Celebrating 140 years of Josephites in Aotearoa New Zealand
November 4, 2020Celebration of 140 Years since the arrival of the first Josephite Sisters in Aotearoa New Zealand (at Whanganui on 24 April 1880)
The Anniversary of 140 years since the arrival of the first Josephite Sisters in Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand was planned to be celebrated in Whanganui on Sunday 11 October 2020.
Because of uncertainty around COVID-19, the physical gathering was cancelled and instead the anniversary presentations were shared via Zoom.
You’re invited to watch two presentations for this occasions provided below:
Anne Burke’s History Presentation
Ann Gilroy’s scriptural reflection and challenge for the future
Photo: Whanganui River obtained from pxhere.
Sr Rita Joins ‘The Life’ Sisters Panel
November 3, 2020Featured in the Global Sisters Report (GSR) is a series called The Life.
Sr Rita Malavisi is part of the 2020-21 panel of 20 sisters from around the world that will contribute to the monthly The Life series. The series is in it’s fourth year.
You’re invited to read an introduction to the series and Sr Rita’s contribution provided below:
Meet the new sisters panel for the fourth year of The Life
Lessons from religious life: oppression, conflict, babies, noodle cake, flip-flops and pajamas
Footnote:
[1] Global Sisters Report – Feature Series: The Life – www.globalsistersreport.org/gsr-series/the-life/stories
[2] Photo shared with Sr. Rita Malavisi showing the sunrise from inside Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, a detention center in Australia (Photo by a detainee)
All Saints and All Souls Day
November 1, 2020
Part 1: November’s feasts of All Saints and All Souls.
Lives taken and lives given: We will remember them!
Each November, we Christians remember the Saints and Souls who have gone ahead of us. It is part of our tradition, a distinguishing aspect of our communal identity. We celebrate what we cannot afford to forget and ‘play forward’ our hopes to become, as Christians, living expressions of the communion of love and connectedness in which God created us, and for which Jesus lived his life among us.
First Foundation in Callan, Ireland
Josephite Sisters Among 2000 Young Women Missionaries from Callan, County Kilkenny.
In 1884 St Brigid’s Missionary School was established by the Sisters of Mercy in Callan and existed until 1959. The aim of the secondary boarding school was to provide an opportunity for young girls to test their desire for religious life and prepare for their chosen vocation. The length of time spent at Callan depended on their age, education and abilities and other unexpected occurrences e.g. sea travel during war time.
2000 young women, mostly between the ages of 16 and 21 and some in their 30s and early 40s, graduated from St Brigid’s and most became missionaries. Religious congregations in faraway lands approached St Brigid’s, recruiting candidates for their missions and Bishops on home visits to Ireland also appealed to the students.
The young women decided where, and with whom, they would answer the missionary call. ‘The greatest number of them travelled to Australia (169), followed by the United States of America (164), Ireland (140), South Africa (64), England (60), Canada (18), New Zealand (15), India (14), Holland (13), France (12), British Guiana (7), Argentina (7), Java (5), British Honduras (5), Belgium (4) and Burma (1)’.[1] They arrived in their host country well-educated and ready to embrace religious life in various religious orders. The larger numbers joined the Sisters of Mercy, Presentation Sisters, Dominicans, Holy Family, St John of God, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Good Shepherd Sisters, Sisters of St Joseph, Franciscan Sisters, Ursuline Sisters, Our Lady of Charity and Bons Secours Sisters.[2]
According to my research, the Australian Josephite connection with Callan, commenced on 10th January 1930, with graduate, 20-year-old Mary Hennessy, entering the Sisters of St Joseph in Bathurst NSW and becoming Sr Finian. She had delicate health and sadly died far away from home, on 12th August 1937, age 28.
The Tasmanian Josephite connection with Callan began in 1931 when Archbishop Hayden of Hobart returned to Kilkenny for a home visit. He canvassed in Irish parishes for volunteers for his diocese, resulting in ten Callan graduates joining the Tasmanian Sisters of St Joseph between 1933 and 1938. 4 came from Clare, 2 from Galway, 1 from Kilkenny, 1 from Limerick, 1 from Meath and 1 from Roscommon. They were between the ages of 16 and 20. The last two graduates for the Tasmanian Josephities, who arrived in 1947, were sisters Anne and Mary Healy from Kilkenny aged 17 and 18. Prior to the arrival of the Callan graduates, there were nine Irish Josephite sisters amongst the Tasmanian Josephities, 4 had entered in Tasmania and 5 had transferred from Bathurst.[3]
The Callan Josephities dedicated their lives to the Tasmanian people, and they appreciated the training they received at St Brigid’s from the Sisters of Mercy. Sr Colman Fallon remarked in 1991, “ Now that I have lived the life of a nun for 56 years I can say that the training received at St Brigid’s was more intense and stricter than the novitiate training, it prepared us for emergencies!” [4]
Of course, all Callan graduates knew that Edmund Rice, the founder of the Christian Brothers, was born in 1762 in the little cottage down the road from St Brigid’s.
Sr Clare Ahern
Sources:
[1] sistersofmercy.ie
[2] ibid
[3] Further Reading: For more on the Callan Josephities read pages 207- 211, The Letter Under the Pillow by Clare Ahern. For more on the Tasmanian Story read: St Joseph’s Island, Julian Tenison Woods and the Tasmanian Sisters of St Joseph by Josephine Margaret Brady.
[4] The Letter Under The Pillow by Clare Ahern page 208
Amalgamation of WA Sisters
Amalgamation of WA Sisters with North Sydney 1912.
On 1 November 1912 a special ceremony took place at the Boulder Convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph on the goldfields of Western Australia.
In the presence of Bishop Clune of Perth the 26 professed sisters of this isolated diocesan group renewed their vows making their commitment to be united with the main congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. This amalgamation meant that these sisters were now supported and managed as part of the centralized institute rather than being dependent on the local bishop. As part of this change, they took to wearing the brown habit rather than the black habit of their diocesan group that had them known as “Black Josephites.”
This was a momentous day for the Boulder sisters that comprised 6 Australian born sisters, 20 Irish born sisters and one Irish born postulant. The Sisters of St John of God based in nearby Kalgoorlie came to celebrate with them, while the Sisters of Mercy at Coolgardie, another important goldfield town, sent a letter of congratulations.
Two letters written at the time by members of the Boulder Convent to Mother Baptista Molloy, the Congregational Leader, have survived. These letters are written in a happy, relaxed way and express the excitement of the individuals at being part of this amalgamation. It is known, however, that not all members of this group welcomed the transition to the centralized order.
The first Sisters of Saint Joseph to come to Western Australia had made their foundation at Northampton, a copper mining town located 500 kilometres north of Perth, in December 1887.
As a result of a dispute with Bishop Gibney of Perth, who wished to control the activities of the sisters as a diocesan institute, most members of the small group returned to the Mother House in early 1890. Just one professed sister and two locally born postulants remained to continue their ministry at Northampton.
In the 1890s gold was discovered in the inland desert areas to the east of Perth attracting fortune seekers. In early 1897 the three Sisters of Saint Joseph were sent to the goldrush town of Boulder where they began their teaching ministry. Initially the sisters lived in hessian tents until a wood and iron convent could be built for them.
The goldrush resulted in a great increase in population. Priests, nuns and young religious women willing to take up a missionary life were recruited from Ireland to serve the Catholic population in this faraway place.
The climate on the goldfields was extremely harsh with hot dry summers and wild dust storms. Water was scarce and had to be purchased. The sisters did not have any holidays away from this tough environment. They persevered in their ministry teaching and supporting the local Catholic community.
Following the amalgamation these Boulder pioneers had the opportunity to meet with other Sisters of Saint Joseph. They now gradually moved to take on ministries in other locations in Western Australia and in other states.
Their stories are part of Josephite legend in Western Australia.
Sue Sondalini
WA Archivist
First Josephites in Temuka
October 24, 2020
At the time, Mary MacKillop was virtually exiled to Sydney by Adelaide’s Bishop Reynolds over a conflict around the governing of the Institute and the Bishop had selected the three women. Once they’d arrived in Temuka, they wrote regularly to Mary describing their life in New Zealand with its adventure, homesickness, fulfillment, strangeness and faith.
Sister Calasanctius Howley was Mary MacKillop’s assistant and not a favourite of the Adelaide Bishop. He was sending her as far from Mary’s influence as he could. Having once been in a shipwreck, Calasanctious was terrified of the sea and Mary had promised her mother she would not put Calasanctius through that again. The Bishop was not as considerate. Cal had emigrated from Ireland with her family and she and her sister Anne had joined the Institute. Now at 35, Cal inspired confidence in the group and from the time she arrived in Temuka she set about establishing the other two, because her own stay was temporary.
Canonisation of St Mary MacKillop
October 17, 2020In Search of a Miracle.
A significant requirement for a canonisation is the attribution of a miracle to the intercession of the person to be canonised. Saint Mary of the Cross was beatified by Pope John Paul II at Randwick Racecourse on 19 January, 1995. She was, by that proclamation, a saint for Australia. The next step was to seek her canonisation, a step that would recognise her as a saint for the universal church. This process required proof of her intercession by the recognition of another miracle which was needed to take place after the beatification.
In 2001 I was appointed vice-postulator to Fr Paul Gardiner sj who was the Postulator since 1984. One of the tasks was to find a cure that would meet the stringent requirements to be considered for study as a miracle. Sr Claire Burgess and her assistants worked assiduously responding to requests for prayer for those in need. Claire had mountains of papers outlining remarkable cures but, for one reason or another, none met all the documentary requirements until one crossed her desk in 2005 relating to an extraordinary cure of Mrs Kathleen Evans. I visited Kath and her husband, Barry, at their home on 17 October, 2005. Barry as well as Kath’s doctors had kept copies of her medical records and were willing to share them. They were invaluable to the study for the miracle.
After my visit to Kath and Barry I wondered why I had not seen this case before. I was in bed and had a lightbulb moment – I realised that the cure had occurred after the Decree of Beatification was promulgated but before the ceremony was held. I got out of bed and called an official, Monsignor Robert Sarno, whom we had met some years previously as students from Ottawa visiting the Causes of Saints Dicastery. He informed me that the Bishop of Maitland – Newcastle was the person to write to the Prefect of the Causes of Saints asking for a dispensation of time. I drafted the letter which was duly sent by the Bishop early November and we looked forward to a good Christmas gift – the granting of the requested dispensation. It had not arrived by November 2007.
Mary MacKillop was a great believer in the Providence of God and Providence played a big part in the journey to canonisation. On 7 November, 2007 I was asked to attend lunch at Mary MacKillop Place with a group of overseas reporters preparing for World Youth Day 2008. One of the reporters asked how the Cause was progressing. I told him in rather strong terms of our disappointment with the non-reply from Rome to the request. When I finished, he informed me he was a close friend of the Prefect and he would visit him on his return. I was a bit mortified to say the least but thrilled (as were all who were waiting) to receive news of the requested dispensation in January 2008.
Thus, began the final two-year journey, a journey that had begun in 1925 when the Cause of Mary’s canonisation opened. Kathleen’s cure was declared a miracle through the intercession of Mary on 19 December, 2009. Mary of the Cross MacKillop was canonised in Rome, the first canonised saint for Australia and a saint for the universal Church, on 17 October, 2010 exactly five years to the day from my first meeting with Kathleen Evans. Kathleen (with Barry at her side) engaged in a wonderful ministry of making Mary MacKillop known and enjoyed good health for 23 more years – a wonderful miracle indeed.
Sr Maria Casey rsj
Associates to Companions – A New Chapter
As Mary MacKillop continues to inspire people today, the Associate movement which began over thirty years ago, is now one of the four recognised pathways of sharing in the Josephite charism.
Today the movement has ‘taken fresh courage’ and steps forward into the future with a new name – ‘Josephite Companions’.
Please join us in the launch of this new name, logo and prayer by viewing the following video…