THE SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 21, 28 May 1908, Page 14

THE SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART

BEATIFICATION OF THE FOUNDRESS

CELEBRATIONS AT TIMARU

(By telegraph from our Special Reporter.)

On Sunday last the solemn ceremonies in connection with the beatification of the venerable-, servant of God, Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred* Heart of Jesus, took place at St. Peter's, Rome. The centenary of the Order was celebrated on November 21, 190 i , by the various houses of the Society scattered throughout the world. The celebration "on that occasion was a thanksgiving for the prosperous course of a great institute which at that time numbered 147 houses, with an army of over 6000 members devoted to the sacred cause of forming the minds of youth in learning and piety. But the centena.ry had a further significance, as it was associated with the pro-

cess of beatification of the saintly foundress .of the Order, the final stage of which was reached on Sunday last, when the gifted religious, whose broad culture, ripe judgment, and extraordinary piety laid the foundation of the congregation, was numbered among the saints of the Catholic Church. As was only natural, the event was one of great joy and consolation to the members of the Order throughout the world r and nowhere was it celebrated with greater solemnity and rejoicing than at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Timaru, on Tuesday last. Before giving an account of the impressive ceremonies at Timaru we place before our readers a sketch of the life of Mother Barat. Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat : A Sketch. At the time when the Revolution had devastated the Church in France, and when millions believed that the religion of Christ was to be blotted from the earth, a poor girl, Sophie Madeleine Barat, the daughter of an artisan in. Burgundy, was led under the guidance of a priest to establish the Society of the Sacred Heart. She had been educated by her brother, a priest also, who had given her a thorough religious training and a good knowledge of the 1 classics.

Father de Tournely, Superior of the Fathers of theFaith, felt that pious women working in conjunction with them would help them greatly in their labors of- winning souls to the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus-, and G-od showed .him in prayer that his Society was to be the means of organising ' A Society of the Sacred Heart,' .a society of religious women to whose hands God meant to entrust not the mere " duty of Christian education, although that would be much, but the very censer with the sacred fire of His love for men to. cast it upon the earth ; a Society- with a-two-fold spirit of prayer and sacrifice, to bear that name, to dwell in that sanctuary, to go forth conquering and to conquer— humble and hidden and lowly, sharing all the hatred that the world heaps on the Society of Jesus, and so strong in the charity of the Sacred Heart that the gates of hell should not prevail against it— a little nothing, a mustard seed,- but with a mission" that should £>c. a regeneration for thousands of souls. Such was God's idea of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and Father de Tournely's successor, Father Varin, discovered a foundation stone for this Society in Sophie Barat. On November 21, 1800, she and three others pronounced their consecra-

tion to the Sacred Heart in the little chapel of Madame Duval's house in Paris. ; but it was not until the next year that the first school of the Society was opened at Amiens, which has always been regarded as the cradle of the Society. Sophie was then appointed Superior of the little community. She was only twenty-three, and her whole fortune when she came to Amiens was one crown piece. Dry bread was often their only meal after a day of toil and difficulty, but Sophie found her Paradise on earth in making the Sacred Heart known and loved, in wearing .herself out for Its glory. Her constant teaching to her companions was .complete forgetfulness of self for this, end. ' A wise man,' she used to say, ' needs but little, and a saint still less,' and all she seemed to feel the need of was to love .Our Lord, and follow after Him in the service of the little ones of whom He said ' of such "is the Kingdom of Heaven.' The many supernatural favors she received were skilfully concealed ; but none could fail to see the spirit of God." in her patient humility in the face of every trial, and in the hidden strength which brought the members of her little barque safe -and united through the tempests which assailed its launching forth. One of her novices said in recording her first impressions of her : ' I felt I was i_in the

presence of one who was clothed with the Presence of God Himself.' , On « e £ f Sophie's greatest desires was to carry the love of the Sacred Heart to pagan -lands, and this was always the subject of her conversation when the day's work was over at Amiens, and the community • sat round their one candle, doing the needlework which they took in to help towards their support. Her apostolic zeal was to -be confined, however, to France and it was in the person of one of her daughters Philippine Duchesne, that she -.made the first foundation out of France. Mother Duchesne ~was sent to America in 1818, where she carried on the holy enterprise amid incredible privations and poverty, communicating to all her Sisters the spirit of fervor and selfsacrifice the work demanded. Madame Barat was now unable to comply with all the invitations addressed to her to establish houses of the Sacred Heart. Autun, Bordeaux, Chambery, Le Mans, Lyons, Metz, and Turin were fortunate in having their desires complied with. Houses were also founded at Charleville, Marseilles, and later in Austria, Belgium, England and Ireland, Germany, Holland, North and South America Poland, Spain, Westphalia, and" the West Indies. A large orphanage was established at Confians, near Paris, and a novitiate was built which was intended to serve for the whole Society ; but the mustard seed has grown so as to spread its branches over all the continents of the world. There are now ten novitiates, and about about 6500 religious to celebrate their Mother's beatification. Out of the 46 houses there were in France, 43 have been closed by the Government during

the last few years, but this has only caused wider expansion and new foundations in other parts of the world, making a total of 137 houses. Madame Barat died on Ascension Day, May 25, 1865. Her death was as edifying as her life.. " TIMARU. The Convent of the Sacred Heart at Timanr was founded from the magnificent house of the Order at Maryville, near St. Louis, in the United States. On December 12, 1879— when the Society was celebrating the centenary of the birth of the Blessed Mother Barat— six religious of the Sacred Heart left San Francisco on their way to New Zealand. At Wellington they received a most fatherly welcome from his Grace Archbishop Redwood, who accompanied them to their destination in Timaru — then a part of the Wellington diocese. Father Chataignier, S.M., was then in charge of Timaru, and .he and his people accorded a hearty welcome to the newly arrived religious. There was no convent at the . time, and 'the little community partitioned off with canvas a portion of the school for their temporary abode. Some weeks later the presbytery was vacated" by Fathers Chataignier and Goutenoire, and it was turned into a temporary convent. The greatest kindness was extended to the young

community by the Archbishop and the Marist Fathers, On February 1, 1880, the foundation stone of the magnificent new convent was laid by his Grace in the pre-*" sence of a great gathering. Among those. who took part in the solemn function was the late Bishop Moran, of Dunedin. Fifteen days later the first Superior, Rev. Mother Boudreau, was interred in the convent grounds, amidst the intense grief of the afflicted little community. She was succeeded by Mother Sullivan, who continued in office till her death in 1889. Under' -the care of the excellent and gifted religious of the Sacred Heart the numbers on the roll of the girls' parish school has steadily mounted up. year by , year. The community has, from time to time, been strengthened by reinforcements of religious from Europe. A, great portion of the fine and beautifully situated new convent— of which we publish a view in this issue-^ was blessed and opened on October 3, 1880. -The Right 'Rev. Dr. Grimes, the first Bishop of Christchurch, arrived in Canterbury in 1888, and since that time has taken a deep and practical interest in the progress of Catholic education in Timaru as in the rest of his extensive and well-equipped See.

(Continued on page 19.)