year’s end to return to New England and be closer to aging parents and family.

Often credited with starting Covenant House, a multifaceted social service agency in downtown Charleston, the two women pointed out in a letter to the editor earlier this year that the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church started the urban ministry in 1981. Ferraro and Hussey interviewed for the positions of co-directors that same year and have guided the organization since.

The idea was to provide the poor and homeless a place where they could get counseling, pick up mail, take showers and do laundry.

The organization started with a $40,000 budget and 50 volunteers, but has grown to more than 200 volunteers and an annual budget of more than $1 million. More than 30 churches and temples contribute to Covenant House’s food pantry, clothing closet and emergency assistance fund.

Ferraro and Hussey were Catholic nuns, members of the Sisters of Notre Dame deNamur, when they arrived. They left their religious order in 1988 rather than recant their support for a dialogue on reproductive rights.

In 1984, they and 97 other Catholics signed an advertisement in The New York Times, stating a variety of opinions on abortion exist within the Catholic church. Of the members of religious orders who signed the statement, all but the two nuns buckled to Vatican pressure to back down from that position. In 1985, Ferraro and Hussey received a final warning from their order that they must either support the church’s position against abortion or be thrown out of the order.

After four years, their order cleared them, but they left anyway. A year later they were in the news again, supporting an organization called West Virginia Catholics for Choice.

In 1988, the state chapter of the National Organization of Women honored Ferraro and Hussey with the Susan B. Anthony Award, the organization’s highest honor, “for their contributions to women and their courageous stand on the preservation of reproductive rights.” a NOW leader said.

“I met Barbara and Pat when my dad was dying of cancer,” said photographer and graphic designer Michael Switzer in an interview earlier this year. His father, Roger Switzer, ran the Charleston Housing Authority for years. “We were having dinner one day, and he said, ‘If you want to see two people who are doing the work of Christ, there they are.’”

“They believe in the message of Jesus to feed the hungry and clothe the poor,” said Linda Martin, who has worked with them the last 12 years as head of Challenge West Virginia, advocating for various educational issues. “In addition to providing the service, they also believe in trying to reform the system to make it more responsive to the needs of people.”

“They want justice for all,” said Phil Hainen, who helps Ferraro and Hussey run Covenant House. “You don’t have to be in religious life to want justice for all.”

“It was obvious when we hired them they wanted to tackle not just the handing out of things but the underlying issues of poverty, homelessness and health care,” said Jim Lewis, the former pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Covenant House, Manna Meal, Health Right and the local hospice all began.

AIDS was just starting to surface as a catastrophic disease then. “They went right after that. They set up a house.”

They seemed to thrive doing the kind of work that would wear others out, Lewis said. “Their sustenance came from the people they helped. You reach out to help people, you get a great deal of energy form those people. In church circles, that’s what you call grace.”

Ferraro and Hussey created a broad and eclectic base of support, in part by killing the poison of self-interest, Terrence Barron said earlier this year at a public meeting to consider the qualities their replacement should have.

“They look for things that are needed in the community that fill a void,” Lewis Payne, a lawyer and businessman who volunteers at Covenant House, told a reporter earlier this year. “If that service isn’t needed anymore, they’ll stop doing it or spin it off into something else.”

Amy Weintraub takes over as director of Covenant House on Monday. She has been moving into the job since September.

Staff writer Julie Robinson contributed to this report. To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, use e-mail or call 348-1249.