The American ecclesiastical review
Catholic University of America | Heuser, Herman J. (Herman Joseph), 1851-1933
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Belfast has gained only three first places, Galway two and Cork none. But it is now a mere insult to University College, Dublin, to measure it with those two latter. The Arts Faculty in Cork, as a school of distinction in classics, modern literature and pure science, is moribund. Not even the present annual waste of public money upon it can keep it alive ; and the funds would be better spent upon the Munster Dairy School and Agricultural Institute. Some value might then be derived by the locality from the money. ** The tale of Catholic successes is not confined to the story of one great Catholic College. Thus the colleges for the higher education of Catholic girls, absolutely unassisted as they are, now equal or surpass in efficiency the two Queen's Colleges in Galway and Cork. St. Mary's University College has won a total of seventeen distinctions, while Galway, with its ten thousand pounds a year, has gained only eighteen, and Cork only six. The rapid rise of this institution is one of the most gratifying educational achievements in Catholic Ire- land within recent years. Though only in its infancy it has already taken its rank as one of the first educational institu- tions in Ireland. It ties this year with Alexandra College in the total of its University distinctions, and is rapidly gain- ing upon that other most successful girls' college, the Victoria College, Belfast. The Loretto College, St. Stephen's Green, has also proved its quality, gaining eleven distinctions and the Hutchenson-Stewart Prize, or twice as many honors as have been "won by the Students of the Queen's College, Cork. A college of the Catholic University whose prominence will be noted with special satisfaction this year, is the Holy Cross College, Clonliflfe. It has won two first places, six first class distinctions and four second class. In the Second Arts Examination, Clonliffe has won five times as many distinc- tions as the Cork Queen's College. How long in the face of such results as these are eflfete secular institutions like those which have been vainly maintained in Cork and Galway, to be allowed to monopolise the endowments granted out of Irish taxes for higher education ? If the Queen's Colleges 576 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, were among the most successful uuiversity colleges in the world, the denial of the Catholic claims in the matter of higher education would be a monstrous injustice. But in Jace of the ridiculous fiasco in which Sir Robert PeePs policy has ended^ the injustice becomes a glaring public scandaL and the maintenance of such institutions out of Irish money a corrupt job as well.'* These figures show the gradual progress of University College from the position of a good second to a successful lead. The successes attributed above to University College, Dublin, are still more creditable when examined in detail and establish its superiority in a more marked manner. In the introductory examinations they include in many cases the first place in various subjects, and the first in the aggre- gate of the whole examination. To instance only the last two years which are not at all exceptionally superior to earlier ones, we find that in 1895, University College students obtained : In the First Arts Examination, the first place in Latin, in English and mathematics, and the first exhibition in the total [of marks ; and in Second Arts, the first and second places in Latin, Greek, English and physics, the first place in Celtic, mathematics, chemistry and biology, and the first, second and fourth exhibitions; while in 1896, they secured in the First Arts the first and second places in Latin, CA THOLIC EDUCA TION IN IRELAND, 577 mathematics and physics, the first place in Greek and the first, second, third, fourth and sixth exhibitions, and in the Second Arts the first place in Latin, Greek, English and biol- ogy, the first and second in mathematics and physics, the first, second, third and fourth in logic, and the first, second fourth and sixth exhibitions. The following comparison of the honors won by each institution at last year's examinations will illustrate the great superiority in value of those obtained by University College. The honors awarded to a student's answering in any subject are divided into "first class " or ^ * second class honors," according as they pass or fall below a very high standard of excellence. There are also two grades in the exhibitions : ** first class " exhibitions varying with the examination from $150 to $ 1 68 are granted to the first seven or ten students on the list, and ** second class " exhibitions of half the value, to the next fifteen or twenty students. It will be seen that the distinctions of University College are of much higher quality than those of the other colleges. 1896. First Arts. Second Arts. B. A. Degree. Exhibitions Honors Exhibitions Honors Exhibitions Honors a University Col., Dublin, 7 Queen's " Belfast, 2 " Cork.... O •* " Galway O 3 II 14 5 2 10 15 4 3 5 6 I 16 I 4  0 3 10 o 4 JUNK, 1897. FIRST ARTS OR FIRST UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS. Exhibitions Honors University College, Dublin. Queen's *' Belfast. Galway. Cork .. 0 0 5 en S ^ 5 2 7 3 6 9 I I 2 I 0 I II 9 20 7 10 17 4 3 7 0 3 3 Total Distinctions 27 26 9 4 578 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, SECOND ARTS OR SECOND UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS. Exhibitions Honors University College, Dublin , Queen's " Belfast. Galway. Cork .. 4 I 5 12 7 19 I 4 5 5 ID 15 o o o 3 6 9 o I I o I I Total Distinctions 24 20 9 I-II ARTS COMBINED. 1st Class. 2d Class. Honor Exhib. Honor Exhib. ^otal Distinctions 32 19 51 16 30 46 8 10 18 I 5 6 University College, Dublin .. Queen's " Belfast .. " Galway.. Cork. .. In these two examinations University College won first place in Ireland (/. ^., first exhibition, first in the aggregate of all subjects), and in First Arts, first place in mathematics, physics and English, and in Second Arts, first place in Greek, French, Celtic, mathematics, mathematical physics and experimental physics — nine first places in subjects, while Queen's College, Belfast,' got first in three. Of the places won in the B. A. degree examination since 1890, University College carried off, in 1890, first in mathe- matics, first and third in biology ; in 1891, second and third in history and political science ; in 1892, first, second and fourth in mental science, and second in mathematics ; in 1893, fi^st in classics ; in 1894, first, second and third in classics, with the rare distinction of a gold medal for ex- cellence in answering ; second, and third in mental science and second in mathematics ; in 1895, second in classics, politi- cal science and mathematics ; and in 1896, first and second in classics ; first, second and third in mental science ; second in political science, and first in physics. In the M. A. degree, which is regarded as entirely an honors examination. University College secured during the same years : in 1890, first place in mathematics ; in 1891, CA THOLIC EDUCA TION IN IRELAND. 579 first in modern literature, and first in biological science ; in 1892, first, second, and third places in mental science; in 1893, first in mental science ; second and third in political science, and first in mathematics, with a gold medal for highly distinguished answering ; in 1894, first in modern literature, and first in mental science ; in 1895, first, third, and fourth in classics ; first in political science, and second in mental science and in mathematics ; and in 1896, first place in classics, and first in mental science. There are at present five studentships of 1 1,500 each offered every year to students of M. A. standing, but some years back there were at times only two available. Of the thirty that have been granted during the eight years we have been studying, University College obtained eleven, Belfast Queen^s College twelve, Galway two, and Cork none. Such is a brief survey of the educational work of Uni- versity College. It is, indeed, a record in which all Cath- olic Irishmen should feel pride, and which its past students regard with the warmest gratification. Its success is the best evidence of what Irish talent and Irish power of appli- cation can do if it only got opportunity of development and a field for its exercise ; but it is also a testimony to the ability and devotion of the teaching staff" which all outsiders recognize but none can appreciate so well as the old students. The professors are partly Ecclesiastics and partly Catholic lay- men. The former are members of the Jesuit Order whose reputation for learning is not confined to Ireland and whose character and kindly influence are felt at other than class times ; and supply in some way the want of a residential uni- versity. The lay professors are mostly young men, past students of the college (of whom four have been already elected Fellows of the University) ; and are rapidly gaining a high place in the list of gifted Irish scholars. It is a strange anomaly that a college capable of obtaining such results each year, and performing such a splendid part in the work of Irish education, should be left without recog- nition or assistance from the State, whilst so much of public money should be wasted each year on Cork and Galway 580 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Queen's Colleges without their ever being able to show any return for it, either in education imparted or honors gained. The endowments of Trinity College constitute, of course, almuch graver inequality. The enormous rental of the con- fiscated estates which James I. settled on it three hundred years ago and the innumerable bequests and donations it has sincejreceived, make its corporation one of the wealthiest educational bodies in the world and enable it to ajBford its students both the choicest culture and the deepest research that Ireland can produce. Its yearly revenue, beside which the $225,000 of the Queen's Colleges and Royal University seem a beggarly allowance, maintains scores of Fellows and tutors in luxurious incomes, provides prizes and free scholar- ships without end for its students, in addition to the benefits of university life, and keeps up the perfect equipment of the magnificent libraries and museums which so many public sources have enriched. All this is the preserve of the small Protestant minority, and the Catholics, the great majority of the nation, stand empty-handed without. It is true the endowments of Trinity College are now private property, with which Parliament could not interfere, and it may seem but a sentimental grievance to air our inferiority to it ; but having regard to the duty which gov- ernment everywhere recognizes, of encouraging and pro- viding education, it would be no improper use of the public funds to divert a large sum toward lessening the enormous disparity between the position of Catholic and Protestant education in Ireland. It would, however, be a very simple matter to settle the injustice of the present Queen's College system and give Catholics the same assistance as non-Catholics in their preparation for the Royal University ; and no stronger claim for their rights could be made than the exhibition which University College, Dublin, yearly gives of their hard-earned success in the face of such heavy odds. This is but a faint picture of one side of the story of Catholic Ireland, even in our day, when the nations think CA THOLIC ED UCA TION IN IRELAND. 581 that with Catholic emancipation and the death of penal laws, we are breathing the freedom of the boasted English Constitution. It is well to emphasize it and we have inten- tionally repeated ourselves to do so. Catholic Ireland robbed for Protestant endowments ! Catholic Ireland taxed to pay by the pennies of her poor for Godless education ! This, too, in the face of the awful revelation of national robbery by overtaxation, which has lately startled the con- science of the Christian world ! Catholic Ireland thus treated by a people to whose ancestors, aye, and to the princes of whose blood, she opened her schools, her home and her heart, in the golden years when she was the light and the generous benefactor of Western Christendom. But she is not faint-hearted — not less brave and hopeful now than in her dark centuries past. She will continue to cry and to struggle for justice, and she must be heard, she must succeed. She must have her parliament and her school and her altar despite the power of tyrants and the selfish bigotry of a foreign church. I cannot close this imperfect outline of the present position of our Catholic education, its struggles, its triumphs and its hopes, more fittingly than by the eloquent words of the Rev. Father Carbery, S. J., then Rector of the Catholic University, before the Maynooth Union of ^96. His theme is ** Higher Education our Hope for the Future,'* and he dwells with loving emphasis on the prophetic words of Cardinal Newman relating to the future of education in Ireland : " There are few of us," he says, " who have not read and reread, lingering over the page with speculation as to its prophetic weight, Cardinal Newman's conception of our country, once again a great centre of Catholic education. Dear to him as was his own Oxford, with the memories of its associations and friendships of early manhood, as well as ot his wondrous influence in later days, when the ^liie of the university crowded around him at St. Mary's, as an apostle of the higher life ; despite these natural prepossessions, and even contemplating his Alma Mater in the full accomplish- ment of his daily prayei, that the lamp of faith might once 582 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, again light up her shrines, he could not think it possible, when he brought his philosophic mind to bear on his pro- found historical knowledge, that it would be given to her to resume the high position which she had forfeited by her fall, as the second great school of learning in the Church of God. "* Since the age of Alfred and the first Henry,* he writes, * the world has grown from the west and south of Europe into four or five continents ; and I look for a city less inland than that old sanctuary, and a country closer upon the high- way of the sea. I look toward a land both old and young ; old in its Christianity, young in the promise of the future ; a nation which received grace before the Saxon came to Britain and which has never quenched it. I contemplate a people which had a long night, and will have an inevitable day. The capital of that hopeful land is situated on a beautiful bay, near a romantic region; and in it I see a flourishing university, which for a while had to struggle with fortune, but which when its first founders were dead and gone, had success far exceeding their anxieties. Hither as to a sacred soil, the home of their fathers and the fountain head of their Christianity, students are flocking from east, west and south with the ease and rapidity of a locomotion not yet discovered ; all speaking one tongue, all owning one faith, all eager for one large, true wisdom ; and thence when their stay is over, going back again to carry peace to men ot good will over all the earth. ' " The well known characteristics of the author of this pre- diction ; his scrupulous reverence for truth, his dread of all]|exaggeration and deceit, no less than his power of logical deduction, should suffice to secure attention for any pro- nouncement of his own on such an important subject. But when, moreover, we calmly consider the reasons so skilfully insinuated as the basis of this conviction we find our own views gradually expand into a strong faith that, if the Cath- olics of Ireland are but true to themselves this prediction will be fully realized.*' Joseph Doi.an, M.A. Ardee, Co, Louth. AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS, 583 AKERIGAN FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS. THE SISTKRS OF CHARITY IN THK UNITED STATES. f (Second Part.) ON February 20, 18 10, the new house which Mother Seton had undertaken to build was sufficiently near its completion to allow the Sisters to occupy part of it. Two days later they opened a day school for girls living in and near Bmmettsburg. By the middle of May they had five boarding pupils ; in June, the total number of students was forty ; and at the close of the year the boarders alone numbered thirty. The original design had been to have a school for only poor children, but the lack of sufficient means compelled the Sisters to make a beginning by devoting their services chiefly to the education of daughters of the well- to-do. As the institution made progress, postulants applied for admission. In May, Mother Seton wrote to a friend : *'We are now twelve, and as many again are waiting for admission. I have a very, very large school to superintend every day, and the entire charge of the religious instruction of all the country round. All apply to the Sisters of Charity, who are day and night devoted to the sick and the ignorant.** Cecilia Seton, who joined the community shortly after it had moved to Bmmettsburg, died in April, 1810, and was buried beside her sister Harriet. Although a certain amount of revenue could be counted upon from the pupils, from contributions offered by persons in sympathy with the objects of the sisterhood, and from the generosity of the Filicchi brothers, the community had to sustain the debt for its new building ; this, together with the furnishing and maintenance of the establishment soon brought on financial straits. At first it was proposed that Mother Seton should go on a tour of the country soliciting aid ; but this project was condemned. To avert the sale of the property for debt and the destruction of the institute, appeals were made by letter in December, 18 11, to a number 584 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, of persons well disposed towards the community, such as Gen. Robert Goodloe Harper, son-in-law of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and others through whose assistance the impending necessity of abandoning their work of charity was warded off. When Mother Seton and her advisers failed in their eflfort to induce the institute of the Daughters of Charity in France to send some members to America who might aid in the formation of a permanent religious commu- nity here, according to the rule of St. Vincent de Paul, they acted upon their own counsel, making use of the plan drawn up by the saint for the direction of the religious. In his edifying Life of Mrs, Eliza A, Se/on, the Rev. Dr. Charles I. White makes this summary of the regulations then laid down, which proved a solid basis for virtues and good works during forty years : " The end which the Sisters of Charity proposed to them- selves was to honor our I^ord Jesus Christ as the source and model of all charity, by rendering to Him every temporal and spiritual service in their power, in the persons of the poor, the sick, prisoners, and others ; also to honor the sacred infancy of Jesus Christ in the young persons of their sex whom they may be called upon to form to virtue, while they sow in their minds the seed of useful knowledge. Thus the poor, of all descriptions and ages, the sick, invalids, found- lings, orphans, and even insane persons, were embraced within the sphere of their solicitude and care. "Another object of their zeal, no less important at that time in America, was the instruction of young persons ot their sex in virtue, piety, and various branches of useful learning. This instruction they were to extend gratis to poor orphans, as far as circumstances would permit. The education of female youth in general did not enter into the plan contemplated by St. Vincent de Paul. On the one hand, the great facilities which France and other parts of Europe offered for the instruction of young ladies in the knowledge and accomplishments of their sex, made it need- less for the good of society ; while, on the other, the liberal AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 585 endowments by whicli his spiritual daughters were enabled to pursue their charitable labors, dispensed them from the necessity of earning the means of support. But the case was very different in the United States. The superiors of St. Joseph's community thought it essential to the very exis- tence of the society that it should embrace in its object the education of young ladies who were able to pay for their in- struction, as without this its resources would be insufficient for the maintenance of the mother-house and an orphan asylum. Moreover, this modification of the rules of St. Vin- cent appeared the more desirable, as it would extend the benefits of religious instruction to a class of society which has the greatest influence upon public morals, and which then possessed but scanty facilities in the United States for obtaining a solid and virtuous education. ** To carry out the above-mentioned objects, the society is composed of such as were never married and of widows, who are required to be sound of mind and body, and free from all defects that would prevent them from discharging the func- tions of their state. They must be of good character and respectable connections, of an age commonly not short of six- teen nor exceeding twenty-eight, and, above all, fully dis- posed to serve God during their whole life in the persons of the poor and the education of youth, with an entire submis- sion to the guidance of superiors and a great fidelity to the rules of the institute. * * Candidates for admission into the Sisterhood are per- mitted, after mature deliberation, to enter the novitiate, or term of probation, during which they are instructed particu- larly in the duties and spirit of their vocation. At the expiration of this period, if judged competent by the supe- riors, they are allowed to make the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and permanency in the company, according to their rules, and this for one year only, con- formably to the practice of the community. These vows are intended to check the inconstancy of the human mind and to prevent a hasty return to the world which might be followed by regret and remorse ; but, as they bind only for a period of 586 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW. twelve months, the Sisters are at liberty to withdraw at the expiration of this time, though they are supposed to make their vows in the first instance with a determination to remain during their whole life in their holy vocation. ** As nothing could be more excellent and sublime than the end contemplated by the Sisterhood of St. Joseph^s, the most perfect dispositions are required in its members, and the rules prescribed for their observance tend no less to their own personal sanctification than to their preparation for the ser- vice of the neighbor. That they may correspond with the grace of their vocation and fulfill with merit to themselves and benefit to others the great obligations annexed to it, they are strenuously exhorted to the practice of holiness, to aim at Christian perfection, and to join the exercises of an interior and spiritual life with their exterior employments, according to the regulations of the institute, the faithful observance of which is considered the most efiectual means of attaining the ends of their holy sfate. Though they do not belong to a religious order (such a state being incompati- ble with the objects of their society), yet, as they are more exposed to the world than members of a religious order, having in most circumstances no other monastery than the houses of the sick or the school-room, no other cell than a rented apartment, no other chapel than the parish church, no cloister but the public street or hospital, no enclosure but obedience, no grate but the fear of God, no veil but that of holy modesty, they are taught to aim at the highest virtue and to comport themselves under all circumstances with as much edification as if they were living in the seclusion of a convent. The salvation of their soul is the paramount con- sideration they are to have in view. The cultivation of humility, charity and simplicity, the performance of their actions in union with the Son of God, contempt of the world, disengagement from created things, love of abjection, patient and even cheerful endurance of all earthly crosses and trials, and a great confidence in Divine Providence, are practices which the sisters consider essential to their profession. AMERICAN RELIGIO US ORDERS. 587 **In addition to these holy maxims, which may be said to form the characteristic spirit of the society, the sisters are animated in a special manner by the requirements of the holy vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, to pursue with zeal the objects of their institute. The most admirable rules are laid down for the practice of mutual charity aniong themselves, and also for the proper fulfilment of the duties that may be assigned to them, whether attending the sick in hospitals and private houses, conducting free schools and asylums, or discharging other offices of their state. The dangers to be met with in various situations are pointed out, aslwell as the precautions to be adopted. In a word, no instruction is omitted that could tend to qualify the Sister of Charity for the worthy and successful performance of her high functions. ^' But as she would in vain hope to acquit herself faithfully of these onerous duties, and in that proper spirit which they demand, without the assiduous exercise of prayer and reflec- tion, a strict attention is required to various practices of piety, such as morning and evening prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, self-examination, frequentation of the Sacraments, and other devotions, which tend to enkindle in the soul the love of God and the neighbor, to nourish the spirit of faith, and to maintain a perpetual triumph of grace over the weak- ness of nature and the suggestions of the world. In any of the situations in which a sister may be employed, whether at the mother-house or on the missions, a large portion of her daily time is appropriated to prayer and other spiritual exer- cises, while the remainder is filled up with the duties of her calling. * * The power and authority which were necessary to main- tain the spirit of the institute, to insure its objects and regu- late its various operations, were vested in a central govern- ment, composed of a superior-general (who is a clergyman), a mother-superior, an assistant, a treasurer and a procura- trix. The superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpitius, in Baltimore, was ex officio protector of the Constitution of the society and had an eye to their faithful observance. The ^88 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW. superior-general was to be consulted on all important matters, both temporal and spiritual. The Mother-Superior was to exercise a more immediate supervision over affairs, and par- ticularly over the principal establishment in which she resides. To be eligible to this office, it was required that a sister should be thirty-five years of age and have been a member of the community twelve years ; moreover, that she should possess a mature judgment, with the talent of governing, and, above all, be exemplary in the practice of the different virtues which the vocation of a Sister of Charity demands. The mother was to be elected in a general assembly of the sisters, by a majority of votes, for a term of three years and could be reelected a second term, but not longer. The offices of assistant, treasurer and procuratrix were also to be confeired by a majority of votes, and for only one term ot three years. These officers formed the council of the mother and to their joint deliberation were referred all matters relating to the interests of the company. Besides the mother and her council, there was a mistress of novices in the principal house, appointed by the mother with the aid of her advisers, to form those who were admitted into the Sisterhood to the spirit and duties of their vocation. One of the sisters was also appointed, in the same way, to regu- late and superintend the exercises of St. Joseph^s Academy. The establishments abroad have each a presiding officer to watch over its concerns, who was appointed by the same authority and is called the sister-servant. All other inferior offices are distributed by the mother, according to her judg- ment and discretion." Mother Seton's children were an obstacle to her taking the obligations of the religious state. She had no compe- tence for them, and she would not give up to any one else her maternal duty as their guardian. Some of the Sulpician Fathers who helped to fashion the new institute thought indeed that she ought to quit the community, return to Balti- more, and re-open her private school. But others of them contended that she was where God had clearly sent her, and that exceptional provision should be made for her. She AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 589 submitted the difficulty to those interested in her work, especially to her spiritual director, and finally to the decision of Archbishop Carroll. In a letter written to her on Sep- tember II, 181 1, he said : " Honored and dear Madam : — Shall I confess that I am deeply humiliated at being called on to give a final sanction to a rule of conduct and plan of religious government by which it is intended to promote and preserve, among many beloved spouses of Jesus Christ, a spirit of solid and sublime religious perfection ? When I remember how many prayers, fastings, watchings, etc., were employed by the holy founders of religious institutions to obtain light and assistance from the Holy Ghost to render their Constitu- tions and rules adapted to the objects of their pious zeal, I am so sensible of my unworthiness that I would certainly decline from the task if I did not entertain a confidence that it may please God to bestow a blessing on the ministerial acts of the ministers of religion whom He has constituted, to which blessing they are not entitled if only their private worth were considered. Under this impression, therefore, I shall and do now give my approbation to the Constitu- tions exhibited to me by Mr. Dubois, after they shall receive the alterations suggested to and by him. At present too many persons would be consulted and, among them, some who are incompetent to judge ; and even they who are most competent might find their most equitable provisions rendered useless by the changes produced in a few years. Mr. Dubois has been very explicit in communicating, I believe, whatever it was proper for me to know. On my side, it has been my endeavor, when I read the Constitutions, to consult, in the first place, the individual happiness of your dear sisters, and, consequently, your own ; secondly, to render their plan of life useful to religion and the public ; thirdly, to confine the administration of your own affairs and the internal and domestic government, as much as possible, to your own institutions once adopted, and within your own walls. Your superior or confessor alone need be informed or consulted in matters where the mother and her council need advice. I shall congratulate you and your beloved sisters when the Constitution is adopted. It will be like freeing you from a state in which it was difficult to walk straight, as you had no certain way in which to proceed. In the meantime, assure yourself and them of my utmost solicitude for your advancement in the service and favor of God ; of my reliance on your prayers ; of mine for your prosperity in the important duty of education, which will and must long be your principle, and will always be your partial, employment. A century at least will pass before the exigencies and habits of this country will require, and hardly admit, of the charitable exercises towards the sick sufficient to employ any number of the sisters out of our largest cities ; and therefore they must consider the business of education as a laborious, charitable, and permanent object of their religious duty." AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 591 In accordance with the Archbishop's views, the case of Mother Seton was treated as exceptional in the Constitutions of the new religious institute. A clause authorizing her to watch over her children's welfare and to administer their property was added in the paragraph regarding the admission of widows. It was also provided in her favor that in case of her election to the office of mother-superior for more than two consecutive terms the choice might be ratified, provided the ecclesiastical directors of the society should deem her continuance in office beneficial for the general good. When the new rules were read to the Emmettsburg com- munity in January, 1812, the sisters were notified that they were free to accept them by remaining in the society, or if they felt any difficulty of doing so they could return to their respective homes. There were twenty sisters in the house. Only one of them decided to go away. Having been adopted by the community, the Constitutions were then once more referred to the superior of the Sulpicians, the Rev. John Tessier, and to the Most Rev. John Carroll for formal canonical approval. On January 17th, the Arch- bishop sent the approbation in writing, adding these words : " I have approved of the same, believing them to be inspired by the Spirit of God and suitable to conduct the Sisters to religious perfection." Father John Dubois (then a Sulpician and later Bishop of New York) was appointed the first Superior-General of the Sisterhood. An election was at once held. Mrs. Seton was chosen Mother- Superior ; Mrs. Rose White, Assistant ; Miss Catha- rine Mullen, Treasurer, and Miss Ann Gruber, Procuratrix. The sisters entered a spiritual retreat on February 2, 1812, and were then informed that a further novitiate of one year would be allowed them to test their vocation under the new rule, at the expiration of which additional period of trial, they could either take the vows or withdraw, as they should prefer and the superiors should decide. No special habit was required by the Constitutions ; that being one of the details postponed for further consideration. 592 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Meanwhile the sisters were directed to wear the costume that they had used since the commencement of the institute. *'It may be remarked, however," says Dr. White, "that for some years neither the form nor the material of the com- munity dress had a very definite character. Some weeks after the sisters were established in the valley, the black cap was introduced and afterward retained. The color of the dress, as well as the material, was not very uniform. The straightened funds of the house required the observance of a very rigid economy, and for this reason habits for the sisters were frequently made from the articles of clothing which they had brought with them to the institution. In the year 1812, one piece of linsey, pepper and salt color, was purchased for the community, and the habits manufactured from this stuff were considered by the members of the house as remarkably genteel, compared with others then in use. We may judge, however, that they scarcely reached the proper standard from a humorous observation of Bishop Cheverus, who, seeing one of the sisters in her linsey habit, inquired of Mother Seton if she was * under penance.' At a later period, when the income of the establishment had increased, black bombazette was introduced for the habits of the sisters ; but during the war between Great Britain and the United States, in conse- quence of the difficulty of procuring this aiticle, flannel was substituted in its place, and was used afterward, winter and summer. ' ' During that first year of the community's existence as a regular institute ten postulants were received. Sister Annina Seton, the Mother-Superior's eldest child, fell ill in September, 181 1, and died on the following March 12, in the seventeenth year of her age, beloved in life and mourned and envied in her pious death. At the end of the year of probation, on July 19, 1813, these following members of the community, eighteen in all, took the vows: Eliza Ann Seton, Rose White, Catharine Mullen, Ann Gruber, Elizabeth Boyle, Angela Brady, Cecilia O' Con- way, Susan Clossy, Mary Ann Butler, Adele Salva, lyouise Roger, Margaret George, Sarah Thompson, Eleanor Thomp- AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 593 son, Martina Quinn, Fanny Jordan, Teresa Conway and Julia Shirk. A novitiate was started in August, with Sister Catharine Mullen as novice mistress, and this completed the organiza- tion of the society. The first colony from St. Joseph's was sent to Philadelphia in September, 1814, to take charge of an orphan asylum. Three sisters, at the head of whom was Sister Rose White, made up the new foundation which was placed under the patronage of St. Joseph. Beginning in want almost of the necessaries of life, it has developed into a magnificent insti- tution. The second corps was sent out in 181 5. It too consisted of three sisters, who were to take charge of the domestic arrangements of Mt. St. Mary's College. The third branch was established in New York in 18 17, at the request of Bishop Connolly. It, likewise, was composed of three sisters — Rose White (transferred from Philadelphia), Cecilia O' Conway and Felicity Brady. It was anticipated that these would have a more than ordinarily difficult posi- tion, owing to the scrutiny and criticism to which they were likely to be subjected in the native city of Mother Seton, a fact which largely influenced Mother Seton in her particular choice of these pioneers. The Sisterhood was incorporated in January, 181 7, by Act of the Legislature of Maryland. There were bigots in those days, for the vote stood 35 to 24, a majority of only 11 in 59 for a philanthropic institution, such as that of pious and cultivated women devoted to education and charity. Almost from the start, some poor children were freely taught at St. Joseph's, and a number of others were instructed for next to nothing, according to the means of their parents. In 1820 a two-story brick building was erected for a free school, according to the intention of the Rev. Father Cooper, and the children who attended it were not only instructed gratuitously, but they were also fed at noon. Mother Seton, who had been called in 1815 to a second term as Mother-Superior, was chosen for the third time in 594 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, 1818. Her health was so poor at the time that she herself called this " an election of the dead." Still she was up and about until 1820. Then the symptoms of consumption showed themselves plainly in her system. For four months she was confined to her room. Her last days were full of edification for the Sisterhood. She expired on January 4, 182 1, in the forty-seventh year of her age. Since Mother Seton's death the work that she began in poverty and uncertainty has developed into noble proportions. The tree she planted has stretched out its branches until they ramify all over the country — through New England in the East, New York in the North, lyouisiana in the South, Cali- fornia in the far West, and the vast region between those points. There have grown up under its shade numberless souls walking the paths of religious perfection. It has fed and sheltered hundreds of thousands of persons — infants, orphans, young girls, mothers, the sick, the insane, the leprous — by the practice in their regard of almost all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Thus have been ful- filled the prophetic expectations of Bishop Cheverus and Dr. Matignon that this foundress would be ** a great good in the United States.'* A living argument in favor of the Catholic religion, the institute has been of inestimable help to the Church, inside and outside of the communion of the faithful. Although the Sisterhood of Charity is ready to render every temporal and spiritual service, according to its par- ticular scope, to all who are in need of succor, its special care and affection are extended to the poor and the ignorant. But wherever there is most danger, most discomfort, most forlorn wretchedness, most hope of giving glory to God and doing good to mankind, there its members are at home. In 1832, for instance, when the scourge of the Asiatic cholera swept over our land decimating the population, when thou- sands fled before its approach, leaving behind them their dying kindred and dearest friends, the Sisters of Charity bravely confronted it. The municipal authorities of Philadelphia were the first who applied to the superioress for aid, and no sooner was the request presented than thirteen of these heroic AMERICAN RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 595 nuns were despatched to that city, eager to help and serve those from whom the rest of the world seemed to fly with horror. The scene at the mother-house on this occasion was sublime. The council having assembled, there was no delay in arriving at a favorable determination. A selection was at once made of those who were to start. Their countenances, beaming with joy, gave evidence of the spirit which animated them, and those who remained behind experienced a feeling akin to envy for those upon whom the happy lot had fallen. The City of Baltimore made a similar appeal to obtain nurses for its cholera hospitals, and its petition was also promptly answered. Several of the sisters fell martyrs of the plague. When the epidemic was over and the surviving nuns were recalled, the Board of Guardians of the Almshouse at Phila- delphia, at their meeting on May 20, 1833, adopted a series of resolutions expressing their sense of admiration and grati- tude in permanent testimony " to the zeal, fidelity and dis- interestedness which these amiable philanthropists have exhibited." The authorities of Philadelphia regretted that the sisters would take no reward, " as it would give them pleasure to bestow such a testimonial as might serve partially to express the grateful feelings which they entertain. *' The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore adopted a resolution testifying that during the pestilence " the Sisters of Charity were conspicuous in the labor of love, as strangers flying to our succor in distress and encountering death as the price of their devotion. ** **As a memorial of the gratitude of the city,'' it was determined by the Council that "a monument be erected to the memory of the said deceased Sisters as a record of, and a just tribute to, their exemplary piety, human- ity and self-devotion.'* This monument was placed by the city in the Cathedral Cemetery. Again, when the Civil War desolated the republic, bands of Sisters of Charity went out from peaceful convent homes to battlefields and military hospitals, and nursed the wounded soldiers confided to their care. They faced hardship, expo- sure, endless exertion and risk of life, but no thought of pain or privation or peril weakened their devotion in their mi- 596 AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW. 