Jewels from Jane, Mar.24

St. Louis Globe Democrat, Thursday, March 24, 1898

FAIR DAUGHTERS OF ERIN

"This afternoon, at St. Joseph's Convent in Carondelet, the forty-five young ladies who came to America from Ireland under the guidance of Sister Mary Paul [McHenry] will be formally received by the order, Sisters of St. Joseph. Although they have been in St. Louis nearly two weeks, they have not been formally acknowledged except as aspirants, as the order is very particular about the dates of reception and the formalities relating to connection with the order. These are a part of the fifty-eight young ladies, most of them from the leading and wealthy families of Ireland, who foreswore a life of ease in their native land in February to come to America. They arrived in St. Louis on the 12th day of this month, and were installed in the St. Joseph Convent, at Kansas Street and Minnesota Avenue. Although the young ladies have been in the city nearly two weeks, it was not until yesterday that they were seen by a newspaper reporter and a correct account of their journey from their native land secured. The privilege was granted through the courtesy of Mother Agatha [Guthrie], in charge of the convent. Sister Mary Paul, who secured the young ladies and brought them to this country, supplied the details of her trip abroad.

"An erroneous impression seems to prevail as to the young ladies. They are neither orphans, nor are they the daughters of Irish peasants. On the contrary, they are young women who have renounced the pleasures of life in the upper classes of Ireland, and decided to assume the duties of the religious order with the consent of their parents and guardians. Each of them defrayed her own expenses on the trip, and several of them have private fortunes in their own right, which would make it possible for them to live lives of luxury and ease had they not preferred the work of the religious order.

"As long ago as last June the mother superior at Carondelet, who is the head of the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph in America, decided to send abroad for recruits for the order. She selected for the duty Sister Mary Paul and Sister John Baptiste, the former of the mother house in Carondelet and the latter from the convent in Troy, N.Y. Sister Mary Paul, whose name was McHenry in the world, had been abroad a dozen times or more, and had traveled all over Europe and Asia. Sister John Baptiste is a native of Ireland, with numerous friends and relatives there. They received the necessary credentials and instructions from the mother superior last August and started abroad immediately. Reaching Ireland they established headquarters in a convent at Cloughjordan, County of Tipperary, and commenced their work immediately. The two visited Dublin, Cork, Limerick, County Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford, Cavan, Monaghan, Lietim and scores of other places. At each place they visited they were received by the clergy and in the convents established by the church. To these people they made the object of their visit known, and it was soon noised about the parishes. Many there were among the young girls in the parish who had already decided to enter a religious order, and this offered them an opportunity of finding a field of usefulness in a new land and one for which their sacrifices would be but the greater. Some of these quickly embraced the opportunity. To other young women the idea was an entirely new one but accepted none the less eagerly. The first tours of the country were made by the sisters in September and October, and the young women were given the months following in which to decide upon taking the step which would mean so much to them. There was considerable correspondence and the sisters from America told and retold the story of the order and its work in this country.

"Sister Mary Paul, in summing up her trip abroad, said: 'I was most royally received every place I went in Ireland. It was hard for me to come away. Both on the steamship and railroad we were given the utmost consideration. The press, both abroad and in this country, treated us well until we reached St. Louis. Here the Terminal people kept our trunks over one night for us and charged $12.00 for the service, which seemed to me without precedent. The papers also mentioned the young ladies as arriving with tin pans and tin plates tied to their luggage, an intimation that they must have traveled in the steerage on shipboard and that they rode in tourist coaches. I am glad of an opportunity to correct such an impression, as the excellent and cultured families from which the young ladies come would be greatly surprised at seeing such statements in the press,'

"A tour of the convent under the guidance of Sister Mary Paul confirmed all she had said about the young ladies. Their appearance as they attended to the various duties which had been allotted to them indicated that they were from homes of culture and refinement. They ranged in age from 16 to 22 years. Their faces are nearly all bronzed from their sea voyage. Sister Mary Paul refrained from telling anything of individuals, but some there were among the girls who in America would be accounted heiresses.

"Few people, particularly Protestants, realize just what the convent life is upon which the young ladies have entered. A very general belief is that a convent is a place where women bury themselves alive, move about with constantly clasped hands and uplifted eyes, sleep upon a board, and subsist upon a diet of bread and water. Nothing could be further from the truth. Take the modern girl's boarding school and add to their regular duties more extended religious services and you have the true life at St. Joseph's Convent in Carondelet. Young ladies are instructed in music, painting, drawing, elocution and literature and the languages. In St. Joseph's Academy, which is attached to the convent, there are fifty-seven young women from every state from Arizona to North Carolina. Their instruction is from the Sisters of St. Joseph, and is very similar to that which is to be given to the young ladies from Ireland, except that the latter will be taught to be teachers. The convent is not a solemn, silent, forbidding place, but is the abode of good humor, and the high spirits of youth are only tempered by the teachings of religion and the example of gentle, sweet-faced women in religious garb. Yesterday morning, while the reporter was in the institution, six pianos were being thumped and pounded by six pairs of enthusiastic young hands, two or three violins were playing, and once in a while the tones of a harp could be heard during a lull in the harmonious tumult of 'practice hour.' Just at noon the chimes in the tower which rises in the center of the court sounded. A moment later a score of young girls filed out of the main entrance to the academy, and were soon playing and running in the snow.

"There was nothing of disapproval in the face of the sister who had them in charge, but she smiled indulgently at their pranks.

"Until today the girls from Ireland have been classed as 'aspirants.' This afternoon when they are accepted by the order and enter the novitiate they become postulants. Then, at the expiration of six or eight months, they assume the black veil and short black cape, and become novices. Two years later they take their first vows, and five years afterward their final vows, which bind them to the life. They are called professed nuns after the first two and one-half years. It can be seen by this that each of the young women will go through seven and one-half years of preparatory work before becoming a fully accepted member of the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph. At any time during this period they may leave the convent, as there is nothing to bind them to it. Either Archbishop Kain or Mother Agatha may grant them the permission on their request. Never but once, however, has one of the novices chosen to leave the order. The large, airy parlors, with their polished floors and bright-colored mats and upholstery; the big music rooms, with their pianos, harps, and violins; the library, with its hundreds of volumes, make pleasant surroundings for all. The sweet face, mild manner, rare conversational powers, keen appreciation of wit and repartee of Sister Mary Paul indicate rare qualities in the companions and tutors which the children find in the Order of Sisters of St. Joseph."