Jewels from Jane,Oct.30

"On October 30, 1842, we lost our dear Sister Francis Joseph [Anne Eliza Dillon – age 22]. Well do I remember the rough box which the village carpenter made for her last couch, but which was transformed into a beautiful casket by the deft, ingenious hands of the heroic band of which she was a worthy member. I seem still to see the great tears that, silently and unheeded, fell on the black cloth, with each stroke of the hammer, as they prepared that lonely abode for the earthly remains of our beloved teacher. It was on a Sunday afternoon after Vespers that she was borne by the Sisters, followed closely by her white-haired, sorrow-stricken father and her youngest sister, to her last resting place, a sheltered, quiet spot, in the north east corner of the little cemetery near the village church [Sts Mary and Joseph]."

From the diary of Eliza McKenney Brouillet

(Student at St. Joseph's Academy from 1840-1846)

Sister Francis Joseph Dillon was the first American to enter the Congregation.

She was born in St. Charles, MO in 1820.

"She 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 [Fontbonne] and Felicite [Boute], who during their first few months in America went to the Sacred Heart Convent for English lessons. The young girl was drawn irresistibly to the two Sisters...she was attracted by poverty; and on finishing her education, she gave up everything that she possessed of this world's goods, and with the reluctant consent of her father, went to Carondelet and asked for the poor habit of a Sister of Saint Joseph. This she received on January 3, 1838."

From The Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet by Sister Lucida Savage

Jewels from Jane, Oct. 24

St. Joseph's Mother House
6400 Minnesota Avenue
St. Louis, Mo.

Mark 50th Anniversary of Laying of St. Joseph's Chapel Cornerstone; Bishop of Marquette Pontificates

"The Most Rev. Thomas L. Noa, Bishop of the Marquette (Mich.) Diocese, pontificated at Mass on Wednesday morning, October 15, at the St. Joseph Mother House, 6400 Minnesota Avenue. The date marked the 50th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the present chapel and the 297th aniversary of the founding of the Congregation of St. Joseph in Le Puy, Velay, France. He was assisted at Mass by the Rev. Leo Ohleyer, O.F.M., chaplain.

"Among the members of the Mother House community with whom the Bishop visited are two postulants who left his See city for St. Louis a few weeks before he was installed on September 24: Mary Jean Desrochers [S. Mary Baraga] and Elizabeth O'Donnell. The Bishop on the day following his visit to St. Joseph's Mother House was present at the consecration ceremonies in Belleville, Ill., for the Most Rev. Joseph M. Mueller, who succeeds Bishop Noa as Coadjutor Bishop of the Sioux City Diocese.

"The Sisters of St. Joseph teach in the grade and high schools of the Cathedral of Marquette, having been invited there by the saintly Bishop Baraga. They also are in charge of schools in Negaunee, Ishpeming, Kingsford, L'Anse, and Hancock, Mich., and conduct a hospital in Hancock."

Reprinted from THE CATHOLIC HERALD October 24, 1947

The cornerstone was laid in 1897. The building was finished in 1899.

Jewels from Jane, Oct. 15

"The last important work undertaken by Reverend Mother Agatha [Guthrie] was the erection of Holy Family Chapel in Carondelet, the corner stone of which was laid on October 15, 1897, by Archbishop Kain of St. Louis. To the building and furnishing of this, she devoted the closing years of her life. The chapel is late Romanesque in style, the lofty arches of the ceiling supported on ornate Corinthian columns. An ambulatory runs around three sides of the clerestory, beneath which, as a unique feature, are the Stations of the Cross in round medalions, forming part of the decorative scheme. In the sanctuary are three marble altars, the main one being the gift of Mary Gillick of St. Louis, mother of the architect [Aloysius F. Gillick]. A marble altar rail, presented by Mrs. Louise Sauer, encloses the transepts [ only sections of the altar rail were kept since the renovations], the north one of which is the Martyrs' Chapel. [The Martyrs' Altar is not made of marble but of wood carved by Joseph Litteneker, brother of the three Litteneker Sisters - Mary Julia, Mary Lidwina, Mary Mechtilda] In the south transept is a memorial altar in black and white marble, above which is a sculptured panel representing the death of Saint Joseph. This and the statues of the Apostles set around the walls of the ground story [no longer there] and the Holy Family Group over the main altar, were done by Joseph Sibbel of New York. [He sculpted the statue of St. Patrick in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.] Bishop Eis of Marquette was the donor of a fine pipe organ, and many other friends of the Congregation deemed it a privilege to contribute to the noble edifice, a monument to Reverend Mother Agatha's zeal for the beauty of God's House. She had, herself, saved for years gold ornaments and jewelry, given up to her by different Sisters at their entrance into the novitiate; and this was utilized in the making of a chalice, an exquisite bit of workmanship, which, a little larger than ordinary size, contains four hundred and fifty pennyweight of pure gold, and is set with opals, amethysts, topazes and diamonds. Three months of continuous work on the part of engravers produced beautiful designs, symbolic wheat and grapes in green and gold, and initials outlined with gems.

"In Holy Family Chapel was celebrated the golden jubilee of Reverend Mother's profession. The fiftieth anniversary of that event fell on October 15, 1902; but the humble Superior-General, in order to avoid any demonstration in her honor, such as she knew the Sisters were preparing to make, quietly left the Mother House in the early fall of 1902 for an extended visitation of the province. On her return in February, 1903, the postponed celebration took place..."

From Sister Lucida Savage's book THE CONGREGATION OF ST. JOSEPH OF CARONDELET

Jewels from Jane, Sept. 4

"At times as close as possible to one another, warm rays of the sun, piercing the Lyonnais fogs, were directed to America. The letters from the Chartreux addressed to Cahokia or to Carondelet were indeed rays of sunshine. Once, one of these letters announced to both communities, the reception of Mademoiselle Fournier, to whom Mother Saint John had given her own name, to recall to her dear missionaires that she did not forget them. The young novice was to leave with Sister Celestine Pommerel and both would soon join them. There was a great feast in the two convents the day this news arrived. It was the beginning of 1837, when, calculating according to their own voyage, the Sisters remarked that surely the two Sisters would be with them before the end of May. It was not so. May passed, then June, July and August. No Sisters and no news--only a letter from Lyons stating that the travelers had embarked at Brest, on the frigate Hermione which had on board six hundred soldiers and forty officers. At Cahokia, at Carondelet and at Saint Louis everybody was very anxious, and, without daring to voice their fears, they believed that the travelers were lost at sea.

"On September 4, [1837] the two Sisters disembarked at Saint Louis and presented themselves at the episcopal residence, stating their names. His Lordship, agreeably surprised, received them at once. The Sisters had resumed the secular dress, therefore there was nothing to prove that they were Sisters. He invited them to converse together in signs to assure himself of their identity. The Sisters, who were suffering from hunger and fatigue, would have preferred to put that off until later. They had to submit however. Sister Celestine asked Sister Saint John in the language of the deaf and dumb: 'Of what are you thinking, Sister?'

"'I am thinking of the good bread we ate in France and which I need so much at this moment.'

"At this unexpected answer, Sister Celestine lost her gravity. The Bishop, seeing her laugh, asked the reason. Sister Celestine repeated her companion's answer. At once, the good Bishop crossed the room, opened a closet, took food and obliged the Sisters to eat. Their hunger ended the examination.

"Father Cholleton had given a letter to the Sisters for the Bishop: 'It is a great consolation for me to present to your Lordship the two Sisters for whom you asked last year. The first, Sister Celestine, twenty-three years old, is professed. The second, Sister Saint John, a novice, is twenty-two years old. She will esteem herself very happy to make her profession into your hands when you find her sufficiently prepared. Both are animated with the best dispositions, are capable of assisting your plans and of bringing your work to a good end. Madame de la Rochejaquelein has given them three thousand francs. If you wish to thank her, her address is: Lausanne, Switzerland.'

"After narrating their voyage to the Bishop, it was decided that the Sisters would remain some days in Saint Louis; and then, Doctor Rodie, a Catholic native of San Domingo, would lend his carriage, and Black Margaret would take them to their convent. Black Margaret was the doctor's colored servant. She spoke excellent French and, on the way, entertained the Sisters with the history of Saint Louis and its surroundings. She told them that Carondelet was originally called Prairie a Catalan, the name of the one who first occupied it; then it was called Louisburg; and finally, in 1796, Carondelet, the name of the last Spanish governor of Louisiana. The inhabitants of this country were called, jokingly, Vide Poche (Empty Pocket); while the trappers named Saint Louis, Paincourt (Short-of-Bread) because the inhabitants were not rich.

"The travelers arrived at Carondelet during the evening recreation. As the Sisters had not been notified, there was great surprise and still greater joy at seeing again, in the flesh, those whom they had no longer expected to see. Astonishment reached its height, when the Sisters learned that the newcomers were better informed than they about the history of the country and the past and present conditions of the village.

"The Sisters had been three months on sea, never suspecting the anxiety they caused on both sides of the ocean. After [they narrated their experiences on the water] the Te Deum and the Magnificat burst from all hearts. Sister Celestine gave Mother Delphine a letter from Father Cholleton: 'You will be pleased at my promptness in sending you these two zealous and well-instructed aids, so capable of helping you...'

"At once the large trunks from Lyons were opened. They found clothes for the Sisters and the orphans, and beautiful things for the chapel which, until then, existed only in a dream. Then everybody felt that the great heart of Reverend Mother Saint John [Fontbonne] was beating quite near theirs, and that the power of her love threw a bridge over the ocean and abolished distances."

From Mother Saint John Fontbonne: A Biography translation adapted from the original French edition by a Sister of Saint Joseph Brentwood, New York

Jewels from Jane, Sept. 3

"Twelve novices made their vows in Carondelet during 1854, the largest number that had yet been professed in one year; but Mother Celestine still found the number too small to meet the growing needs of the Congregation, and appealed to the Mother House at Lyons for recruits. Lyons could not spare subjects for America at that time, but aid came from an unexpected quarter. In Savoy, in a Seminary of the diocese of Tarentaise, was Abbe Miege, brother of John B. Miege, Vicar Apostolic of Indian Territory. Abbe Miege was a friend of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Moutiers, and through him his brother in America entered into correspondence with these Sisters. The result of the correspondence and also of a consultation between Bishop Miege and Mother Celestine in the summer of 1854, was an arrangement made by him with the Superiors in Moutiers, who promised to send Sisters from that place to Carondelet, with a view to undertaking later the education of the Indian children in his vast territory. [The jurisdiction of Bishop Miege extended over Kansas and Nebraska, and included all the Indian tribes west to the Rocky Mountains. He was then residing at St. Mary's Kansas, in the neighborhood of the Potawatomi settlements.]



"Mother Therese Buisson was Superior of the pious community of Moutiers, which had become deeply interested in the foreign missions through the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. The zeal of the Sisters was stimulated by the recent departure from Savoy of many priests and religious for the East Indies, among the latter, members of the neighboring communities of Annecy and Chambery. [The first Sisters of St. Joseph to go to the Indies left France in 1848. In the fall of 1853, another band of six left, accompanied by several Fathers of the Society of St. Francis de Sales.]



"Mother Therese had no difficulty in getting volunteers for America and from them she chose Sister Euphrasia Meiller, late Superior at St. Sigismond, Sister Saint John Facemaz, Sister Gonzaga Grand, and Sister Leonie Martin. The most fervent daughters of Moutiers, Abbe Bouchage calls this first missionary band of a community which he describes as composed of 'select souls whose names should be inscribed on the tablets of history for the edification of the faithful and as an example to the religious of the future.'



"Leaving Moutiers on September 3, 1854, accompanied by Mother Therese, the missionaries made brief visits to the communities of St. Sigismond and Chambery, and then proceeded by stage to Lyons. Here they were warmly received by Mother Sacred Heart Tezenas, successor to Mother Saint John Fontbonne. At Lyons, they parted with Mother Therese, and placing themselves, as did the missionaries of 1836, under the protection of our Lady of Fourvieres, proceeded to Paris, where they remained for a short time at a house of the Congregation in the Rue Monceau. They sailed from Havre on October 21, and by a strange coincidence, the name of the vessel was Heidelberg, the same as that on which the first Sisters came in 1836. [The first Sisters came on the Natchez.] On board was Right Reverend Augustus Mary Martin with four priests and several seminarians for his diocese of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

"The Sisters landed at New Orleans December 7, the same date on which another band, as yet strangers to them, arrived in Canandaigua. After a few days spent with the Tertiary Carmelites in New Orleans, they proceeded by steamer to St. Louis, which they reached December 21, and where they were welcomed with open arms by Sister Felicite [Boute] at St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum. On the following day, Mother Celestine, who had come in to meet them, conducted them to Carondelet. Brave and courageous souls, who had obeyed literally the Gospel precept to forsake home and country, whey entered at once into the active life of the community, to which at least three of them, were to render long and faithful service. [Sister Euphrasia Meiller died in March 1859. The Sisters of St. Joseph did not go to Bishop Meige's diocese. On the occasion of that prelate's visit to St. Louis during the Provincial Council of 1858, the Superior of a colony of Sisters of Charity from Nashville, looking for a home in another diocese, appealed to him on the advice of the Jesuit, Father De Smet; and with the permission of Archbishop Kenrick, was received with her community under his jurisdiction.] Though young in years, they were all women of unusual ability, thoroughly imbued with the principles of the religious life, and animated by the spirit of sacrifice that characterized the pioneers of 1836. In Sister Saint John, who was in her thirtieth year and had spent eleven years in the convent, Mother Celestine, herself a woman of deep piety, was quick to recognize the strong and enlightened faith that measured temporal things only in the light of eternity, and the remarkable spiritual insight that rendered her peculiarly fitted for the guidance of others. Sister Saint John was chosen a member of the Council at the Mother House, and in that capacity, rendered invaluable assistance to Mother Celestine."



From The Congregation of Saint Joseph of Carondelet by Sister Mary Lucida Savage.

Jewels from Jane,June 30

From the time that Carondelet was first settled in 1767, a piece of ground was reserved and religiously kept as the site of the future church [Sts. Mary and Joseph] and last resting place of the dead. When the town was surveyed and the blocks numbered, the church site became number eighty-two, and the cemetery ground fifty-seven. These two blocks, together with blocks fifty-eight and fifty-nine, which adjoined the cemetery on the south, were deeded to Father Saulnier [Pastor of Sts. Mary and Joseph Church] by the Trustees of the town on September 10, 1835.

Block number fifty-eight was the lot on which stood the log cottage given to the Sisters by Bishop Rosati. On June 30, 1838, a deed to this block was given to the Sisters by Father Saulnier. He had already sold block fifty-nine, which adjoined it on the south, to a Mr. Solomon of Natchez, Mississippi. This gentleman dying suddenly a short time after, the ground (block 59) fell into the hands of the Public Administrator, by whom it was sold at public auction on July 25, 1840. Bryan Mullanphy bought it, and on December 23, 1842, deeded it unconditionally to the Sisters as a Christmas gift.

Notes from Sister Monica’s diary, Jan, 1922

Jewels from Jane,June 19

"Archbishop Kenrick had a fatherly interest in the Sisters of St. Joseph and was always concerned about their welfare. He had encouraged sending sisters from Carondelet to other dioceses, but as time passed he favored stabilizing and strengthening the congregation by means of an approved central government. He felt that the ties of friendship and loyalty among the various houses needed the seal of authority. In 1856 Father August S. Paris, C.M., the spiritual father of the community at Carondelet, made a trip to Europe and found that the superiors in France favored an independent American government. Mother Celestine planned a general visitation of all the American missions in order to secure the cooperation of the sisters and bishops involved. However, before these plans could be carried out, she died, on June 7, 1857.

"At the election of a new superior, Mother Seraphine Coughlin, superior in St. Paul, was chosen; but on the plea of poor health and inability, she asked to be relieved. Her request was seconded by the petition of Monsignor Augustine Ravoux, administrator of the diocese of St. Paul. Upon the authority invested in him as ecclesiastical superior, Archbishop Kenrick then appointed Mother St. John Facemaz in her stead. [This took place on June 19, 1857, 10 days after the interment of Mother Celestine.] The new superior possessed shrewd business instinct together with a talent for organization. Since her arrival in 1854 from Annecy, France, she had been closely associated with Mother Celestine, and at the time of her appointment was a member of the council at the motherhouse and had been actively engaged in the plans for the adoption of a general government."

from Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet by Sister Dolorita Marie Dougherty

Jewels from Jane, May 31

"The Sisters of St. Joseph had at their Mother House in Carondelet a Novitiate of their Order, an Academy with 130 pupils, an Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and an Orphan Asylum containing twenty-eight orphans. Sister Celestine was in charge as Superior with seven professed Nuns. In St. Louis they conducted a day-school near St. Vincent's Church with three Sisters and two novices, and one hundred and twenty pupils.

"Another House of the Community in St. Louis had under its direction the diocesan Orphan Home for boys of whom there were one hundred and twenty. Sister Felicite [Boute] with five professed Sisters formed the community:

In 1849 the Sisters stationed at St. Vincent's Convent, having closed their school, "fearlessly gave themselves to the relief of the sick and dying neighbors."[during the cholera epidemic] Two of their number, Sisters Frances Nally and Justine Mulhall, were seized with the dread symptoms of cholera. Sister Justine was but eighteen years of age "a young woman of rare innocence, and extraordiary personal beauty," in the agony of dying had but one wish, that of renewing her vows on the morning of the Visitation [May 31]. Archbishop Kenrick remained at her bedside until after midnight that her dying wish might be fulfilled. On July 28th, 1849, the Archbishop wrote to his friend Mark Anthony Frenaye in Philadelphia:...Eleven religious women are among the victims, two of the Sisters of Charity, two of the Sisters of St. Joseph, one of the Visitation and six of the Sacred Heart.

"...There is another Sister of St. Joseph mentioned in the Catholic Directory of 1850, as having died of the cholera at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Sister M. Antionette Kincaid."

from History of the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Rev. John Rothensteiner c1928

Jewels from Jane, May 5

Carondelet May 5, 1839

Your Blessing

Monsignor

Having learned that you leave tomorrow, I hasten to write you, in order to ask if you judge it appropriate if we would make our retreat which is indicated for our institution from the Ascension to Pentecost, or if you prefer that we delay it until our vacation time that the gentlemen of the corporation will give us from July 15 to August 15, when we will be a little more free. I leave everything to your will and we shall do as you desire. We will appreciate your answer and the honor of a visit from you as soon as possible. We would like, all of us, to see you, and our little dumb girls do not desire it less than we. Everyday they look in the direction of St. Louis hoping to see you coming. Waiting for this honor, I pray you to accept my respect and I am

Your humble and obedient daughter,

Sister Marie Delphine [Fontbonne]

Letter to Bishop Rosati

Translated from the French

In reference to the "gentlemen of the corporation" Sister Lucida Savage has this to say in her book, The Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet:

"The state school [for the deaf] did not become a reality until 1847; but on February 13, 1839, an appropriation of two thousand dollars was granted by the legislature 'for the annual tuition of such deaf and dumb children now or hereafter received in the deaf and dumb asylum at the town of Carondelet in the county of St. Louis.' This fund, which did not become available until the end of 1839, was to be administered pro rata, for such pupils only as were residents of Missouri and after they had spent six months in school. Only three of the mutes who were in the convent at this time belonged to the State, Emily Johnson, and Mary Musdach of St. Louis, and Teresa Bernard of Florisssant. A fourth, Mary Jane Hurley, was an orphan, dependent on the charity of the Sisters.

"Before any part of the appropriation materialized, financial assistance came from another quarter, and with it a practical recognition of the services which the Sisters were rendering to the village. For two years they had been teaching almost gratuitously all the children who came to them. This number did not at any time exceed thirty-eight, exclusive of mutes and orphans. Early in April, the school commissioners, Messers N. Paupe and Joseph Le Blond, called at the convent and made an agreement with the Sisters which was unanimously adopted by the Board of Trustees at their meeting on April 23. This agreement stipulated for a salary to be paid the Sisters 'by the Corporation of Carondelet to educate in the ordinary branches of the English and French languages the female children of the town of Carondelet, from six to eighteen years old.'

"The salary so opportunely offered seemed a fortune to the struggling community, as indeed it must have been, with markets providing eggs three for a penny, butter six cents a pound and other commodities in proportion. Besides, their own carefully tended garden was a summer-long source of supply; and an orchard of six pear trees, planted by the pioneers in 1836 and dedicated with mock ceremony to themselves--a tree to each--was beginning to bear the luscious fruit which it continued to produce for over fifty years. [The last of these trees was destroyed by a storm in the summer of 1889.] Had they been worldly wise they would have followed the suggestion of a practical-minded Sister and opened a bank account; but theirs was the wisdom of the Gospel, and their surplus capital was invested in small luxuries for the poor and sick whom they met on their daily rounds of charity."

Jewels from Jane, May 5

Carondelet May 5, 1839

Your Blessing

Monsignor

Having learned that you leave tomorrow, I hasten to write you, in order to ask if you judge it appropriate if we would make our retreat which is indicated for our institutuion from the Ascension to Pentecost, or if you prefer that we delay it until our vacation time that the gentlemen of the corporation will give us from July 15 to August 15, when we will be a little more free. I leave everything to your will and we shall do as you desire. We will appreciate your answer and the honor of a visit from you as soon as possible. We would like, all of us, to see you, and our little dumb girls do not desire it less than we. Everyday they look in the direction of St. Louis hoping to see you coming. Waiting for this honor, I pray you to accept my respect and I am

Your humble and obedient daughter,

Sister Marie Delphine [Fontbonne]

Letter to Bishop Rosati

Translated from the French

In reference to the "gentlemen of the corporation" Sister Lucida Savage has this to say in her book, The Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet:

"The state school [for the deaf] did not become a reality until 1847; but on February 13, 1839, an appropriation of two thousand dollars was granted by the legislature 'for the annual tuition of such deaf and dumb children now or hereafter received in the deaf and dumb asylum at the town of Carondelet in the county of St. Louis.' This fund, which did not become available until the end of 1839, was to be administered pro rata, for such pupils only as were residents of Missouri and after they had spent six months in school. Only three of the mutes who were in the convent at this time belonged to the State, Emily Johnson, and Mary Musdach of St. Louis, and Teresa Bernard of Florissasnt. A fourth, Mary Jane Hurley, was an orphan, dependent on the charity of the Sisters.

"Before any part of the appropriation materialized, financial assistance came from another quarter, and with it a practical recognition of the services which the Sisters were rendering to the village. For two years they had been teaching almost gratuitously all the children who came to them. This number did not at any time exceed thirty-eight, exclusive of mutes and orphans. Early in April, the school commissioners, Messers N. Paupe and Joseph Le Blond, called at the convent and made an agreement with the Sisters which was unanimously adopted by the Board of Trustees at their meeting on April 23. This agreement stipulated for a salary to be paid the Sisters 'by the Corporation of Carondelet to educate in the ordinary branches of the English and French languages the female children of the town of Carondelet, from six to eighteen years old.'

"The salary so opportunely offered seemed a fortune to the struggling community, as indeed it must have been, with markets providing eggs three for a penny, butter six cents a pound and other commodities in proportion. Besides, their own carefully tended garden was a summer-long source of supply; and an orchard of six pears trees, planted by the pioneers in 1836 and dedicated with mock ceremony to themselves--a tree to each--was beginning to bear the luscious fruit which it continued to produce for over fifty years. [The last of these trees was destroyed by a storm in the summer of 1889.] Had they been worldly wise they would have followed the suggestion of a practical-minded Sister and opened a bank account; but theirs was the wisdom of the Gospel, and their surplus capital was invested in small luxuries for the poor and sick whom they met on their daily rounds of charity."

Jewels from Jane, April 14

Carondelet, April 14, 1836

Monsignor

Since Thursday the fifth I was not able to go to St. Louis despite the desire I had to go there. Last week I would have gone to St. Louis if I had not known that the priests had agreed to come Thursday and Friday, etc., and that week, starting Monday after dinner up to the present date I was affected by a rigidity ...[in] the bottom of the spine, going from left to right so badly that I was not able to sit or stand. However, today, the thirteenth day, I am beginning to move freely. I learned that the Sisters of St. Joseph were in St. Louis, the ones proposed for Carondelet, and I know also that the orphan children will pass the summer here. Would it not be permitted that one or two Sisters of Charity and the three of St. Joseph could be here with the orphan children and the three of St. Joseph could learn the English language with the Sisters of Charity. All of them performing acts of charity for themselves, the people of the village and for the orphans.

You know, Monsignor, that my intention from the beginning of my stay in Carondelet was to have some charitable persons on the ground occupied by the reformed Sisters of St. Vincent and that titles are not important to me, provided that the charity is done, that they be patient, that they are contented with the little that God sends us and they do not indulge in illusions and dreams.

I am with the greatest respect your humble servant,

Edmund Saulnier [Pastor of Sts. Mary and Joseph Church]

Letter of Fr. Saulnier to Bishop Rosati

Translated from the French

When the Sisters arrived in September to take up residence in the log cabin vacated by the Sisters of Charity

"Beside their personal effects and some bedding, they brought little with them on the long drive from St. Louis to Carondelet, which they reached late in the afternoon. The pastor, Father Edmund Saulnier, shared with them his supper of bread and cheese, spread on a bare table, and conducted them to the convent. It faced the river, and from the front door a passage-way extended between two rooms each fifteen by twenty-four feet. An attic was reached by a ladder from the outside. Two sheds, one containing a single large room which had served as a boys' classroom, and the other used for store-room and kitchen, completed the convent buildings. With the exception of one cot, a table and a few chairs, the rooms were destitute of furniture. Two ticks, which the Sisters filled with straw and laid on the floor, provided them with beds, and the cot they reserved for Sister Saint Protais, who joined them a few days later. Father Saulnier, a good but eccentric man, accustomed to the privations of missionary life, frankly informed them that he was poor, too, and that they must provide for themselves. Kindhearted, however, in spite of his gruffness, he frequently sent them whatever he could spare from his own scanty store."

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

Jewels from Jane, April 7

April 7, 1837.

"Good Mother Celestine and I [Sister Saint John Fournier, who was a novice at the time] left Lyons on April 7, 1837. We arrived at Brest the 17th of the same month, stayed with the Sisters of Wisdom at the expense of the government (the government also paid our passage), until the 5th of June when we embarked on the frigate Hermione; we stopped for four days at Fort Royale, then set sail for Havana, which we reached at the end of July. We were obliged to stay there for seventeen days, waiting for the French consul's boat which was to take us to New Orleans.

"Yellow fever had broken out in that city, and our Commander, who was a real father to us, did not want to let us leave the frigate. Every morning he sent two officers in uniform to take us to Holy Mass, and at five in the evening he would take us in his row boat to the consul's house or to the home of some of his French friends. He would bring us back at ten or eleven o'clock. A fine Religious life! But we could not help it; he was afraid we would get sick.

"Finally we left Havana for New Orleans. There the Vicar General, Father Jeanjean, fearing the fever, accompanied us next day on the boat to St. Louis, which we reached on the 4th of September, the same year. When we arrived, Bishop Rosati received us with open arms, saying he believed we had run away with the soldiers. (We had 400 on board besides the forty officers, all of whom treated us with the greatest respect.) The bishop placed us with the Sisters of Charity at the asylum, where we stayed for five days because of the continued rain. Finally, on the 9th of September, we left for Carondelet, which is only five or six miles from St. Louis. Our good sisters came half way to meet us. The bishop, in telling us he did not want us to lose our rosy cheeks, had not told us the real reason he was lodging us in St. Louis. The poor house was too small, he was having it raised one story, and there was no roof; but the weather was good.

"We opened our trunks and were distributing the little presents sent to our sisters, when all of a sudden the rain fell in torrents on us, on our beds, on our books, on everything. Good Mother Delphine had foreseen that, and had hired a cabin not far from our garden, a cabin which had been vacant for three years. We had to run there, but with mud up to our knees, we did not run very fast. They brought us some mattresses which we stretched out on the floor, and we tried to take a little rest in our wet habits, but alas, who could sleep with rats, mice and numberless little insects not only as companions but walking over us all night and for ten or twelve nights in succession? The house was finally covered with a roof, and we left our famished companions to feed themselves as best they could."

From a letter of Sister Saint John Fournier written in 1873

Sister Lucida Savage tells this story of their arrival in her history of the Congregation:

“Bishop Rosati, evidently fond of planning surprises, sent no word of their arrival to the community in Carondelet. On September 10, the private conveyance of a Catholic physician, Doctor Rodier, who was well known to Mother Delphine and her Sisters, was secured. The Doctor was a native of San Domingo, and had brought with him from there to St. Louis a faithful colored servant, familiarly known to his patients as Black Margaret. Besides being able to manage the Doctor’s horses well, Margaret possessed the additional accomplishment of speaking excellent French. She drove the two Sisters to their new home, and entertained them on the way with the history of St. Louis and its environs. They reached the convent during the evening recreation. The surprise of the Sisters there on beholding in the flesh those whom they believed dead was scarcely greater than their wonder and amusement at finding the two strangers better informed than themselves about conditions past and present in the village of Vide Poche [Empty Pocket as the town of Carondelet was known].

“The story of their journey was soon told. They had been detained at Brest until June 5, awaiting the sailing of the French frigate, Hermione, bound for the West Indies. There was a long delay at Havana and another at New Orleans; and the Sisters, weary of their three months at sea, knew nothing, of course, of the alarm which their failure to arrive earlier was causing on both sides of the Atlantic.”

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."

Jewels from Jane, January 21

On this date, January 21, 1858, Mother St. John Facemaz faced her first major crisis since taking office [1857]. A fire destroyed a large part of the convent at Carondelet, including the log cabin that had been the first permanent home of the Sisters of St. Joseph in America.

When the fire struck, illness had confined Mother St. John to bed. She and another ailing sister were saved by being helped out of second story windows and carried away from the danger zone.

"The methods of the Carondelet fire department were still rather primitive; but the firemen, reinforced by many of the citizens and by the faculty and students of the ecclesiastical Seminary, who worked heroically under the direction of Father Feehan, succeeded in saving the north wing, in which were located the principal departments of the academy. A relic of Saint Agnes was placed in the corner stone of this wing when it was built by Mother Celestine in 1840; and the Sisters piously believed that through the young martyr's intercession [January 21 being her feast day] came the favorable wind that directed the flames southward. These encircled the log cabin convent in their fury, and the only visible link connecting Saint Joseph's with pioneer days disappeared."

From "The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru" by Mary M. McGlone, CSJ and "The Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet" by Sister Mary Lucida Savage, CSJ