Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/584

 JOSEPH

512

JOSEPH

he gave them rules for their guidance, and as the con- gregation had been established in the diocese for the Christian education of children, he recommended that the teachers fit themselves especially for this impor- tant work. He also prescribed as their religious dress a black habit and veil, a lilack cincture on which a large rosary is worn, a band of white linen across the forehead, and a white linen coif fastened under the chin. Later a white linen gimp was added. In re- gard to the spirit by which the sisters were to be ani- mated, Bishop de Maupas writes: "As I have found in the Visitation Order a sort of blessed predilection for the exact observance of the holiest laws of humility and charity, I have decided to institute the Congrega- tion of St. Joseph on the same model, and in the same spirit, as the Sisters of the Visitation before they adopted enclosure." The constitutions which Father Medaille wrote for the sisters are borrowed from the rules of St. Ignatius, the saintly founder adding obser- vations from his own experience. According to the rule, each community was to consider as its superior the bishop of the diocese, who was to appoint a spirit- ual father to accompany him, or, in his absence, to preside at the election of superiors and perform such offices as the necessities of the community might re- quire. Father Medaille prescribed three months, at least, for the probation time of a postulant, and four years for novitiate training, two years preparatory, and two years after the making of the vows, which are final. At her profession, the novice receives a brass crucifix, which the bishop presents with these words: " Receive, my child, the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to which you are affixed by the three vows as by so many nails; wear it openly on your breast as a most sure defence against the enemy; endeavour especially to carry it faithfully in your heart, by loving it ten- derly and by bearing with delight and humility this sweet burden, that faithfully living and dying in the love of the cross with Jesus, you may also triumph with Him in glory." The sisters devote three hours a day to their regular devotions. They recite the Office of the Blessed Virgin on Sundays and feasts of obliga- tion. On other days, the Office of the Holy Ghost is substituted.

The successor of Bishop de Maupas, Bishop Armand de B^thune, approved the congregation. 23 September, 1655, and Louis XIV confirmed by letters patent the first establishments of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the cities of Le Puy, St-Didier, and several other places in Velay. They were later introduced into the Dioceses of Clermont, Vienne, Lyons, Grenoble, Embrun, Gap, Sisteron, Vivier, Uges, and almost the whole of France. Foundations were made also in Savoy, Italy, and Corsica.

In 1793 the convents and chapels of the sisters were confiscated, their annals were destroyed, and the re- ligious were obliged to join communities in other countries, or to return to their respective homes in the world. The congregation has had its martyrs, three during the persecution in Dauphin^, for refusing to take the civil oath, and two in another persecution in Haute-Loire. During the reign of terror, several Sis- ters of St. Joseph died for the Faith, and several others escaped the guillotine only by the fall of Robes- pierre. Among the latter was Mother St. John Font- bonne, who in her notebook records the names of four Sisters of St. Joseph imprisoned with her at St- Didier, five others in the dimgeon of Feurs, and twenty in Clermont and other parts of France.

The first use Mother St. John made of her liberty was to try to reas.semble her dispersed community. She applied in vain to the municipality for the res- toration of the convent in which she had invested hsr dowry, and while awaiting the dawn of a brighter day, returned to her own home. The vicar-general, the Rev. Claude Cholleton, invited Mother St. John to repair, in 1807, to Saint-Etienne to take charge of a

little band of religious representing different com- munities which, like that of St. Joseph, had l^een dis- banded during the Revolution. Other young women joined the little household, all of whom Mother St. John zealously trained according to the life and rules of the first Sisters of St. Joseph. The community prospered. In several places the Government ap- proved of the return of the sisters to their long vacant convents, and in some cases Revolutionary proprietors sold back to the sisters the property which had been confiscated. On reopening the mission at Monistrol, Mother St. John expressed great joy and satisfaction. The work of the congregation continued, the increase in numbers keeping pace with demands now made on every side for convents and Catholic schools. Where- ever obedience directed, thither the missionaries has- tened, till representatives of the community might be counted in nearly every country in Europe, on the distant shores of Asia, and in the fastnesses of Africa.

The recent upheaval in France is like history repeats ing itself in the spirit of the Revolution. Himdreds of convents, schools, and charitable institutions, be- longing to the Sisters of St. Joseph, have ]xen sup- pressed, and the religious have been obliged to seek safety and shelter in other lands. Consequently many new missions, in the remotest parts of the United States, have been recently opened. In 1903 four sis- ters who fled from France at the beginning of the troubles there, sought and obtained hospitality at St. Joseph's Convent, Flushing. They remained nearly two years, or until they had sufficiently mas- tered the English language, and fitted themselves for educational work awaiting them in Minnesota, where they have since opened three little mission houses.

Boston. — In 1873 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brook- lyn opened their first school at Jamaica Plain, in the Archdiocese of Boston, and three years later estab- lished there a novitiate, which was transferred suc- cessively to Cambridge (1SS5), Brighton, and C'anton (1902). The mother-house is still at Brighton. The sisters were soon in demand throughout the archdio- cese, and now (1910) number 300, in charge of an academy, 12 parochial schools, a school for the deaf, and an industrial home for girls. They have 7000 children imder their care.

Brooklyn. — In the spring of 1856 the Right Rev. John Loughlin, first Bishop of Brooklyn, applied to the mother-house at Philadelphia for sisters, and two religious were named for the new mission, joined dur- ing the same year by a sister from Buffalo. St. Mary's Academy, Williamsburg, was opened on 8 Sept., 1856, and in the following year a parochial school was in- augurated. In 1860 tlio mother-house, novitiate, and boarding school were removed to Flushing, Long Is- land, whence the activity of the sisters was gradually extended over the diocese. In 1903 the mother-house and novitiate were again transferred to Brentwood, New York, where an academy was opened the same year. The community, now (1910) numbering over 600 members, is represented in over 50 parishes of the diocese, in which the sisters preside over 8 academies, 50 parochial schools, 3 orphan asylums, a home for women, and 2 hospitals, having under their care 11,- 000 children, not including 1300 orphans. They teach Christian doctrine in many Sunday schools liesides those attached to the schools imder their charge. In nearly all the mission houses are evening cla.sses for adults to whom the sisters give religious instruction. They also visit the sick in the parishes in which they reside.

Buffalo. — The Sisters of St. Joseph were introduced into the Diocese of Buffalo in 1854, when three sisters from Carondelet, St. Louis, made a foundation at (^anandaigua, New York. Two years later one of these sisters was brought to Buffalo by Bishop Timon to assume charge of Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institu- tion for the instruction of deaf mutes, which had lately