The earliest days of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart were fraught with troubles. A letter written by Father Julian Tenison Woods in July 1867 gives us some insight into the earliest days. In this letter ‘Father Founder’ outlines his motivations, his experiences, and his worries.
In January 1867, writes biographer George O’Neill, the new Bishop of Adelaide visited Penola (South Australia), and expressed his satisfaction at what he saw of the school and its schoolmistresses. Also, “The month of January was spent by Fr Julian in making a missionary tour with the Bishop of Melbourne, Dr Goold, of whom he says:
He at this time gave me the greatest encouragement in my undertaking, and wanted me to make a commencement in his diocese, promising me to obtain the necessary leave from my bishop. Humanly speaking, I am sorry now that I did not accept his offer… Yet I suppose our Lord wished the work to be deprived of all human aid… Certainly it was only His aid which upheld the undertaking, whose chances at the outset appeared forlorn indeed.
Dr Goold was not pleased at this refusal, involving, as it did, not only the non-capture for his diocese of a desirable priest, but also the loss of one whom he looked upon as its offspring – Mary MacKillop; and henceforth his attitude towards her and the Josephite nuns was seldom quite friendly.” (G O’Neill, 1929, 137)
In February 1867, Fr Julian moved to Adelaide to take up his various offices, including Director of Catholic Education. On 18 July 1867 we find him writing to Goold. His own Bishop, Laurence Sheil, was away at this critical time, and Fr Julian may have looked to Goold for guidance.
My dear Lord,
I cant help writing to you to tell you how I am getting on in educational matters in S. Australia because you felt & expressed so kind an interest in what I was going to undertake, & because as I am hardly understood here even by well meaning persons it is such a consolation to relate my poor efforts to one who thoroughly sympathises with them. I found things here in a deplorable way. There were Catholic schools but mostly kept by persons whose incompetency you would scarcely credit. Armed with the full authority of my Bishop I had no difficulty in eliminating the worst but in the better cases I have encountered much opposition & many accusations of uncharitableness. The worst of that kind of work is I hope over & better things are beginning to dawn, but as I told you, My Lord, my best hopes were fixed upon the Sisterhood of St. Joseph from which I expected great things. I told you that the Institute had been formed for one year and that I had five postulants. The difficulty was to bring them to Adelaide. I had to call them Sisters & they had to dress as religious & when people ask, “Are they nuns?” or, “What are they?” my heart sunk within me at the idea of telling them that the work was an idea of mine, helped as I hoped it would be by Almighty God, but still I was obliged to act at once for the evil admitted of no delay and I saw no prospect of ameliorating the schools until I had them in action as an example. So I brought two of them into town. One Miss McKillop (Sister Mary) your Lordship knows: the other Miss Cunningham (Sister Rose) a most excellent & devoted person of great attainments & long used to teaching. The effect of their commencement has been like magic. They have been little more than a month teaching & they have already 110 children in their school. I have drawn up a nice little rule for them, as far as my poor judgment would guide me and indeed I would not enter fully into the details without letting you see it. I will send your Lordship a copy shortly & in the meantime I may summarise it by saying that I tried mainly to impress upon them the idea of devoting themselves heart & soul to the souls of the little children with a perfect spirit of abnegation & humility with no other object than in complete poverty to try to serve Our Lord in training children to their faith. The effect of their work begins to be seen. Not only is the influence felt in their own schools but all the schools of the city have striven to improve themselves upon their model. It is now a pleasure to enter the school. All is order and regularity, with an atmosphere of piety throughout that impresses one immediately. I have been able to furnish a little convent for the Sisters, but it is very poor, simple like the holy house at Nazareth as I tell them, & I believe may safely say that the idea is fairly stated. There are three postulants already & there would be more but unfortunately there is a difficulty in getting persons of sufficient education. To remedy this the Sisters have a night school in the convent where those who wish to join have an opportunity of learning from the Sisters the higher branches of school studies & can be trained if they are fit in other respects for the office of teaching as religious. God is evidently blessing the work & I often think so gratefully of your Lordship’s encouraging words & promises of success. I hope I may always count on your support as long as I try to keep the Institute in its first spirit of poverty & self devotion for I sincerely think that if it succeeds it will do a great work for the church in this country. In other respects your prophecy that I should do good in Adelaide is being realized with God’s help. I have already received 7 Protestants into the Church & have three or four more under instruction. I have great hope too of a parson who comes to see me who is only now I believe held back by human respect. I hope my dear Lord that you are in good health & that the trip to Rome has served you. We are all well here & in good working order though sadly in want of priests: We shall be glad enough to see our good Bishop back amongst us. Pray for me dear Lord. I never forget you & now ask your blessing.
Yrs. very devotedly in J.M.J.
J.E. Tenison Woods.
Please note: I have not corrected the typing in the letter – including the mis-spelling of MacKillop. The original typescript is located in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Archives, 2/R/A-Z/37, file #W43, and I would like to thank the Archivist, Rachel Naughton, and the Archives Administration Assistant, Rebecca Lawry, for their kind welcome, and for permission to reproduce the letter.
Fr Roderick O’Brien
Fr Roderick has written a book titled, Julian Tenison Woods – A Pioneering Journey in Science and Faith published by ATF Press. The Southern Cross shares more here.