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