This quote written by Mother St. Fulgence (5th General Superior) from A Century of Caring, helps explain the significance of May 24th:

“At last I am able to respond to Your Excellency’s [Cardinal, then Archbishop, Gibbons] desire, and announce to you that three of our Sisters will embark from Queenstown on May 8, sailing for New York on the Parthia. We hope that under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin Star of the Sea, they will be in Baltimore about the 18th …. We are placing this new community under the patronage of Our Mother, and principal patroness, Our Lady Help of Christians; and since her feast occurs on May 24, we shall date our first foundation in America from that day. So in order that God will bless and accept it, we earnestly ask Your Excellency’s permission that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass be celebrated, on that same day, in the little oratory that will have been prepared for this purpose.”

— from A Century of Caring p.14