THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1916, Page 17

THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH

S GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE ORDER. ? On Sunday "next (says the Catholic Press of March 16) his 'Excellency the Apostolic Delegate will preside over. one of the . most noteworthy ceremonies which has ever taken plage v in Sydney. The occasion is to mark the passage of 50 years since Mary McKillop, a young Victorian, with two girl friends, began a little school in a patched-up stable at Penola, then a straggling bush township in South Australia on the borders of Victoria, 200 miles from anywhere -particular. This was the first -introduction'to public life of her whom Archbishop Kelly has designated as ' one of the greatest and noblest daughters. of Australia,' Mother Mary of the Cross, who, with this modest beginning, inaugurated one of the most characteristic communities of present-day Catholic life, the Congregation of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. • v ■ ■ The history of the Josephites, the name by which the Sisters are lovingly known in hundreds of bush townships in Australia and New Zealand, is bound up with the life story of Mother Mary, who guided their, destinies for 43 years, and who, in the apostolic fervor of her. vocation, and the variety of works which she embraced within her rule, may be looked upon as the ' Elizabeth Seton, as well as the Catherine McAuley of these Austral lands. ' Alexander McKillop. * '. Toward the end of the 'thirties Alexander McKillop, a young man, who sprang from a well-known Highland family, came to Sydney to try his fortunes. Like his friend and fellow-countryman, W. A. Duncan, who was then conducting a Catholic paper in the budding city, McKillop had been intended for the Church. He spent some time at the Scots College in Rome, but ill-health compelled him to return to the world. His character may be gauged by the fact that he.was a favorite of Cardinal Capellari, who became a few years later Pope Gregory XVI. " The Cardinal gave him a relic of the True Cross, which serves to illustrate an incident in the life of his daughter. He did not remain long in Sydney, but went to represent a Sydney business firm at the settlement on the Yarra, not then two years old, and was present at the first Mass, which was celebrated by the pioneer Irish Franciscan, Father Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan, in the unroofed store in Elizabeth street, and afterwards helped him to build the church which he had dedicated to the founder of his Order, St. Francis of Assisi. McKillop was not long in Melbourne when he married Miss Flora McDonald, who, like himself, was a Scottish Catholic. And when their first child was born, on January 15, 1842, she was brought to Father Geoghegan at St. Francis' to be baptised. The father's strict instructions were that ' she was to be given no name but Mary'; and though, to his vexation, the godmother added Helen, the second name was never used. When Mary McKillop grew to womanhood, and asked to »be given a name in religion, Father Tenison Woods, who had; not heard, either the story of the Father's" exclusive desire for Mary, or of the relic given to him by Capellari, suggested the name of Mother Mary of the Cross. One might" well believe that in the title there is something more than mere coincidence. ; v.. ' ••::-, .•-■; ■■■./ - Father Tenison Woods. • . V ' In those old days of anti-Catholic ascendancy, Alexander McKillop was. hardly the man to prosper. The notorious bigot, Dr. Lang, made some attack on Catholicity, and McKillop'vigorously replied. In the event he found himself dismissed from his employment. Mary had just received her First Communion* in St. Francis' Church, when the family removed to Portland, an old but small coast town, near the South Australian border. Here she grew into womanhood, and here she met one 1 of Australia's historic priests, a man whose intellectual brilliancy did not disdain the arduous and heart-trying work of a pioneer bush missionary, .Julian E. Tenigpn Woods, Father Woods

"was the son of a Times sub-editor, and entered Baliol College, where Frederick Oakeley,- later a canon in the Catholic Church, was his tutor?' "' He soon found himself in the thick of the' Oxford Movement,' and with Newman, Faber, Oakeley, and many others, came over to Rome.' He left Oxford before graduating;,studied for the priesthood in France, and, coming to Australia ' for his' health,' became . a missionary: priest 'on the lower Murray border. " Besides his endless work as a travelling priest, Father Woods became a distinguished geologist, and his early work in this field obtained for him a world-wide reputation. \. --• The work into which this zealous young priest was thrown revealed to him the sad condition of bush children. Few facilities for any kind of instruction were-given them, and none for Christian education. Father Woods dreamed of a congregation of nuns who would venture into the bush, far from facilities for regular Mass and the Sacraments, with the sole object of instilling the primary principles of our holy faith in the hearts of the children, and. often adults, in these remote places. - ; Begins in a Stable. Father Woods inspired Mary McKillop with the same ideas, and early in 1866, with two girl friends, she started the little school in the slab-built stable at Penola. Then, as in many events to follow, they had no visible resources ; but the directing hand •of God was with them. From this little bush town, first one and then another modest off-shoot sprang, until in five years they could count 120 members of the Sisterhood. With the approval of the Bishop they established a hovitate in Adelaide in 1867, and there they assumed the title of Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, with Mary McKillop as Mother Superior, in the name of Mary of the Cross. ; ■ In March, 1873, Mother Mary was able to carry out her long-cherished desire, which was to lay her rule at the feet of the Holy Father, and to beg his gracious approval. The good services of Monsignor Kirby, of the Irish College, were enlisted, and under his guidance she was presented to Pius IX., who blessed her and her co-workers, or, as she enthusiastically wrote to her community, .' The Holy Father has blessed our beloved "habit.' The Pope was very gracious to her, and as no difficulties arose the Sisterhood received the formal Papal approbation, April 20, 1874. . Immediately afterwards she left the Eternal City, and, spending two days at Loreto on the way, returned to London, in order to hasten back to Australia, with several postulants, in whom she had awakened vocations. On her way she met, and became very friendly with Lady Georgiana Fullerton, the distinguished authoress of Grantley Manor, who had become a convert. Lady Fullerton» was much impressed by the Australian nun, and wrote some charming passages about the work of the St. Joseph Sisters in Australia. On July 28, 1888, a Decree of Propaganda entitled the Sisters of St. Joseph to the rights and privileges of a religious 'congregation,' and named the foundation at Mount street t to be the Mother House for Australasia. .["■•' Death of Mother Mary. ; Mother Mary's work was now consolidated. During a visit to New Zealand, in 1902, to visit and extend the congregation: which had been established in various centres since 1885, she contracted the illness which restricted . her physical activity, and under which she lingered in suffering, and patience for seven years. Prior to this she had regularly visited every convent, and was.personally/ acquainted with every Sister in the community. ■? In her lifetime 750 Sisters had been admitted, and upwards of 100 '. pre-deceased ', her. Mother Mary passed to her reward on August 8,1909.