USA > New Jersey > The Catholic Church in New Jersey > Part 53
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The following visiting priests were present: The Rev. T. A. Wallace, the Rev. T. J. McDonald, and the Rev. Benedict J. O'Neill, of Englewood; the Rev. Patrick Cody, of Newark; the Rev. James Flanagan, Ridgefield Park; the Rev. J. E. Lambert, St. Mary's Church, Hackensack; and the Rev. Joseph Ascheri, Lodi.
The sermon was preached by Father Cody, rector of St. James's Church, Newark, who was in charge of Holy Trinity Church, Hackensack, from 1867 to 1870. His remarks were of exceptional interest. He described the various ceremonies to be conducted in the future church, from the baptism of the infant to the solemn service for the dead.
Father Cunneely, of Holy Trinity Church, Hackensack, then thanked those present for their attendance, especially the Knights of Columbus of Trinity Council, Hackensack, and Madonna Council, Englewood.
This church has been erected for the convenience of the Cath- olics in Peetzburg, Oradell, and New Milford. For some months divine service was held in the home of Mr. Bird.
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St. Michael's Church, Paterson.
SUNDAY, October 25th, 1903, Bishop O'Connor dedicated to the service of God the church of St. Michael, Paterson. This building for many years was the stronghold of Methodism in Pat- erson, and was known far and wide as the Cross Street Church. It was purchased for the use of the many thousand Italians who find occupation in the silk industry of Paterson. Father Felix De Persia, who labored successfully in Hoboken, is the pastor. Immediately following the dedication of the church a mission by the Passionists was opened, which proved a source of many graces and blessings-over nine hundred approached the sacraments. Father De Persia is making arrangements to open a parish school.
On New Year's Day, 1904, the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Sheppard, V.G., dedicated St. Anthony's Church, Elizabeth, for the use of the Italians. This church formerly belonged to the Protestants.
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DIOCESAN INSTITUTIONS
Sisters of Charity, Convent Station, N. J.
THE history of the rise and progress of the Sisters of Charity is so closely identified with the prosperity of the Church in the Diocese of Newark that it is proper that a history of their founda- tion should find place in this history of Catholicity.
On the 23d of January, 1847, the Sisters of Charity, who had come from Emmettsburg, the first mother house of the order in the United States, founded by the revered Mother Elizabeth Seton, were constituted a local community in the diocese of New York, under the patronage of the Most Rev. John Hughes, and were incorporated under the title of "The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul." The first novitiate was regularly opened on the 13th of February, 1847, at St. Mary's Convent, East Broad- way, New York City. Catharine Mehegan, a native of Cork, Ire- land, known in religion as Sister Mary Xavier, was one of the first three to receive the novice habit in the new community. The sisters were at once engaged in the service of the sick poor and in the work of the schools, Sister Mary Xavier being appointed to assist Sister Angela Hughes, the local superior of St. Vincent's Hospital, now on East Thirteenth Street. Sister M. Xavier labored among the sick until she was sent to take charge of a mis- sion which had been previously opened in Newark, N. J. Shortly after her appointment as superior of the orphan asylum attached to St. Patrick's Church, New York, four or five sisters were sent from the mother house in New York, at the request of Bishop- elect Bayley, to take charge of the orphan asylum in Newark and teach in the parochial school connected with St. Patrick's Church. A few weeks later other missions were opened in Paterson and in Jersey City. The last superior of the mother house in Newark was Sister Mary Xavier, while Sister Mary Catharine Nevin, whose name is so closely identified with that of Mother Xavier in the foundation of the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey, was ap- pointed to the Paterson mission, then situated on Church Street.
As the wants of the diocese increased, and as it was impossible
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to secure from the mother house in New York subjects to carry on the work inaugurated in the parish schools of the new diocese, on April Ist, 1856, Bishop Bayley wrote to the Very Rev. William Starr, V.G., ecclesiastical superior of the community, making application for some sisters to take charge of the domestic ar- rangements in Seton Hall College, then located in Madison. Again, on June 9th, 1858, Bishop Bayley wrote to Archbishop Hughes, enclosing a copy of his letter to Mother Angela in regard to letting him have sisters to form a mother house in Newark. A similar letter was written to the Very Rev. Father Starr and to Mother Angela, requesting sisters to establish a community. His request at first was not considered. Disappointed but undaunted the bishop appealed to the mother house at Emmettsburg, but here again he was unsuccessful. Meanwhile Providence seemed to bless his resolution, for five young ladies volunteered to conse- crate their lives and their talents in the noble work of instructing children and caring for the orphans and the destitute. As there was as yet no house within the limits of his diocese where these young women might be properly trained, Bishop Bayley requested Mother Angela and also the mother superior of Emmettsburg to receive the young postulants and prepare them in the novitiate for the great work he hoped to see carried on in the diocese. This was found to be impracticable, as both houses felt that they were unable to devote to the probationers the necessary time and attention.
In August, 1858, Bishop Bayley wrote to Bishop Neuman, of Philadelphia, requesting him to use his good offices to secure for the diocese the Sisters of St. Joseph. Disappointed in his hopes with regard to the training of his five young candidates, on June Ioth, 1858, Bishop Bayley wrote to Archbishop Purcell and to Mother Margaret, the Superior of the Cincinnati branch of the Sisters of Charity, begging her to receive and train his five candi- dates. Mother Margaret had known Mother Seton, and because of her admiration of the virtues of that saintly woman she could not turn a deaf ear to the pleadings of her nephew, and accord- ingly consented to the request of Bishop Bayley. Father McQuaid without delay conducted the Misses Margaret O'Neill of Paterson, Mary Linah, Bridget Daley, Mary A. Duffy, and Margaret Plun- kett of Newark, to Cincinnati and installed them in the novitiate.
Letters of Bishop Bayley, dated January 11th, 1859, Septem- ber 24th and October 24th of the same year, contained checks in payment for the training of these novices.
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Novitiate.
Convent.
St. Elizabeth's Academy and College.
MOTHER HOUSE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY, CONVENT STATION, N. J.
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At the end of one year, and because of the pressing demands for their services in the young community at home, the five novices bade farewell to their Cincinnati friends and set out to begin their apostolic labors in New Jersey. They were received with joy by the home community, and upon their arrival those of the Mt. St. Vincent sisters who had remained with Mother Mary Xavier to assist her until the return of her own subjects withdrew to the mother house in New York. Thus, on the 29th of September, 1859, was formally opened, in the humble dwelling known as St. Mary's, the first mother house of the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey. This lowly house was a mansion of the old colonial times, belonging to Colonel Ward, and stood on the corner of Washing- ton and Bleecker streets. In this antiquated and historic building the young community, in poverty and humility, but filled with Christian joy and a yearning for souls, began its career of useful- ness and blessedness. Here was the first novitiate, and here also was a select school for young ladies, whose tuition fees helped to support the struggling community. Incredible as it may seem now when the size of the modest mother house is considered and the many uses to which each room was put, Mother Mary Xavier relates that the sisters had a portion of the building set off for a hospital, and at the time of leaving old St. Mary's to take up their abode in Madison there were thirteen patients under the care of the sisters in the Newark house.
This then was the first Catholic hospital in the State of New Jersey, and the blessings which have attended her every effort since those days of trial and sufferings were the reward, as the venerable Mother Xavier declares, of their first labors among the sick and the poor. Later on these thirteen patients were trans- ferred to the hospital opened by the Sisters of the Poor. In the midst of poverty the little community flourished, and although the seeds of the order were sown amidst thorns and sorrows the harvest has indeed been most abundant. In the course of time the work of the sisters prospered and their numbers increased so rapidly that the little mother house became too small for the growing needs of the community. The old Chegaray property at Madison, in which the first diocesan college and seminary was opened in 1856, after four years of experiment was found too far removed from the episcopal residence at Newark to enable the seminarists to take part in the sacred offices of the Church, as Bishop Bayley desired. It was also thought that a site nearer New York would induce the well-to-do Catholics to send their
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boys to Seton Hall in larger numbers. April 3d, 1860, Mr. Charles J. Osborne proposed to Bishop Bayley the purchase of his beautiful residence at South Orange. The negotiations were closed, and the site of the present magnificent college and semi- nary known as Seton Hall was purchased. Contracts for addi- tional buildings were given out and measures taken to expedite the work, so that everything would be in readiness for the opening in the following September.
The Madison property was sold by the bishop to the Sisters of Charity for the sum of $25,000. July 2d, 1860, the sisters left their Newark home and took possession of their new mother house.
They opened also a select boarding-school for young ladies and named it St. Eliza- beth's, to commemorate their foundation on the Feast of the Visitation, and also in honor of their revered foun- dress, Mother Elizabeth Se- ton. The original purchase made by Bishop Bayley con- sisted of forty-eight acres, to which he later added thirteen more acres, extending the property to the site of the old railroad station. When the sisters took possession of the property they set to work MOTHER MARY XAVIER MEHEGAN. at once to improve the estate ; oftentimes they themselves did the work of building roadways, planting and harvesting the crops, and many of the senior sisters of the community recall the days they spent in carrying stones or in husking corn in the fields. Farm lands were soon added and valuable accessions were made from time to time, as the prudence and foresight of Mother Mary Xavier saw that encroachments might be made by residents unless the sisters secured the adjoin- ing property. Whenever she made application for the desired permission to good Bishop Bayley, he always replied with a touch of kindliness and humor, "Oh, yes, mother; buy up all the little patches about your place to keep the neighbors from looking in
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the convent windows." The bishop's wise advice was literally fol- lowed, with all the margin that the Mother's own shrewdness and business tact could command. In a short time the "patches " of property grew to stretches of country about the convent, and the energetic Mother Xavier availed herself of the permission so freely given, and added acre upon acre of noble forests and smiling glebe lands, which to-day are prominent features in the beautiful landscape.
The first postulant re- ceived by the new community after its foundation was Miss Mary Anne Dornin, of New- ark, known in religion as Sister Mary Teresa. Of the original members who formed SISTER MARY CATHARINE NEVIN. First Assistant Mother. the nucleus of the community proper, three of the number are still living, reaping the rewards of their long years of toil in witnessing the progress and marvellous development of their community and its numerous works, both educational and chari- table. These three are the venerable foundress, Mother Mary Xavier, Sister Mary Vincent, and Sister Mary Joseph. Sister Mary Catharine Nevin, the faithful and helpful assistant to the venerable foundress, died on January 26th, 1903. She, too, had the happiness of seeing her community, over which she watched for fifty long years, prospering and extending more and more its sphere of usefulness. She presided for the greater part of the time as superior of St. Mary's in Newark, an academy which she erected on the site of the first mother house and in which she died. Sister Mary Cleophas passed to her reward on May 22d, 1903, having spent most of her long life in religion among the orphans at South Orange, N. J.
It appears from Bishop Bayley's Journal that in 1863 the mother house in New York determined to withdraw Mother Xavier from the Diocese of Newark. "October 20th, I wrote to Mother Jerome, Mount St. Vincent's, in regard to the report that they intended to recall Mother Xavier. I will make a fuss
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if they do: to Mother Xavier about the same thing :- must stick to the ship." Fortunately for the Diocese of Newark these re- monstrances had the desired effect, for on December 3d, 1863, he wrote to Mother Xavier in answer to her letter "informing me that she had made up her mind to cast in her lot with the new community-and expressing my great satisfaction."
The present excellence of St. Elizabeth's Academy and Col- lege is due in a large measure to the efforts and ability of Sister Mary Agnes O'Neill. Sister Mary Agnes was the daughter of Charles and Margaret O'Neill, and was born in Paterson, N. J., August 15th, 1837, and was educated at Mount St. Vincent's on the Hudson. She was one of the first members of the young community. After one year's probation she returned from Cin- cinnati, and, with Mother Mary Xavier, Sister Mary Catharine, and the other members, took up the work of the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey. Sister Mary Agnes was made the first directress of the newly founded St. Elizabeth's Academy. She held this position till the time of her death, November 9th, 1877. She was most energetic in furthering the educational interests of her community and in pro- moting the welfare of the schools under the charge of the sisters. She was also the promoter of St. Joseph's Academy for boys. She was the lifelong assistant of the venerable Mother Xavier, who found in Sister Mary Agnes a devoted and helpful aid in the many works under- taken by the growing com- munity. Always unselfish in her aims and purposes and devoted to the cause of edu- cation, Sister Mary Agnes was called by the sisters of her community "The Angel SISTER MARY AGNES O'NEILL. of Cheerfulness," and she was indeed a veritable ray of sunshine to all about her. To the young and struggling community she was a support in the hours of trial, and an encouragement when the triumph dawned.
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She resided during her entire religious life at the mother house in Madison, and besides the office of directress of the academy she filled at various times the post of treasurer of the community.
She contracted a pulmonary disease, to which she succumbed November 9th, 1877, mourned by a large circle of friends and pupils. It was her one ambition to see the new buildings begun, but it was not until three months after her death that the ground
ST. MARY'S ACADEMY, NEWARK, N. J.
was broken for the magnificent group of buildings which domi- nates the hills and valleys of historic Morris County in every direction.
As years passed on the community so wisely governed by Mother Mary Xavier constantly increased in membership. Schools were opened in nearly every parish in the State, works of charity and zeal multiplied as rapidly as sisters could be found to take charge of them, and God's blessing withal rested upon the labors of those who so generously sacrificed themselves for his work. With a largely increased community the mother house was found too small to accommodate all, and plans were made for the erection of a new convent and academy at the top of the hill, which property had been gradually acquired by the community.
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On March 25th, 1878, the first ground was broken for the new buildings, and in 1880 the sisters and pupils occupied their new home. The old mother house was then renovated for the use of the invalid sisters of the community, being renamed, in honor of the mother of Our Lady, St. Anne's Villa. In 1885 the south wing of the new academy was erected, but it was not until 1901 that the splendid group of buildings, consisting of a new convent wing to the west, a rectory, and a magnificent college build- ing, named by Bishop Wigger "Xavier Hall," in honor of the venerable foundress of the community, was completed. This building is devoted to the work of a college course for young ladies, and, as it was the first institution of the kind in the coun- try, it marked a new era in the history of Catholic education in the United States. The need of just such an institution in our day, when secular colleges take so many of our Catholic young women, is reason sufficient for the generous cooperation of all who are interested in the salvation of souls and the preservation of the faith among the rising generations.
The marvellous growth of the community as witnessed at the mother house has been manifested also wherever the sisters have gone to labor, whether it be for the education of the young, the care of the sick, the orphan, or the foundling. Since the founda- tion of the community in 1859, many charitable institutions owe their rise and progress to the energy and zeal of the venerable Mother Xavier.
During the Civil War, when the sick and the wounded were sent from the front, many soldiers were cared for in the old trunk factory, near the Centre Street depot, Newark, which had been converted into a temporary hospital. Pitying the distress of the poor soldiers and without any of the skill for nursing which pre- vails in our day, but with hearts overflowing with charity and com- passion, a number of sisters of the little community volunteered for this noble work and were constant day and night in their devo- tion to the sick.
Apart from the many schools to which the sisters are assigned for parochial work, the following institutions have been founded by Mother Xavier: St. Joseph's Hospital, Paterson; the House of Divine Providence, a home for incurables, at Ridgewood, N. J .; St. Mary's Hospital, Passaic, N. J .; St. Vincent's Foundling Asy- lum, at Montclair, N. J .; and the hospital of the Good Samaritan, Suffern, N. Y. Among the academies which have been founded by her as auxiliaries to the mother house, college, and academy at
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Convent Station, are: the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Hobo- ken, N. J .; St. Mary's Academy and St. Vincent's Academy and Commercial School, Newark; Seton Academy, Orange; St. Aloysius's Academy, Paterson; St. Aloysius's Academy and Com- mercial School, Jersey City; the Star of the Sea Academy, Long Branch; and St. John's Academy, Trenton. The order has rami- fications throughout the State of New Jersey and also in Massa- chusetts, Connecticut, and New York-the sisters teaching school in Boston, Salem, Newton, Waterbury, New Britain, and Suffern.
The number of those who have entered the community from the first day is 1, 126. Of these 188 have died. There are sixty-
HOUSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, RIDGEWOOD, N. J. The Home for Incurables.
three mission houses in New Jersey and nine in other States. The work of the little band of fifty years ago has been blessed be- yond their most sanguine expectations.
"God alone " has been the watchword of the venerable foun- dress, who takes no credit to herself for the growth and present prosperity of the community. "God has done all, and He has done still more in permitting his insignificant little creature to work for Him," remarked good Mother Xavier, when once spoken to about the wonderful growth of her community. To God alone she refers all the honor and glory that He has permitted her sis- ters to glean in the harvest field of the Church.
Mother Xavier is now in the seventy-ninth year of her age and
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the fifty-seventh of her religious life. She still conducts the work of her large community as accurately and as energetically as she did in the early sixties.
Seton Hall College, South Orange, N. J.
WHEN the Rt. Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, D.D., took pos- session of the newly erected See of Newark, he set his heart on Catholic education and planned to have a school attached to every church in his diocese. How earnest was he in this purpose may be seen in the letters written to the priests, who, responding to the wishes of their bishop, put forth every effort to open and support a Catholic school. In July, 1855, Bishop Bayley wrote to the Rev. J. D. Bowles, the pastor of Bordentown :
I want to express my satisfaction at the account of the exami- nation of your school. Nothing is nearer to my heart than the establishment of good parochial schools. This must be done at any sacrifice, for in them is our only hope of making Catholicity take root here. I thank you for the encouragement you have given to my efforts by your example.
In December of the same year he wrote to the Rev. John A. Kelly, South Amboy: "You must have a school, if all the ladies of South Amboy have to sell their jewelry and you your best coat." He determined likewise to provide an institution of high standing, which would afford superior advantages for the educa- tion of secular students, and at the same time open a theological department for the training of the future priests of the diocese under the eye of their bishop. Bishop Bayley was ably seconded in this venture by the Rev. Bernard J. McQuaid, then in the prime of his manhood.
The purpose and plans having been determined, the next thing to be fixed upon was a suitable location for the proposed college. After carefully investigating the claims of different localities sug- gested, it was decided to purchase the Young Ladies' Academy at Madison, N. J., then under the direction of Madame Chegary, one of the famous educators of her day. The neat frame building was situated in a grove of willow trees some distance back from the highway, and at the time was thought to be commodious enough to meet the demands of the prospective college for some years to come. Alterations were rapidly pushed to completion, and on September Ist, 1856, the college was formally opened.
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The following five students answered to the first roll call, viz., Leo G. Thebaud, Louis Boisaubin, Alfred Boisaubin, of Madison N. J .; John Moore, of New York City; and Peter Meehan, of Hoboken, N. J. Before the end of the month twenty additional names of students were registered.
Bishop Bayley named the college "Seton Hall," in honor of his revered aunt, Mother Elizabeth Seton, the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, of New York City, who was the first professor of anatomy in Columbia College and the originator of the New York quarantine system.
Bishop Bayley's connection with St. John's College, Fordham, his great executive ability, and superior knowledge of men, made him eminently fitted to be the founder of a seat of learning of high standing, such as he proposed to have in Seton Hall Col- lege. He succeeded in obtaining a charter which gives to the college all the privileges of a university and is as liberal in its pro- visions as any ever granted by the State of New Jersey.
Bishop Bayley never better evinced his thorough knowledge of men than in his selection of Father McQuaid, who had been his able helper and adviser in the organization of Seton Hall, as first president. In fact, it may justly be said that the early suc- cess and establishment on a firm basis of the institution was due to the untiring energy and zealous devotion of Father McQuaid, who was in his time the life and soul of the college.
At the close of the first year of this institution the number of pupils had increased from five to fifty-four. Of the termination of this initiatory year Bishop Bayley says in his diurnal: "We held the first commencement of Seton Hall College, if it may be called by so dignified a name, on June 25th, 1857; the weather was beautiful, and everything went off well."
Rev. Alfred Young, who subsequently identified himself with the Paulist community, was first vice-president of the college. He joined the Paulist community in 1861, and attained a wide reputation as an author, a ready and caustic writer, and composer of sacred music. Prof. James Fagan, of Kansas, was first chief prefect.
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