Centenary Of Order

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 12

Centenary Of Order

The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, known as the “Brown Josephs," celebrated the centenary of the founding of their order at a concelebrated Mass at Temuka on Saturday. The order of sisters, which conducts schools and orphanages and performs charitable services, was founded in 1866 at Penola. South Australia, by Mary McKillop. Their initial work was mainly providing education for Australia’s outback children. The order spread throughout New Zealand and Australia. i The concelebrants at the Mass were the Bishop of Christchurch (the Most Rev B. P. Ashby): the Bishop of Dunedin (the Most Rev. J. P. Kavanagh); the Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington (the Most Rev. O. N. Snedden) and the Auxiliary Bishop of Auckland (the Most Rev. R. J. Delargey). The Mass was celebrated in the grounds of the convent at Temuka and was attended by children representing the nine schools the order conducts in the South Island. The celebrations were begun in Temuka because the first sisters for New Zealand arrived there in 1883.

The centenary celebrations transferred to Christchurch yesterday when the opening of a new chapel at St. Joseph s convent, Shirley, was marked with a concelebrated Mass conducted by Bishops Ashby and Delargey.