St Margarets Academy - Dayseye Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet One century ago a clarion call crossed the crest-tipped Atlantic and sounded its note at the convent doors of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyons. Bishop Rosati of St. Louis needed missionary Sisters in his diocese in America. The Sisters of St. Joseph were summoned and responded with eager and enthusiastic hearts. On January seventeenth. 1836, the first little mission band watched the shores of sunny France vanish in the distance and turned hopeful, trusting faces toward America. The Sisters brought with them from France traditions rich in valiant courage, in deep devotion, and in loyalty to duty. The pioneer Sisters of France had known want, hardship, and the terrors of war. Nearly two hundred years before, a small group of eager, ardent young women, in answer to the urgent call of Bishop de Maupas, assembled in the home of Madame de Joux, in Lc Puy for their novitiate training before making vows. On October fifteenth, 1650, in a dimly lighted chapel these young girls consecrated their lives to the service of God as the first Sisters of St. Joseph. On that occasion Bishop de Maupas, handing to the daughters of France a cross said, ''Wear it openly; bear it bravely just as Christ did up anguished heights. Carry it down the ways of pain, into homes of fever, into the warrens of the poor; bear it to far lands. Let it be your oriflame to light you to victory. Mother St. John I-ontuonni .Superior-Genera! of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyons, France The cross given the first Sisters of St. Joseph has been their consolation. They wore it openly; they bore it bravely. The little order grew rapidly in its infant years, and by 1778, it had established a firm foothold in many parts of France. It was then that the French Revolution broke out, spreading devastating havoc over the country. At the outbreak of this terrible siege. Mother Saint John Fontbonne, a native of Bas, was appointed Superior of the Sisters in Monistrol. Gracious, capable, and courageous, Sister Fontbonne made an impressive figure as Mother of the order. Straight and firmly did she steer her little clientele, even when the ravages of the Revolution stalked through their ranks cruelly driving them from the convent, forcing them to take refuge at the Fontbonne home in Bas. After two years of clandestine labor the Sisters were discovered by their persecutors and thrust into Mother House of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyons

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North Entrance St. Margaret's Hall In sacred trust we leave with thee Our hearts to guard where'er we be, As thou hast blest and shielded all In the sacred precincts of thy ivied wall.

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the gruesome prison of Saint Didicr. Seven won the crown of martyrdom on the guillotine. After eleven long months of suffering and anguish the Reign of Terror spent its force. Mother Saint John and her companions were liberated to continue their noble work and slowly but steadily repaired the ruin wrought by an irreligious government. The heroic Sister St. John Fontbonne gathered together the scattered flock, lifted again the cross, invoked the protection of St. Joseph, and built anew for France and for the Faith.” To the spiritual heritage left by the Sisters of France, the pioneer Sisters of America added their own invincible courage and undaunted zeal. After forty-nine days on the ocean, they landed at gay New Orleans, journeyed up the river to St. Louis, and began their mission in the Hospital of the Sisters of Charity. Though Carondelet was destined to be the future home of the order in America, the first settlement was established in Cahokia and there the Sisters were treated to their first meal of American cornbrcad. As the annual overflow of the turbulent Mississippi rendered the place unhealthful, the Sisters were obliged to abandon their settlement and move to Carondelet. The first school started with an enrollment of thirty pupils, who paid tuition in the form of wood or provisions. At this time Bishop Rosati required more assistance and appealed to Lyons for Sisters to teach the deaf. Two Sisters were sent but were delayed on the way. Finally, after a tedious journey, they reached St. Louis in September and started the school for the deaf mutes and orphans. As their rough, weather-beaten convent, housing six Sisters, four mutes, and six orphans, soon proved inadequate, a new convent was erected under the guidance of Mother Celcstine, a cheery and lovable person. Rapidly the order flourished and spread throughout the land. As years passed, its convent walls sheltered eager students from snow-sheathed New England to the sun bathed slopes of the rocky coast; from the rolling prairies of the myriad-laked Minnesota and the grain-flecked Dakotas to the balmy South. The order is now widespread and harvesting fruitful returns in twenty-four dioceses throughout the country. Cha e! in the Mother Home of the Sifters of St. Joseph in Lyons. Mother Home of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Carondelet, Missouri