USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 13
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suffering their choice, since the Master was obedient even to the death of the Cross; charity their treasurer, since their Heavenly Spous finds therein His glory and delight."
Seven of their Sisters suffered martyrdom for their faith. They were cruelly put to death during the Boxer rebellion in China in 1900. This did not deter others from following in their footsteps. Four years later, another band of missionaries went forth to China, with these words of Pope Pius X ringing in their ears, "You are going then to take up the post which your martyred sisters held. The Catholic Church alone can give to women the courage to aspire even unto death."
According to a religious publication, published in Rome under a 1939 date line, it is said of these Sisters: "They are to be found in many parts of China today doing valiant work despite bombardments and vicissitudes of war. They are going about giving material and spiritual comfort to women and children, the aged and the sick, and paying no heed to the alarms of sirens, the menace of fire and the smoking ruins about them."
The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is one of three religious com- munities in Ohio, whose origin and whose encouragement for extension of service into other lands, may be traced to Pope Pius IX whose pontificate was the longest and perhaps the most turbulent in the entire history of the Church. He reigned as Pope from June 16, 1846 until his death, Dec. 17, 1878. The Poor Clares and the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order, Minor Conventual, were directed to come to America by Pope Pius.
Ohio is further indebted to him for the establishment of two dioceses in Ohio during his pontificate, Cleveland in 1847 and Columbus in 1868. During his pontificate he established 45 new dioceses in America. He further ex- pressed his concern for America in naming the first American cardinal, Archbishop John McCloskey of New York. Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, one of the ancestry in President Roosevelt's family, was delegated by the Pope to represent him at the investitute ceremonies for Cardinal Mc- Closkey, which took place in New York, April 27, 1875.
Ohio has another reason to recall the memory of Pope Pius IX for what is believed to be the first Papal honor to be conferred upon an American woman. Ellen Ewing Sherman, Ohio born and wife of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, was the recipient of a gold rosary, with a relic of the True Cross enclosed within the crucifix of the rosary, and also an autographed copy of Healy's painting of Pope Pius. This award was con- ferred in 1877 and was in recognition of her work in personally directing American Catholies' tribute to the Pope in observance of his golden jubilee as a priest.
She was selected to do this by Archbishop Bayley, then ranking member of the Catholic hierarchy in America. With this authority she conducted her campaign throughout America. It was a laity-inspired testimonial to the
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self imposed imprisoned pope of the Vatican, and was world wide in its scope. Ellen Sherman directed America's part alone.
It was Pope Pius IX who gave to Sarah Peters, an Ohio born woman, a letter of introduction to the many religious communities of the European continent, and which made it possible for her to obtain the consent of four religious communities of women to establish foundations in Cincinnati, namely Sisters of Mercy from Ireland; Little Sisters of the Poor from France ; Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, from Germany and the Sisters of Good Shepherd. originally from France, but whose Ohio foundation was instituted by Sisters from the Covington, Ky., convent.
Another evidence of Pope Pius IX's interest in the Americas-north and south-was the establishment in Rome of two colleges at his own expense- one known as the Latin American college and the other the North American college. These colleges are expressly for students for the priesthood from North and South America respectively. The sons of many Ohio-born mothers have received their education for the priesthood in this North American col- lege. One Ohio boy, the present Archbishop Edward Mooney, archbishop of Detroit, whose early education was received from the Ursuline Nuns of Youngstown, Ohio, served as spiritual director of this college.
Pope Pius' pontificate was marked by an unprecedented number of beati- fications and canonizations and for the development of the inner life of the Church by many liturgical regulations and by various monastic reforms.
SISTERS OF THE THIRD FRANCISCAN ORDER, MINOR CONVENTUAL
Another Franciscan Order which owes its foundation in America to Pope Pius IX is that of the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order, Minor Con- ventual. The first American foundation was established in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1855 by Bishop John Nepomucene Neumann, at the personal request of Pope Pius IX.
Bishop Neumann was a Bavarian immigrant, who had volunteered for work in the missions fields of America. Pope Pius had named Bishop Neumann bishop of the diocese of Philadelphia and this order of Franciscans was one of many which Bishop Neumann introduced into the diocese, in his desire to extend the program of the Catholic Church.
From Philadelphia some members volunteered for school and hospital work in the dioceses of Syracuse and Utica, and it was from these missions that the Syracuse, N. Y., motherhouse was founded in 1860.
Members from the Syracuse foundation teach only in one school in Ohio, that of St. Anthony's parish, Lorain, but Ohio has given many of her daughters to the Syracuse religious community, several of whom are known to be engaged in work in the Leper colony at Molokai, one of the missions of the Syracuse foundation.
WOMEN OF OHIO
Two Cleveland, Ohio women, Sister Mary Joseph, formerly Mary Cutler and Sister Marie Celine, formerly Florence Wagner, were until recently, engaged in the Kapiolani home in Honolulu. This home was established by Mother Marianne, who fifty years ago, with a small company of Sisters set out for Molokai to work among the lepers, and to leave a convent home, dear to them, and which they were never to see again. The home was to care for the children of leprous parents, it being her theory that the children of leprous parents do not inherit the disease and that being immune from it and removed from Molokai, the children, with proper care, can be reared to a normal, healthy, happy and useful life. Fifty years of observations and study and pioneering in work among the lepers have resulted in another advanced step-that of providing private home care for such children. With the launch- ing of the private home care for children of leprous parents in October, 1938, the government closed the Kapiolani home. The services of the Sisters how- ever were not dispensed with, as a new government project, the Territorial Hospital for Lepers in Molokai was entrusted to the care of the Sisters. A month before in September, 1938, these Sisters were commissioned by the Hawaiian Homes Commission of Kawananakoa Hall in Hilo, T. H., to take charge of a kindergarten which had been established for children of home- steaders between the ages of three and six years.
The Bishop Home for women and girls afflicted with leprosy and located at Kalaupapa, Molokai, has been the special work of these Franciscan Sisters since the time, more than 50 years ago, when they answered the appeal of Father Damien, the hero of the Leper colony, to come to Molokai to work among the lepers, and thus in true Franciscan manner, "serve God in the least of His creatures"-the homeless, forsaken and despised lepers.
Sister Celine Wagner of Cleveland, Ohio, is now stationed at the Bishop Home, after 10 years service at the Kapiolani home. Sister Mary Joseph Cutler, also of Cleveland, is at St. Francis hospital at Honolulu, the only Catholic hospital in Hawaii. This hospital has attached to it a training school for nurses, which is affiliated with St. Louis University.
FRANCISCAN NUNS OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT
The first American foundation of the Franciscan Nuns of the Most Blessed Sacrament had its beginning in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 on a site now owned by Western Reserve University. At the time of its organization, the property was owned by the Diocese of Cleveland, and had been purchased as a possible site for a cathedral. These Sisters are now housed in a convent attached to the beautiful St. Paul's Shrine, once St. Paul's Episcopal church, located at Euclid and 40th St., Cleveland.
Mother Mary Agnes of Vienna, in which city this religious community found shelter following Bismarck's kulturkamp, accompanied by Mother Mary Cyrilla came to Cleveland upon the invitation of Archbishop-Bishop Joseph
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Schrembs, bishop of the diocese of Cleveland to found what he called a "powerhouse of prayer."
Pere Bonaventure, a Capuchin monk of Troyes, France inspired the found- ing of this community in France in 1854. Mademoiselle Josephine Bouille- veaux and three companions formed the first company of Sisters for this new religious community of contemplative sisters. They pledged themselves to spend eight hours of their day in prayer; eight hours in good works and eight hours in rest.
According to their rule they are obliged to spend their lives in the imme- diate service of the Lord and to foster a devotion to Him, through public and private retreats, and Eucharistic confraternities, that will attract the laity who live in the world beyond the convent cloister.
They devote themselves to the liberal and aesthetic arts as well as domes- tic duties and throughout the night and day, continuous chanting and praying is conducted in the convent chapel. The Sisters in relays spend their time in chapel.
Michael Williams, one of America's outstanding Catholic laymen, in a recent publication, "The Catholic Church in Action," writes of the contem- plative nuns as a group of experts in the spiritual science of prayer, drawing down the grace of God for the enlightening and the energizing of His workers and His people.
The first American foundation in Cleveland has extended itself into India and in 1937 three members from the Cleveland community began a foundation in Bengal.
When this religious community was established in Cleveland in 1922, Archbishop Schrembs named the Ladies Catholic Benevolent Society as its sponsor, and since that time Cleveland members of this large fraternal society, the first of its kind to be established in America, have been active in promoting interest in the work of these Sisters.
In 1937 members of this society contributed jewels, many of them family keepsakes, for a gold crown to adorn the statue of Our Lady of Consolation, which graces a chapel in St. Paul's shrine. This group sponsors also the col- lection of staple foods and canned goods each Nov. 1 on the feast of All Saints, as a means of providing for the material needs of the Sisters.
Exquisite art work, embroidery, painting by the Sisters, provide a source of income.
FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH
Still another Franciscan religious community, known as the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph are engaged in Ohio, exclusively as a teaching order. It came into being July 1, 1901 and opened its first school in Ohio, St. Hya- cinth's, Cleveland, in 1908.
It was founded to meet the educational needs of the constantly increasing Polish colonies, and was a foundation from the German Sisters of St. Francis,
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whose motherhouse is at Wilwaukee, Wis. A company of 46 members of this community, who were of Polish ancestry, established their own separate com- unity at Stevens Point, Wis., with the permission of ecclesiastical authorities. These Sisters follow the rule of St. Francis of Assisi.
While they work exclusively among Polish children, and include in the school curricula such studies as will perpetuate pride and affection in the accomplishments and cultural treasures of the Polish people, the approved standards of education in the respective diocese and states, wherein they teach, are conscientiously encouraged.
From the first school in Ohio in 1908, they now teach in 12 parish schools in the Cleveland diocese and have other parish schools in Kalamazoo and Detroit, Mich., in New Bristol, Suffield, Wallington and Terryville, in Con- necticut.
Twenty-five acres of land were purchased in 1925 in Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, and a convent and girls' academy was erected.
The convent is now the provincial house for Sisters who serve in the eastern and north-central States. The academy ranks as a Class A high school by the State Department of Education and it holds membership in the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary schools, which insures accept- ance of the credits by every college in the United States. All faculty members of the academy hold degrees from recognized colleges and universities. The teaching staff includes well qualified instructors in physical education, home- making, music, and art. The Sisters encourage higher education for their students by providing scholarships for those of marked ability.
SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH
A religious community which had its beginning in Bourg, France in 1650 and whose convents were closed and their members dispersed during the French Revolution, resumed its program following the Revolution and later extended its work to America. Ohio has two separate communities of these Sisters of St. Joseph, each independent of the other, but each group is loyal to the traditions handed down through three centuries of service.
Jeanne Marie Fontbonne, known in religion as Venerable Mother St. John is credited with having restored the religious community of the Sisters of St. Joseph after the fury of the Revolution had abated. This was in 1807. She had been imprisoned during the Revolution and was sentenced to death. She escaped death, but many of her Sisters suffered death by the guillotine.
The first purpose was to perform works of charity in the world, particu- larly among the orphans, but with the restoration of the order in 1807 their program of service was broadened and their fields of endeavor extended from France into Italy, England, Russia, Denmark and Sweden, and even to far away India and the Argentine.
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America welcomed them in 1836, when they came to St. Louis to work among the Indians principally. Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis invited them to come, and made a special request for Sisters who could teach the sign language. Two of these were trained in France for this special work. They were established in a convent in Carondelet, Mo. From this first American foundation, another convent was established in St. Paul in 1851 and it was from the St. Paul convent that three Sisters came to Painesville, Ohio in 1872, to establish an Ohio foundation. Six months after they had opened the Painesville convent, they received two members into their novitiate. One of their early novices was Mother Evangelista, who later served as superior. She entered the convent in Painesville.
She had passed her 70th year in 1928 when the influenza epidemic struck Youngstown, Ohio, where she served as principal of St. Patrick's school. Hospitals were unable to care for the many who were sick and dying. Schools and other public buildings were transformed into emergency hospitals and an S. O. S. call went out from city health authorities for nursing help.
Mother Evangelista received a call. She relayed it to her Sisters, instruct- ing them that not one was obliged by obedience to go, because the danger was great, and their service consequently must be voluntary.
The entire faculty volunteered. When they were ready to depart for the emergency hospital, they found Mother Evangelista ready also, to head her company of 16 volunteer nurses. The Sisters protested her participation. because of her age and because of her frail health. "I have but one life to give," she answered them, "and I give that willingly, if it is God's will. in service to my fellow citizens." She remained on duty in the emergency hos- pital throughout the entire period of the epidemic.
The motherhouse of this community was moved to Cleveland in 1877 and continual growth in membership and in expansion of their educational pro- gram necessitated many changes of residences. Their present site is located on the east side of Rocky River. in a suburb of Cleveland, known as West Park.
The sisters conduct an academy here with an enrollment of 400 students and also conduct St. Therese's academy in Lakewood with a school enrollment of 100 and a music department with an enrollment of 300 pupils. Both acad- emies are accredited by the State Department of Education and are affiliated with the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. They teach in 26 parish schools within the diocese of Cleveland.
The second religious Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1893, when four Sisters, Mother Marie, Sisters St. Rose, Nativity and Veronica, came from the New Orleans convent. The New Orleans convent was established in 1855 by Father Buteux, a French missionary priest, engaged in mission work in Louisiana. He sent to France for Sisters to come to New Orleans, "who would gain and guard for God, souls of children, desti-
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tute of religion." Originally organized as an educational Institute, circum- stances of the Cincinnati mission necessitated launching into an entirely different type of work, which has met with more than usual success.
Margaret MeCabe, a very pious and charitable woman of Cincinnati had opened a home for working girls in Cincinnati. She provided for it from her own funds, so as to provide a moderate rate for the working girls. While many of the girls were religiously inclined, there was no strict religious rule in the home. Some of these desired to devote their life to religion and sought permission of ecclesiastical authorities to do so. The Sisters of St. Joseph were invited to come from New Orleans to establish a novitiate and to train these aspirants for the religious life. The home under Miss MeCabe was known as Sacred Heart home. With the home now in charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Miss McCabe directed her efforts towards the establishment of a similar service to working boys, particularly homeless news boys. The Fen- wick Club of Cincinnati is the development of this plan of Miss MeCabe and the present Fontbonne home for girls, conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph, is the development of Miss McCabe's dream.
The Fontbonne home was named by Archbishop McNicholas in 1925, when the present home at McAllister and Lawrence Sts., was dedicated. It is named to honor Jeanne Marie Fontbonne, who restored the French religious congregation. It accommodates 250 girls and women, Catholics and non- Catholics. The Sisters continue to operate it under the plan originally adopted by Miss MeCabe-to provide homelike atmosphere at moderate rates.
DAUGHTERS OF THE DIVINE REDEEMER
Ohio and Pennsylvania's vast industrial and mining regions attracted many European colonies to America's shores in the early part of the 20th century. As these colonists arrived, many accompanied by priests of their respective nationalities, the Catholic Church through the Bishops endeavored to found parishes, where these strangers in a strange land could have the comforts of their Catholic faith. The children necessitated schools and a staff of teachers acquainted with the system of education in America, as well as teachers who had the background of the various nationalities. European convents sent their Sisters. Among the religious communities to do so were the Daughters of the Divine Redeemer from Sofron, Germany. Four Sisters arrived in Mckeesport in 1912. Ohio welcomed the first of these in 1921 to staff St. Stephen's school, Toledo, where they remained for six years. In 1922 St. Emeric's school, Cleveland, was founded; in 1926, St. Anthony's school, Fairport Harbor; in 1927 St. Ladislasu school, Lorain and in 1930 St. Mar- garet's school, Cleveland. There are at present 30 of these Sisters serving the four schools in Ohio, established for children of Hungarian parentage.
Upon the occasion of the silver jubilee of the establishment of these works in America, in 1937, Archbishop Joseph Sehrembs of Cleveland paid tribute to the work of the Sisters in the diocese of Cleveland: "I have found the
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work of your Sisters in the Diocese of Cleveland constructive and inspiring. Your willingness and ability to meet all the requirements of our school system is greatly appreciated," he said.
RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART
Religious of the Sacred Heart in charge of Clifton College, located on one of Cincinnati's loveliest hills overlooking the Miami valley, came to Cin- cinnati in 1869. Archbishop Purcell, second Bishop of the diocese of Cin- cinnati, had appealed to the foundress, Madame Sophie Barat, in a personal visit to the motherhouse in Amiens, France, for Sisters to establish a school of higher education for women in his diocese. Madame Barat had promised him to send Sisters as soon as possible. That was in 1838. Requests from other Bishops in America had preceded Archbishop Purcell's, so that it was not until 1869 that Madame Barat's successor, Mother Goetz, complied with the Archbishop's request. Four choir religious and three Lay Sisters came to Cincinnati with Mother Ellen Hogan as superior.
The Religious of the Sacred Heart are principally a teaching order. They have their own distinctive system of education. This system has been summed up in these words-"giving values and giving anchorage. The individual and the individual training is everything; and all converges to this, to give personal worth to each student, worth of character, strength of principle and anchorage of faith."
The first academy for these Sisters in Ohio was located on Sixth St., near Stone; later they moved to Echo Place on Grandin Rd., in 1874 and in 1876, the present site in Clifton was purchased.
From the very beginning, the school curricula, which included two years beyond the regular academic course, attracted the daughters of prominent families from Cincinnati and nearby points. In the first graduating class of 1874, Lyda Johnson, daughter of Cincinnati's then mayor, was among the number.
Clifton school is now a fully accredited college and is staffed by members of this religious community who have been given every educational advan- tage and whose scholarship is enriched by their close and constant contacts with their 7000 Sisters in their various schools and colleges throughout the world. The most recent foundations of this Religious community is at Oxford in England and Brussels in Belgium.
LADIES OF THE SACRED HEART OF MARY
Bishop Amadeus Rappe once of France, and the first bishop of the diocese of Cleveland, extended the invitation to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary to come to Ohio, to assist him in the care of the orphans of the diocese. Ohio had suffered much from victims of ship fever, who after long sea voyages arrived in Ohio, many near death, and many more dying upon their arrival. Children of these unfortunates, in a strange land and among strangers, were
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homeless. In 1851 the Misses Pance, Ferce and Blehan came from France. They arrived in October and the following Christmas day they opened a small house on St. Clair St., near Sixth which was given to them by Bishop Rappe, and thus began their first orphanage for girls.
Two years later, a site on Harmon St., now Woodland Ave., was purchased and a three story brick house was built. Miss Pance had inherited a consider- able sum of money from her family, and used this inheritance to build the first unit of the present St. Joseph's orphanage for Girls.
Rev. Louis DeGoesbriand, one of the early missionaries in Ohio, in his reminiscences of the early days of Catholicity in the Diocese of Cleveland wrote for the official archives this reference to Miss Pance: "Among the benefactors of the Diocese of Cleveland, there is one whose name I have for- gotten. The person I refer to was a lady from Paris, who, knowing that there were many orphans in Cleveland to be provided for, volunteered to come in 1851 and consecrated her fortune to the building of an orphan asylum. With her came two devoted companions, one of whom was Miss Ferce, who was well known in Cleveland. The building on Harmon St. was erected at the expense of the benefactress I allude to, but she died before it was ready for occupation. Her coming to Cleveland was providential at a time when so many immigrants were carried away by ship fever or cholera, leaving their children unprovided for."
Additional property and additional buildings have been added since 1893, until today the orphanage has a capacity for more than 200 girls ranging in ages from five to 16 years.
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