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, May 2

On May 2, 1860, after three days of retreat, sisters representing all the houses in the dioceses of St. Louis, Toronto (Canada), Wheeling, Natchez, Albany and Saint Paul met at Carondelet to form a Congregation. These were all the communities of St. Joseph that had been founded directly or indirectly from Carondelet. There were no delegates from Buffalo, Philadelphia or Brooklyn; the bishops of those dioceses wanted their sisters to remain autonomous. The sisters who attended the meeting approved the basic structure of a new congregation. Bishop Kenrick presented a plan that recommended the erection of three provinces, with centers in St. Louis, Canada, and the eastern part of the United States, with provisions for forming new provinces according to need. The plan included details about the governance of the provinces, the role of the Superior General, the organization of novitiates and elections of General and Provincial Superiors. During the meeting, the delegates from Toronto decided to accede to the desire of their bishop and remain under diocesan jurisdiction.

In the end, the plan was adapted to propose three provinces: St. Louis, St. Paul and Troy (New York). By accepting the plan, the sisters committed themselves to support the process of seeking ecclesial approval to form a new Congregation. As their first official act, the sisters elected Mother St. John Facemaz as Superior General and then commissioned her to represent them in negotiations with Rome.

From “Comunidad para el Mundo: The History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Vice Province of Peru”

Jewels from Jane, Mar. 25

"At last they arrived in St. Louis, the Episcopal City of Bishop Rosati, March 25, 1836.

"When they arrived the Bishop was in hope that he been in time to say Mass but it was too late. They go first to the Cathedral to thank God for their happy voyage. Then the Bishop send them to the Sisters of St. Vincent Hospital. The Sisters put them in little house that they had on Third Street in the end of their garden. Some time Bishop come to say Mass in Sisters Chapel and all the Sisters of St. Joseph went with them. But during the Holy Week the Sisters go to the Cathedral to attend at the ceremonies.

"They had the visit of Father and some priest. They try to see who could pronounce best the English.

"A holy priest, Father Doutreluigne, CM, Parish priest in Cahokia 3 miles [across the river in Illinois] from St. Louis, ardently desire to have Sisters of St. Joseph's instruct the children of this parish, compose in great part of Canadian. During two years this good priest eat only corn bread and often deprive himself of nourishment that he might found an establishment that could assist him in his holy ministry. The Bishop Rosati touch [through] his zeal and charity decide to give him the Sisters.

"Then he select Mother Febronie Fontbonne that was nominate our Superieuress in Lyons was to continue and go to Cahokia. Sister Mary Febronie Chapellon and Sister St. Protais Deboille would go to Cahokia. Sister M. Delphine Fontbonne, Sister Felicity Boute and Sister Philomene Devilaine would remain in St. Louis to learn English.

"The day of the depart had arrived. All started from St. Louis; His Lordship accompany his Dear Daughters in Cahokia. When they had cross the Mississippi they find number of people that had come from Cahokia with their little carts. They were waiting on shore, then every one go on carts and started in woods. They arrived about at noon. Their first visit was in Church [still standing today] to adore Our Lord in blessed Sacrament. When they had their dinner in priest house, the Priest had only two rooms, one for himself, the other his housekeeper and family, and for the cooking they had a little passage between. They had nice corn bread -- some like it very much and some not like it. After dinner the Bishop and Father Fontbonne went to the convent to fix the cooking stove.

"The population of Cahokia speak a kind of French Canadian, less difficult to comprehend and to learn than the English. They were all so glad and happy to receive the Sisters and with joy they prove for what they think they need.

"One day a Lady send to them a large bowl of pottage of rice gombeau [gumbo] and chicken. They put it on Sisters table. But looking at it they said we could not eat for it was Friday. They told it to the Lady, who said that it had no meat, she had only boiled the chicken in it. They had grand laugh at her simplicity.

"Madame Turgon, a rich lady, had built for the Sisters a pretty nice Chapel close to the Convent, and the Sisters could decorate it with the ornaments that they brought from France.

"Immediately they open their School they had great number of children, and [so many] boarders that they were oblige to enlarge the house.

"Those brave Canadiens love that French establishment and the sound of the Convent bell of the little Chapel of the Sisters on the shore of Mississippi, and on the borders of the great forest that surround them had indefinite charm.

"They venerated the Sisters as saints and charitable country women [who] come from the same Mother as their Catholic France to have care of their sick, their poor, their children. For them they think of them as their Mothers.

"But the Father Doutreluingue had not the pleasure to enjoy the fruits of his labor and sacrifice for he had purchased the house and pay for it from his one privation [need] and economy.

"He was commanded by his Superior Father Timan to go home. The Sisters feel it very much and were very much afflicted to be deprived of so good benefactor for he had given them the house and the field.

"Bishop Rosati send them a young French priest Father Condamine in the month of August. He fell sick with bilious fever. He was on point of death. Then it happen that Father Doutreluingue was traveling pass in Cahokia, find the priest so sick, remain with him, had care of him until he die, give him the last sacraments and sing High Mass and perform the funeral service. He is bury in Church yard near the Church.

"The Sisters were very thankful to God to have sent the good Father Doutreluingue to assist Father Condamine. Some of the Sisters had been very sick already, they were [a] little better but they would not let them go to Mass and funeral.

"Madame Jarrot and family were good benefactor to the Sisters. If they had need of some things the Sisters go to them as they would go to their own Father.

"Madame Boismenu and family were also very good to the Sisters. They often bring chickens and other things that they think the Sisters would like to have. For long time they had not need to buy anything to eat.

"Bishop Rosati send Father Loisel to Cahokia. He was from St. Louis. His mother and sisters were living in St. Louis. He remain until the high water of 1844.

"As the Sisters were sick, Sister Philomine had to come from St. Louis to Cahokia to take care of them but one could not be cure[d].”

From the handwritten journal of Sister St. Protais Deboille

She never mastered the English language very well.

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, February 24

The S.S. Pennland sailed from Cobh February 24, 1898 and landed in Philadelphia after a stormy voyage.

“The ship struck an iceberg near the banks of Newfoundland. It was that beautiful hymn the Sisters sang for us saved us from a watery grave, ‘Ave Maris Stella’.

"Greeted at the Mother House March 10, 1898 by Rev. Mother Agatha [Guthrie] and dear Community. Very happy to be on solid ground after a long journey (11 days) at sea. Although very seasick we raised our spirits and joined in singing hymns, music and other amusements especially some Irish airs floating back to those enchanted hills and vales.

"March 17, we were given the privilege to sing St. Patrick's hymn in the gallery during Mass; it must have distracted those on retreat who were not accustomed to Irish melodies. For the next 6 months or more we resided at the boarders' side, especially the library. Sister Agnes Gonzaga and Sister Augusta (White) took good care of us, until we were admitted to the postulate. We were divided into 3 groups.

"No. of girls that came to St. Louis (44) & (10) stayed in the East. [These 10 went to Troy, NY] No. left - 8.

"Sister Mary Paul McHenry, CSJ & Sister Mary Baptista [Troy Province] were the (2) Sisters from the East that brought us across the blue waters of the Atlantic."

From a handwritten account by Sister M. Dositheus Cahill, one of the young ladies who arrived in 1898 from Ireland.

For those who can open attachments there is a picture of the Pennland and the young Irish ladies on the voyage. Among them is Sister M. Killian Corbett, Superior General from 1948-1954 (second one in the second row from the top)