THE SISTERS OF CHARITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 48, 30 March 1894, Page 27

THE SISTERS OF CHARITY.

At Mount St Anne's, Miltown, County Dublin, the noviciate of the Irish Sisters of Chari'y, a moat impressive and interesting ceremony was recently celebrated in honour of the golden, jubilee of the Superior-G >ner»l of the Order, Mother Mary Francia Scholastic* Margison, who has be^n fifty years a prefe9sed nun in this Order, which, of all others, is co truly Irish in its origin, in its life, in itsevery work. The occasion waß a retnirkable one, for the Institute of tbe Irish Sisters of Charity baiug of the present ceiturr, and therefore in its infancy as compared with many other Catholic religion! congregations, this is the first time in the history of the Sisterhood that a Superior-General clebrUes her jubilee of fifty years. Taerefore, the festival has been kvpt as the g >lden wedding that proves how truly, how indissolubly, binding was, and is, the link that weds the Sisters of Charity to their chosen ones — Jhnst'a Irish poor. The celebratioa was of deep and touching interest, not only for the Sisters themselves, but for the public at large, of all classes and creed? — for tbe work of this particular Sisterhood reaches every class and every creed amongst us, and that to a f .ir greater degree than ia generally realised. C»tholic in every sense of toe word, the Sister of Charity, in her good works, recognises no religious distinction. Tbe rule of her life forbids her to interfere with the beliefs of othen, and tne poor Protestant, .1 aw, unbeliever, knocking at the convent door, needs no other credentials than those of poverty and suffjring . Therefore, the members of every creed have an especial interest ia a Sistemood whose institution in our midst has proved sue a a bleating to the poor. The Sisters of Charity — who are they, and what is their work? Of Irish books written in tbe last quarter of a century there is one which has been placed by historians and other learned men of letters in the foremost rank amoagsfc such book", both as a biography and an historical work ; this is the ■' Life of Mary Aikenhead, Foundress of the Order of Irish Sisters of Charity," written by the late Mrs Sarah Atkinson. This biography gives a very beautifol description of the foundation, the rise, and the establishment amongst us of the Irish Sisters of Charity, and from it we learn how, just seventy-eight years ago, when the Catholics of this country were emerging from the painful state of bondage and suffering in which they had been kept during centuries of varying penal laws, a young Cork ladf of

goo 1 fortune and position, whose feeling heart lei her to notice and to realise how great are the sorrows of the poor— a vast field for meditation — conceived the idea of a religious order of women whose lives should be devoted, in private and in public, to tbe services of tbe destitute. In those days Mary Aikenhead's thought was a bold one ; the terrors of penal times were still strong in the heart* of Catholic, so long unaccustomed to any freedom, civil or religious; the ancient public charitable institutions bad long been suppressed, and it was a thing unknown and unheard of that nuns should be seen in public hospitals giving their tender, motherly care alike to suffering men, women, and children ; nuns had nevtr been seen in tbe streets, going on their errands of mercy from house to bouse, visiting, comforting alleviating the woes of their wretched inmates ; nuns had never yet been seen in the public schools, instructing th« ignorant ; in the prisons, winning the poor outcasts of society back to repentance, h< pc, and self-respec', or preparing the condemned criminals to go before tbeir God. All these and a hundred other good works were conceived in the large heart of Mary Aikenhead, who, blessed in her undertaking by the Most Bey Dr Murray, then Archbishop of Dublin, began in 1815, in company with one other generous young Irish lady, that mission of truly Christian mercy never since interrupted even for one hour. These two women, young in yearp, comparatively, in th« world, and in business affairs, simply took for their motto and the guiding impulse of their life the legend, " Caritas Christi urget nos." Broad tender, unbigoted, Divinely human, like Christ Himself, it taught sympathy for every woe of mind and body, and it urged, ever more and more, each day enlarging tbe hearts it filled, until no work in any way beneficial to the poor seemed too great, too difficult for Mother Mary Aikenhead and th« daughters whom, before long, she saw gathered around her in hundreds and spread far and wide throughout the land. It haa been said that so fully did the sublime motto of ber order fill the foundress's heart that she succeeded in insti ling its very spirit, and much of her own fine nature, into every member of ber congregation, from the beginning to the present hour, and it would certainly seem as if the Mother General who, for tbe last eighteen years, has ruled over tbe now widespread association, bad, indeed,

inherited tbe came oature, the same intellect, quick to understand, prompt to carry out every good work, no matter bow arduous, that can in any way advance the one object of her Order — the well-being of the poor. To apeak much of the virtues and personal qualities is not compatiDle wiih the privacy of one who haß elected to hide her individuality under the name of Simer of Charity It may, however, be said here that to those who know many of the oomoaunit'es under ! her ruJe it is evident that tbe Superior-General, who has just celebrated her golden jubilee, rulcß not al me with a wisdom equal to that which founded thia noble Order, but with such » generous heart and spirit that all her cbi dren regard her leu as their superior than as a beloved mother for whom each one truly feels the tenderness of a daughter. The oily personal record then, which is nude at this public ceremonial, is that Mrs Anne Margison, in religion Mother Alary Frauds Scholastics wai born in Preston, Lancashire, March 3rd, 1818, and is pirtly English and partly Irish by descent, her fathei'a mother having been Imh. When in her 23rd year Miß^ Margiaon entered the novitiate of tbe Sisters of Ohanty, and was professed after the usual term of probat.on, nearly three years, The whole of her earlier religious life was devoted to the care of the sick in St. Vincent's Hospital, of wh cb she was superior for eighteen years, up to the time of her election as Superior-General of the Order, in 1870, since wbic:> time she has resided at the Novitiate, so that the greater part of Mrs Margison's long and useful life has been spent amoogst and for the Irish. Once only in all those loug years did sic revibic England, when she had the privilege of attending the death- bed of her only brother, who had also devoted his life to the service of God. Father Margisoa was a distinguished member of the Beaedictiae Order.