Jewels from Jane, March 1 (one)

Carondelet, 1 March 1840

Monseigneur:

I have the honor to present my respects and to say that I have taken votes for Sister Marie Joseph [Mary Francis Joseph Dillon]. She is received. She had nearly all the votes. I assure you that I am very much pleased with the votes. I beg you to name the day that you judge proper to receive her vows and to examine her. I should like to know some days ahead so that she can make a short retreat.

If it will not inconvenience you, could you come a day (Thursday or Sunday)when we have no class. Forgive me for asking this, but the Sisters want to make a great feast of this as she is the first that we have received into our congregation. However, whatever day you designate will be a feast day, because I feel that you will give a holiday for our children as well as for the Sisters. We all await the day eagerly.

I have the honor to be with the most profound respect your very unworthy daughter,

Sister Celestine [Pommerel]

P.S. Pardon me again. I wish to know if you think it well that I invite Father Fontbonne for the feast day.

Letter to Bishop Rosati
Translated from the French

Anne Eliza Dillon was the first American woman to enter the Congregation. She was born at Saint Charles, Missouri in 1820 and was the daughter of Patrick McAndrews Dillon, a wealthy Irish land-holder of St. Louis. Her mother died when she was a child, and together with a younger sister, she was placed with the Ladies of the Sacred Heart at their Academy in St. Louis, where she received an excellent education and acquired great fluency in French. It was here at school in 1836 that she met Sisters Delphine and Felicite, who during their first few months in America went every day to the Sacred Heart Convent for English lessons.
from Sister Lucida Savage's book, The Congregation of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, c1927

Jewels from Jane, March 1 (two)

Tucson, Arizona Territory, March 1, 1870

To the Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph

Madame:

I have the honor to write you these few words to announce to you that Monseigneur Salpointe is sending to you eight hundred piastres to help with the preliminary expense occasioned by the departure of your good Sisters whom you deign to send us. Bishop Salpointe must have told you in his letter of last week that this sum is going to you from here to San Francisco, and from there it will reach you.

I hope, therefore, that we will at last have the happiness so desired of having your dear Sisters come at the earliest possible date to Tucson to take charge of this interesting part of our population. I have no need to tell you that they will be welcomed. It is still feared that they will not come; hasten therefore as much as you can their departure, conforming however with the letter of His Excellency, who left last Saturday for Fort Yuma and should return for Holy Week.

Your devoted servant who recommends himself to your good prayers,

Theo Jouvenceau
Vicar General

Translation of letter written in French to Mother St. John Facemaz

Jewels from Jane, Feb. 9

Carondelet, February 9, 1838

Monseigneur:

I present my humble respects and beg Your Lordship please to give me permission to go to St. Louis to have the honor of talking with you. There are many things I would like to talk with you about which I cannot express in a letter and which I think you should know. Yesterday evening I had a difficult interview with Father Saulnier [Pastor of Sts. Mary & Joseph Parish] on the matter of singing because, after having asked advice of my Sisters and heard their reasoning, I had the weakness to give them permission to sing by rote and to respond at Mass. About that they said things that I cannot express. So, Monseigneur. I have great need, in my difficulty, to have the honor of an interview with Your Lordship. Please honor me with a brief reply.

Receive, Monseigneur, the humble respects of her who has the honor of being, of Your Lordship,

Your very humble and respectful servant,

Sister Marie Delphine Fontbonne

Letter to Bishop Rosati
Translated from the French

Jewels from Jane, Feb. 24

"Bishop Gerald O'Hara described this order of Sisters working in his diocese [Savannah] to Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia in a February 24, 1944 letter while requesting permission for the sisters to seek vocations in Philadelphia. He affirmed, 'The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph here is small and the Sisters have great difficulty in securing vocations. It is for this reason that they would like to try the more populous Catholic centers.' He suggests allowing the Sisters to speak to upper class high school girls of Philadelphia in order to recruit girls for the order. To Archbishop Spellman of New York, Bishop O'Hara recounts that 'here in Georgia we have a small province of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who have charge of various schools and other institutions in the diocese. These Sisters are doing heroic work in the Southland, but...they are greatly hampered by the fewness of vocations that they secure here where the Catholic population is so small.' These letters are revealing, for they clearly give evidence that the Sisters had difficulty in finding enough religious vocations to staff all the apostolates of their province.

"Despite the growth and success of the Augusta Province, the lack of vocations resulted in the merging of the Province with the Saint Louis Province in 1961. For some years other Sisters of Saint Joseph Provinces in the United States including Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Saint Paul, and Latham, New York, had sent sisters to help staff the various institutions in the Augusta Province. Mount Saint Joseph Academy merged with Boys Catholic School on November 5, 1957 when Bishop Gerald O'Hara dedicated a new school named Aquinas High School on Highland Avenue. Six Marist Brothers taught the boys while six Sisters of Saint Joseph taught the girls. The first sisters at Aquinas were Sisters Marie Cecile Bennett, Bernardine Torley, Carmelita Dowling, Marie Celine Gorman, Victoria Marie Ogilvie, and Mary Bernard Schweers. Mount Saint Joseph on Monte Sano Avenue continued as an elementary school until its sale to Saint Mary's on-the-Hill Parish located on the 1400 block of Monte Sano Avenue in 1960. The last elementary class of Mount Saint Joseph graduated in June 1960, and by 1961 Saint Mary's on-the-Hill Catholic School was operating at 1218-20 Monte Sano Avenue, the previous location of the high school of Mount Saint Joseph (the corner of Monte Sano and Helen). The new building that housed Saint Mary's School opened in the fall of 1960 and was staffed by seven Sisters of Saint Joseph and lay teachers.

"The Superior General of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet in Saint Louis, Mother Eucharista Galvin, wrote to Bishop Thomas McDonough on March 2, 1961, to inform him that Rome had authorized the merging of the provinces and had set September 1, 1961 as the official date for the transfer. She assured the Bishop that the merging was for the benefit of the Sisters and their apostolate in the Diocese of Savannah. Later the same year, a week before the transfer, the last Superior of the Augusta Province, Sister Eulalia Murray, informed Bishop McDonough on particulars of the transfer...

"The Sisters of Saint Joseph have left an indelible mark in the Catholic educational system of Augusta. Their journey of dedication to provide quality Catholic education to Augusta's children lives on through Saint Mary's Elementary School and Aquinas High School. The 1200 block of Monte Sano Avenue may no longer house the once beautiful and picturesque campus of Mount Saint Joseph and the Sisters' of Saint Joseph Convent, but the efforts of these pious and hardworking women live on today in the many lives they touched and in those who continue to study on this block of Augusta."

From "A Journey of Dedication through Education: Sisters of Saint Joseph in Augusta, Georgia" by Pablo Manuel Migone, June, 2005

Jewels from Jane, February 25

February 25, 1870

Mother St. John [Facemaz], Carondelet

Good Mother,

I have gathered the sum which we determined for the Sisters' journey, which sum has become greater than I had desired. There is no money voluntarily given on the part of the people. They are holding back until the Sisters arrive. So I have had the honor of telling you in my last letter, but they are poor at the present.

$800.00 is all that I am able to set down for today, and this sum will be sent next Thursday by way of California. In case this sum is insufficient, let not the departure of the Sisters be retarded because of this; have the kindness to add the amount needed and I will be responsible. Always, if possible, try to get a reduction of price. I intended that the Sisters come by San Francisco as far as San Diego, where we would have them stay, but have the kindness to state in advance the day of departure from Carondelet, in order that we may prepare the passage for San Diego. I leave tomorrow to visit the most extreme place of my diocese on the coast of California at Fort Yuma, where I hope to receive the Sisters and continue as far as Tucson.

Accept the homage of your very humble servant who recommends himself to your good prayers and to those of your community.

J. B. Salpointe
[John Baptist Salpointe, Vicar-Apostolic of Arizona]

Translated from the French

"Reverend Mother Saint John [Facemaz] had refused the request made in 1868 by Bishop Lamy [to send Sisters to Tucson], her reason being that the existing schools required all the Sisters at her command. Father Salpointe, however, was persistent. Appointed Vicar-Apostolic of Arizona on its separation from the diocese of Santa Fe, he proceeded to France, where he was consecrated at Clermont on June 20, 1869. From Lyons, and again from Clermont, he renewed his petitions to Mother Saint John, and expressed his intention of stopping at Carondelet on his return, hoping that Sisters would be ready by that time to accompany him to Tucson. He arrived at St. Louis in the fall, but was obliged to depart without the desired community. He had secured a promise, however, from Mother Saint John, that Sisters would be sent after the annual profession of vows in March."

from Sister Lucida Savage's book, The Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet

The Sisters started the "Trek" to Tucson on April 20, 1870.

Jewels from Jane, Feb. 4

"The school in Chimbote [Peru], placed under the patronage of Saint Rose of Lima, was considerably larger than Cristo Rey in Ica. Not surprisingly, life seemed to be more complicated for the sisters in Chimbote than in Ica. The sisters summarized the history of their first year saying:

On February 4, 1963, Sisters Martina, Kathleen and David Marie [Eileen O'Loughlin, Rosemary O'Malley and Teresa Avalos] arrived in Chimbote amidst much luggage and excitement and took up temporary dwelling in a small gray house commonly referred to as Casa 41. We were joined on March 12 by two Dominican Sisters, Dominica and Herman Marie who were to help staff the school with us for one year, or until they could launch out on their own catechetical work. After living in Casa 41 for two months we moved into our present larger house thanks to the efforts of our Prelate Nullius, Monsenor Burke. Monsenor Burke, a Dominican, arrived in Chimbote about a week after we did, and was quick to offer us his support and backing in our work.
All during the month of March we had registration of pupils and by April 1, we considered ourselves ready to begin the year. However, the minister of Education had other ideas and instead of commencing classes on April 1st, he scheduled a week-long session of teachers' meetings - all in Spanish, of course. Finally, after the second rescheduling, classes got underway on April 8 with seven classrooms...from Kindergarten to Quinto ano (equivalent to sixth grade). Sister Kathleen taught Kindergarten, Sister David Marie presided in first grade and Sister Dominica had second grade. Sister Herman Marie was placed in the upper grades teaching fourth grade. The other grades were taught by lay teachers...
Part of the 'getting adjusted' pains of the first year was the task of filling out countless forms of every kind for the Minister of Education. Report cards are given out every two months, and with this, much red tape and endless papers... Included in our work during the school year was the teaching of catechism in a 'barriada' in our neighborhood...On December 1, a group of these children passed a small quiz on the fundamentals of their religion given by the Dominican Fathers and were able to receive their first Holy Communion. The Dominican Fathers are in charge of our parish, San Pedro...
Since the whole system of education in Peru is a little different from ours, and since everything was new, we passed our first year in Chimbote trying to keep one step ahead of the Minister of Education and thus our first adventurous year flew by quickly and the last month of school, December, was upon us without any warning. On December 13, we officially ended our first school year in Chimbote with a small program in the evening during which our pastor passed out the report cards.
Looking back on our activities, we realize how powerful the grace of God was to have helped us through that difficult apprenticeship of learning and adjusting to a completely new system of education and the Latin mentality too."

from Mary McGlone's book: Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru

Jewels from Jane, Feb. 6

Carondelet, 6 February 1838

Monseigneur:

I have the honor of writing to you to inform you of several things connected with our institution. It seems to me that the last time I had the honor of speaking to you, you told me that nothing must be done contrary to our rule. For this reason I beg Your Lordship to let me know if I may permit my Sisters to write to the pastor [Father Saulnier] or if I must say nothing of the matter, for they never ask permission. This happens very often. It seems to me that if they have something to say, they can go to the confessional. I believe you told me that he was not our superior and that, but for confession, we have nothing to do with him. Will Your Lordship permit me to beg you to send us an extraordinary confessor. I believe that would be a great good.

Allow me, Monseigneur, to ask a great favor. This favor is to relieve me of the office of superior. You would give me great pleasure, because I see it is impossible for me to discharge the duties which that office imposes and to satisfy the Sisters. To satisfy them would mean to let them do all that they wish. They complain that I govern them too strictly. Forgive me if I have taken a liberty in telling you all this. I believe it is necessary for my peace of soul. I firmly resolve to address myself to you in whatever may happen and always to do what you wish.

Your Excellency, we have here Monsieur le Brun. He is in a very sad condition. His leg hurts greatly. He fears being a charge to us. He worries a great deal, for he sees we are not rich. Furthermore, Monsieur Saulnier [Pastor of Sts. Mary and Joseph Parish] wrote him a letter which hurt him very much, saying that he embarrassed us. Far from that, we would desire to do more for the good old man, who is so easy to please and who will probably be sick the rest of his life. He is preparing to return to St. Louis to finish the winter.

Receive, Monseigneur, the very humble respects of her who is with the highest regard,

Your humble and submissive servant,

Sister Marie Delphine Fontbonne

Letter to Bishop Rosati
Translated from the French