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THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

THE

RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

BY

ALLAN T. CAMERON, M.A., F.S.A. SCOT.

RECTOR OF CHIPSTABLE

WITH A PREFACE

BY

THE DUKE OF ARGYLL

FAITH PRESS

22, BUCKINGHAM ST., STRAND, LONDON 1918

PREFACE

THIS little volume should prove useful as a guide to all who are interested in Sisterhoods, Brotherhoods, Convents, and Monasteries, both Active and Contemplative, of either sex. No such complete handbook has till now been compiled dealing with the Orders that are in visible communion with the See of Canterbury.

For in those Dioceses of the Catholic Church (since the wonderful movement whose cradle was under the dreaming spires of Oxford) there has been a marvellous recovery of the monastic ideal. Nothing perhaps so impressed the French Priests during the discussion on Anglican Orders in the "nineties" of the last century, as this revival of conventual life, for they visited many of our well-known Religious Houses and were much edified by what they saw.

It would be well for every Diocese to have at least one large Convent of women and a Community or Monastery of men. Even now there are probably few English Dioceses that do not possess one or more Convents of Sisters, generally " Active " ones, but what are also wanted are more Contem plative ones. The greater the pace and bustle of an age, the greater is the need for the contemplative side of the Faith to be emphasised.

In some of the " Active " Communities it has been found possible and advantageous to have an Inner Community of Contemplatives, and this is perhaps the best way of proceeding when the whole or a portion of a Community is feeling the gradual draw to the Life of pure contempla tion and Interior Prayer, especially where it is centred round the Blessed Sacrament.

The terms "Active" and "Contemplative," when used of Religious Orders, are after all but relative expressions, for Contemplation is itself one of the highest forms of activity

vi PREFACE

when rightly understood. Half the world that has spent its time in criticising Contemplative Orders as " Monastic Drones " has the most rudimentary ideas of what a life of perpetual prayer means — or, indeed, of what any kind of prayer can do and perform.

In a recent appeal which I was asked to make on behalf of the Benedictines of Pershore Abbey in the hospitable columns of our great organ " The Church Times," this passage occurs which may be here repeated.

" It is clear that Contemplative Orders for men are wanted. . . . For Monasticism is a visible embodi ment of the root-principles of the Gospel, and it is the " other-wordly " ethic which is inherent in the mon astic ideal from the lack of which the Church of England particularly suffers to-day. Her tendencies towards the social, ethical, and missionary sides of Christianity may have been admirable, but they do not cover the whole ground of what should be her activities. For the Life of Prayer — the life of the Contemplative; is one of the highest and truest forms of activity, though the thoughtless, till they start thinking, are often unable to see it in this light. For healthy, normal, and sane development the Church needs to remember the Law of Alternation or the Polarity of Prayer and Work." I also said : " History shows that ages of civil turmoil and foreign wars have always increased the number of con templative vocations."

One of the great ideals which all Communities should place before them is the careful cultivation of the ancient Plain Song, or Gregorian Chant, that "Opus Dei," the immemorial ecclesiastical music of the Christian Church. It is one of those activities which Contemplative Orders can particularly give their attention to. When well rendered it will make its way throughout those Dioceses where those Orders dwell, and will perhaps in time infuse some life into dry Cathedral bones. The Convent at Wantage has done a good work in publishing Plain Song on the solesmes model for the Music of the Mass and other offices. The " Opus Anglicanum," or English Embroidery, was famed throughout the Continent in the Middle Ages ; and as it is one of the most beautiful of the Arts, it has long found a home in our Convents.

In olden days, long before the Tudor Pillage, Monastic Communities were the great patrons of Christian Art, and

PREFACE vii

it is well to realise that they are so in some cases still. Few things are more important than that the architect or designer should hold the Faith and understand the use of the things he designs for a Church or Convent. Nothing teaches the Catholic Faith like a fair building can, so it came that in the Ages of Faith Holy Church encouraged all the Arts, and bid them give of their best for her adornment as the Bride of Christ.

Of the work of " Active " Communities none has proved so valuable, or received such deserved praise from our Bishops, as that which is known as " Rescue Work." All the great English Convents have helped in this work. It is a work which women only can undertake, and best of all those women who have given themselves up to a life of mortification, and who in that ancient dress, unchanged in the changing world of passing fashions, consecrated by age long custom, have found it a passport for the slums they work in.

A maternal aunt of mine having succeededHarriet Monsell as second Mother and Abbess of Clewer, and who is still alive as Superioress at Calcutta, I have always been in touch with conventual life and interested in it. From time to time I have had the privilege of seeing at least twelve of our principal Convents (leaving out daughter cells and priories dependent on them), such as those which are housed in the great Mother Houses of Clewer, East Grinstead, Holy Cross, Hayward's Heath, Wantage, Aberdeen, the Holy Name at Malvern, and three of the Oxford Houses. It is a good thing that these Mother Houses always stand ready to receive the nuns and sisters who have worked in distant missions in some big city and give them a spell of quiet to recover in.

Housed in a portion of their ancient buildings, I think the Benedictine nuns at Mailing in Kent are a most interest ing Community of strict Contemplatives, who have been for years known to the writer, who remembers now no less than three Abbesses. Those who have read Benson's " Light Invisible" will remember the story of the nun at prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament, and the old priest's explana tion of what intercession before the Tabernacle meant. Mailing was the scene of that incident.

Of the buildings I have seen, I think that the reredos of the Convent of the Holy Name at Malvern, which I visited

viii PREFACE

with Lady Beauchamp, is a fine example of Mr Comper's work; and the Conventual Chapel of the Hospital of S. John at Cowley in Oxford, also one of the gems of Mr. Comper's art, contains a magnificent stone rood screen, and very fine windows and ornaments. A visit to it is a perpetual pleasure and inspiration.

We are glad to think that in many Communities the Blessed Sacrament is perpetually reserved. May the number of such Houses rapidly increase.

There can be no reasonable doubt that in another ten years Perpetual Reservation will be as common in our country churches as it has become in urban areas. The absence of it in country parishes is simply one of those insularities which the teachings of the war, and its after math, will result in remedying.

The Rev. R. J. Campbell's notable words about the atmosphere of the French churches, where he first realised what it meant, have had an effect of far-reaching magnitude. One thing is certain, and that is, that as regards Community Chapels, it is inconceivable that any Bishop who holds the Catholic Faith on the Eucharist should continue to prevent or discourage Active or Contemplative Orders of either sex from enjoying the great blessing which the Perpetual Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament brings with it. The excuses about an " unprepared laity or possible profana tion " cannot be advanced in regard to Religious Houses.

In the Dioceses of the Scottish Church the practice has never died out, but even there it is by no means as wide spread as it should be.

Have the readers of this volume ever pondered over that great list of Abbesses and Queens, 192 in number, all of the Saxon period, which appears in the Liber Vitse of Durham (Surtees Society) ? In that great Bede's roll, without any indication of what Abbey they ruled or what Kings they had once been wedded to, flaming in gold and silver lettering, stand those strange Saxon names. Here and there we can identify one or two for certain, and that is about all. Of some we know the great Houses over which they once bore rule in Saxon England, others must be the otherwise un recorded successes of Saints like Hilda, or of those whose very foundations may have vanished in the Danish invasions.

Up and down the English realm stand countless reminders of England's sainted nuns and abbesses whose names are

PREFACE ix

still remembered by entries in fading Calendars. Oxford reveres the Abbess Frydeswyde as its special Patroness and Protectress. Far away on the Cornish headlands S. la raised a home of prayer by storm-sick seas. S. Bega did as much farther north on the Irish Channel. Kent, the Garden of England, produced an extraordinary contribution to the number of S. Scholastica's daughters, for in an older Folkestone now beneath the waves stood the Abbey ruled by S. Eanswythe, daughter of the Kentish King. S. Sex- burgha, Queen of Kent, built S. Mary's Abbey at Sheppey, and died as a nun at Ely, under her sister S. JEthel- dreda. SS. Mildred, Eadburgha, and many more, all of royal blood, flourished in Kent and left sweet memories behind them which will last as long as history endures and pens remain to commemorate those early teachers of S Benedict's Rule.

ARGYLL.

INVERARAY CASTLE, ARGYLL, ALL SOULS' DAY,

November 2nd, 1917.

FOREWORD

A GREAT work for God and His Church is being wrought among us by the ministry of Religious Communities of women. It is being done quietly and without observa tion. There is no desire on the part of these Communities to let the world know what their work is. They are content to do it as unto God, for the love of God and the souls for whom Christ died, in response to the vocation wherewith they were called. They shrink from publicity of any kind ; and thus it is that, save in the immediate vicinity of their respective spheres and among those who take an interest in and support their work, the unceasing prayer and good works of these Communities are largely unknown.

With every desire to respect this wholesome shrinking from publicity in an age that regards advertisement as a virtue, it is the purpose of the first part of this book simply to trace the genesis of the community life for women in the Church of England since the Reformation period, and by means of brief historical sketches of the various Com munities to indicate their growth and their distinctive works. No other book of the kind is known to the writer, and it is therefore the first attempt historically to bring together the data relative to the revival of the Religious Life among us. The information has been collected from a large number of sources, and the narrative will serve its purpose if it be regarded merely as informative of a striking religious factor in the life of the Church, and introductory to a larger and more complete history written by a more competent authority.

It is hoped however that it may have another effect. The position of women relative to the Church is one of the questions of the moment. It is more than hinted that the Priesthood should be open to them. It appears a fitting

xi

xii FOREWORD

opportunity to let this book tell the wonderful story of how God has used, and is now using, the ministry of devoted women for the noblest ends, and it may lead those women who have a stirring of the sense of vocation for the work of God to inquire if the way is being shown to them through community life.

There is much in the feminist movement of the present day that can be paralleled in the circumstances of the period of the genesis of Sisterhoods in the Church of Eng land. The literature of that time relative to the position and work of women will well repay study. May a like happy result for religion be effected, and the feminist move ment find its true end and calm in devotion to God and in response to the call to the Religious Life and to service for suffering humanity.

POSTSCRIPT

PUBLICATION of books has suffered diminution and delay owing to the stress of war-time conditions, and this volume, originally designed to make its appearance in 1916, has been unavoidably delayed in the press.

In the interval at least three new Communities are an nounced as in course of formation. The Mildmay Deaconess Institution is being entirely transformed. For the first time in the Scottish (Episcopal) Church a Deaconess has been ordained in the Diocese of Edinburgh. Other minor changes have occurred. Should a second edition be called for these corrections will be duly made. Any further information supplementing that given in the text will be gratefully received.

CONTENTS

PAGES

PREFACE v-ix

FOREWORD ....... xi-xii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii-xx

PART I SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

CHAPTER I VOCATION, OR THE CALL OF GOD TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE 3-7

CHAPTER II

FIRST EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLAND SINCE THE REFOR MATION FOR THE NEED OF DEVOTED WOMEN . 8-13

CHAPTER III SISTERHOODS AND HOSPITALS . . . 14-19

CHAPTER IV S. JOHN'S HOUSE 20-23

CHAPTER V

INFLUENCE OF KAISERSWERTH . . . 24-27

CHAPTER VI THE COMING OF SISTERHOODS . . . 28-34

xiii

xiv CONTENTS

PAOM

CHAPTER VII THE FIRST DIFFICULTIES .... 35-4°

CHAPTER VIII COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 . 41-57

S. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford ; S. Mary the Virgin, Wantage ; Society of the Holy Trinity, Devon- port ; Society of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Oxford ; Community of All Saints, Colney, St. Albans.

CHAPTER IX

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 . 58-82

Sisterhood of S. John Baptist, Clewer ; S. Margaret, East Grinstead ; S. Mary the Virgin, Brighton ; All Hallows, Ditchingham, Norfolk ; Holy Cross, Hayward's Heath; S. Peter, Horbury.

CHAPTER X COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1860 TO 1870 . 83-99

S. Peter, Kilburn ; S. Wilfrid, Exeter ; The Holy Name, Malvern Link ; Sisters of the Poor, Edg- ware ; Sisters of Bethany, Lloyd Square, London ; S. Mary the Virgin, Wymering ; Holy Rood, North Ormesby ; S. Mary and S. John, Chiswick ; Sisters of Charity, Knowle ; S.S. Mary and Scholastica, Platt ; Reparation (S. Alphege), Southwark.

CHAPTER XI

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1870 TO 1880 . 100-106

The Sisters of the Church, Kilburn ; The Paraclete, London ; S. Laurence, Belper ; S. Katharine, Fulham ; S. Denys, War minster.

CONTENTS xv

CHAPTER XII

PAGES

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1880 TO PRESENT

DAY 107-128

The Epiphany, Truro ; The Resurrection of Our Lord, Grahamstown, South Africa ; Nursing Sisterhood of S. John the Divine, London ; Society of the Incarnation, Saltley ; Sisterhood of the Ascension, London ; Community of S. Michael and All Angels, Hammersmith; The Holy Family, Baldslow ; S. Francis, Dalston ; The Saviour, Chesterfield ; Our Lady of Nazareth, Dover ; The Divine Love, Fulham ; The Precious Blood, Hendon; S. Michael and All Angels, Bury S. Edmunds. Enclosed Orders : The Holy Comforter, Baltonsburgh ; Servants of Christ, Pleshey; The Love of God, Oxford.

CHAPTER XIII SCOTTISH AND IRISH COMMUNITIES . . . 129-133

S. Andrew, Joppa, Edinburgh ; S.S. Mary and Modwenna, Dundee ; The Reparation, Bethany, Aberdeen ; S. Mary the Virgin, Dublin ; S. John the Evangelist, Dublin.

PART II DEACONESSES AND COMMUNITY LIFE

CHAPTER I THE DEACONESS MOVEMENT .... 137-142

CHAPTER II DEACONESS COMMUNITIES .... 143-150

London Diocesan Deaconess Institution ; East London Community of Deaconesses ; Deaconess Community of the Sacred Compassion, Halton-in- Hastings ; Deaconess Community of the Sacred Name, Christ Church, New Zealand.

xvi CONTENTS

PART III

THE REVIVAL OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE AMONG MEN IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

PAGES

OUTLINE OF ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF COMMUNITY LIFE

FOR MEN 153-157

CHAPTER II THE RECOVERY IN ENGLAND . . . 158-163

CHAPTER III RELIGIOUS ORDERS 164-180

Cowley, S.S.J.E. ; Kelham, S.S.M. ; Mirfield, C.R. ; Plaistow, S.D.C. ; Pershore, O.S.B.

APPENDICES

LIST OF SISTERHOODS AND RELIGIOUS ORDERS FOR MEN IN THE ORDER OF FOUNDATION OR ORIGIN, AND FOUNDER 183-184

LIST OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE CHURCH OF

AMERICA 185-190

BIBLIOGRAPHY 191-194

GENERAL INDEX 195-203

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Author desires to express his grateful acknowledgment of the kind permission to use blocks and prints. These have been in the main supplied by Communities, and other sources are specially named. If by any inadvertence copyright has been infringed, it is hoped that the holder will accept the fullest apology. It has not been found possible to obtain portraits of all the Founders of Communities.

VIEWS

FACING PAGE

S. MARY'S, ST. LEONARDS ON SEA : WOODLAND PATH . 5 S. MARY'S, ST. LEONARDS ON SEA : THE SCHOOL* . . 12 S MARY'S HOME, WANTAGE ..... 12

" The Treasury," 7 Portugal Street, London.

ASCOT PRIORY 13

" The Treasury."

THE HERMITAGE, ASCOT, WHERE DR PUSEY DIED . 13

" The Treasury."

ALL SAINTS', COLNEY : THE BURYING GROUND . . 16

The Whitwell Press, Balaam St., Plaistow.

ALL SAINTS', COLNEY : THE CONVENT .... 17

The Whitwell Press.

CLEWER : HOUSE OF MERCY 33

M. H. Bullock, Katishill House, Bewdley.

CLEWER: THE CHAPEL 33

M. H. Bullock.

S. MARGARET'S, EAST GRINSTEAD .... 36

" The Treasury."

HOLY CROSS, HAYWARDS HEATH : CHILDREN AT DRILL . 37

b xvii

xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

HOLY ROOD, NORTH ORMESBY : THE HOSPITAL . . 44

HOLY ROOD, NORTH ORMESBY: S. LUKE'S WARD . 45

MALLING ABBEY : THE TOWER 48

Me»s«. Stedman & Co. Ud., High Street, West Mailing.

MALLING ABBEY: THE CHAPTER HOUSE . . • 49

Messrs. Stedman & Co. I,td.

COMMUNITY OF THE REPARATION (S. ALPHEGE), SOUTH-

WARK : THE CHAPEL 65

COMMUNITY OF THE REPARATION (S. ALPHEGE), SOUTH-

WARK : WEST OF CHAPEL 65

SISTERS OF THE CHURCH, KILBURN .... 80

SISTERS OF THE CHURCH, KILBURN: THE CHAPEL . . 81 SOCIETY OF THE INCARNATION, SALTLEY : GROUP . .112

COMMUNITY OF SS. MARY AND MODWENNA, DUNDEE :

CHAPEL 113

COMMUNITY OF S. MARY THE VIRGIN, DUBLIN : CHAPEL . 113

S.S.M., KELHAM 148

S.S.M., KELHAM: THE CHAPEL 149

MILDENHALL: THE FORMER HOUSE OF THE S.S.M. . 156

IONA, S. ORAN'S CATHEDRAL 157

Messrs. Skinner & Co., 27 Thistle Street, Edinburgh.

IONA HOUSE OF RETREAT: THE CHAPEL . . . 157

HOUSE OF THE RESURRECTION : FRONT . . . 160

COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION : COLLEGE . . 161

S. PHILIP'S, PLAISTOW 176

The Whitwell Press.

PERSHORE ABBEY 176

The Whitwell Press.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix

FACING PAGE

PERSHORE ABBEY ... ... 177

The Whitwell Press.

PORTRAITS

THE REV. A. R. C. DALLAS 4

CANON LIDDON 4

The Whitwell Press.

Miss FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 4

The Symbol Publishing Co., 22 Buckingham Street, Condon.

DR. PUSEY ......... 4

The Whitwell Press.

THE REV. W. UPTON RICHARDS 16

Rev. H. F. B. Mackay.

THE REV. G. R. PRYNNE . . . . . .32

Mr. A. P. Steer, i Buckland Terrace, Millbay Road, Plymouth.

THE VERY REV. W. J. BUTLER, DEAN OF LINCOLN . 32

Messrs. Jas. Russel & Son, 4 Golders Green Parade, I/ondon.

DR. NEALE 32

Community of S. Margaret, East Grinstead.

CANON T. T. CARTER 32

Messrs. Hills %. Saunders, Eton.

THE REV. A. D. WAGNER 64

Community of S. Mary the Virgin.

THE REV. C. LOWDER 64

Messrs. Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co., I+ondon.

THE REV. CANON SHARP 64

Community of S. Peter, Horbury.

MRS. LANCASTER ........ 64

Community of S. Peter, Kilburn.

Miss E. A. BENETT ....... 96

Sisterhood of Bethany, Woyd Square, Condon.

THE REV. A. B. GOULDEN 96

Mrs. Goulden, Edinburgh.

xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

THE REV. A. TOOTH 96

From a print, source unknown.

THE RIGHT REV. G. WILKINSON 96

Messrs. Sldnner & Co.

MOTHER CECILE 97

Messrs. Skinner & Co.

THE RIGHT REV. A. B. WEBB 97

Messrs. Skinner & Co.

THE REV. A. PINCHARD 97

Society of the Precious Blood, Hendon.

THE RIGHT REV. C. J. CORFE 97

The S.S.M. Press.

THE REV. JOHN KEBLE 128

The Whitwell Press.

THE RIGHT REV. A. P. FORBES 128

The Very Rev. George Grub, Aberfoyle.

DEACONESS FERARD ....... 128

B. A. Davies, 24 Cumberland Road, Kew.

THE REV. FATHER IGNATIUS 128

Mr. R. Houlson, 10 Merthyr Road, Abergavenny.

CARDINAL NEWMAN 129

The Whitwell Press.

THE REV. FR. H. H. KELLY, S.S.M 129

The S.S.M. Press.

THE REV. FR. R. M. BENSON, S.S.J.E. . . .129

The Whitwell Press.

THE RIGHT REV. C. GORE, BISHOP OF OXFORD . . 129

The Whitwell Press.

PART I SISTERHOODS: ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

CHAPTER I

VOCATION, OR THE CALL OF GOD TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE

IN tracing the genesis and growth of Sisterhoods in the Church of England, it may be advisable at the outset to deal with the importance of Vocation, or the call of God to a religious life. This is the one prime essential, and there fore it is a fitting preliminary to have an exact idea of what community life implies. The groundwork of such a life is the persuasion of each member that God has called her entirely to forgo the claims of society and family and devote herself wholly, entirely, and unreservedly to the work of God, whether actively or contemplatively, in the directions which He points out.

A Sisterhood or Religious Community of Women is a society of women who have heard and responded to the vocation wherewith they were called, who are persuaded that they have each this Interior call to tread the narrow way of Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity, who unite together in community for the purpose of obeying their vocation to the best of their ability. They separate themselves from the world, not for the mere intention of carrying on some beneficent works of mercy, or to be skilled in C.O.S. methods, or to be expert in philanthropy, but with the persuasion that they are separated unto God for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. A Sisterhood is not to be thought of as a mere congeries of pious women desirous to do in the world all the good they can through the power of association for that purpose. It is not a sphere to which women turn when they have tasted to the full all the pleasure the world can give and are satiated with it, or have experienced the trials and sorrows of the world and desire to escape them. It is not a short and easy way whereby women may pass pleasant lives.

The fact that there exist some such conceptions of

4 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Sisterhoods makes it necessary to emphasise the reality of the sacrifice which a true response to Vocation entails. There are the many who are called by God to serve Him in ministrations to the poor and suffering ; and this call of service, with the splendid response it has evoked, is one of the features of present-day religion. But beyond what may be called the ordinary vocation to this service found in the opportunities of daily life or in ministrations that do not demand entire sacrifice, there can be no question that God does call to some to give up all and follow Him, that a whole and entire sacrifice and dedication of the life is required. Our Blessed Lord Himself speaks of this higher call and devotion to His service, " which all cannot receive, but they to whom it is given." Moved by the Holy Ghost there comes to some the irresistible impulse of grace to forsake what they lawfully may " for Christ's sake and the Gospel's." This working of the Spirit of God in the soul, calling to a separated life, is what we call Vocation, and is defined as " a disposition of Divine Providence whereby persons are invited to serve God in a special state under obligation of the Evangelical counsels. This call comes to souls with a certain pressing invitation, with a strong desire of self-sacrifice, and of advance in the knowledge and love of God."

So this vocation, this special calling to a separated and self-surrendered life, is not a mere call to any opportunities of work at hand, but primarily God's call of a soul to Him self, to a life of communion with Him. Every Sister realises this as a primal factor in the ordering of the Community. The idea of her life in God is always first in everything ; then the thought of her work for God. " First give your selves to God, then give your work " said a devoted Bishop of the Church to some who came to offer him help, and it is the reality of this self-oblation of the Sister that draws a blessing from God upon her work.

We find an illustration of this in the Archbishop of York's fine message to the Church of England Men's Society at a recent Conference. He spoke of the inestimable value of Retreats and Quiet Days for Men who were pledged to service, because only from men who had first learned to be with God and seek His will could there come vision and in spiration in work. The Sister who is truly called will in proportion to the clearness of the call give herself to God

THE REV. A. R. C. DALLAS.

CANON l.IDDON.

DR. PUSEY.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

To face page 4.

S. MARY'S, ST. LEONARDS-ON-SEA : WOODLAND PATH (see page 29).

To face page 5 .

THE CALL OF GOD TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE 5

and make complete her surrender. This response will be the gift of all that she is to God for ever, a life devoted. Her life will be one long act of self-sacrifice, and each detail of that life is governed by the same great ennobling prin ciple. The heart which has given all to God, and by so doing given up home life, pleasures, comforts, worldly position, wealth, time, energies of soul and body, to God, has much more love than others to give to whatever work God may direct her. Any association of women for purposes of charity may be a useful institution, but it lacks the constraining power and force of the Blessed Spirit which the sacrifice of the devoted life gives to the religious Sister hood. It is the life consecration of the Sister in obedience to the call of God that enables her to serve God with fastings and prayers day and night, and makes it a joy to seek to win souls for God in the dark spots of our cities. The people in the slums have learnt that a Sister does not work in their midst from motives of philanthropy, but because she is wholly devoted to God and desires to win them for God. They have been quick to learn the distinction be tween merely social service and the service that is the out come of self-sacrificing love springing from surrendered love to God. She can go in and out among them, protected by the fact of her vocation and the self-consecration of her response.

From what we have said it will be gathered that the strength of the Community lies in the constant communion with God made possible in the fullest degree by the ordered system or Rule of the Community. The hidden force which lies behind the Community and behind each individual Sister's life is Prayer. The Sister's life is a life of Prayer, and the spirit of prayer enters into everything she does, sustaining her life for God and gifting it with power and capacity for service. Much is made of intercessory prayer for the work of the Church at home and abroad, and specially for God's blessing on the particular works of her Community. Out of the hidden life of prayer her work grows naturally. God's love, shed abroad in her heart by the Holy Ghost, cherished by the daily Eucharist, the Divine Praises which rise hour after hour in the Community, and her prayers without ceasing, imply a heavenward movement which must be continually lifting up and carrying other souls on ward to God.

6 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

The life of the Community is an ordered one. Each member owes the duty of obedience to its Rule and its Superior. The life of the family is taken as the basis of the Community in its internal ordering. The head is named Abbess, or Mother, and the relation of the members to the head is considered a filial one, and to each other a sisterly one. There is a definite prescribed Rule, to which implicit obedience is essential as a condition of Community member ship. The Rule declares the object, spirit, and work of the Community. It provides for the Officers and their election, the admission of Postulants, Novices, Professed, the summoning of Chapters, the formation of Branch Houses.

The Rule is the very heart of the Community. It pervades the whole day and every part of the day. It is never absent from the mind of those bound to observe it. The habits of the Community are formed by it, its daily routine settled by it, and the temper of the members moulded by it. The object of the Rule is twofold : (i) the personal holiness of each individual member, and (2) the harmony of the whole Community. No one is allowed to become a Sister until she has become thoroughly conversant with the Rule and has given her hearty assent to it. Hence the adoption of the Rule is voluntary in each case, and after a searching probation ; but once adopted, obedience to it in every detail is obligatory. It is for this reason that a Novitiate is essential to those who desire to enter a Sisterhood, and often a long Novitiate.

After the Rule comes the need of a Head — a Superior — whose powers are limited and directed by the Rule, but who can see that the Rule is equally and impartially adminis tered and observed, who can initiate work and can provide for its continuance, who can adjust differences and stimulate and encourage the Sisters, and who will cultivate the religious spirit in the Community as a whole and in each individual member.

Each Community has its House, its fixed place of residence. The Sisterhood must be a unit, a Christian family among the families on earth, brought together and held together, not by the tie of blood, but by common union with Christ. It must have its home apart from others in which its family life is carried on in its own distinct unity. The Community House has two centres or rallying points : a Chapel for the

THE CALL OF GOD TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE 7

spiritual life and a Common Room for the social life. In the Chapel the Sisters meet seven times a day to unite in prayer and praise, and daily to receive the Bread of Life, or as often as possible. In the Common Room, once each day, the Sisters meet for recreation and the interchange of social life.

We can fitly conclude this preliminary sketch of Religious Vocation and Life by an extract from a sermon by Canon Liddon on " A Sister's Work/' " Such undertakings and the lives which warrant and complete them are an embodiment of the whole Church ; they are the salt of the Church as the Church herself is the salt and preservative of the world. Let us then associate ourselves with it by a threefold effort : by an endeavour to understand it better, by hearty prayers for its success, and by contributing something to its support which will really involve sacrifice on our part, and so will enable us to enter into a spirit which produces such admirable results. We cannot but be bettered ourselves by an intel ligent, prayerful, self-sacrificing endeavour to assist these ministers of mercy."

CHAPTER II

FIRST EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLAND SINCE THE REFORMATION FOR THE NEED OF DEVOTED WOMEN

THE Religious Houses suppressed by Henry VIII and refounded in the reign of Queen Mary were dissolved by Queen Elizabeth, and from that time till 1844 the Church was deprived of anything of the nature of monastic institu tions or the Religious Life. It is true that the idea was never lost sight of in this long desolate period. It is a testimony to the need met by the Religious Life, that despite every difficulty and all its long unpopularity in England there were the earnest and devout who regretted its loss and attempted to revive it. The story of what the Puritans called " The Arminian Nunnery " is a familiar one, and Nicholas Ferrar, in the quasi-community, if family, life at Little Gidding in 1625, at least kep t the idea alive. Recorded in the autobiography of one " Father Bede of S. Simon Stock," a Decalced Carmelite, known before Religion as Walter Joseph Travers, we have an account of twelve ladies of good birth who lived in community in London under the direction of Dr. Sancroft, Dean of S. Paul's. Very little information is given us, but the end of the Community came when the lady designated as Abbess, sent to Flanders to study the Rule of S. Benedict in one of the Benedictine Houses, married, and seceded to Rome.

In 1694, Mary Astell, the daughter of a Newcastle merchant, drew attention to the desirability of some kind of revival of a " Religious Retirement." She wrote " A Serious Proposal to the Ladies," in which she outlined her idea of erecting " a Monastery " or, to avoid offence by such a name, " Religious Retirement." The publication was favourably received, and in 1697 a Second Part appeared dedicated to the Princess Anne of Denmark. It indicated that " a certain great lady," either Queen Anne or Lady E. Hastings,

8

THE NEED OF DEVOTED WOMEN -9

had promised £10,000 for such a building. Bishop Burnet used the anti-Roman prejudice effectively against the scheme, and it was also denounced by " The Tatler." So it came to nothing. About 1697 Edward Stephens proposed to found a religious house, first for women and then for men. The interest of this project lies not only in the idea he expressed, but in the fact that a " Religious Society of Single Women " was begun, and that he had for the purpose " procured a Friend to take a Lease of a convenient House of near £40 per annum."

About twenty-one women seem to have joined the Society. The account will be found in a " Letter to a Lady," with " The More Excellent Way, or a Proposal of a Compleat Work of Charity," written by Stephens. In 1698 — that is, about the same time that Stephens was putting forward his views — a book of devotion for the family was published by Sir George Wheeler. Among other things he pays a warm tribute to the Monasteries he had seen in Greece, and advo cates Monasteries for women as " more convenient, if not very necessary, for all times and countries," while depre cating, curiously enough, Monasteries for men. He looks forward to less unprejudiced times, in which the Religious Life may be restored.

The next trace of the feeling after Religious Communities is in 1737, and is related in the Life of Archbishop Sharp of York. The proposal emanated from Scotland, when Sir William Cunninghame, the Laird of Prestonfield, near Edinburgh, approached Archdeacon Thomas Sharp, son of the Archbishop, with a project for " a Nunnery of Pro testant religious and virtuous persons, well born, of the female sex, conforming themselves to the worship of the Church of England." A detailed scheme was drawn up, and Sedgefield, Durham, was suggested as the place for establishing the Nunnery ; but the Archbishop frowned upon it, and a promising scheme, well worked out, came to nought. The references to the subject in the period from Elizabeth till 1826 have never been worked out, but Archbishop Leighton, Fuller, William Law, John Wesley, Howard the philanthropist, and others desired to see the restoration of the devoted life in some measure or another in England. It is even suggested that John Wesley drew up his Rules for the Methodist Society upon the basis of the Benedictine Rule.

io SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

The formation of the first Sisterhood in England since the Reformation period dates from 1844, but for some years immediately prior to that date the minds of thoughtful men and women in the Church had been turned to the inestimable advantage of the association of cultured and devoted ladies for work among the poor and in hospitals and infirmaries. This coincided with a distinct movement analogous to the feminist movement of our own day for a greater utilisation of the special gifts and talents of women in the religious, social, and philanthropic activities of the nation. As far back as 1826 we read in the life of the Rev. Alex. R. C. Dallas, that while Curate of Wooburn, Bucks, " the experi ence of two parishes and continual intercourse with the poor led him to feel very keenly the lack of proper nursing and attendance in sickness. The doctor often lived at a great distance, and the care of a large circle of parishes was committed to one young practitioner. The village nurses were deplorably ignorant, and Mr. Dallas, having resided in France and having seen the superior nursing and the many advantages resulting from the system there carried on of the ' Sceurs de la Charite/ devised a plan for the same system to be adopted in England." l

He appears to have impressed his views upon one who was in his day a great physician as well as philanthropist and philosopher, namely Dr. Gooch. Like Dallas, Gooch had visited Belgium, and, like Howard the prison reformer, had been most interested in the Beguines and their works of mercy, their well-ordered hospitals and their general efficiency in visiting and prescribing for the sick poor. He published an account of his visit and experiences, with the conclusions he formed directed to the advantage of a like system in England, in " Blackwood's Magazine." *

Immediately following the article in " Blackwood's Magazine," which though written by Dr. Gooch owed its inspiration to Mr. Dallas, the latter published a pamphlet entitled "Protestant Sisters of Charity," which was circulated widely, and had the effect of directing public attention to the need and desirability of Sisters. This pamphlet was addressed to the Bishop of London (Dr. Horsley), " developing a plan for improving the arrangements at present existing for

1 " Incidents in the Life and Ministry of the Rev. Alex. R. C. Dallas, M.A." Nisbet & Co., 1873, p. 238.

2 Blackwood, December 1825.

THE NEED OF DEVOTED WOMEN n

administering medical advice and visiting the sick poor." He advocated the establishment of a society of devoted women similar to that of the Order of Nuns in France called " Les Soeurs de la Charite," of whose beneficent work he gave a minute account. His specific proposal was that " a Society of Females be formed to be called the Protestant Sisters of Charity (unless some fitter name should be selected for it) ; that they shall be placed in parishes where the particular exigencies most require them ; and that their occupation shall be to visit the sick and afflicted, administer simple remedies for such diseases as they are able to recog nise, and act under the directions of the appointed medical man in such as are above the reach of their knowledge ; that in all cases they shall make it a main object to improve the opportunities afforded them for the advancement of true religion in the hearts of their patients ; that with this view they shall be placed under the superintendence and direction of the parochial clergy, to whom they shall report the results of their visits and from whom they shall receive instructions." l He further proposed that the Archbishops and Bishops should be earnestly entreated to afford it their countenance and support.

This pamphlet was a striking expression of the need for religious Communities of women, and the first attempt to consider the possibility of Sisters at work in England on the same lines as the Sisters in France and Belgium. Its publication resulted in much interesting communication with the Quakeress philanthropist, Mrs. Fry. She took up the plan advocated by Mr. Dallas to a large extent, and carried it out in the nursing establishment at Raven Row, Whitechapel, and afterwards in Devonshire Square, London. This was one direct result of his effort, but the time was not yet ripe for the development of his ideas on the lines now so familiar in the formation of English Sisterhoods. Still it paved the way in the public mind, and one notable man of the day was struck by the force of what Mr. Dallas urged. For Robert Southey, in his " Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society," 2 dealt at length with the plan in warm advocacy, quoting not only the pamphlet but also

1 " Protestant Sisters of Charity." A pamphlet addressed to the Bishop of London.

3 Sir Thomas More on " Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society," by Robert Southey, Vol. ii., pp. 129-134 (1829).

12 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

two letters signed " A Country Surgeon " which had appeared in " The Medical Gazette," and are now known to have been written by Dr. Gooch, who had corresponded with Southey on the subject. The article in " Blackwood's Magazine" and the two letters are reprinted for the most part as an appendix to Southey's volume.

Dean Howson, in his well-known brochure on " Deacon esses," thus refers to Southey's share in giving expression to the need for Sisters' or like Communities : " There is one name above all others to which it is natural here to refer. It is almost fifty years ago that Southey, in the first number of this Journal, forcibly pointed out the removal of the old reproach that Protestantism has no Missionaries. It is almost exactly thirty years ago that he told again how he had watched " the unpromising commencement of the Protestant Missions, their patient progress, and the success with which God was blessing them," and then he added, " Thirty years hence (that is, about 1860) another reproach may also be effected, and England may have its Sisters of Charity." 1 The rest of the quotation forming the conclusion of Colloquy XIII must be given.

"It is grievously in need of them. There is nothing Romish, nothing superstitious, nothing fanatical in such associations ; nothing but what is righteous and holy ; nothing but what properly belongs to that Threskeia, that religious service which the Apostle James, the brother of our Lord, has told us is pure and undefiled before God and the Father. They who shall see such societies instituted and flourishing here may have a better hope that it may please the Almighty to continue His manifold mercies to this Island, notwithstanding the errors which endanger it and the offences which cry to Heaven."

In " The Educational Magazine " for 1840 there is mention and strong commendation of the pamphlet Dallas published. In the same year an interesting series of papers on " Sisters of Charity " appeared in the Magazine.

It cannot be gainsaid that Southey's advocacy of Sister hoods or something akin to them influenced public opinion of the day to an enormous degree, familiarising it with the idea. Yet to the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas, in conjunction with Dr. Gooch, who wrote from the medical point of view,

1 " Deaconesses," by Dean Howson, p. 2f .

2 " Colloquies," p. 330.

S. MARY'S, ST. LEONARDS-ON-SEA : THE SCHOOL (see page 29).

S. MARY'S HOME : WANTAGE (see page 42).

To face page 12.

ASCOT PRIORY (seepage 36).'

THE HERMITAGE, ASCOT, WHERE DR. PUSEY DIED (see page 36).

To face page 13.

THE NEED OF DEVOTED WOMEN 13

must be given the credit of first taking up and advocating societies of Sisters of Charity in his letter to the Bishop of London.

The effect not only upon public opinion, but upon re ligious thought, of the attention drawn to the remarkable work of the Beguines cannot be too much insisted upon. The absence of any institution of the kind in England was seen to be to the country's loss. The force of Southey's appeal must have been very telling. " Why then have you no Beguines ? no Sisters of Charity ? Why, in the most needful, the most merciful form that charity can take, have you not followed the example of the French and the Netherlander s ? No Vincent de Paul has been heard in your pulpits ; no Louise de Gras has appeared among the daughters of Great Britain. Piety has found its way into your prisons ; your hospitals are imploring it in vain ; nothing is wanting in them but religious charity ; and oh, what a want is that ! ... It is not in the hospitals alone that this blessed spirit of charity might be directed ; while it reformed these establishments by its presence it would lessen the pressure upon them by seeking out the sick and attending them in their own habitations." l

1 " Colloquies," p. 318.

CHAPTER III

SISTERHOODS AND HOSPITALS

ONE of the main causes that enabled Sisterhoods to make their way steadily and surely in the Church was the terrible need that existed for the ministry of devoted women in hospitals, which it was thought could be supplied through organised religious Communities. In a valuable book dealing with this particular question, " Hospitals and Sisterhoods," by Miss Stanley, the preface states " that there are on the one hand great defects in the existing state of our hospitals, and that on the other hand there is an increasing desire amongst Protestants to introduce and revive the voluntary system of charitable services which was extinguished at the Reformation, owing to the abuses which were found in some of the conventual establishments, cannot be doubted. . . . Nothing yet attempted has reached th0 evils complained of in our hospitals/'

The great need indicated in the book was that of attending to the souls of the patients, and having a high moral and religious tone characteristic of the work of those who were attending the sick. The hospital patients were ministered to by overworked stipendiary Chaplains, or voluntarily by Priests sufficiently occupied by large parishes. The class of nurse was so low that it was hopeless to expect any improve ment through them. For " only a very low class of women apply for the situation of under nurse, and the difficulty of procuring them at all is so great at times that matrons are often obliged to receive them without obtaining any character. Till within the last few years drunkenness was carried on to a fearful extent ; and though this has been considerably checked, it still remains the besetting sin of nurses ; and excuses are made for it on the plea that they need the support of spirits under their harassing work. A medical man in one of the large northern hospitals was

14

SISTERHOODS AND HOSPITALS 15

questioned as to the religious character of the nurses. ' If I can obtain a sober set/ was his answer, ' it is_as much as I can hope for/ Frightful tales of profligacy amongst the nurses have been brought to light by inquiry, and it is often the case that the best nurses, so far as medical attendance and skill goes, are the worst characters/' The author of this book sent to a large number of people con nected with or interested in hospitals for their opinions, and the general consensus of opinion was that the standard of nurses would be required to be raised considerably to effect any influence for good morally and spiritually, and that it was eminently desirable that means should be adopted whereby through trained and selected nurses the patients might be uplifted in tone and morality. How could this be done ?

The writer, in dealing with general attempts made to remedy the evil or suggestions as to betterment, quoted from the article in " Blackwood's Magazine " in 1825 dealing with the want of nurses for the sick poor, under the title " Sisters of Charity," to which we alluded in our last chapter. Mrs. Jameson, in her " Sisters of Charity Abroad and at Home," identifies the author of this article as being Dr. Gooch. He says : " My friend C is a country clergy man. In his youth he was an officer in the army and served during several campaigns in the late war in the Peninsula. At the conclusion of the war he quitted the army, looked round for a profession, and, unsuitable as it may appear, fixed on the Church, and having passed the requisite time at college in honest and earnest study, he took orders and obtained a curacy. He sometimes comes to town to visit me. On one of these occasions he was complaining of the difficulty of procuring medical attendance for the sick poor of his parish, many of whom lived far from the tbwn where the parish surgeon resides, and he was wishing that it was possible to procure a few women of a superior order to the generality of nurses, and taught by a residence in hospitals to relieve the most common kinds of illness. ' They should be/ he added, ' animated with religion ; science and mere humanity cannot be relied on/ An order of women such as these, distributed among the country parishes of the kingdom, would be of incalculable value. It was formerly the boast of the Catholics that the Protestants had no Missionaries. That boast is silenced,

16 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

but they may still affirm that Protestantism has not yet produced her Sisters of Charity. . . . The attendants on the sick, whether professional or menial, are commonly actuated by scientific zeal, by mere natural humanity, or by mercenary motives ; but these cannot be trusted to for steady attention — the one subsides with the solution of a question, the other hardens by habit, the last requires zealous inspection. There are long intervals of indifference and apathy and inattention ; we want an actuating motive of a more steady and enduring nature, which requires neither curiosity nor emotion, nor avarice to keep it alive, which still burns in the most tranquil states of mind and out of reach of human inspection ; and this motive is religion. . . . Let the Church, or if not, let that class of Christians in whom above all others religion is not a mere Sunday cere mony, but the daily and hourly principle of their thoughts and actions — let all serious Christians, I say, join, and found an order of women like the Sisters of Charity in Catholic countries ; let them be selected for good plain sense, kind ness of disposition, indefatigable industry, and deep piety ; let them receive not a technical and scientific, but a practical medical education ... let such women, thus educated, be distributed among the country parishes of the kingdom . . . and I fearlessly predict that my friend will no longer complain that his sick flock suffers from medical neglect."

As we have already seen, the country clergyman alluded to was the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas, who before his ordination had served in the Peninsular War. The debt that is owing to Dallas for directing attention to the benefit of Sisters of Charity in the Church comes out clearly in the article. One plain fact emerges : that the need for something to be done to aid the sick, whether in hospital or in country parish, was clamant, and that those who were engaged as nurses were inefficient, incompetent, and of a low order.

It is necessary to be quite clear about the urgency of the hospital and sick nursing question, because it was one of the greatest factors in determining the response of women to a devoted life. It is brought out very forcibly by Mrs. Jameson in her " Sisters of Charity, Abroad and at Home." She describes an inquiry made into the type of women employed as nurses, and, with the modern organisation of hospitals and Red Cross work and nursing, the state of things revealed seems absolutely incredible. She says,

THE REV. W. UPTON RICHARDS.

ALL SAINTS', COLNEY : THE BURYING GROUND

(see page 49) .

To face page 16.

To face page 17.

SISTERHOODS AND HOSPITALS 17

" On the whole the testimony brought before us is sickening. Drunkenness, profligacy, violence of temper, horribly coarse and brutal language : these are common. We know that there are admirable exceptions, more particularly in the great London hospitals. . . . Still the reverse of the picture is more generally true." 1

The result of this inquiry and a comparison between our English system and that of Sisterhoods abroad led to a paper being drawn up and sent round to a number of chap lains, medical men, and governors of hospitals, containing a sketch of the training system of Kaiserswerth and elsewhere, asking that some means might be devised to secure a better class of nurses, but nothing came of it. Admiral Sir Edward Parry, head of the Naval Hospital at Haslar, tried to induce three or four respectable women to volunteer their services and undergo a special training to replace the women of low character perforce employed as nurses at the hospital ; and though his appeal was signed by five medical men and circulated extensively, he did not receive a single offer. The Bishop of London publicly expressed his regret that he had seen, one after another, all the plans for raising the status of nurses fail utterly. As to the reason for it he was as much at a loss as Sir Edward Parry.

What hospitals, infirmaries, and general nursing owe to the impulse created by the movement resulting in the formation of Sisterhoods can never be over-estimated. We have already alluded to the direct result of the appeal for Sisters of Charity, with the principal aim of nursing, in the establishment founded by Mrs. Fry, the first in the country for the training of nurses for the sick. It was a visit she paid to Kaiserswerth in 1840, and the wonderful results of the Deaconess Hospital, which not only trained nurses there but had formed branches for the same purpose throughout Germany that arrested her attention. Here was something which was answering the very need of the moment in Eng land. In 1841 she brought her project for a Nurses' Training Institution before the Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield) at an interview in which she desired to learn his views " respect ing the new institution for the Protestant Sisters of Charity." The Queen Dowager, through Earl Howe, lent her patronage to the scheme, and in the letter announcing it said that " any

1 " Sisters of Charity, Catholic and Protestant, Abroad and at Home," by Mrs. Jameson, 1855, p. 77

2

i8 SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

little objection the Archbishop had felt was now removed/* This objection appears to have been to the title, " Sisters of Charity/' which Mrs. Fry first gave to her nurses, and Queen Adelaide afterwards wrote suggesting a change to " Nursing Sisters/' which was done.

Founded in July 1840 and established in Raven Row, Whitechapel, the Nurses' Home was within easy distance of the London Hospital, where some of the probationers were sent for training. In 1842 removal was made to a new Home in Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, the first Superintendent being Mrs. Kennion, and subsequently in 1847 t° J6 Broad Street Buildings, and finally in 1850 to Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate. The latter premises were purchased in 1872, and still remain the home of the Institution. Its growth and development in usefulness need not be further gone into, as outside our scope, but the aim and object set forth by Mrs. Fry deserve mention. It was founded with " a view of supplying a deficiency long felt and complained of by the public — that of experienced, conscientious, and Christian nurses of the sick — and also to raise the standard of this useful and important occupation so as to engage the attention and enlist the services of many who may be desirous of devoting their time to the glory of God and for the mitigation of human suffering."

What led the country more than anything else to look with favour upon religious Communities of women was the employment of ladies as nurses in the Crimean War. Up to that time prejudice against the women of England form ing themselves into Communities was strong. So when Sisterhoods began to be formed, as at Park Village, Devon- port, Clewer, Wantage, etc., it was the signal for the violent outbreak of fanatic animosity against them. The persecu tion directed against them was unrelenting. The inex perience and consequent mistakes at first in the initiation of Sisterhoods, and sometimes injudiciousness, afforded some ground for the opposition and censure met with. While, then, the country was prejudiced against them and opposed to religious Communities of women, the Crimean War broke out, and with the news of the victory at Alma there came also the tidings that three thousand men lay helpless and unassisted in the hospital at Scutari, with the wounds festering in their flesh for want of nurses to attend them. The whole nation was roused ; help it was felt

SISTERHOODS AND HOSPITALS 19

must be found instantly, and showers of suggestions were made in newspaper and magazine. The bitter upstanding prejudice of wellnigh an entire people was blown to the winds before the irresistible power of a practical necessity. To the despised Sisterhoods the hopes and attention of the whole nation were turned, and from their ranks, so often declared to be composed only of dreaming enthusiasts and Jesuit agents, the nurses came forth who were to carry the help and consolation of England to the suffering thou sands who spent their blood in her defence.

With the thanks and blessing of the whole country they departed, to be later on extolled in the warmest terms of admiration and approval before the Houses of Parliament. The band of nurses was headed by Miss Florence Nightingale, herself one who had undergone training at Kaiserswerth, and her noble work silenced for ever those who would have contended that delicately nurtured women were incapable of bearing physical hardships, or that voluntary work undertaken from the highest motives had not a special value of its own. It was significant that within three days of the time when the want of nurses for the war was made known, two hundred and eighty women of gentle birth offered their services. Only fourteen were chosen, because the whole ideas, habits, and education of the other gentle women unfitted them for this particular work. Some of these later found a vocation for the Religious Life. The value of the training and discipline and devotion of religi ous Communities of women was now realised, the tide of popular favour fairly turned, and the absolute necessity of some organised system of Sisters of Charity was felt for work in hospitals, penitentiaries, prisons, schools, neglected country parishes, and populous parishes in the great cities and towns. Sisterhoods developed upon the lines of meeting these necessities, in their active works, combined with con templative and devotional work as set forth in the Com munity Rule of Life. Latterly came " Enclosed " orders.

CHAPTER IV

s. JOHN'S HOUSE

THE first outcome of the movement for the provision of a higher class of nurses, trained for their work, was as we have seen Mrs. Fry's Institution. This was the first attempt in the country to raise the standard of nurses, and at first it made but small advance. The thoughts of physicians and surgeons were however being directed to the enormous advantage of trained and skilled nurses of a superior type, and King's College Hospital has the credit of being the first to initiate reform in this direction. On its medical staff were Dr., afterwards Sir William, Bowman, Dr.Todd, and Dr. A. Farre, leading physicians of the day, and they sent a circular embodying their views to a number of eminent men, and a meeting was convened to try and further the provision of qualified and better class nurses for hospital work. The Duke of Cambridge presided, and he was sup ported by Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London . Queen Adelaide gave her patronage, and it was further supported by the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Ripon, Salisbury, Chichester, Gloucester and Bristol, Manchester, Lichfield, Oxford, Norwich, and Llandaff . The proposal was adopted, and a Council was formed to carry it out, consisting of the Bishop of Lichfield, the Earl of Harrowby, Earl Nelson, Rev. C. Wordsworth, Rev. Dr. Jelf, Rev. J. S. M. Anderson, Rev. E. H. Plump tre, Dr. A. Farre, Dr. Mervyn Crawford, Dr. Todd, Dr. Bowman, Messrs. J. E. Bowman, J. W. Cunningham, R. Few, G. Frere. The Trustees of the funds to be raised were Dr. Todd, Rev. C. Wordsworth, and George Frere, Esq., and a strong provisional committee of nineteen members, with the Rev. E. H. Plumptre and Mr. J. E. Bowman as Hon. Secretaries, was appointed to arrange details and to draw up regulations for the Institution. The meeting took place on July i3th, 1848, at the Hanover

29

S. JOHN'S HOUSE 21

Square Rooms. So S. John's House was founded, and it is significant to note that while the origination of the institu tion came from the medical men it was designed from the outset to be religious and connected with the Church. The evident idea was that only under a religious sanction could such an institution rise above the old and bad standard of nursing, the idea we find in Dallas and Gooch and Southey bearing fruit first in Mrs. Fry's Institution and now in this. The aim was quite clearly set out in the circular calling the meeting : —

"It is proposed to establish a corporate or collegiate institution, the objects of which would be to maintain in a Community women who are members of the Church of England, who should receive such instruction and undergo such training as might best fit them to act as nurses and visitors to the sick and poor. It is proposed to connect the Institution with some hospital or hospitals in which women under training, or those who had been already educated, might find the opportunity of exercising their calling, or of acquiring experience.

" It is absolutely necessary to the success of the design, and the real amelioration of the class of persons for whose benefit it is intended, that the proposed establishment should be a religious one, and that all connected with it should regard the work in which they are embarked as a religious work.

" The design of the institution is to improve the qualifica tions and to raise the character of nurses for the sick in hospitals, among the poor, and in private families, by providing for them professional training together with moral and religious discipline under the care of a Lady Superior and resident Sisters, aided by a clergyman as Chaplain/'

The difficulty of vows, which presented in these early days one of the greatest objections to the formation of Communities, was met by the Bishop of London, who declared that in the proposed institution everything would be voluntary. There would, in due time, he hoped, be an institution of Sisters, but there would be no vows of poverty, monastic obedience, or celibacy : no cloistered seclusion, no tyranny exercised over the will or the conscience ; but a full, free, and willing devotion in the great cause of Christian charity.

22 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

The example of Kaiserswerth was adduced as evidence of the possibility of the success of such an institution in a non-Roman Church, and Southey's plea that there was nothing specially Romish in the association of devoted women for works of mercy was urged and met with approba tion. The Bishop of London was named as first President, and this has been continued in his successors in the See ever since. Rules for the government of the institution were drawn up and approved by the Archbishops, and within a few months of the meeting S. John's House was an accom plished fact. Nurses and Sisters were admitted, a Chaplain, known as " Master," was appointed, and it began its work with the advantage of full public support and approval at 36 Fitzroy Square, in the S. Pancras district of S. John the Evangelist, from whence it derived its name. Those who formed its inmates were probationers, nurses, and Sisters. The latter were divided into resident and non-resident, and were women of superior birth and education. Their main duties were to assist in the instruction and training of the probationers and in the domestic management, and to assist further in visiting the sick poor in their dwellings, subject to the directions of the clergyman of the parish, accompanied by one or more probationers, and to aid in the hospitals. The dress was simple and severe, the cap being similar to that worn by the Kaiserswerth Deaconesses, and the wearing of jewellery was forbidden. The pro bationers were sent for six months' training to a hospital, but lived at S. John's House. The first Lady Superior was Miss Elizabeth Frere, who six months later was succeeded by Miss Elspeth Morrice. The chief control and super intendence was vested in the Master, the Rev. F. Twist, who also was responsible for the Daily Offices and religious instruction.

In 1853 the institution was removed to 5 Queen's Square, Westminster, and the Westminster Hospital became the chief training place for the probationers ; and in the parishes around the Sisters visited and tended the sick. Miss Mary Jones became Lady Superior not long after removal from Fitzroy Square. She was a friend of Miss Florence Nightin gale, and when the Crimean War broke out the latter found her aid invaluable in the provision of nurses. A first contingent of six, with the Master, went out, followed later by twenty more. Four of the first lot returned from Scutari,

S. JOHN'S HOUSE 23

unable to stand the privations of the work, and one — Miss Elizabeth Drake — died at Balaclava. In 1856 an arrange ment was come to whereby the institution undertook the nursing at King's College Hospital. This was followed in 1865 by a similar arrangement with the newly founded Galignani English Hospital in Paris, and in 1866 with Charing Cross Hospital, and in 1871 with the Children's Hospital at Nottingham.

Removal was made from Queen's Square to Norfolk Street, Strand, soon after undertaking the nursing at King's College Hospital. A Chapel was built here where daily services were held by the Master, and nurses and Sisters admitted. The growth and development of the work had made it necessary to confine the work of the Master or Chaplain to religious duties alone, and other necessary changes took place in the rules and regulations. In 1867 Miss Mary Jones was succeeded by Mrs. Hodson, and three years later Miss Caroline Lloyd became the Superior. The crisis in the affairs of S. John's House in 1883, which led to the departure of the Superior with the Sisters and many of the nurses to found the Community of the Nursing Sisters of S. John the Divine, arose from friction between the medical staff of King's College Hospital and the institution. The Council of S. John's House arranged that the nursing should be reorganised under the charge of All Saints' Sisterhood. In 1893 a further change took place, when the Council placed the House under the charge of the Community of S. Peter, Kilburn, with Sister Caroline as Superior. The House is now in Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, and its activities comprise private and hospital nursing and work amongst the sick poor.

CHAPTER V

INFLUENCE OF KAISERSWERTH

IN the leavening of public opinion and the paving the way in the Church for the revival of the Religious Life for women it was necessary to make it clear that religious Communities were quite possible apart from Roman Cathol icism. At thi? present time such a necessity would seem absurd, but it was not so prior to the founding of such Communities. It was vital to disarm the suspicion that the very idea of Sisters or Deaconesses would arouse in those days as savouring of Romanism. So it was that Southey felt impelled to write " There is nothing Romish, nothing superstitious, nothing fanatical in such associa tions." There was no doubt in England about the Pro testantism of Germany, and great interest was evoked by the glowing accounts of the successful work of the Deaconess Institution at Kaiserswerth, in Germany.

Its inception was due to Dr. Fliedner, Pastor of the Pro testant congregation at Kaiserswerth, whose ministrations commenced there in 1822. The firm of manufacturers which employed most of his congregation having failed in business, Dr. Fliedner came to England to try and raise money to tide over the difficulty and relieve his people. He became acquainted with Mrs. Fry, who interested him in prison reform, and from whom also he received the inspiration for the founding of his Deaconess Institution. On his return to Germany he formed a society for the improvement of prisons. This led to the problem of how to deal with discharged female prisoners. He took one of these cases, a particularly sad one, under his own charge, turning his summer house into a home for her, and placing her in charge of a lady whom he interested in the career of the poor unfortunate. From the female prisoner he turned

24

INFLUENCE OF KAISERSWERTH 25

his attention to the care of the waifs and strays, and from destitute child life to the care of the sick and dying. This was the beginning of that work which was destined to grow into the Deaconess Institution, with Branch Houses through the whole country. It was opened in 1836, and its progress was so rapid that sixteen years later it had one hundred and twenty-eight Deaconesses and probationers, and the Mother House had seven Branch Houses, viz. a hospital with one hundred and twenty beds, a female lunatic asylum, an infant school, an orphan asylum, a day school for girls, a normal school and a penitentiary. Of the one hundred and twenty- eight Deaconesses, ninety-seven were stationed in different parts of Europe, Asia, and America. This was not the first effort to establish Deaconesses among those not in the communion of Rome, but it was one that became best known to the public religious opinion in England.

We record in chapter iii the visit paid by Mrs. Fry to Kaiserswerth in 1840 which led to the establishment of the first institution for training nurses in England. Kaiser swerth also supplied a trained matron and nursing staff to the German Hospital at Dalston, London, founded in 1845, a time when trained matrons were unknown in the London hospitals. That institution was founded under the auspices of Queen Victoria and King Frederick William IV of Prussia for the benefit of German residents in the country. The nursing staff in recent years has been largely supplied from the Sarepta Deaconess Hospital at Boelfield.

The connection of this German movement with Dallas is patent; for Dr. Fliedner owed its inspiration to Mrs. Fry ; and, as we have already seen, Mr. Dallas had been in active communication with Mrs. Fry with the hope of enlisting her sympathy and support for the Sisters of Charity scheme which he advocated. It is well to note that it was ten years before the founding of the Kaiserswerth Institution that Mr. Dallas had outlined his scheme. The remarkable similarity of the lines of work undertaken at Kaiserswerth to those that Mr. Dallas and his friend Dr. Gooch advo cated deserve attention. Its main interest for us is in the effect its great success had upon English religious opinion. There was the natural consideration that what was so good and helpful elsewhere was a distinct possibility for England. Miss Florence Nightingale, who received some of her training

26 SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

at Kaiserswerth, and who had thus practical knowledge of the Institution, wrote about it in " An Account of the In stitution for Deaconesses." Another pamphlet was pub lished by a lady, with the title, " Kaiserswerth Deaconesses " ; and it was also dealt with in Miss Stanley's " Hospitals and Sisterhoods." Dr. Fliedner made a return visit to England and again saw Mrs. Fry, and proceeded to Scotland, where he met the famous Chalmers. The way was not yet opened for Sisterhoods, but it was being prepared. Public opinion was ripening fast to the need of specialised women's work to meet the conditions of life among the poor in city and village; and if Kaiserswerth and like institutions did nothing else they familiarised England with the fact that it was possible for women to be associated together under religious sanction for special work without the least suspicion of Romanism.

To trace the development of the Deaconess movement in England, which undoubtedly owes much to the earlier movement in Germany, belongs to Part II. It may be well, however, just to note that there is all the difference in the world between the conception of the Deaconess office as held by Protestants and that held by the Catholic Church of England. It is also well to mention that before the first Deaconess was ordained by the Bishop (Tait) of London, Sisterhoods were well established in England. To return to the influence exercised by Kaiserswerth we have in Miss Nightingale's pamphlet some idea given us of the trend of thought. Her opening remarks were directed to the miserable sort of existence to which unmarried women were condemned in the then existing state of things, and to the opening for useful active beneficent work on the lines presented by the Institution of Deaconesses. She treats of the manner in which women could be employed as true Sisters of Charity without absolutely entering convents or taking irrevocable vows. The value of the training of Kaiserswerth was dwelt upon, and it is evident that she had in mind mostly the urgent need for trained hospital nursing. Other notable contributions to the literature of the subject can only receive a passing mention. In 1855 Mrs. Jameson published " Sisters of Charity, Catholic and Protestant, Abroad and at Home," and in 1859, " Communion of Labour." In 1848 Mr. John Malcolm Ludlow wrote an article for the " Edinburgh Review " — " Deaconesses or

INFLUENCE OF KAISERSWERTH 27

Protestant Sisterhoods." It was followed up in 1865 by the publication of " Women's Work in the Church, Historical Notes on Deaconesses and Sisterhoods." It was Dean Howson who effectively roused the Church to the unique value of the trained religious ministrations of women, and specially of Deaconesses.

CHAPTER VI

THE COMING OF SISTERHOODS

SOME doubt has been expressed as to which was the first Sisterhood to be founded in England since the Reformation. Many have thought that the honour could be claimed by the Community founded by Miss Sellon at Devonport, and we find the claim frequently asserted in notices dealing with the coming of Sisterhoods. If we pass over the tentative efforts to which we have already alluded, and about which practically nothing is known, there can be no doubt that it was in London that the first Community in the Church of England — since the irreparable losses of the Reformation in its relation to the Religious Life — originated. It was associated with the great name of Dr. Pusey, and the establishment of Communities for women became linked inseparably with the Oxford Movement and its chief personalities. The idea was suggested to Dr. Pusey, not only from his knowledge of the value of the Religious Life in its effect upon those called to it, but in the opening for good works it presented just when the need was sorest. He was impressed with the sad condition of things in the slums of our great cities and with the difficulty of obtaining employment for unmarried women, while there can be little doubt that there was the pressure of the exercise of public opinion turning in the direction of providing some outlet for the energies and capacities of devoted and cultured women. He had, too, the bent of his own daughter in the direction of the Religious Life.

We are not, therefore, surprised to learn that in 1839 he was corresponding with Dr. Hook about the possibility of Sisters of Mercy. While in communication with Hook, he also wrote an English physician — Mr. W. Grenfell, who was studying medicine in Paris — to get for him the Rule of the Sisters of the Order of S. Augustine, and that of the Sisters

28

THE COMING OF SISTERHOODS 29

of S. Vincent de Paul. In 1840 Newman wrote to Bowden as follows : " Pusey is at Brighton ; pretty well. At present he is very much bent on establishing an Order of Sisters of Mercy (I despair somewhat, but I always croak), and is collecting information. ... I feel sure that such institutions are the only means of saving some of our best members from turning Roman Catholics, and yet I despair of such societies being made externally. They must be the expression of an inward principle. All we can do is to offer the opportunity."

Two months later he wrote to another: "What you hear about a convent is a mere mistake. I know nothing of it. But I am very glad to hear such views are spreading, and talking is the first step to doing. Several plans are in agitation for establishing Sisters of Mercy, whether for hospital or for parochial visiting, but I expect nothing of them yet. No one can begin solitarily, but the feeling that there are others likeminded gives at once confidence and opportunity. . . . Women (no, nor men still less) would not live together without quarrelling, as things are among us. A very strong religious principle, or a tight discipline, would be necessary. But it is a very good thing for people to be thinking about. Nothing would need more counting the cost."

In the same year Pusey corresponded with the Rev. W. Percival Ward, Rector of Compton Valence, who had resided much abroad, and knew the value of the work of Sisters of Charity. Ward sent Pusey a little book called " S. Vincent de Paul and the Sisters of Charity, with some particulars of the establishment to be erected at S. Leonards, Hastings." In an accompanying letter he said : " I do not know whether they have any distinctive dress, but this would appear indispensable in the low haunts of our cities. If we could not meet the Roman Catholics by a similar institution, the population of our great towns would be lost to the Church." He expressed his joy at hearing that Dr. Pusey was " actually engaged in schemes for attempting a remedy, since," he added, " thousands of souls, the care of the Church of England, are year by year allowed to perish because we dare not make ventures beyond the old, and for these times inefficient, machinery. Surely at such a time everything but principle is to be risked." Before the end of 1839 Pusey had written to Keble : " N. and I have

30 SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

separately come to think it necessary to have some * Sceurs de la Charite* ' in the Anglo-Catholic [Church], He is going to have an article in the ' British Critic ' ; if no one else writes it he will do it himself. I have named it since to very different sorts of persons, and all are taken with it exceed ingly, except B. H. (who, as Archbishop's Chaplain, is half afraid of it), and think there are numbers of people who are yearning to be employed in that way. My notion was that it might begin by regular employment as nurses in hospitals and lunatic asylums, in which last Christian nursing is so sadly missed."

In Guy's Hospital, London, the Quakers had meantime provided nurses who were to work in the spirit of Sisters of Charity, under rules. This was reported to Pusey by Mr. B. Harrison, who was asked whether he knew of any ladies likely to come. Pusey wrote to Dr. Hook's sister about it, and had a reply from Dr. Hook himself to the effect that his sister needed to devote herself to his mother ; but he added : " It is a great thing to find the first movement made by Quakers. It will smooth the way before us." Later on Miss Hook determined upon celibacy and the Religious Life. More correspondence relating to the idea passed in 1840 between Newman and Miss Giberne, and in 1841 between Pusey and Newman. The correspondence is fully given in Dr. Liddon's " Life of Pusey." In the latter year Pusey went to Ireland to get what information he could about Roman Catholic Sisterhoods.

It was at this time that Miss Marian Hughes, who became the revered Superior of the Convent of Holy Trinity, Wood stock Road, Oxford, became interested in the idea. She went abroad with the Rev. C. and Mrs. Seager, and studied the whole subject of Religious Life for women, specially at Bayeux and Caen. Pusey was much interested in the details with which she furnished him about the Rules of the Con vents she visited, and Mr. Seager supplemented this infor mation. In the regulations of the first English Community it is not difficult to trace the influence of the information thus conveyed. Indeed, the Rule first adopted was largely taken from that of S. Francis de Sales.

In 1840 Dr. Hook was anxious to put into practical operation in Leeds the Community idea, about which he had been equally keen with Pusey, but his scheme did not mature. In 1842 or 1843 Pusey had further correspondence

THE COMING OF SISTERHOODS 31

with Newman, in which he indicated that he had in his mind the utilisation of his own house and private means to further the formation of a Sisterhood. He said: "What do you think of my trying a female Mone ? I have thought ... of giving two rooms in my house to a lady educating two orphans, e.g. daughters of clergy. My idea was * having food and raiment ' that they should be ' therewith content/ I have since been involved in expenses of different sorts which I did not anticipate, but hope I could manage something of the kind. ... I have thought this might be the beginning of a Mone, and if dear L. (his daughter) lives this is the life she hopes for herself."

All this correspondence and earnest desire for the estab lishment of Sisterhoods paved the way for a meeting of those interested, at which a letter was read from Bishop Blomfield, of London, who said that the subject was occupy ing his thoughts, and that he had consulted the Primate about it. He was ready to consider any material sugges tions. On April 27th, 1844, a second meeting was held to consider measures for forwarding the establishment of Anglican Sisterhoods, and was attended by Lord Lyttelton, Lord Clive, Lord Camden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Dickin son, Mr. Watts Russell, Mr. T. Acland, Rev. D. Dodsworth, and the Rev. Dr. Hook. Mr. Gladstone was absent, but wrote " in warm sympathy with the object of the meeting." Mr. (afterwards Sir T.) Acland wrote Pusey the same day, giving him an account of what had taken place ; and Lord John Manners also wrote him the same day to tell him that the meeting " had resolved to take preliminary steps for the establishment and permanent maintenance of a Sister hood, living under a Religious Rule and engaged in some works of mercy, such as — (i) Visiting the poor in their own homes ; (2) visiting hospitals, workhouses, or prisons ;

(3) feeding and clothing and instructing destitute children ;

(4) assisting in burying the dead. He had also been in structed by the meeting to ask Pusey whether he knew of any person who was qualified for the post of Superior."

With the establishment of a Sisterhood, Pusey had fervently hoped that the earnest wish of his daughter Lucy to become professed would be realised ; but on the very day of the meeting referred to she was laid to rest after a severe illness. On the day of her death Pusey wrote a touching letter to Newman. " I ventured," he said, " to

32 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

give her in charge to pray for us all in the Presence of her Redeemer, and, if it might be, for those institutions to which she had herself hoped to belong." At the same time Keble wrote to Pusey : " I suppose such seems to be the mysterious connection between things here and there that it is impossible to know whether the very cause, for the sake of which (among other things) we so desired her recovery, may not be rather promoted (though of course we must~not expect to see how) by her departure/'

A month after the death of Miss Pusey, her father received

a letter from the Rev. D. Dodsworth, in which he said :

' We met on Saturday to consider the propriety of at once

taking the house which Lord John Manners has seen this

morning and is greatly pleased with."

His cherished scheme was now approaching fruition, and Pusey writes in 1842 to Keble : " You have probably received a beautiful prospectus about Monai. It is very striking. I wish I knew who drew it up. My heart is much set on them, and do pray that we may have them in what form He wills. It seems to me the great desideratum in our Church. The want of them has been a sore loss to me." The extract that follows from another letter he wrote to Keble is interesting, as showing how far he was from imagin ing the great Communities, highly organised and under Epis copal sanction and control, of which he was sowing the seed : " I agree with you that Bisley would be a good place for a Mone, and certainly I should think that it was a matter with which a Bishop has nothing to do. If an institution was being formed, which was to be formally organised, branching out into other parishes or dioceses, this would be another matter ; but for a few young women to live together in one house for the purpose of devotion and charity, it really would be most monstrous if a Bishop were any way to take cognisance of it. It would be violating the sacredness of domestic charity and devotion."

He wrote again in February 1845 : "' The Mone is to be opened in Easter week with two Sisters ; there may be more before Trinity. The feeling after this mode of life is growing wonderfully. I know of seven in Edinburgh alone."

The house for the first Anglican Sisterhood was taken in the name of Lord John Manners as the outcome of the meeting to which reference has been made. It was No. 17

THE REV. G. R. PRYNNE

THE VERY REV. W. J. BUTLER, DEAN OF LINCOLN.

DR NEALE.

CANON T. T. CARTER.

To face page 32.

mi'

il. 1 M

CLEWER: HOUSE OF MERCY (see page 58)

CLEWER: THE CHAPEL (see page 58).

To face page 33.

THE COMING OF SISTERHOODS 33

Park Village, Regent's Park, and was situated in the eccle siastical district belonging to Christ Church, Albany Street, which had recently been formed out of New S. Pancras Parish. Towards the erection of Christ Church Dr. Pusey had contributed £1,000. The then incumbent was the Rev. D. Dodsworth. The house was not like an ordinary London house. It had a pretty garden round it, and looked like some of the tiny villas to be seen in the environs of London. It has long since been swept away for a more regular street. It was opened on the Wednesday after Easter, March 26th, 1845, and Pusey thus wrote of the opening to Keble, two days after : "I am vexed that I forgot that you did not know upon what day the little Sisterhood was to commence. Two Sisters entered their home on Easter Wednesday (one Miss E.) ; they are very promising ; a third we expect on Friday week. We (i.e. Dodsworth and myself) had a little service with them on Wednesday ; they were in floods of tears, but in joy, in the prayers for them. On Sunday, at a quarter- to- eight, is to be their first communion subsequent to their solemn entrance. Will you remember them then ? There are no vows, but they have given themselves for life."

The first Sisters were Miss Jane Ellacombe, daughter of the Vicar of Bitton, Gloucestershire, and Miss Mary Bruce. Miss Ellacombe remained as Sister till her death on Christmas Day, 1854. Miss Bruce' s health failed, and she retired from the Sisterhood and took charge of Dr. Pusey 's young daughter for some time, and latterly worked under Bishop Forbes at Dundee. Miss Terrot, daughter of the Bishop of Edinburgh, was the third to join the newly formed Community, and a few weeks later Miss Langston, who was ten years older than any of her companions, became Superior. The work undertaken by the Sisters was visiting the poor and sick at their own homes, receiving and training orphans, giving shelter to women of good character while seeking occupation, also having the care of a day school for very poor children. The ordinary day of the little community was mapped out in this method : 5 a.m., Rise ; 5.20 to 6.15, Matins and Lauds ; 6.15 to 6.45, Private Devotions ; 6.45 to 7, Make beds and clean up rooms ; 7 to 7.30, Prime ; 7.30 to 8.30, Service in Church ; 8.30 to 8.45, Breakfast ; 8-55 to 9.10, Terce ; 9.10 to 12.30, Visiting the poor ; 12.30 to i, Repose; i to 1.20, Sext and self-examination; 1.20

34 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

to 3, Dinner and recreation ; 3 to 5, Nones and visiting poor ; 5 to 6, Service in Church ; 6 to 7, Vespers and Devo tions ; 7 to 8, Supper and recreation ; 8 to 9, Reading religious books ; 9 to 10, Compline, self-examination, and private devotions ; 10, Retire to rest. To those familiar with the Community Rule in Sisterhoods the method we have here forms a most interesting basis of comparison.

Dr. Pusey was most anxious that the Rule should be on right lines, and he wrote to Mr. A. J. Beresford Hope : " We naturally went by experience. Lord John Manners procured us the rules of the Sisters of Charity at Birming ham. I had some rules by me used by different bodies in England and on the Continent. We took as our basis S. Augustine's Rule. On this we engrafted others, always bearing in mind the character of English Churchwomen. When it was done, Dodsworth and myself looked over it with a view to what the Bishop of London would think, and several points were altered (language chiefly) on his saying ' The Bishop would not like this.' This was kept to be shown to the Bishop whenever trial enough has been made of the institution for him to be ready to take it up. When we had reviewed the rules we showed them to J. Keble." Of the infant Community, Dr. Pusey wrote at this time to Miss Hughes : " With regard to the little Sister hood, it is growing in numbers, and they in the grace of God. It is one of the brightest spots I know of. I do hope this is the blossom of rich fruit. The Sisters are only in their external works under the superintendence of Mr. D., who tells them whom they are to visit. The house, which is a small one only holding ten, will probably soon overflow. The little Sisterhood is feeling its way, or rather, being led on of God."

CHAPTER VII

THE FIRST DIFFICULTIES

PUSEY, writing also to Keble, said : " God seems to be so moving people's hearts that there seems tokens of mercy in the midst of the heavy suffering which our Church will undergo, not having been able to use the in strument He gave her. ... Do not omit to pray for the little Sisterhood, as also for a Monai of Clergy which I hope will grow up out of a sort of Curates' College at Leeds. They are pledged to nothing but have a good head." A remarkable paper, marked " Confidential " and headed " Sisters of Mercy," was drawn up and circulated among those likely to be interested, stating the great need for the work of Sisters in our great towns. It went on to say that " the present institution has commenced in the parochial district of Christ Church, S. Pancras, in which is a large population of destitute poor." The paper was prefaced by this quotation from Southey's Colloquies : " There is ... in such associations nothing but what is righteous and holy ; nothing but what properly belongs to that Threskeia, that religious service which the Apostle James, the brother of our Lord, has told is pure and undefined before God and the Father. They who shall see such societies instituted and flourishing may have a better hope that it may please the Almighty to continue His manifold mercies to this Island, notwithstanding the errors which endanger it and the offences which cry to Heaven."

This extract links the formation of this first Sisterhood to the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas' pamphlet " Protestant Sisters of Charity," and Southey's consequent comments in the Colloquies. The names of the laymen who appended their names to this paper and who initiated the Sisterhood are noteworthy and interesting. They follow a promise of support couched in these terms :

35

36 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

" We, the undersigned, having contributed, or intending to contribute, to the maintenance for the term of three years of the house about to be opened in the district of Christ Church, S. Pancras, for the reception of Sisters of Mercy, hereby express our intention of using our best endeavours at the close of that term, if the experience obtained in the interval shall justify the expectation of the permanent continuance of the institution, to place its resources upon the footing which may be requisite for its regular support. John Manners, Clive, Camden, Lyttelton, John Hanmer, Adare, W. Monsell, W. E. Gladstone, R. M. Milnes, F. H. Dickinson, J. D. Watts Russell, T. D. Acland, jnr., F. A. MacGeachy, A. J. B. Hope." From this infant Community Miss Nightingale chose some of the best in the band of nurses taken by her to the Crimea, and amongst them the Superior, Miss Langston. In 1852 the Sisterhood moved into S. Saviour's Home, Osnaburgh Street, built by one of the Sisters — Sister Clara — the first house for an Anglican Community ; and it is interesting to note that building operations were for some time suspended because Government was not able to decide whether religious houses were in accordance with the English law ; ultimately, how ever, the Legislature suffered the work to proceed.

It is now occupied by the All Saints' Sisters, to whom it was given by Mr. Edward Palmer in 1892. He had bought it from the Ascot Community in 1871. Ascot Priory, where those who remained of the first Sisters were afterwards established, was not begun till 1861.

Canon Liddon remarked that the experience at Park Village led, as was natural, to attempts at imitating it. More than one clergyman thought that he might start a Sisterhood just as he would start any parochial organisation having for its object some good work among his parishioners, and Pusey was asked for counsel and assistance. His experience had taught him that the foundation and growth of a Sisterhood must be a matter of much prayer, study, toil, and time. He discouraged the tendency to multiply small parochial Sisterhoods, and his advice became generally followed in after years.

The Sisterhood idea, though it was gradually commend ing itself to public opinion, could not fail in practical opera tion to be attended by many difficulties. Since the Refor mation, community life for women had been practically

To face page 36.

To face page 37.

THE FIRST DIFFICULTIES 37

unknown in the Church of England, and there were many, even among the Tractarians, who were very doubtful if it could be successful in the particular circumstances of the Church. It was not sufficient to have the ideal, and to attempt to carry it out practically by forming a Sisterhood. The trend of opinion was undoubtedly in favour of some adaptation of the Kaiserswerth Institution, and Kaiser- swerth and its success in Protestantism was upheld as the model for imitation in the English Church. With, then, the formation of the Sisterhood at No. 17 Park Village, the difficulty soon asserted itself as to the lines upon which it was to be worked. There was the utter inexperience of those who were now banded together in community life, having had no probation, no novitiate, no testing of vocation, and no conception of what it was to live under Rule. There was the inexperience of those who had to guide the Com munity, with no traditions and no precedents of any kind. There were questions of internal discipline, the rules to guide the life as well as the work of the Community, the relations of Sister to Superior and Superior to Sister, the relations of the Superior and Sisters to the Chaplain and Warden, the relations of the Community to the work under taken in the parish and its direction and superintendence. The Superior had no knowledge of the duties of Superior, and no training in the art and power of directing and teach ing others.

Upon Dr. Pusey for the most part devolved the task of settling these difficulties, assisted by Mr. Dodsworth. He fulfilled of necessity many of the duties that pertain to the office of Superior as well as acting as Chaplain, almost everything which now goes without saying in Sisterhoods being referred to him. He brought to the task, as we should expect, knowledge carefully acquired as to the constitution of Conventual Houses both in the Greek and Latin com munions. Dr. Wiseman wrote him in January 1845, giving him the order of the day as set out for the Sisters of Mercy at Birmingham ; and again early in 1846, before Lent, he sent him the dietary of the Birmingham Sisters. The question of how they were to be employed in the parish had to be settled, and so nearly a month after the Sisterhood had been formed Mr. Dodsworth wrote Dr. Pusey that " Lord John Manners has written to Ambrose Phillips about the visiting, etc., and as yet has had no answer. The

38 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

difficulty you contemplate will, I think, be got over by schools. I am going to hire a room in their part of my parish, where they may train some of our most destitute children, and where also they may occasionally take poor persons to instruct them apart from the distractions of their own homes."

There were difficulties among the Sisters, and Mr. Dods- worth told Dr. Pusey that he thought it was not without danger for them " to be brought from spheres such as theirs had been and to find themselves at once the objects of devoted service from such as you." He also feared Dr. Pusey 's over-tenderness in being too ready to relax rules. He wrote : "No doubt it is difficult to keep up the amount of labour ; but then we must remember that they have devoted themselves to a painful life. Nothing would seem more injurious to themselves or more fatal to the institution than that they should make a profession and not act up to it, allowing for the measures of human infirmity. . . . Unless there is something of painful labour theirs is in many respects of worldly comfort a life much to be preferred to that of a governess, and which many might covet for its comfort, so we might lead them into a great snare. I wish you could see what a great point is gained in the establish ment of such a Sisterhood and be content to wait for more till better times. I am sure this would be good for them. That they think of themselves ' very much as nuns/ I never doubted. This is what I rather regret to see. I wish that they could think less of what they seem to be, and let this gradually grow out of the reality. I do not mean that there is more than we might naturally expect of this tendency, but surely it is wise to repress it, and lead them to think little of themselves and their ways." Keble also wrote : " The other day Dodsworth was so good as to lend me the rules of the Sisterhood in London, and we, i.e. I and my wife, were deeply interested by them. It strikes me that there is a particular danger incident to persons situated as those Sisters are among us, viz. that being so very few, and among persons so deeply interested for them and their undertaking, they may very easily think too much of themselves and be made too much of, and I could fancy that it might be necessary to do some violence to ourselves in order not to flatter them unconsciously. On this, as on other accounts, I wish I could hear of their number increasing."

THE FIRST DIFFICULTIES 39

Apart from these difficulties, inseparable from the initia tion of a new and untried institution such as the Sister hood, an outside difficulty arose of an unexpected nature. Dr. Pusey, with the others who were interested and strong supporters, fully expected a warm welcome for the Sisters among the poor, to whose service they were devoting them selves. But the fear of Roman Catholicism was very strong, and suspicion took rise among the poor of the parish that this was merely a new move towards Romanism. Hence Mr. Dodsworth writes : " An unexpected trial has come upon us in the sort of excitement which our Sisterhood has produced amongst the poor. I think I told you some time ago of a falling off in their attendance at Church ; this has recently become still more marked, and from the inquiries I have made I have no doubt that considerable alarm exists among them. They do not know what to make of the Sisters, and suspect them of being disguised Roman Catholics. . . . The result is that the usefulness of the Sisterhood is greatly threatened ; the poor are regarding them with suspicion instead of love and veneration. Much, I think, is to be attributed to the peculiar dress. Here, perhaps, we have been wanting in due consideration to people's prejudices. ... I think it worthy of consideration whether we had not better at once put them into a more ordinary dress out of doors, such as black and white, or coloured shawls. Pray tell me what you think of this. Nothing has ever been simply restored, and so we never can have nuns again, though we may have something resembling them; we cannot bring back mediaeval religion. This difficulty I had not looked for. Of course one looked for opposition from the rich ; but that the poor should be alienated from us by what is specially designed for their benefit and blessing is indeed grievous and disappointing. It seems almost as if a blight were upon us."

These details of the difficulties experienced in the initial working of the first Sisterhood show clearly how great was the patience needed to cope with them, and to overcome them, and to make possible the great work now being done in the Church through the instrumentality of Sisterhoods. The fact clearly emerges that the restoration of Sisterhoods to the Church is mainly due to Dr. Pusey. Later on, and chiefly in connection with the Devonport Sisterhood, other difficulties arose in connection with the question as to

40 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

whether perpetual vows should be taken by Sisters, or what, if any vows were taken, should be their nature, and under what sanction and authority. The vows difficulty coloured much of the discussion that went on in the Church from the time the first Sisterhood was formed until Sisterhoods grew and multiplied and became strongly established, and strong opinions were at first expressed against Sisterhood vows by those in high places ; in fact, most, if not all, of the Bishops decided that vows were unlawful. But discussion gradually modified these opinions. There can be little doubt that some injudiciousness in the early days of the Devonport Sisters, due really to inexperience, seriously threatened the establishment of Sisterhoods.

After the Crimean War the Sisterhood at Park Village was merged in the Sisterhood at Devonport and Plymouth.

Once a start was made and the Community ideal attracted the attention of the Church, Sisterhoods began to be founded rapidly, and the period between 1845 and 1858 saw the rise of no less than twelve. They are as follows : Park Village, merged into the Society of the Holy Trinity, Devon- port, 1845 ; Community of S. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, 1847 '> Nursing Sisters of S. John the Divine, London, 1848 ; S. Mary, Wantage, 1849 ; Society of Holy Trinity, Oxford, 1849 » S. John Baptist, Clewer, 1852 ; S. Margaret, East Grinstead, 1855 ; S. Mary the Virgin, Brighton, 1855 ; All Hallows, Ditchingham, 1856 ; Holy Cross, 1857 ; S. Peter, Horbury, 1858. The story of the history and growth of Communities is best told in the notices of each Community which follow ; and the relation officially of the Church to community life is told in the chapter on The Deaconess Movement.

CHAPTER VIII

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851

Community of S, ZTbomas tbe flDart^r,

Community of S. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, was first among the groups of religious Communities which took their rise in England during the years 1847 to 1857. The state of the poor parish of S. Thomas, of which the Rev. T. Chamberlain had become Vicar in the early Forties, originated in his case the idea of drawing together a band of ladies to live under Rule and to work among the poor and lost, and eventually to develop a Sisterhood. The first profession took place about 1852, and by 1859 the Rule and Constitution were drawn up.

Sister Edith became first Superior, and was succeeded by Sister Beatrice, the authoress of " Legenda Monastica," 1 a small collection of legends in verse. A small school which Mr. Chamberlain had founded for girls of the upper classes, for the purpose of combining high-class education with definite Church teaching, was placed in the hands of the Sisters, and grew and flourished for many years under the name of S. Anne's, Kewley. Another educational work was begun soon after, viz. a Training School for National School mistresses, which was afterwards continued as a Middle Class Boarding School, called S. Scholastica. Both were given up some years ago as the need for these schools was no longer felt with the advance of general education. A Training Home for Girls of the poorer classes and a Nursery and Orphanage were for some years among the chief objects of the Sisters' work in Oxford.2 In 1877 the Community

1 A new edition has been published by Mowbray, with new additions and a preface by Fr. Congreve.

2 The Training Home has been given up. The Orphanage has about twenty inmates, and has been removed to The Holm, Clifton Hampden.

41

42 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

was asked to undertake the working of the Winchester Diocesan Penitentiary, and they have continued to take charge of S. Thomas's Home, Basingstoke, ever since. At this time there is a small Mission House worked by the Sisters at S. Paul's, Barry. Church embroidery and Altar Bread baking are undertaken at the Convent in Oxford, and a Guest House is always open to receive visitors. Re treats for ladies are held here at least thrice annually, and oftener by request.

Sfsterboofc of S, /Ifcat£t Wantage

The Sisterhood at Wantage started under great dis couragements and from small beginnings, and only weathered its difficulties through the forty years' connection with it of Dr. Butler, whose safe guidance and wise counsels established it on an enduring basis, and made it one of the best types within the English Church. The events which led to the founding of Wantage were almost coincident with those which led to the founding of Miss Sellon's Community. When William Butler became Vicar of Wantage in 1847, he had in view the formation of a Sisterhood which should have as one of its main works the training of Sisters to go out two and two into the villages as school teachers, and so provide for the better education of the poor in rural districts. His desire was to raise the tone of village teachers, brighten their lives, and increase their usefulness as Church workers. Early in 1848 he was approached by Archdeacon Manning to find work for a friend of his — Elizabeth Crawford Lock- hart — and he sent for her to come to Wantage. She spent the Lent of that year with Butler at the Vicarage, and soon became a loved and trusted friend of the Vicar and his family. Through her Butler thought he saw the possibility of a realisation of his hopes, and she herself was eager ; and thus, shortly after Easter, two cottages were taken and the nucleus of the present Sisterhood formed. The household at first consisted of Miss Lockhart, who was Mother Superior, and Miss Mary Reid, who had been for some years connected with the Lockharts as mistress of a small school established by them at Chichester ; and besides these, two young girls who were to make themselves useful in the house and to be trained to take part in the work, with the possibility of some day becoming Sisters. The work done was to teach

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 43

daily in a school for girls that met in two cottages adapted as a schoolroom, and some visiting among the sick poor.

Towards the end of 1848 the little household moved into a larger and more commodious cottage. In February 1849, they were joined by Harriet Day, sent by Mr. Henry Wilber- force to make trial of the life and work in the newly formed Community. Later on came Charlotte Gilbert, a servant maid, the daughter of a labourer. These two only among the earlier members of the Community ended their days as Sisters in it. Butler's first idea for the Sisterhood — that it should be primarily an educational Order — was given up in favour of Penitentiary work, to which Miss Lockhart, influenced probably by Manning, felt called. This was a cause of great distress to Butler, and he expressed his grief in letters to Archdeacon Manning at this change of purpose. After some months of consideration it was decided, with the approval and concurrence of Butler, that a Home for Peni tents, with Miss Lockhart as its head, should be opened at Wantage under the direction of Archdeacon Manning, and with the Rev. T. Vincent, then Curate of the parish, as Chaplain. On Feburary 2nd, 1850, four Priests, four Sisters, and a few friends met together to dedicate the first Peni tentiary work undertaken by Sisters in the Church of England since the Reformation. Three months later, however, when this work was hardly begun, Archdeacon Manning and the Superior Verted to Rome. Sister Mary quickly followed, and Henry Wilberforce, too, seceded. It was a terrific blow to Butler, and he wondered whether Sister Harriet and Sister Charlotte would next go. He resolved to try to hold the position, and was successful in retaining them.

At this juncture Bishop Wilberforce proved a most kind and helpful friend. He took an early opportunity of visiting the House, and at his suggestion various modifications were effected. From this time till 1854 the Sisters worked on under the superintendence of Butler, without formally appointing a Superior, and they caught the spirit of single ness of purpose which he strove to instil into them. About the middle of 1851 the Community had well recovered from the defection, and there were five Sisters and eleven penitents, and the work grew steadily and slowly. As more applica tions were made for admission to the Penitentiary, increased accommodation was obtained by turning lofts into garrets and outhouses into laundry and workrooms, and finally a

44 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

temporary Chapel was erected. So short-handed were the Sisters at times that on two occasions they turned to the Clewer Sisterhood for help, and their appeal was generously responded to. As the work developed, the need of a Superior was felt, and Butler was confident that in Sister Harriet, whose retiring and shy nature made her known to few, he had one to whom he could safely entrust the ruling of the Sisterhood. She was accordingly instituted as Superior by the Bishop, and was probably the first ecclesiastically appointed Superior in an English House of this kind since the Reformation. She died in 1892. Butler then said of her that " so diffident was she and retiring that for a long time it seemed impossible that she should hold a position of responsibility and direction of others, but in answer to many prayers she was pointed out as the future Mother of the Community. ... It was indeed mainly owing to her singleness of mind, combined with much firmness of purpose, that the Community was enabled to face the difficulties of its earlier years. ..."

In 1855 the foundation-stone of the present S. Mary's Home was laid by the Bishop. It was entered on September I5th, 1856. Butler had not lost sight of his original idea of having a School Sisterhood. He had continued school work in the parish under great difficulties, and in 1855 the Bishop instituted a Superior and two Sisters for a new School Sisterhood, whose charge should be the training of yourig children, servants, and governesses. Within twelve months, however, it came to an end through difficulties with the Superior ; and by the end of 1856 she, with another Sister, 'verted to Rome, and the third died a few months later. It was a second grievous disappointment to Butler. The Penitentiary was also a source of considerable financial anxiety to him, but gradually it became established on a firm basis. The Rule for the conduct of the Sisterhood was early drawn up, and received the Bishop's sanction. The Sisterhood is dedicated to S. Mary. In addition to Peni tentiary work the Sisters undertake at Wantage a School of Ecclesiastical Embroidery, S. Michael's Training School for Schoolmistresses, and Girls' Schools.

WORKS. — The Home for Penitents at Wantage and the Diocesan Houses of Mercy, London (S. James, Fulham), Cornwall (Lostwithiel), Lincoln (Boston), and Peterborough (Kelton) ; Bussage, Stroud ; S. Mary Magdalene's, Pad-

To face page 44.

To face page 45.

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 45

dington ; S. Mary's, Alton, Hants ; and a Refuge at Leicester; also a Home for Prison cases (St. Helena's, W. Ealing) and for Inebriates (Spelthorne S. Mary, Feltham, Middlesex) .

Schools : S. Mary's, Wantage, with the Hostel at S. Michael's and Training Department at S. Gabriel's ; S. Katharine's School, Wantage ; S. Helena's, Abingdon; S. Dunstan's, Plymouth; and a Training School at S. Mark's, Swindon.

Care of the Sick and Aged. — At Holy Rood, Worthing; also Home for Children, Buxted ; Hostels for the Aged at Camberwell and Wigan ; Home of Rest, Lytham, Lanes.

Foreign Work. — In India : Schools, Evangelistic and Medical work at Poona and Jerandoona ; the nursing of the Sassoon Hospital ; a House of Mercy at Bangalore. In South Africa : Schools, Diocesan, and for coloured chil dren, at Pretoria ; a House of Mercy at Irene ; Missionary work, including S. Lucy's Hospital, at S. Cuthbert's, Kaffraria.

Parishes in which the Community undertakes work. — S. Anne's, Paddington ; S. John's, Kennington ; S. Michael's Camberwell ; S. Matthias', Earl's Court ; S. Mark's, Swin don ; All Saints', Wigan ; S. Mark's, Leicester ; S. Hilda's, Darlington ; S. Swithin's, Lincoln.

Society of tbe Ifools

Sellout SfsterbooD)

It was not long after the inception of the Park Village Sisterhood that another effort was made in a like direc tion, due to the zeal and devotion of one whose pioneer efforts deserve to be remembered with gratitude ; indeed, she has some title to be named the foundress of Anglican Sisterhoods.

Lydia Priscilla Sellon was the second daughter of Cap tain William Sellon, the father of a numerous family and a landed proprietor in Monmouthshire. Born in 1822, Miss Sellon, when 26 years of age, was stirred by the then Bishop of Exeter's appeal for help to relieve the spiritual destitu tion of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse — the Three Towns, as they are collectively termed. With her father's consent she responded to the appeal, and her proffered

46 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

services were accepted by Bishop Phillpotts. She pro ceeded to Devonport and took a letter of introduction from Dr. Pusey to Mr. Kilpack, Incumbent of S. James', a new parish. She had had some acquaintance with the Park Village Sisterhood, and this undoubtedly gave Miss Sellon the idea of establishing a Sisterhood of Mercy. About four months after coming to Devonport she was joined by another lady, and the two soon arrived at the conclusion " that the work before them could only be eff ectually done, if at all, by entire devotion to it." So the Sisterhood of Mercy came into existence. Miss Sellon, as its Superior, went to the Bishop and asked him for the blessing of the Church upon herself and the work which she then contemplated. She returned home for a few days to bid her friends farewell, and then, with the other Sister, returned to lodgings in Devonport. They had then three schools, and visited the poor only in Morice Town and Devonport. A short time after, being joined by two or three more young women who afterwards entered into the Sisterhood, they left their lodgings for a little house in Mitre Place. Here the adoption of a common dress, the use of a cross, and fondness for flowers in re ligious services first drew upon them the suspicion of Romanism, and was the prelude to the bitter persecution to follow.

It was in 1849 that the Sisterhood known as the Devon- port Society, but more correctly as the Society of the Holy Trinity, was established with the express sanction of the Bishop, and in the same year the cholera came, to test to the utmost the devotion and care of the Sisters. Aided by the London Sisters, they were occupied unceasingly in tending the sick in or out of the hospitals, and were indeed the means of first staying the scourge. It left them un- thinned in numbers but much weakened in bodily strength, three of them falling seriously ill for a length of time. During the autumn of 1849 an Industrial School was founded, and many works were gradually undertaken of a social, charitable, and reformatory nature. The work so nobly begun by Miss Sellon was assailed with great violence and hatred. Dr. Pusey, writing in 1849, spoke of the works of mercy opened by Miss Sellon at Devonport as embracing " the whole range of which our Blessed Lord speaks rela tively to the Day of Judgment." And he adds : " I cannot

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 47

speak or think of it without tears coming to my eyes." " It has been my lot in life," wrote Mr. Hetling — a medical man who had taken orders in the Church of England — to the Bishop of Exeter, " for one quarter of a century to have seen and borne an active part in very much of suffer ing, pain, and death ; formerly in medical practice I have seen the whole course of cholera in London, Paris, Bristol ; and lastly here, in my office of deacon, I have beheld many acts of self-devotion to its sufferers and victims, yet never have I witnessed anything that surpassed or even equalled the self-abandonment and self-sacrifice of these lowly Sisters." Yet, despite such testimony, Miss Sellon and the Sisters were denounced from pulpit, press, and platform as " Jesuits," " manceuvrers with deep craft and cunning for the establishment of their impious purposes," etc. So fierce was the outcry against them that a detailed and public inquiry was held by the Bishop, and as an outcome the position of the Sisters was established firmer than ever, the Bishop addressing Miss Sellon as follows :

" Most heartily, Madam, do I, your Bishop — the Bishop of this diocese — most heartily and earnestly do I thank you for having come here on this mission of Christian love ; for having laboured so devoutly, and by God's blessing so usefully ; for having endured more than I ever knew woman to be called upon to endure ; with a patience and resigna tion, and a feeling of superiority to all human considera tion, which I can never hope to see in any other again. I declare most solemnly that the result of this investigation in me is that of the most unmixed admiration."

In 1854 the Devonport Sisters united with the London Sisters in sending some of their number to nurse the wounded soldiers at Scutari under Miss Florence Nightingale. In 1856, upon the resignation, through ill-health, of Mother Emma (Miss Langston), Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, that Community was joined with Devonport. Even tually the work of the Society was transferred to S. Peter's, Plymouth, a district in which the Rev. George Rundle Prynne was then beginning his great work. Here Miss Sellon shared in no small degree the bitter attacks made upon Prynne. But the work went on, and extended to Bristol, Falmouth, and Ascot, where in 1861 the Hospital and Priory were established. Still further afield Miss Sellon responded to the desire of the Bishop of Honolulu

48 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

and built S. Andrew's Priory, with its schools for natives, half-castes, and foreigners in Honolulu.

The visit of the Mother Superior to this distant spot, and the service with which the Priory grounds were set apart, are commemorated by a large coral cross, which stands beneath cocoa-nut trees, royal palms, and other beautiful foliage not far from S. Andrew's Cathedral. With a mental activity always far in excess of her physical strength, Miss Sellon, in spite of much bodily suffering, carried on her community labours without cessation to the end. Her death occurred in 1876 at Ascot Priory, where, on the simple cross that marks her grave, is the inscription :

REVEREND MOTHER, PRISCILLA LYDIA, FOUNDRESS OF

THE S.H.T.

NOVEMBER 20, 1876. AGED 54 YEARS ; IN RELIGION 28 YEARS. R.I. P. Jesu mercy.

Socfets of tbe 1bol£ an& ianM\>iJ>e& Zttinit^, ®£fort>

The Society of the Holy and Undivided Trinity was founded with the sanction and full approval of Bishop S. Wilberforce on December 23rd, 1849. No part of that Bishop's administration of the diocese was more remark able than his dealings with Sisterhoods. At the period when extreme jealousy and dislike attended their revival, and to support them meant much unpopularity, he gave them that help and sympathy of which they had otherwise little share from the Episcopate, evidence of the wise and far-seeing mind which as a rule characterised him. Thus, Wantage and Clewer and Oxford had from their inception the inestimable advantage of the counsel of the Diocesan, and it is not too much to say that to him our Sisterhoods in England owe much of their present position of useful ness and acceptance. On one occasion he invited to Cuddesdon the heads of several of the Communities to consider the general question of Sisterhoods and to arrive at some common principle of action. With, then, Bishop Wilberforce's concurrence and approval, Miss Marian Hughes became Foundress and first Superior of the Society, and she has the distinction of having been the first English

To face page 48.

To face page 49.

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 49

Catholic to take religious vows since the Reformation. She made her vows in the University Church of S. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on Trinity Sunday, 1841, and the celebrant at the Holy Communion, it is interesting to note, was Newman. The first Warden of the Society was Dr. Pusey, who directed the life of the Community until his death in 1881. His work was carried on by Dr. King, the late Bishop of Lincoln ; and on his death by Arch deacon Houblon, the present Warden. The work of the Society is mainly educational and parochial.

The following schools are conducted by the Sisters : (i) The Convent Upper School for Boarders and Day Pupils, the daughters of professional men ; (2) S. Faith's, a Secondary School for Girls, for day pupils only ; (3) S. Denys, an Elementary School for middle-class children ; and (4) An Orphanage and Training School for domestic service. The Sisters work in the parishes of SS. Philip and James, S. Barnabas, and S. Paul.

Community of HU Saints, Golnes, S, Hlbans

The Community of All Saints, Sisters of the Poor, was founded by Harriet Brownlow Byron, in conjunction with the Rev. William Upton Richards, of All Saints', Margaret Street, London, in 1851. A widespread desire for the restoration of the Religious Life in the Church of England had been silently working in many and diverse ways, as we have already noted, and the Community of All Saints was among the first to give expression to the desire. It is formed of Choir and Lay Sisters, living under the vows of the Religious Life. They profess the " Mixed," as dis tinguished from the Active and Contemplative forms of the Religious Life, the life of Prayer finding outward expres sion in the service of Christ in His poor and afflicted ones. To this end the Mother Foundress chose as the special work of the Community the care of aged and incurable women and orphan children, and the seeking out and reliev ing the poor in their own homes. This still remains the chief care of the Sisters. She left it open to the Community to accept such calls to other service in the Church as should arise from time to time, thus providing for development and expansion. The first House was in Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, where the Sisters first took up the work

50 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

to which they were called, and where the Mother Foundress was professed on S. Dominic's Day, 1851.

In 1856 the Rules and Statutes were drawn up and the Community firmly established, the Mother Superior being admitted to her office by Bishop Wilberforce, acting on behalf of the Bishop of London. Later on, 82 Margaret Street became the Mother House, and from this centre many branches spread and various activities were developed in the near neighbourhood. The Community also undertook parochial work in response to requests from Priests in various parts of England and Scotland ; and between the years 1872 and 1878 Branch Houses were established in America, Capetown, and Bombay. The Houses in America and in India were subsequently formed into Affiliations, and as such they remain closely attached to the Mother Community, but with a distinct autonomy of their own, electing their own Mother Superior and having their own Novitiate.

In 1860 the Sisters began to work in University College Hospital, Gower Street, and two years later they undertook the entire charge of the nursing there, retaining it until 1897.

A great demand for nurses in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 met with response from the Mother Foundress, and she herself, with some of her Sisters, went out to nurse the sick and wounded.

The Mother House was removed from Margaret Street to Colney Chapel near S. Albans in Hertfordshire in 1901, and with it the Orphanage, the Industrial Girls* School remaining in Margaret Street.

On the death of Fr. Upton Richards in 1873, Fr. Ben son, Founder and Superior of the Society of S. John the Evangelist, Cowley, became Chaplain, and since that time the spiritual care of the community has been in the hands of the S.SJ.E. The Bishop of London is Visitor to the Community. Space and fresh air, with the growing work of the Community, rendered removal from Margaret Street a necessity, and Colney House, midway between Radlett and S. Albans, and with extensive grounds, was acquired. On the site of the old house the present Convent of All Saints was built, and was blessed by the then Chaplain- General S.SJ.E., the late Fr. Page, on July i6th, 1901, and opened and dedicated by the Bishop (Festing) of S. Albans.

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 51

The Convent is not pretentious. It consists of a simple quadrangle, enclosing a flowery garth, and outside a quiet glade stretching out towards typical English fields. Any beauty the building possesses arises from its adaptation to the purpose for which it was erected, and from the fact that every detail, exterior and interior, has been worked out to express some spiritual truth or suggest it. The estate on which the Convent stands was originally Church land. After passing through many hands it has been at last restored to its original purpose. On a tree-covered island surrounded by a moat the foundations of an ancient Chantry Chapel are still to be seen. The Chapel, dedicated to S. John the Baptist, was built soon after the Norman Conquest, if not before. The existing list of Chantry Priests extends from 1242 to 1423. The Novitiate and the Orphan age were removed from Margaret Street as soon as the Convent was completed. The Orphanage is now located in a separate building, finished in 1908.

The Guest House is also the headquarters of the Outer Sisters, a band of ladies who, living in their own homes, are associated with the Community by a simple Rule of Prayer and Work. Their annual Retreat is held at the Convent.

An interesting feature is the bakery, fitted with electric appliances, where altar wafers are made. Orders are taken for embroidery and for plain needlework, and there are other minor activities.

Of the Branch Houses the most important is All Saints' House, Margaret Street, where the Community became first established. Its increase led to acquiring one house after another, adjacent to the original House at No. 82, till a long line of rather cramped buildings, connected by various passages one to the other, was the result, a not very satis factory one. Under the terms of the lease it was required that at its expiration in 1914 the old houses should be demolished and rebuilt as a condition of renewal of lease. After careful consideration the Community did this, and a new All Saints' House has just been built and occupied. The works carried on there are as follows : (a) The care of the parochial guilds and confraternities for women and children (the confraternity for young women has its headquarters at Margaret House nearly opposite, where there is also a hostel for ladies and girls) ; (b) The Sacristy

52 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

work at All Saints' Church ; (c) Office for passing patients for the convalescent home at Eastbourne ; and (d) Church embroidery and needlework.

HOME AND HOSPITAL FOR BOYS, 4 Margaret Street. — There are now fourteen boys in the Home. Many cases sent as incurable from close and unhealthy surroundings have been treated with happy results, though most of the cases are such as do not admit of permanent cure.

S. ELIZABETH'S HOME, Friern Watch, Finchley, is a vigorous survival of the first Community work — a home for aged and infirm women begun at 59 Mortimer Street in 1851, and removed to Friern Watch in 1914. The House stands on the foundations of an old house of Austin Friars, whose office was to receive and guide pilgrims from London to S. Albans " on the dangerous transit of Hampstead Heath/' Now it is a Rest House for pilgrims who have reached nearly the end of the longer and more eventful journey of life.

S. SAVIOUR'S HOSPITAL, Osnaburgh Street. — This hospital receives as patients ladies who are unable to afford the expense of a private nursing home. It meets the very deep-rooted want of a class of sufferers not easily reached— those who need expensive treatment and who cannot obtain it. Here the highest surgical, medical, and nursing skill is brought within the reach of many who would other wise suffer in silence and without alleviation. There is an atmosphere of bright cheerfulness in the hospital, and the spiritual and temporal needs of the patients are abundantly supplied.

S. GEORGE'S HOME, Berkeley Square. — A penitentiary worked by the Sisters under the control of a committee.

MISSION OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, S. Matthew's Street, Westminster. — A very 'busy mission centre in a locality that claims every energy available. Here the Sisters are engaged entirely in parochial work under the Priest-in- charge of the mission. Guilds, confraternities, mothers' meetings, classes for men, women, and children, visiting in the slums of Westminster form an outline of the work done from the Mission House.

HOLY INNOCENTS' MISSION HOUSE, Hammersmith. — Mission work is done under the Vicar.

The suburban Houses are as follows :

ALL SAINTS' BOYS' ORPHANAGE, Lewisham, where a hundred

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 53

boys are being trained to become useful citizens. As far as possible openings in life are found for them in accord ance with their parents' position. Many old boys are doing well in the Army and Navy. Two or three are in Holy Orders.

S. STEPHEN'S HOME, Lewisham. — An Industrial Home for Girls, who are trained for domestic service. The Sisters also do parish work under the Vicar of S. Stephen's.

S. SAVIOUR'S HOME, Hendon. — Here also, girls — orphans by preference — are trained for domestic service. The House is worked on a modification of the Cottage Block system. There is a large steam laundry. Retreats for ladies form an important feature of the work here. The beautiful Chapel and the quiet old-fashioned garden make it a very suitable place for Retreats, or for ladies who seek a time of quiet and retirement.

Taking a wider radius the activities of the Sisters also comprise :

ALL SAINTS' CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL, Eastbourne. — This is one of the oldest and most important works of the Com munity. The group of buildings which forms the hospital is a well-known landmark, where cliff and down begin. In the main building one wing is set apart for men, another for women. The Children's Hospital is a separate building, facing the sea. During the summer a continuous stream of patients passes through the hospital. After a stay of a fortnight or three weeks patients go back to their homes and their work, braced up in soul and body. There is a fine Chapel, and all patients who are able may be present at the daily Mass and choral Evensong, as well as the ser vices on Sunday. During the war a large number of soldiers were received upon their discharge from the Military Hospital.

ALL SAINTS' CONVALESCENT HOME, 5. Leonards, is a quiet, restful house where a few women patients are re ceived.

S. JOHN'S HOME, 5. Mary's Road, Oxford, is one of the most beautiful of the Community Houses, and is a home for invalid ladies or aged or infirm persons. The House stands in grounds which are so well laid out that they appear quite extensive. The Chapel is especially dignified and complete, with a richly carved stone rood-screen.

S. MARY'S HOUSE, Freeland, Oxford, is a House of Rest

54 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

for Ladies. It is at present under the management of an Outer Sister of the Community.

S. SAVIOUR'S HOME, Knowsthorpe, Leeds, is an Orphan age for Girls. They receive a good education, and are trained for domestic service or for any other work for which they show an aptitude. A weekly Bible Class for men is held in the Institute — a separate building. The Sisters also assist in the parochial work of S. Hilda's Church, under the direction of the Vicar.

HOUSE OF REST, Pateley Bridge, Yorks. — This is for working women and girls, and is open during the summer months, mainly for the benefit of Bradford people.

CANON'S GARTH, Helmsley, Yorks. — Originally a house of Augustinian Canons, and a few years ago a tramps' lodging- house, Canon's Garth has once more become associated with Religious. The Sisters who live here are engaged in nursing the sick of the parish in their own homes, and do general parochial work. An annual Retreat for ladies is held.

S. MARGARET'S ORPHANAGE AND HOME, Upper Parlia ment Street, Liverpool, is an Orphanage for Girls, who receive a good commercial education. They go out mostly as clerks, typists, etc. There is an industrial department, where girls are trained for domestic service.

S. MARGARET'S HOSTEL, Princes Road, Liverpool, is a hostel for young women engaged in business or in teaching. ALL SAINTS' MISSION HOUSE, Edinburgh. — The Com munity have in Edinburgh an old-established House and active mission centre. The Sisters work in connection with All Saints' Church. There are guilds and confraternities for women, young women, young men, boys, and girls, a Bible Class for men, and a large Sunday School. The dis trict visiting is very extensive, for in Scottish cities parishes have been unknown in connection with the Scottish Church since the Revolution and the disestablishment in favour of Presbyterianism, and Churchpeople have been kept together by attachment to a particular Church. Latterly, in Edinburgh, districts answering to English parishes were assigned by arrangement to Churches, and now the parish system is coming into adoption wherever possible in the respective dioceses. It is evident that visiting is much more difficult under these circumstances. The Branch House began in a tiny dwelling in Hale Street,

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 55

and from the first was blessed by the abiding Sacramental Presence, for Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament is pro vided for in the rubrical directions of the Scottish Liturgy. For many years the Scottish Branch was the only House in the Community which possessed this inestimable privi lege. An annual Retreat for ladies is held.

CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

His Grace the Archbishop of Capetown is Visitor of the important Branch House of the Community at Capetown in South Africa, the spiritual care as in England being under the charge of the S.SJ.E.

ALL SAINTS' HOME, Kloof Road. — Attached to the Home are : (a) S. Michael's Home for Destitute Children (white and coloured boys and girls), with S. Michael's 3rd Class Church of England Day School. Industrial training is given of various kinds to children who have left school. (6) S. Hilda's Middle Class School for Girls (European), day scholars and boarders.

The Sisters do ecclesiastical embroidery and make altar breads. They also assist in mission work, visit the sick poor in the Old Somerset Hospital and visit the prisons.

S. CYPRIAN'S HIGH SCHOOL in the suburb known as the " Gardens." This is a prosperous School for Girls of the upper class. Pupils are prepared for the University ex aminations, and some have taken English scholarships. At present the school is overcrowded in the effort to find room for applicants for admission. An estate on the lower slope of Table Mountain, with a fine old Dutch mansion, has been acquired by the Community, and the school will be moved to it when the necessary adaptations of the building have been made. As in the other Community Houses, there is daily Mass in the School Chapel.

THE HOUSE OF MERCY, Woodstock, is a Penitentiary which receives young women — European, coloured, and native — from all parts of South Africa.

THE CHILDREN'S HOME, Robben Island, is for leper chil dren. They are nursed and cared for and prepared for the sacraments. They have simple school instruction as far as they are able to receive it, and plenty of play in the open air. The Home is under Government supervision. At All Saints' Mission Cottage, S. Philip's Parish, two Sisters

56 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

live among the poor like the poor, and do mission work among the coloured folk.

AFFILIATED HOUSE IN INDIA

This Branch has its own Mother Superior, as we have already noted, and local executive. The Bishop of Bombay is the Visitor.

Bombay. — ALL SAINTS' HOME, Mazagon, is the centre for various works ; viz., Mission work in Bombay and along the railway line to Kalyan, altar bread making, " seed and bead " industry for women and boys, embroidery, needle work, Church laundry, etc.

S. JOHN'S ORPHANAGE, Mazagon, is for native girls and very young boys.

HOLY CROSS DAY SCHOOL AND NIGHT SCHOOL.

S. ELIZABETH'S HOME FOR BABIES, Panwell.

BOMBAY NATIVE HOSPITAL has upwards of 500 beds, and is one of the finest native hospitals in India. The Sisters have trained a staff of nurses about 100 in number, Euro pean and Eurasian, Parsi and Hindu. There are also several English trained nurses.

PETIT HOSPITAL is for native women and children.

CANNA HOSPITAL is a handsome building in the best part of the city for native ladies, and also for poorer patients. It is chiefly used by the Parsis.

THE CATHEDRAL HIGH SCHOOL is a school for European and Eurasian girls, boarders and day scholars. Pupils are prepared for the Bombay matriculation and for the Cam bridge Local examinations.

At Khandala, on the ghat between Bombay and Poona, there are S. PETER'S HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, formerly located at Mazagon, a NURSERY FOR EUROPEAN INFANTS, and a CONVALESCENT HOME.

THE AFFILIATED HOUSE IN AMERICA

As in India, so in America the affiliated House has its own Mother Superior and local executive. The Bishop of Milwaukee is the Visitor.

Baltimore. — ALL SAINTS' HOUSE. — The works under the care of the Sisters are : S. Barbara's Home for Girls, S. Mary's Home for Little Coloured Boys, and S. Stephen's Day School for White Girls. The Sisters work in the parish

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1845 TO 1851 57

of Mount Calvary under the direction of the Rector, and also amongst the coloured people under the Vicar of S. Mary's Chapel. In the Home they do ecclesiastical em broidery and make altar breads.

Philadelphia. — S. Anna's Home for Aged Women is a work of the Community ; and the Sisters also have charge of a Guild for women, and work under the direction of the Rector of S. Clement's Church. S. Katharine's Home for Little Coloured Girls is under the care of a coloured Sister.

CHAPTER IX

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO i860

Sfsterboofc of S, 5obn tbe Baptist, Clewet

THE Sisterhood at Clewer was among the first to under take penitentiary work, and originated in this way : In the parish of Clewer, of which the Rev. T. T. Carter was Rector, there was a district, then a mere hamlet, now known as Clewer S. Stephen, with a large population, over which the Rev. C. Wellington Johnson, who afterwards took the name of Furse and became noted in later years as Canon of Westminster, was given the oversight as Assis tant Curate. It had a number of wretched hovels tenanted by a set of abandoned women, and through Mr. Johnson's efforts, aided by a dame schoolmistress, some of these fallen women were led to desire to give up their fearful trade.

As the question was being debated as to where to send them, Mrs. Tennant, a lady living in the village of Clewer, having been asked to help in the difficulty, offered at once to take into her house as many of these outcasts as desired to come. She was a Spaniard, the daughter of a Spanish officer, and had married as her second husband an English clergyman, but was now a widow with the sole companion ship of an Italian maidservant. She was well known to the Rector for her good works among the poor, but no one was prepared for this wonderful self-devotion, in which she was heartily seconded by her maid. She received on June 29th, 1849, two of these women, four on the day following, and within four months no less than eighteen women of the lowest and most degraded type. She man aged, almost unaided, to control and reduce to comparative order these most undisciplined and impassioned natures,

58

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 59

and attached them to herself in a marvellous manner. At first it was thought that the housing of these women was to be merely a temporary shelter till a home could be found for them ; but as their attachment to Mrs. Tennant was so strong and her influence over them so great and her interest in them so keen, it was resolved to endeavour to found a permanent House of Mercy. Two or three ladies, hearing of what was going on, offered their assistance as far as they could, taking turns, but on Mrs. Tennant devolved the main burden. Twice she had to move her household : once because the house was sold, and next when the estate which became the permanent settlement of the House of Mercy was purchased, and the old house then standing on it was prepared for the reception of the penitents. After two years, in 1851, Mrs. Tennant was obliged to give up her task through enfeebled health, and she died nine years later at Windsor. Mrs. Tennant's place was temporarily filled by Miss Cozens, an elderly lady devoted to good works, who, together with a few of her own friends, in the emergency undertook the care of the penitents.

At the same time, as their numbers increased, a Priest was needed to give his whole time and attention to the work, and the Rev. the Hon. C. A. Harris offered himself, and for several years gave most valuable and gratuitous assistance, settling with his wife at Clewer in 1851. It was through Mr. Harris that Mrs. Monsell, his sister-in-law, three months after her husband's death, joined them, living with them for a while and going to and fro aiding in the House of Mercy. Early in the following spring she moved into the House of Mercy, preparing to devote herself entirely to the Religious Life. In February of the same year another lady came, and in August a third seeking to enter the Religious Life, and thus the nucleus of a Sisterhood was formed. Miss Cozens and her friends withdrew to make way for what thus promised to be a permanent Religious Community, with Harriet Monsell as first Superior. There were then in theTHouse thirty penitents, and thus, contesting the honour with Wantage, began the first penitentiary work undertaken by Sisters — the substitution for paid service, which prevailed everywhere, of the principle of self-devo tion. This Church penitentiary work was definitely under taken just about the time that, independently of Clewer, the Rev. John Armstrong, Vicar of Tidenham, near Chep-

60 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

stow, afterwards Bishop of Grahamston, was wakening the sympathies of many hearts and enlisting the aid of a circle of enthusiastic friends in the same cause, and preparing the way for the movement that now took its rise for the formation of Church Penitentiaries, and while he was actually looking for some one to organise and carry on such a work.

It was a great venture of faith on the part of Harriet Monsell to enter upon the oversight and care of work so peculiarly difficult. She devoted herself to a Sister's life on Ascension Day, 1851, and was professed and instituted as Superior by Bishop Wilberforce on S. Andrew's Day, 1852. She undertook at Clewer a work of which she had had no experience, and to reclaim penitents on a system hitherto without precedent in the Church of England. The House of Mercy had to make its own traditions. The Sisterhood was to be begun entirely de novo. Within three years of the time she took up the office of Superior, the old house was removed, and another for the mainte nance of eighty was being considered. The Community was dedicated under the name of S. John the Baptist. As soon as it was formed it was resolved that it should not be confined entirely to penitentiary work. It was thought that a variety of objects would prevent the strain that might be felt from the exclusive devotion to such work ; that the fitness for dealing with this class of penitents was a special gift — the property of the few — and that different minds, differently constituted, would necessarily require different spheres of labour, and perhaps the same persons require relief by change of employment. The first such opening presented itself in 1855, arising from the close connection between the Community and a lady then dis tinguished for good works, and to whose efforts, and those of her husband, another Religious Community owes its existence — Rosa Lancaster. She had in London an Orphanage Industrial School which she desired to remove to the country. Mother Harriet undertook the charge. S. John's Home at Clewer was the outcome of this venture. With this was associated a Ward for Convalescents, which grew finally into the present S. Andrew's Convalescent Hospital, established in 1861, and the hospital built in 1865. Both these foundations are within the grounds attached to the House of Mercy. A third foundation,

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 61

commencing with a little Day School, was S. Stephen's Mission House, built in 1867, the High School and College, with the stately Church and the Day Schools for the poor, forming the ecclesiastical centre of a new parish.

In 1860 the Community planted its first mission in Lon don at S. Barnabas', Pimlico, then under the charge of the Rev. G. Cosby White, which rapidly grew, and a Girls' School, Orphanage, and small Almshouse clustered round it, and the Refuge close by, formed by the Rev. the Hon. R. Liddell (the first Refuge that arose in London as the fruit of the new penitentiary movement), came also under the Sisters' care. Other missions soon followed in other parts of London — Rose Street Mission House, with mission work in S. Mary's, Soho, 1862 ; S. Alban's Mission in 1868 ; and later on, the Mission of All Hallows, Blackfriars Road, Borough. The first of these became also a Home for Children, of a preventive kind. The House of Charity in Greek Street, Soho, was undertaken to be worked by the Sisters in 1861, and somewhat later the Church work-rooms were established at 36 Soho Square. In 1860 the Com munity went further afield to Holywell — the Oxford Peni tentiary, Manor House, Holywell. Three years later peni tentiary work was begun at Bovey Tracey, under the Rev. the Hon. C. L. Courtenay, which developed in 1874 into a Provincial House of the Community. Shortly afterwards, S. Andrew's Cottage, a home for occasional rest for ladies of limited means, was built near S. Andrew's Hospital, together with a row of Almshouses for poor ladies, adjoining it. Out of this work originated " S. Andrew's Society" for providing aid and sympathy to ladies in distress. In 1866 arose S. Raphael's Convalescent Home, Torquay, for female patients, to which, later, a ward for men — S. Luke's Home — was added. In 1872 work was undertaken just out of Gloucester — S. Lucy's Hospital for Children, and an Industrial School.

It was in the period during which Mother Harriet was Superior that all this wonderful development took place, and what she was to Clewer may be seen in her " Life " written by Canon Carter, who says : " The loving friend that wrote the ' In Memoriam ' in ' The Guardian ' ob served that when the history of the revival of Sisterhoods in our Church is written, a golden page will be given to Mother Harriet. It is true. The more the question of

62 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Religious Communities in the Church for women is under stood (and it must become more and more a prominent idea in the mind of the English Church), the more it will be seen that the cause which she so deeply loved and so desired to further, the deepening of the life of the English Church and the saving of its multitude of lost souls, has received an impulse from her wisdom, her singleness of purpose, her pure devotion, and her loving energy which it is difficult to over-estimate."

Work is undertaken by the Sisters in India in the diocese of Calcutta, begun in 1881, viz. the Lady Canning Home and Presidency General Hospital, Calcutta, a School for Eurasians, and a European Orphanage Native mission work includes a Boarding School for poor girls, a High School and College, the Milman Memorial Day School for Hindu girls of higher castes, and the superintendence of thirty- four village schools in the rice district. The Diocesan Girls' High School and Eden Sanatorium at Dar- jeeling are also under the charge of the Sisters. There is an Affiliation of the Sisterhood in the United States of America, with a Mother House in New York and several Branch Houses. A full list is appended.

WORKS OF THE SISTERHOOD OF S. JOHN BAPTIST,

OR UNDER THE CARE OF THE SlSTERS, CLEWER

i. THE HOUSE OF MERCY, Clewer. — A Penitentiary, founded in 1849. The present buildings were begun in 1854, and completed in 1893. This Penitentiary is vested in trustees, and is, by its statutes, connected indissolubly with the Church of England. The Bishop of the diocese is the Visitor, and the Council is composed of clergy and laity. The average number of inmates is about eighty-five. They are employed in laundry and needlework, receiving their training and religious instruction daily from the Sisters. When fit for service, after a period of not less than two years, places are found for them, and an outfit is given them on leaving the institution. A wing has been built and endowed for the reception of penitents desirous of remaining during the rest of their lives under the Sisters' care, who are known as Magdalens. These form an addi tional number. The penitents are maintained partly by their own labour, and partly by subscriptions and donations,

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 63

aided by payments of those who send them. A payment of £5 a year is asked for when possible.

2. S. JOHN'S HOME, Clever. — Established in 1855. A Home and Industrial School for children of respectable parentage and good character. Accommodation for sixty- eight children, who are admitted from two years of age and upwards ; they remain in the Home tifl the age of eighteen. The children attend the day school in the Home, which is under Government inspection. When they have passed the required standards they are taken into work in the industrial classes, and attend evening school, which is also under Government. They are trained for service, and some few as teachers. The Home is supported partly by payments for children, laundry and needlework orders, and partly by subscriptions and donations, which are much needed. The ordinary payment is £16 a year and £3 entrance fee ; but for children under five, or for those training as teachers, £20 a year is required, which is a little less than the real cost of a child's maintenance in the Home.

3. 5. ANDREW'S CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL, Clewer. — Established in 1861, is governed by a Council of clerical and lay members, and is under the charge of the Sisterhood. There are eighty-five beds, for men, women, and children. The Hospital is supported partly by payments of patients and partly by donations and subscriptions. An annual subscription of 255. will admit a patient free for three weeks. A limited number of incurables are received: payment from 125. 6d. to /i is. per week.

5 COTTAGE, Clewer. — Opened in 1868. A temporary Home for ladies of limited means, needing rest and quiet. Payment from IDS. to £i is. per week. There is accommodation for eight ladies. The length of

varies according to circumstances. (b) S. ANDREW'S ALM s. — Opened in 1868. Per-

-nt Homes for poor ladies, who must, however, have : to live on, as the Homes are unendowed, the occu pants or.. them free of rent, and, in certain cases, hav: :>als provided.

E, Clewer S. Stephen.— blished in 1867. A private Boarding School for the daughters of gentlemen. Terms for children under 12 years, 80 guineas per annum ; over twelve, 90 guineas.

64 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Pupils are prepared for the Cambridge Higher Local, Oxford Local, and other Examinations. There are two scholar ships for annual competition. A reduction is made for the daughters of the clergy and professional men, when neces sary.

(b) S. STEPHEN'S HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. — Established in 1882. Primarily intended to meet the needs of the " higher " education of girls in the neighbourhood, with careful instruction in the Catholic Faith. There are about 180 pupils. A Boarding House, S. Margaret's, is attached, for the daughters of clergy and others of limited means. Terms for girls under 12, £31 per annum ; over 12, £36. Pupils are prepared for the Cambridge Higher Local Ex aminations, and trained as teachers. Many have been sent from the High School to work in Foreign Missions. There are two scholarships for competition.

(c) S. STEPHEN'S MISSION comprises Elementary Schools for boys, girls, and infants ; and a large Intermediate School for girls. Mission work is extensively carried on.

(d) S. MICHAEL'S HOUSE. — A Hostel for Pupil Teachers training for Elementary School work.

(e) S. AUGUSTINE'S HOME FOR BOYS. — Accommodation for seventy boys from 4 to 14 years of age. On leaving the Home they are sent to train for the Army and Navy, or apprenticed to a trade, according to their abilities. Pay ment £13 yearly, and an outfit fee of £2 2s.

6. S. BARNABAS, Tankerton, Whitstable. — (A Memorial Home and House of Rest.) Ladies can be received into this Home for rest and change at 255. weekly ; business girls and others of the same class requiring a holiday at 12s. 6d. weekly.

7. S. BARNABAS' MISSION, 17 Pimlico Road, S.W. — The Sisters visit the poor and sick, have the care of guilds, Sunday Schools, and mothers' meetings, and carry on the usual branches of mission work.

8. THE REFUGE, 21 Ebury Bridge Road, Pimlico, S.W. — Founded in 1852 for the reception of fallen women. It can receive fourteen.

9. CHURCH EMBROIDERY DEPARTMENT, 72 Gower Street, London, W.C. — Estimates for all kinds of Ecclesiastical needlework, and terms for receiving pupils, on application to the " Sister in Charge." Altar breads supplied.

10. THE HOUSE OF CHARITY, Greek Street, Soho, W.—

HE REV. A. D. WAGNER,

THE REV. C LOWDER.

'HE REV. CANON SHARP.

MRS. LANCASTER.

To face page 64.

J.

Hu .TT_

To /ace page 64.

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 65

Established in 1846, for the temporary relief of respectable persons of various greads of society needing help. It also gives a home to those who are out-patients of hospitals, and have therefore to be in London, and to families await ing emigration. It is governed by a Warden and Council.

11. S. ALBAN'S MISSION, Greville Street, Holborn, E.G. — The Sisters are occupied in visiting the poor and attending to the sick, who are provided, as far as means will allow, with what is needful. There are night schools, Bible classes, guilds, etc., etc. S. Alban's Creche, or Infant Nursery, is also under their charge.

12. (a) ALL HALLOWS' MISSION, 127 Union Street, Borough, S.E. — This work was commenced in 1876 ; it in cludes all the usual forms of parochial work.

(b) THE HOME FOR WORKING GIRLS, 47, 48, and 49 Nelson Square, Black friars Road, S.E., was begun in two rooms in 1880. There is now accommodation for between fifty and fifty-five girls, and the Home is generally full. The girls pay towards their board ; but as most of them are of the very poorest class, the Home cannot be self-supporting, and help is greatly needed. In connection with the Girls' Home there is a small House of Rest — S. Gabriel's, Little- hampton.

13. IN 1893, at the request of the Major-General of the Home District, the Sisters undertook the visiting of " Married Quarters/' Brigade of Guards. Two Sisters have been given to this work in London, and live in one or other of our Mission Houses, as may be most convenient for the respective " Married Quarters," which they visit at Chelsea, Wellington, the Tower, and Windsor. In 1894 a request was made that the Life Guards might have a Sister to look after their married women in London and Windsor. A Sister was accordingly given for this purpose, who mostly lives at S. Stephen's College, Windsor ; a further grant being made by the Life Guards authorities to defray the expenses.

14. HOUSE OF MERCY, North Hill, Highgate, N. — London Diocesan Penitentiary. The work was undertaken in 1901. The House can take sixty-eight penitents, who contribute towards its support by washing and needlework, part of the maintenance being provided by its own subscription list. The House has its own Council, and the Bishop of London is the Visitor.

66 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

15. THE OXFORD PENITENTIARY, Manor House, Holy- well, Oxford, where penitents are under the same rule as at Clewer, and contribute to the support of the House by washing and needlework, part of the maintenance of the House being provided by its own subscription list, and the institution being managed by its own Council.

16. 14 MAGDALEN ROAD, Cowley S. John, Oxford. — The Sisters began mission work in the parish of S. Mary and S. John in 1890. The parish has greatly increased since then, and continues to do so.

17. (a) S. JOHN BAPTIST MISSION HOUSE, Oakfield Road, Newport, Mon. — This work was begun in 1877, and for twenty years there was only a Mission Chapel. An ecclesiastical parish has now been formed, and a Church built and con secrated. Sunday Schools, guilds, Bible classes, etc., etc., are under the care of the Sisters.

(b) A RESCUE HOME for children under n was opened in 1881. It is supported by subscriptions and donations, aided by the children's work. Fifty-five children can be received.

(c) S. JOHN BAPTIST HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, capable of receiving over 100 pupils, has been built. The daughters of clergy and professional men are received as boarders in the School House.

18. S. MICHAEL'S HOME, Leamington. — The Sisters under took the care of this Diocesan Penitentiary in 1884. The penitents are under the same rule as at Clewer. The work is maintained by laundry and needlework, and by sub scriptions.

19. S. MARY'S HOME, Salisbury. — The Sisters undertook the charge of this Diocesan Penitentiary in 1889. Since that date the House has been enlarged, and accommoda tion provided for forty-one penitents.

20. HOUSE OF MERCY, Great Maplestead, Halstead, Essex. — The Sisters undertook the care of this Penitentiary in 1892. There is accommodation for fifty-five penitents, who are under the same rule as at Clewer. The House has its own Council, and the Bishop of the diocese is the Visitor. The work is supported by washing and needlework, and by subscriptions.

21. S. MARY'S HOME, Stone, Dartford (also known as " The Kent Penitentiary "). The Sisters undertook the care of this Penitentiary in 1911. There is accommodation for fifty-

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 67

five penitents, who are under the same rule as at Clewer, and contribute to the support of the House by washing and needlework. The House has its own Council, and the Bishop of Rochester is the Visitor.

22. HOME OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Leytonstone. — Established in 1861 in Rose Street (afterwards named Manette Street), Soho, and moved to Leytonstone in 1899. Accommodation for thirty-six children in school, and for forty-two older girls who are trained for service. Ladies can be received as paying guests in "The Pastures" — a house connected with the Home.

23. ALL SAINTS' HOME, Hawley, Blackwater, Hants. — A certified Home for sixty respectable poor children from Unions, or left motherless.

24. S. ANDREW'S CONVALESCENT HOME, East Cliff, Folkestone. — Established in 1875. For men, women, boys, and girls recovering from illness or accidents, or needing rest and change ; 130 patients can be admitted. Limit of age, 3 to 65 years. Admission by subscriber's letter, or on payment of zos. 6d. per week.

25. S. EANSWYTHE'S MISSION, Folkestone, in the parish of S. Mary and S. Eanswythe, was undertaken by the Sisters in 1875. The usual branches of mission work are carried on, including mothers' meetings, Bible classes, Sunday Schools, Band of Hope, boys' club and girls' club, attend ing to the sick ; and also, in the winter, soup kitchen and children's dinner.

26. S. SAVIOUR'S MISSION, Folkestone. — Begun in 1880. The parish is very large, and composed exclusively of poor people. The usual branches of mission work are carried on.

27. S. LUCY'S HOME OF CHARITY, Hare Lane, Gloucester. — Orphans and other girls are here trained for service. Age of admission, about 14 years. There is an Incurable Ward for women and children. The Sisters also work in two parishes in the city.

28. S. LUCY'S FREE HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN OF THE POOR, Gloucester. — Patients admitted from any distance, on the approval of the Receiving Medical Officer. This Hos pital depends chiefly on voluntary contributions. There is a large out-patient department connected with the Hospital. Ladies are received at the Hospital to be trained in nursing.

29. HOUSE OF MERCY, Bovey Tracey, Newton Abbot. — Founded in 1863. An institution intended for eighty peni-

68 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

tents, who are taught and trained for domestic service. The House has its own Council, and the Bishop of the diocese is the Visitor. Orders for laundry and needlework are gratefully received. The earnings of the inmates help to cover the expenses of their maintenance, but donations and subscriptions are much needed.

30. MISSION HOUSE, Bovey Tracey, Newton Abbot. — Mission work was carried on in this parish for some years by the Sisters from the House of Mercy ; but in 1879 a Mission House was built, and opened in the Octave of S. Michael and all Angels. The usual branches of mission work are carried on. In 1889 a Mission was opened at Heathfield and given to the Sisters' care.

31. (a) S. RAPHAEL'S HOME, Torquay. — Established 1866. This House is intended for the reception of women of good moral character, needing sea air, medical superintendence, and nursing. The weekly charge is los. Invalid ladies are received at a higher rate of payment.

(b) S. LUKE'S HOME (the gift of an Associate). — Estab lished in 1883, for men patients only. The weekly charge is los.

(c) S. BARNABAS' HOME. — Established in 1892 for pa tients, both men and women, principally advanced cases of phthisis, which are unsuitable for ordinary Convalescent Homes.

(d) S. BARNABAS' LODGE in connection with S. Barna bas' Home.

WORK IN INDIA IN THE DIOCESE OF CALCUTTA Begun in 1881

(a) THE LADY CANNING HOME is the headquarters of the " Lady Canning Home and Calcutta Hospital Nurses' Institution." " The Lady Canning Nurses " also live here, and these nurses form the Out Nursing Staff.

(b) THE PRESIDENCY GENERAL HOSPITAL. — The Sisters train the staff of eiblity hospital nurses, and have the care of 200 European and Eurasian patients. A large propor tion of the European patients in the free wards are sailors. There is a large block for paying patients.

(c) THE EDEN HOSPITAL AND SANATORIUM, Darjeeling. — Two Sisters are in charge, with a staff of six nurses for nine months in the year — from March to December. Three

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 69

classes of patients — all European — are admitted, and pay accordingly.

(d) THE PRATT MEMORIAL SCHOOL, under the Bishop and Archdeacon of Calcutta. There are eighty boarders, chiefly Eurasians, besides day scholars.

(e) THE EUROPEAN ORPHANAGE. — An old endowed charity, originally founded for soldiers' children. It is under the management of a committee of ladies. Sixty orphans of European parentage can be admitted.

(/) THE DIOCESAN MISSION HOUSE, Bally gunge, founded by the late Miss A. M. Hoare. — A large work, including Boarding School for 100 poor Indian Christian girls, who receive a good Bengali education. A High School and College for Indian girls of higher caste, who are received as boarders, and for day scholars of the same class, about half of whom are Christians. The Mission House is also the headquarters for the village school work, founded by Miss Hoare, i.e. about thirty-four village schools in the rice dis trict, which are visited and examined from time to time from the Mission House.

(g) THE MILMAN MEMORIAL DAY SCHOOL for Hindu girls of the higher castes, with upwards of 120 scholars.

(h) MISSION WORK, AND A HINDU DAY SCHOOL for girls in the neighbourhood, with about fifty scholars.

Both these Day Schools are in the neighbourhood of Ballygunge.

(i) DIOCESAN GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL, Darjeeling, for the children of Anglo-Indian parents, with ninety or more boarders, beside day scholars.

WORK IN AMERICA

There is an Affiliation of the Sisterhood in the United States of America. S. John Baptist House, 233 East lyth Street, New York, is the Mother House of the Community in America ; and there are several Branch Houses, two of which — S. Helen's Hall and S. Elisabeth's Home — are in Portland, Oregon.

S. .Margaret's Convent, East (Brfnsteafc

As the formation of the first Sisterhood at Park Village was due to the inspiration of Dr. Pusey, so the formation

70 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

of the East Grinstead Sisterhood was owing to another great leader in the Catholic revival in the Church of England — John Mason Neale. The foundation and supervision of this Sisterhood was the great practical work of his life. The idea came to him much from the same causes that led Dallas, in 1826, to suggest the need of " Protestant Sisters of Charity." It was not the needs of large masses herded in city slums that were in his mind, but as he looked out on the villages and hamlets from Sackville College in East Grinstead he felt the need of doing something to remedy the crying physical necessities and the spiritual destitu tion of their inhabitants. Naturally his mind reverted to S. Vincent de Paul and his wonderful confraternities of women. The ordinary parochial machinery was plainly insufficient.

It was at this time that two persons specially fitted for arduous work in country districts offered themselves with a purpose of life-long devotion. A few weeks later, Miss Ann Gream, the daughter of the Rector of Rotherfield, came forward with a similar purpose of devotion, to become eventually the first Mother Superior of the Community. She was one fitted by exceptional gifts to attract, train, and govern those committed to her care. This was the inception of the S. Margaret's Sisterhood. The idea Neale had was not the conventual one. He was rather actuated by love and pity to raise the fallen, convert the unbelieving, and minister to the sick, and desired to have the active mission and nursing work of a Sister of Charity. The Rule was founded upon that of the Visitation of S. Francis de Sales, before he converted his Community into a cloistered order, but it had in its origin the principles governing and animating the Society of S. Vincent de Paul. Neale long and anxiously pondered the matter, taking counsel with those best fitted to give him advice. He consulted Carter of Clewer, Butler of Wantage, and the Mother Superior of Clewer (Harriet Monsell). He took steps also to ascertain which hospital would give the requisite train ing in nursing, and obtained admission for his probationers at Westminster. Lodging was secured them from S. John's House. He wrote Mr. Sidney Herbert, who gave him a list of likely probationers from those who had applied to go to the war in the Crimea. Lord Salisbury wrote from Hatfield encouraging his scheme, as did Bennett of Frome,

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 71

the Mother Superior of Clewer, Father Benson of Cowley, and Butler of Wantage, who sent him the Wantage Rule.

The beginning was very small, and till 1855 the Sisters did not live in community. In that year Archdeacon Otter was consulted, and the Bishop had made kind inquiries about it. In June 1856, the Sisters began to occupy their first house at East Grinstead. In a small, barely furnished house between Sackville College and the Church, nine Sisters began what was to be the nucleus of S. Margaret's Convent. They had their own Oratory, in which their founder minis tered daily. It was a very plain, rough cottage building, but here vocations were tested, and in the practice of a Rule which is substantially the same as that now governing the large bodies of East Grinstead Sisters at home and abroad, the community life began. By Neale's desire the habit of the Community was grey.

Early in 1857 the call was made upon the Sisters to take under their care some orphan children whom Neale's sister, Miss Elizabeth Neale, had gathered together in a Home at Brighton. She was giving this up to start a small Sisterhood in the parish of S. George in the East, London, to be known as the Holy Cross Community. Nine girls were received, and a small house was taken for them. The Orphanage was named S. Katharine's, and two Sisters were placed in charge. In 1858 a serious storm of opposi tion broke upon the Sisterhood, owing to one of the Sisters dying and leaving £400 to S. Margaret's. Her father became unreasonably hostile, and his actions provoked a riot at her funeral. Neale was knocked down, and the Sisters were hustled. The father, who was an English Priest, made the extraordinary allegation that his daughter was entrapped by Neale and the Sisterhood, purposely placed in the way of infection, and unduly influenced on her death-bed to make a will in favour of the Community. Incredible as the story was, it led to the Bishop of Chichester withdrawing from the Community as its Visitor, subscrip tions declined, friends fell away, and the outlook became a serious one. But Col. Morison, Mr. J. D. Chambers, and the Hon. R. Cavendish took action on behalf of Neale and the Community, and soon the false rumours that were circulated ceased.

Anxious to learn how the Sisters worked in England, the Russian Church sent two ladies to East Grinstead to

72 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

gather information, and acting upon this report and the knowledge they had acquired, determined to establish Sisterhoods on the same lines.

The Sisterhood prospered and increased. By the express wish of the founder, S. Margaret's has no endowment, and never can have any. The Sisterhood is incapable of holding vested property or endowment, except the houses and grounds actually in use. But the good Hand of God is upon the Community, and it continues to prosper. In 1858 the Rev. J. C. Chambers, Vicar of S. Mary's, Crown Court, Soho, asked Neale for two Sisters to work in the worst quarters of his poor parish. A graphic account of this work is given in " Memories of a Sister of S. Saviour's Priory/' In 1866 the Sisters removed from Soho to Hagger- ston, to form the nucleus of the present Branch House, S. Saviour's Priory. In 1862 the Sisters were invited to start a House of Refuge at Aldershot in connection with the camp. In 1863 Neale laid the foundation of an inde pendent daughter Sisterhood at Aberdeen.

A complete directory of the work is appended, and is an added proof of the wonderful labours of the Communities at home and abroad, and of the enrichment of the Church by the possession of so much devoted service.

THE MOTHER HOUSE

S. MARGARET'S CONVENT, East Grinstead (1854). — S. Mar garet's Orphanage (1857) > S. Agnes' School (1862) ; Train ing School for servants (1878) ; S. Margaret's College (Boarding and Day School) (1890).

Branch Works. — S. Saviour's Orphanage, Hitchin (1873). S. Margaret's Mission (for S. Mary's parish), 7 North Church Street, Cardiff (1873) ; S. German's, 18 Agate Street, Roath, Cardiff (1889) ; S. Saviour's, East Moors (1885) ; S. Francis', East Moors (1890). S. Catherine's Home, Grove Road, Ventnor, I.W. (1879). S. Margaret's House of Mercy, Roath, Cardiff (1882) ; S. Margaret's Refuge, 78 Claude Road, Roath, Cardiff (1889) ; S. Margaret's Chil dren's Home, Cardiff (1890). S. Margaret's Convalescent Home (for ladies), Kingsand, Plymouth (1887). S. Mar garet's, Polwatte, Colombo, Ceylon (1887) ; Orphanage, Polwatte; Middle School for Girls, Polwatte; Bishop's College for Ladies, Colombo. S. Alban's Home (Girls'

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 73

Orphanage), Worcester (1888). The Sisters' House, S. Columba's, Sunderland (1890). S. Cuthbert's Mission (for the parish of S. Cuthbert), 56 Buxton Street, Newcastle- on-Tyne (1893) ; S. Barnabas' Cottage Hospital and Nurs ing Home, Saltash, Cornwall (1894). S. Margaret's Mission (for S. Matthew's parish), 9 Summer hill Street, Newcastle- on-Tyne (1896) ; S. Wilfrid's, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; Mission of the Holy Spirit, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Free Home for the Dying, 29 North Side, Clapham Common, S.W. (1896). S. Margaret's, 86 Noord Street, Johannesburg (1898) ; S. Margaret's High School and Kindergarten for girls of the Upper Classes (1901) ; S. Mary's Orphange for British and Colonial children, Rosettenville (1902). S. Margaret's, Chichester (Mission and Rescue Work) (1898). S. Saviour's Mission House, 32 Gladstone Road, Scarborough (1900). S. Mary's, 10 King Street, Dundee (1901) : Home for Incur ables. S. Mary's Convent, Burlington Lane, Chiswick (1910). S. Elisabeth's Home of Rest, Bexhill-on-Sea (1910). S. John's House, 12 Queen Square, Bloomsbury (1911). S. Margaret's Needlework Society: Secretary: Sister Anne, S. Margaret's Convent, East Grinstead.

DAUGHTER HOUSES

I. S. MARGARET'S OF SCOTLAND, Spital, Aberdeen, N.B. (1864).

Branch Works. — Holy Trinity, Stirling (1881) ; The House of Charity, Lerwick, Shetland (1902).

II. S. SAVIOUR'S PRIORY, Great Cambridge Street, Hackney Road, London, N.E. (1868). — S. Augustine's Haggerston ; S. Chad's, Haggerston ; S. Mary's, Haggerston ; S. Michael's, Shoreditch ; S. Mary's, Graham Street.

Branch Works. — S. Saviour's Grange, Sea View Square, Herne Bay (Home of Rest for women and girls) ; S. Saviour's Hostel, 103 Freshfield Road, Brighton (Home of Rest for men and lads) ; S. Chad's Cottage, East Liss, Hampshire (for women, girls, and babies) ; Nazareth Home of Rest, Yalding (for men, women, and babies) ; S. Saviour's Orchard, Buxted (Home of Rest for Church workers).

III. S. MARGARET'S CONVENT, 17, Louisberg Square, Boston, and South Duxbury, Mass., U.S.A.

Branch Works. — The Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.; S. Barnabas' Hospital, Newark, N.J. ; The Jane Marshall

74 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Dodge Home (Summer House for children), Sea View, Mass. ; S. Margaret's Home for Incurables, Montreal, Canada ; S. Monica's Home (sick coloured women), Rox- bury, Mass. ; S. Mark's Home, Philadelphia, Pa ; S. Katharine's Home, Jersey City, N.J.; House of S. Michael and All Angels (coloured cripple children), Philadelphia, Pa. ; Grace Church, Utica, N.Y.

Parish Work. — The Church of the Advent, Boston ; S. Martin's Church, Boston ; Church of S. John the Evan gelist, Roxbury, Mass. ; S. Margaret's Church and Mission Sunday School, Brighton, Mass. ; S. Luke's Church, Chelsea, Mass. ; House of Prayer, Newark, NJ. ; Grace Church, Newark, NJ. ; S. Michael's Mission, Philadelphia ; S. Mary's Church (coloured), Philadelphia.

Community of tbe ^Blesseb IDfrsin jfl&ars, ®\>in0&ean

S. Mary's Home, Brighton, was founded by the late Rev. Arthur D. Wagner, Vicar of S. Paul's, Brighton, in 1856, under charge of some ladies, who in November 1859 formed themselves into a Community, and it is one of the largest and most important of the works founded by his instru mentality. Starting originally on a parochial basis, it has far outstripped parochial and diocesan limits. S. Mary's Home in Queen Square and Wykeham Terrace, Brighton, was for fifty-six years the Home of the Community, and consisted of twenty-two ordinary dwelling houses con nected by wooden corridors.

Here the following works were carried on : The Mother House of the Community ; A free Penitentiary for the reformation of fallen women and girls, who were received to the number of fifty ; Home for girls, who lived at S. Mary's but attended the Church school; Home for boys in the nature of a Choir School for S. Paul's Church ; Home for older boys during their apprenticeship in the town ; Infirmary and Home for poor aged ladies, where a few Preventive girls were trained for service; Dispensary for treatment of poor persons afflicted with ulcerated legs ; School for the board and education of the daughters of gentlemen with small means, clerical or lay, at low fees; School of Church and Art embroidery. There was a Con-

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 75

tinuation Home at S. Mary's, Buxted, for girls, ages 14 to 17, who were trained for domestic service.

In the early days the mistresses of S. Paul's schools lived in the Home. The Sisters have, from the inception of the Community, engaged in parochial work for S. Paul's and other Brighton churches. On the death of the founder (January I4th, 1902) the trustees left by him under the Settlement Deed became responsible for the welfare of the Community and Home. There was no endowment, and it was found financially impossible to carry on all the good works which had accumulated during the forty-seven years' life of the Home. About the same time such extensive alterations to the old houses were demanded under the Factory Act, and at the instance of local health inspectors, that it was evident that the only practical way to satisfy the new conditions was to initiate a fund for securing a good site sufficient for a Mother House and at least the possibility of carrying on the first works started in Brighton — Penitentiary and the Embroidery school. After many disappointments and difficulties, twenty acres of land were secured near Rottingdean in the parish of Ovingdean, about 4f miles from Brighton. Nothing nearer to, or in, the town could be obtained. The building was started in October 1911.

In November 1912 sufficient accommodation was ready for the removal of the Penitentiary, with reduced numbers (twenty-four only), and sufficient also for Sisters for this work. Most of the other works had perforce been dis continued. The Mother Superior remained in Brighton until November 1914, when further accommodation was ready and the Chapel built in part, and she removed her residence to the new House. The Embroidery school had removed at Michaelmas 1914. The Penitentiary is affili ated to the Chichester Diocesan Penitentiary Association. The Wantage Community acquired the house at Buxted, and the houses at Brighton have been or are being sold.

With the disposal of these properties, aided by generous gifts from members and friends of the Community, it has been found possible to build about two-thirds of the original scheme, including Mother House and Chaplain's and gar dener's residences. The remainder of the scheme will be completed as funds become available, viz. : Apse and North Aisle of the Chapel, Sacristy, Waiting Room, Entrance

76 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Quadrangle gates, Community quarters in the southern block and cloisters. The new Community buildings are situated on the Sussex Downs overlooking Rottingdean, and about three-quarters of a mile from the sea, and when completed they will be a worthy memorial of the revered founder. The severance of old associations in the removal from Brighton town is naturally to be regretted for many reasons, but removal was essential. The discontinuance of works that had proved so full of success and blessing in the old Home was also a regrettable necessity, but with the future completion of the buildings there can be no doubt that what seems a step backward is but the going back to spring forward to even greater possibilities of active works than in the best days of the past. Accom modation is now available for the reception of thirty-seven penitents, and with the further completion of the buildings this number can be increased to forty-eight.

The Community has had charge of the Diocesan Peni tentiary at Hereford for five years. It is known as S. Martin's Home, and takes twenty girls. Here an excellent work is going on.

A daughter S. Mary's Home in Brighton continues to be the centre of Church and parochial work in Brighton Churches, and for the past four years the Sisters have also been working in the parish of All Saints, Worcester.

Ube ©octets of HU fallows, Ditcbinobam, Horfoife

The Society of All Hallows, Ditchingham, had its begin ning in 1854, when Miss Lavinia Crosse — afterwards the first Mother Superior — was induced by the late Rev. W. E. Scudamore, then Rector of Ditchingham, to undertake the penitentiary work in a farmhouse hired for that purpose, in the neighbouring parish of Shipmeadow. Being subse quently joined by two other ladies, the three were formed into a Community, pledged to live under a Religious Rule, by Canon Carter of Clewer, on the Eve of the Circumcision, 1856. As in other Communities the Sisters had a share in those initial difficulties that test and try such work, but steady perseverance had its reward, and in 1859 the Com munity was transferred to the present House of Mercy in the parish of Ditchingham. It was at that time only partially built. The cruciform plan of the House was

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 77

completed and the permanent Chapel opened in 1864, when the sermon was preached by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford. Since that period there has been steady progress. In 1876 the Community House adjoining the House of Mercy was commenced, to which a new wing has since been added. The penitentiary work has the first place in the care and devotion of the Sisters. Its work goes on precisely as at the beginning, and thirty penitents are admitted. This is the limit.

In memory of the Rev. W. E. Scudamore, Warden for many years, a new wing was built to the Sisters' Community House to be set apart for the reception of an Order of Peni tents desirous to consecrate the remainder of their lives to their Lord's service. The first stone was laid in 1885, and the wing was blessed and opened on September i4th, 1887. In 1857 a house was taken in the parish of Ditch ingham, and opened under the name of S. Ann's House, for the reception of girls under ten who were orphans or in need of special care. It was found that the advantages of such a Home were often in great request for children of superior parentage, and this led to the establishment of the All Hallows Orphan School for Girls of the Upper Class, and school buildings were erected and opened and blessed by Bishop Wilberforce. This is progressing and developing. Hospital work was undertaken first in three cottages adjoining one another adapted for the purpose, and in 1873 the present Hospital was built, accommodating twenty patients. Mission and parochial effort is done by the Sisters, too, in some Norwich parishes. At the desire of the Bishop of New Westminster, the Mother Superior was led to consider the question of widening the Com munity's sphere of influence by taking up missionary work of an educational nature in his diocese. She formally proffered aid, and three Sisters went out to settle at Yale, British Columbia, in October 1884. The school under their charge has prospered, especially as to Canadian pupils. Work is also done among the Indian children, for whom the Sisters have charge of a boarding school at Yale. This school is recognised by and under the inspection of the Canadian Government. The Chaplain for both schools is the Rev. Harold Underhill, resident in Yale.

List of the Community's Work at Ditchingham and else where. — Ditchingham : House of Mercy for Penitents ;

78 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Orphanage and School for Children of gentle birth ; Lower School for Respectable Girls, who are educated and trained for domestic service ; Hospital and Home for Incurables ; Parochial work in Ditchingham. Rescue work in Norwich : S. Augustine's Lodge. Mission work in Norwich in the parishes of S. James with Pockthorpe ; S. John, Timber- hill ; S. Julian ; S. Mark, Lakenham ; S. Lawrence ; and S. George, Tombland. Yale, British Columbia : School for Indians ; School for Canadians.

Community of tbe 1bol£ Cross, Ibaswarfc's fbeatb

In 1857 the Rev. C. F. Lowder invited Miss Elizabeth Neale, sister of the Rev. J. M. Neale of Sackville College, to aid him in his labours, recently undertaken in the newly formed mission district of the parish of S. George in the East, since made into the parish of S. Peter, London Docks. She was then looking for some field of labour to which to devote her life, and had been in treaty with one or two of the newly established orders — e.g. Clewer and All Saints — with the idea of joining one of them. When this request came from Father Lowder it seemed a direct call from God. So in 1857 she, with one orphan girl, took up her abode in that district. She had an Orphanage in Brighton, but the children were taken over by the recently formed Sisterhood of S. Margaret, East Grinstead, through her brother. The parish was very rough and uncivilised, and her difficulties at the outset were quite enough to have deterred one with a less determined spirit. But she perse vered, and a few months later was joined by three or four other ladies. The Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, gave her his blessing and installed her in office as Superior of the newly formed Community of the Holy Cross. One of the first works undertaken was a Penitentiary, necessitated by the state of the district, which swarmed with fallen women. At first it was merely a refuge, but, finding no Penitentiary would receive them, a house was taken for them in Sutton, afterwards removed to Hendon.

By this time the Sisters had removed into a house in Cal- vert Street which had been the Clergy House, the Priests occupying one in Well Close Square. The Sisters continued to occupy the Calvert Street house till they moved into their present quarters in 1887, but the Mother House was

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 79

transferred to Kenning ton in 1870, as the Community had outgrown its accommodation. In 1858 the Orphanage was begun with six girls, which soon increased to thirty.

The cholera visitation in 1866 was fiercest in the district in which the Sisters worked, and they formed the van guard of the band of workers who fought against it. Their work in battling with the plague helped more than anything else to overcome any prejudice yet remaining against the Sisters. Bishop Tait shov/ed much sympathy and kind ness, visiting the hospitals and district, and was greatly impressed with their work. About this time the Com munity began work further afield. Sisters had already, in 1863, undertaken temporary work at Bedminster, Bristol, to help the Rev. E. H. Eland; and now, in 1867, they ex tended their labours to Portsea, under the Rev. J. D. Platt; and in the following year in the parish of S. Jude, Sheffield, under the Rev. W. Johnson.

In 1868 an important change was made in the constitu tion, the Community being placed under the charge of the Fathers of S. John the Evangelist, Cowley, Oxford, and so remained until 1912.

The number of Sisters having increased beyond the limits of the Calvert Street house, and no other house being available, the Mother Superior accepted the invitation of the Rev. J. Goring, of S. Paul's, Lorrimore Square, to work in his parish. The Mother House, with the greater number of Sisters and Novices, removed there in 1870, only a few Sisters remaining to carry on the work at S. Peter's, London Docks, which had been created a separate parish. Parish work was done in S. Paul's, Walworth, and schools for girls and infants begun in the district of S. Agnes, Kenning ton.

In 1874 the work at Sheffield was given up, and the fol lowing year, at the request of Dean Duncombe of York, the Sisters undertook the charge of the Institute for Trained Nurses, giving it up, after thirty years, in 1905. During this period the number of nurses had increased from twenty-five to over seventy, and the supervision of the free nursing of the sick poor in the city had grown enormously, rendering the demands of the work too great to be compatible with the obligations of the Religious Life.

In 1877, at the request of the Rev. T. Baynham, work was begun in the parish of S. Peter and S. Paul, Charlton,

80 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

Dover, which was continued till 1913. In 1880 the Sisters were withdrawn from the parish of S. Paul, Walworth, through a change in the Vicariate, and their work was limited to the parish of S. Agnes, Kennington. In 1886 the Community removed from Kennington, after sixteen years' work. The lease of the houses occupied by the Sisters expired, and it was thought advisable to obtain permanent headquarters. Land had been bought at Hayward's Heath, and the Vicar, Rev. R. E. Wyatt, offered the Sisters a warm welcome, and desired them to visit in the parish. The removal to the new Mother House took effect in 1887, when it was solemnly blessed by Father Benson, Father Superior S.S.J.E.

Two years later, through a legacy from Miss Cornelia Neale, sister of the Mother Foundress, a new wing was added to the building and used at first as a Convalescent Home.

In 1892 a Branch House was begun at S. Saviour's, Pimlico, at the request of the Rev. H. Washington. Early in 1896 the Mother Foundress resigned. In 1897 a Branch House was begun in the district of S. Alban, Norwood, at the request of the Rev. F. La Trobe Bateman. After he left, there were two changes of Vicars, and the Sisters relin quished the work in 1909. In 1897 the house adjoining the Mother House was purchased for a Convalescent Home, this giving more accommodation in the Mother House. In 1902 Viscount Halifax laid the foundation stone of the Chapel, which was opened for worship in 1905.

Community ot S, peter tbe apostle, fborburs

The Community of S. Peter the Apostle, Horbury, was founded in 1858 by Mrs. Sidney Lear and Canon Sharp, Vicar of Horbury, and commenced with three Sisters. The object of foundation was primarily to train and assist its members in leading a life of prayer and self-denial; and secondly to perform works of mercy, and specially for the spiritual and moral restoration of fallen women, and also spiritual and mission work amongst the poor. The peni tentiary work was begun in a cottage in the village of Hor bury in 1858, the present House of Mercy being built in three portions — successively in 1863, 1872, and 1884. From very small beginnings the penitentiary work has grown

To face page 80.

To face page 8 1 .

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1852 TO 1860 81

and developed, and with it the numbers of Sisters belonging to the Community. The House of Mercy accommodates seventy-one penitents. Some of those who have passed through the Penitentiary have proved the sincerity of their penitence by seeking the life of reparation as consecrated Magdalens. Many of the girls, who are sent out to service after two years' training, have done extremely well. Be sides being employed in learning housework the penitents are trained in laundry work and needlework. From the laundry, girls are sent out as Under-Matrons, etc. Care is taken to train each girl thoroughly in each detail of the work as far as she is capable of mastering it. Factory regulations have, of course, to be observed, and the House is always open to Government inspection. As we have already noted, as the Community grew and developed, so the scope for work proportionately increased, and now the Branch Houses number ten, reaching in England from Carlisle to Croydon. At Horbury there is a School of Church embroidery, and altar breads are made.

Of the Branch Houses under the care of the Sisters the oldest is S. Mary's Home, Rusholme, Manchester, a Peni tentiary undertaken by the Community twenty-five years ago. It is now able to receive sixty-five penitents, mostly young girls from 10 to 18, and has a large and flourishing laundry.

The County Home, Stafford, is a Penitentiary of thirty- five women and girls, and also contains a laundry. Plain sewing and lacemaking are done by the girls.

S. Mary's Home, Carlisle, is a Penitentiary for thirty-five women and girls, where excellent work is done, there being also a laundry here.

The Sisters work in the parish of S. Augustine, Tonge Moor, Bolton, Lanes., and conduct S. Margaret's School, a small school for girls.

S. Winifred's Home, Wolverhampton, was opened in 1911 for children who have been criminally assaulted, or whose intimate knowledge of sin makes them dangerous com panions for other children. This Home, accommodating forty-five children, was soon filled to overflowing, and in 1913 another Home, S. Monica's, Croydon, had to be opened to provide accommodation for fifty more children. In both these children's homes every effort is made to induce forgetfulness of the evil past, and train the children

82 SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

for a useful future. Residence continues till they are 16 years of age, when suitable situations are sought for them according to their ability.

The Sisters work in S. George's parish, Nottingham, and also at Filey, where special efforts are made to help the fisher girls.

There is one foreign House in connection with the Com munity, which was started in 1905 at Nassau, Bahamas. Here, besides parish work, a High School for Girls, in a most flourishing condition, is carried on, but this work is still in its infancy.

Several Retreats for ladies have been held annually at Horbury for over forty years, and recently there have been week-end Retreats for mill girls. The girls come from Saturday till Sunday night, and numbers have gladly availed themselves of the spiritual help.

Retreats are also arranged for mothers (who cannot spare more than the week-end away from their duties), for G.F.S. members, and for teachers in elementary schools, whilst opportunity is offered for private Retreats.

Besides the weekly visiting in Stafford Prison amongst women and girls, the boys committed to Wakefield Prison under the Borstal system are visited once a week by the Sisters, when spiritual instruction is given. The Sisters also hold Sunday classes in various parishes around Hor bury, and visit in the parish of S. Peter.

CHAPTER X

COMMUNITIES FROM i860 TO 1870

Community of S, peter, IfcUburn

Community of S. Peter, Kilburn, was founded at Brompton in 1861 by the late Rosamira and Ben jamin Lancaster, as a Community whose chief work would be the nursing of respectable women and children of the sick poor in the Home, and mission work outside. The Mother House was removed to Kilburn in 1868, and then for twenty years the Rev. W. H. Cleaver was Warden. In 1892 the Community first undertook Foreign Mission work, sending four Sisters to Corea with Bishop Corfe, the first Bishop. Here, for several years, the Sisters worked in hospitals for the natives, until they were joined by a suffi cient staff of nurses who could take up this department and free them for more direct teaching of Corean women and children. At present seven Sisters are working at Seoul and Siv-won as headquarters, in Schools and Homes of various kinds; and thence are constantly itinerating among the scattered villages as these come gradually under Christian influence.

The principal activities of the Community at home still fall under the two heads of nursing and mission work. For the latter there are London Houses in the densely populated districts of S. Saviour's, Hoxton; S. Columba's, Haggerston; S. Hugh's,Tabard Street, Southwark; S.Mary's, Golden Lane, E.C.; S.Augustine's, Kilburn; S. Michael's, Camden Town ; S. Mary's, Clarendon Square, Euston ; and also at Edmonton and Caversham. The Homes devoted to nursing are S. Peter's Home, Kilburn, where there are wards for long, but not hopeless, cases for which hospitals cannot spare beds, and for acute cases, women and girls and children, with separate wards for ladies, and for con-

«3

84 SISTERHOODS—ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE

sumptive patients in the latest stages; S. Peter's Harbour, Greville Place, N.W., where aged and infirm women are cared for ; S. Peter's Memorial Home, Woking, for acute, convalescent, or early tubercular cases, women and children ; S. Peter's Grange, S. Leonards-on-Sea, which is a House of Rest for ladies, elementary teachers, nurses, and the upper servant class ; Holiday House, S. Leonards-on-Sea, where twelve little girls from crowded London parishes are received quite free for three weeks' change, all the year round ; S. Peter's, Ouvroir, Hendon, where a great desire of the foundress has been realised, and a Home opened for delicate and crippled girls and women who cannot, on account of their infirmities, entirely support themselves by fine needle work, but are able to employ themselves for several hours daily ; S. Michael's Home, Axbridge. Here the Sisters manage a large free Home for men and women who are in the earlier stages of phthisis. It 'was built and endowed for this purpose by a great benefactress of the Community.

Community of S, TKHilfrifc, Bjeter

The Community of S. Wilfrid was founded by the Rev. John Gilberd Pearse, late Vicar of All Hallows on the Walls, Exeter, in 1866. The object of the Community is twofold, viz. (i) a life of prayer and worship ; (2) the performance of corporal and spiritual works of mercy, visiting the sick and poor, the education of children, and the care of orphans and the aged. The Visitor is the Bishop of Exeter; the Chaplain General, the Rev. Fr. Andrew, S.D.C. ; the Chap lain, Rev. W. F. Penruddocke. The Sisters take lifelong vows, and are bound strictly to their hours of silence and frequent Retreats. The S. Wilfrid's Sisters in the beginning experienced many difficulties and opposition in their work, but finally found acceptance amongst the poor by nursing the cholera patients at Bovey Tracey during the epidemic then raging.

The Sisters in past years worked in many parishes in Exeter, namely All Hallows on the Walls, S. Edmund and S. Mary's Steps, S. Olave and S. Mary Arches; also at S. Andrew's, Well Street, London ; Bideford, etc. They had the care of orphans (girls) at Warborough Mount, Torquay, but in 1904 the Orphanage was moved to S. David's Hill, Exeter, where it is still carried on, and the girls are

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1860 TO 1870 85

trained for domestic service. For many years the Sisters had a creche in the ancient buildings of S. Nicholas' Priory, which has now been taken over by the City Council, and is being happily restored to its original beauty. The crech was given up, as there was no longer the same need for it. They still maintain the S. Wilfrid's Day School for girls, in Bartholomew Street, where some eighty children are educated and taught the Catholic Faith. The Sisters employ poor widows and necessitous women in needlework, selling the garments at an annual Sale of Work ; they con duct Bible classes and Mothers' Meetings, and also have a Missionary Guild.

Community of tbe tools Iftame of 3esu0, /IDalx>ern SLinfc

The Community of the Holy Name of Jesus, originated in the parish of S. Peter, Vauxhall, London, in the year 1865. The parish was then a new one, and the Rev. George Herbert was its first Vicar. A zealous Mission Priest, he found himself in a thickly populated district with no women workers, and so in his first year's ministry he banded together some ladies for mission work, and they became the nucleus of the present Community. The first Sister was professed on June 30th, 1865, in S. Peter's Church, by the Bishop of Edinburgh, acting for Bishop Wilberforce, and the S. Peter's Mission Sisterhood came into being, with the object of parochial work only in the parish of S. Peter. A small house was occupied in Tyers Street, within the parish, and here the Sisters lived in poverty a life of austere self-devotion. Time went on, and they were joined by others, till the need of a larger house necessitated removal to 171 Upper Ken- nington Lane, in 1866, which became and continued for some years the Mother House of the Community. A further removal was made in 1874 to a house built for them by the founder at 141 Upper Kennington Lane, where is the present Mission House. Under the founder's loving care, which extended to every detail of the community life, wonderful mission work was done. The Community was then known as S. Peter's Mission Sisterhood, and it was to some extent a parochial organisation. For some years the number of professed Sisters was small, but there were also Probationer Sisters, Serving Sisters, Sisters Associate,

86 SISTERHOODS— ACTIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE t

Associates, and Postulants, living in the Sisterhood under Rule.

As the Community grew there came a desire for a fuller development of the Religious Life, for while the Sisters were full of devotion to our Lord and led self-sacrificing lives with very real poverty, there was lacking an adequate conception of the Religious Life in its fullness. So in 1875 the Sisters in council resolved to send a Sister to one of the older Convents for four or five months' training, and first Sister Ellen, and then Sister Frances Mary, were sent to East Gr instead for this purpose. It was under the loving and devoted governance of the latter that a great develop ment took place in the Community, marking her out as the real foundress. Possessed of a remarkable personality, with a full knowledge of the Religious Life and a deep love of souls, her coming impressed itself upon the Sisterhood, and she became the Mother Superior. It was about this time that the name was changed to that of the Mission Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus. In 1879 she acquired some property at Malvern Link, and on May i5th in that year founded the Home of the Good Shepherd, with seven penitents, the numbers gradually increasing to thirty-three. In 1896 a new wing was built by the Warden, Rev. G. Cosby White; and in 1912 the Home was removed to S Monica's Cottage, with accommodation for fourteen girls.

On Holy Name Day, 1887, the whole of the property acquired by Mother Frances Mary became available and was occupied by the Community. A cloister connected it with the Home of the Good Shepherd. The House was blessed as the Convent of the Holy Name. In 1896 the new wing added a Novitiate refectory and kitchen, twenty rooms in all, connected with the Chapel and Convent by a cloister. In 1901 another large building was joined to the Convent. Yet the Community has outgrown them, and can never all meet. Mother Frances Mary died in 1888, and a beautiful Chapel was erected as a memorial to her, the foundation stone being laid by the Duke of Newcastle in 1893. Though the House in Upper Kennington Lane has ceased for many years to be the Mother House, Sisters continue to live there and do work in the parish of S. Peter. Mission work is also done in parishes of other dioceses, and missions in Coventry, Wimbledon, Hove, and Worksop. Retreats are held at the Mother House for ladies and Associates, and occasional

COMMUNITIES FOUNDED FROM 1860 TO 1870 87

Quiet Days. There is a Guild for ladies, known as the Guild of the Daughters of the Holy Name.

In addition to the penitentiary work at Malvern Link, there is the Refuge at Worcester, founded by Mother Frances Mary. The embroidery room, scriptorium, book binding and printing rooms at the Convent indicate further works of the Community.

Community of S, /Bars ot 1Ra3aretb, Efcgware,

The Community of S. Mary of Nazareth was founded by the Rev. H. Nihil and Mother Monica, in 1866. The first two Sisters,