Menu
We reflect on Mary’s wholehearted response to God’s request to become the Mother of Jesus.
The seasons are changing and every day, small signs of spring move us out of the darkness of winter.
Strengthen in us, O God, the work you have begun in us…
Marking anniversaries remind us of what matters to us and they provide opportunities to look back over the years since the event we are marking, to reflect with gratitude on how it has shaped us as an individual and a group.
The first Superior at the new foundation in Berrymead, Lucie was born in Cherveix in southwestern France. She entered the Society in 1831 at Amiens, and had only recently made her Profession (1841) at the time she was chosen. A measured and enterprising person, she oversaw the transfer of the convent school and community to Roehampton in 1850, went on to be the first vicar of England-Ireland, and then took charge of the Belgian vicariate.
Image: the early logo for the Society of the Sacred Heart
The only English member of the group, Laura was an Aspirant, having entered the Society in Paris in 1838. She returned to Paris in 1843 because of her health, and died at Nantes on 9th December 1844. Her sister Georgina had also entered the Society, in 1834, but left as an Aspirant in June of 1844.
Image: Berrymead, site of the first Society of the Sacred Heart school and community in England
A Belgian RSCJ who had entered the Society in 1839, at the time of coming to England Constance had only recently made her First Vows; she made her Profession at Berrymead in 1848, and remained in England until 1857, becoming Mistress of French and English, needlework, home economics, and finally Assistant Superior. She was Superior at Glasnevin in Dublin (1857–1862), then was recalled to France to spend the next 17 years as Superior at Society boarding schools in Orleans, Poitiers and Bordeaux, and Assistant Superior at Perpignan, where she passed away.
Image: Berrymead
A French Aspirant born in 1807, Jacquemine entered the Society in 1838. Her tasks at Berrymead included domestic work and cookery. She left the Society in June1844.
Image: Berrymead
One of the first students at Berrymead, Helene’s record does not include her date of birth, but does note the fact that she made her First Communion in 1836. Her parents’ address is noted as Chateau de St Lambert, près Marogol (Lozère). She left the school in August of 1843. Hélène later took the habit at Conflans. There is no further mention of her in Society records, so it would seem she joined a different Congregation.
Image: One of the earliest photographs of Society of the Sacred Heart students in England, 1859
Another of the earliest students at Berrymead, Mina’s date of birth is given as 29thAugust 1827; the date of her Confirmation was 18th July 1838. No address is listed for her parents. She left the school in August of 1845. A Child of Mary – the Children of Mary being an organisation established by St Catherine Labouré in 1830 and comprised of young people between the ages of seven and eighteen who wish to consecrate themselves to the Blessed Mother – Mina was also a recipient of the Blue Ribbon, to this day awarded to students for outstanding practice of the five Sacred Heart goals: faith, intellect, social awareness, community, personal growth.
Image: Society of the Sacred Heart students, 1881
Part of the second group of RSCJ who arrived in England on 15th December 1842, Olympe had entered the Society at Amiens in 1818 and made her Profession in 1823. She remained at Berrymead until 1850, when she returned to Amiens and then went on to Paris and finally to the day school at Niort.
Image: Society of the Sacred Heart Convent, Amiens, France
Born in Madras, Hélène entered the Society in Paris in 1840, and made her First Vows at Conflans in June of 1842. Six months later she made the voyage to England. She left the Society in 1859.
Image: Berrymead, site of the first Society of the Sacred Heart school and community in England
A former Brigidine Nun born in 1819, who had entered and made her First Vows at the Society in 1842 (at Roscrea, in Ireland) and came to Berrymead as an Aspirant. She left Berrymead and the Society on the 26th of March 1844.
Image: Berrymead
Formerly a Brigidine Nun named for Saint Philomena, she entered the Society at Roscrea in August of 1842. At Berrymead for part of 1843, she is mentioned in Mother Adèle Cahier’s biography of St Madeleine Sophie Barat as having been sent to Conflans for her noviceship. She died in Conflans in 1843.
Image: Berrymead
A convert to Catholicism who entered the Society at her birthplace in Metz in1825, Catherine made her Profession at Berrymead in 1843. She remained at Berrymead, undertaking household employments, until 1845, when she was transferred to Jette-St-Pierre, Brussels, Belgium. She was at Jette until the time of her death.
Image: Berrymead
Born in Le Mans, Françoise entered the Society in 1836 at Le Mans, took her First Vows in September of 1838 and made her Profession at Lille on 21 November 1853. At Berrymead she undertook household employments from 1843 to 1852. She died in Lille in December 1882.
Image: Berrymead
An Aspirant on arrival at Berrymead, having entered the Society in 1838 and taken her First Vows in 1842, Marie was engaged in household employments at Berrymead from 1843 until 1848, when she left to make her Profession in Paris. She remained in France – in Paris from 1848 to 1855 and then in Amiens until her death, aged 77.
Image: Society of the Sacred Heart Convent, Amiens, France
One of the first English pupils at Berrymead, Mary was one of four girls from the same family, two of whom went on to become RSCJ themselves. Mary took her First Vows in 1850 and made her Profession in 1857. She taught English classes at the boarding school in Jette before joining the teaching staff at Roehampton (the Sacred Heart school moved to Roehampton from Berrymead in 1850) to help with the day-pupils; later she was Mistress of needlework and religion. After 25 years at Roehampton she taught English at the Sacred Heart schools in Brussels (1875–1881) and Calais (1881–1882). Her great-niece Muriel Noel Morgan also became an RSCJ. Mary Catherine was also one of the signatories on the contract for the school and convent buildings at Roehampton.
Image: Sacred Heart Convent students at Roehampton, 1881
Like her sister Mary, Leonora was a Sacred Heart student who later made her Profession (in 1864). She taught English and Music at the Sacred Heart School in Amiens from 1855 until her death in 1867.
Image: Sacred Heart girls, Roehampton, 1885
The next 15 years in the history of the English vicariate of the Society witnessed the opening (and closing) of a school and convent at Cannington in Somerset (1843-1844), and the move of the school and convent from Berrymead to Roehampton (1850), where it would remain until the Second World War. Elsewhere in the Society, both St Philippine Duchesne, who had established the first Sacred Heart schools and communities in the United States (from 1817) and the Society’s foundress, St Madeleine Sophie Barat, passed away (in 1852 and 1865 respectively).
In her short life, the English-born Irishwoman Charlotte Goold was the first Superior at Cannington, and later Superior at Berrymead (1844-1848) and Mistress General at Berrymead (1848-1849).
Image: the document declaring the establishment of a Sacred Heart school at Cannington in Somerset
Sister of Charlotte Goold, Marcella succeeded Lucie Mérilhou as Provincial Superior (1867-1872) and was Vice-Vicar from 1864. She was the first Irish Vicar of the Roehampton vicariate in 1866, which at that time consisted of three Irish convents and one English one. Recalled to Paris in 1872, she was succeeded as Vicar at Roehampton by Mabel Digby.
Image: Roehampton
Also among the first ‘cohort’ of English-born RSCJ, Eleanor took her first vows (at the Villa Lante in Rome) in 1840 and after three years of teaching at the Society boarding school in Paris at the Hotel Bîron, she left with Mother Charlotte Goold for the foundation at Cannington. Her father, the 7thBaron Clifford of Chudleigh, had been educated at Stonyhurst and was of huge help with establishing the school and community at Cannington. Eleanor went on to teach at Berrymead (1844-1848) and then, after the move from Berrymead to Roehampton, at the school there until 1867. After this she was librarian at Society schools which existed at the time in Germany.
Image: Hotel Bîron (now site of the Rodin Museum)
Born in England and orphaned at the age of 16, Madeleine entered the Society in 1839 in Paris. After making her First Vows she was sent to teach at the Society school in Roscrea, Tipperary - the first Sacred Heart school and community to be established in Ireland, the same year (1842) as the English foundation at Berrymead. She made her Profession in 1850, by which time she had sadly become incapacitated through ill-health. She died at Roscrea.
Image: Roscrea
Born in Bristol, Emma entered the Society at Berrymead in 1849 and made her First Vows in 1851, by which time the school and community had relocated to Roehampton. She was Class Mistress and Mistress of Studies at Roehampton for many years. Her record states that she ‘spent her religious life between England and Belgium’ – there being a Sacred Heart school (and later site of the Mother House) at Jette, Brussels.
Image: Jette
Born on the Isle of Wight, Sophie entered the Society in on the 1st of January 1841 and made her Profession in 1854. Mistress of Discipline, she also taught English while at the Society boarding school in Nantes (1850-1859), and French at the school in St Louis, Missouri – a school established by St Philippine Duchesne – from 1859 to 1863. She returned to England to be Sub-Mistress General at Roehampton for the next four years, and then was sent to work as Sub-Mistress General, councillor and teacher of French and religious instruction at the Society school in Chile. She died in Concepcion, Chile.
Image: Villa Duchesne, Convent of the Sacred Heart, St Louis, Missouri
Born in Crosby, Lancashire, and one of ten children, Clementine entered the Society aged 31 and took her First Vows at Berrymead in 1844. She made her Profession at Roehampton in 1851 and, as a Coadjutrix Sister, was Portress at Roehampton up until the time of her death.
Image: Roehampton
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Evelina’s father was a Protestant who converted to Catholicism. She was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in St Michel, Louisiana, and entered the Society at St Michel in 1828. Part of a large family, four of Evelina’s sisters also entered at St Michel. She took her First Vows and made her Profession at St Michel, before going on to be a class mistress at the first Society foundation in Canada, at Sault-au-Récollet. Her various employments took her to New York, Paris, Nantes, Calais and Roehampton. She died in Beauvais, France
Image: Sault-au-Récollet, Montreal, Canada
Born in Waterford, Ireland, Charlotte entered the Society at Roscrea (Tipperary) in 1836. A Coadjutrix Sister, her duties during her time at Roehampton (1851-1867) included being Portress and ‘Vestiaire’. From 1867 until the time of her death she was at the Society’s school and community in Armagh, teaching needlework.
Image: Roehampton
In the England/Wales Society archives Emilie’s surname is given variously as Froumy, Froumi and Fourmy, and her first name as Madeleine Emily or just Emilie. Born in Champagne (France), she was a Coadjutrix Sister who took her First Vows in 1839in Paris. She undertook various domestic tasks at the Society boarding school in Berrymead (1842-1848) but then was transferred back to the Mother House at rue de Varenne, Paris. She died as an Aspirant (i.e. before she was Professed as a religious Sister) in March of 1851.
Image: Berrymead
Born in Wales, Eliza entered the Society in 1831 and took her First Vows in 1833. She made her Profession in 1839. After being Mistress of Class and of Needlework, Mistress of Health and then Assistant at the boarding school in Rue Monsieur, Paris (1831-1842), she went on to be Foundress and the first Superior at the school at Roscrea (1842-1851).
Image: Roscrea
Genevieve entered the Society on the same day as her younger sister Filomena (17 October1858). Her long and distinguished career saw her employed as sacristan at the boarding school at Trinità dei Monti (1860-1865) and going on to fulfil various roles at Roehampton, Mount Anville (Dublin), Paris, Chicago, Maryville, Havana, St Louis and finally becoming Superior Vicar of the West and Louisiana Province. From 1896 she was at the Kenwood Sacred Heart Convent in Albany, New York, where she died in 1898.
Image: Kenwood
Among the first RSCJ to be from Malta (at the time a British Crown Colony), Filomena was born in Valletta. Educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Trinità dei Monti, Rome, she entered the Society in 1858 and made her First Vows in 1860. While still a novice she taught Italian and looked after the community linen room at the Society boarding school in Roscrea, Tipperary. She was professed in 1868 at the Mother House in Paris, then returned to her duties at Roscrea until the time of her death.
Image: Trinità dei Monte
Soon after the first school was established student numbers grew rapidly, and prestigious Catholic families from the UK and Europe such as the Bellasis family, the Stonors, the Herberts and the Silvertops sent the first of generations of their daughters to be taught by the nuns at Roehampton.
Orizia was one of 13 girls from the extended Leite (and Pinto-Leite) family who would attend the school at Roehampton. She started at the school when she was 11, in 1855 - just five years after the school had moved from Berrymead to Roehampton - and left in June of 1860.
Image: Roehampton Lane c.1848
Lady Florence was a pupil at the Sacred Heart school at Roehampton from the age of eight, and went on to become a highly respected author, war correspondent and feminist. Her nephew was Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas, whose father (Florence's brother, the infamous 9th Marquess of Queensberry) initiated the court case (in 1895) that led to Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment.
Image: Lady Florence Dixie (née Douglas)
The years 1872–1887 saw much growth and change in the Society of the Sacred Heart in England and around the world, and Mother Digby was central to much of this. A major figure in the history of the Society, while Superior at Roehampton (1872–1894) she established the elementary school for the poor (1872; now Roehampton Sacred Heart Primary School), a secondary school in Brighton (1877) and the teacher-training college then known as Wandsworth College and located at West Hill. This college relocated in 1905 to North Kensington and was renamed St Charles’ College; after the Second World War the site and name of the college changed yet again: this time moving to Roehampton and renamed Digby Stuart College, today one of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.
A convert to Catholicism (1853), Mabel was born in Staines and educated at home with a governess. She entered the Society at Marmoutier in 1857, taking her First Vows in 1859 at Conflans. She made her Profession at the Mother House in Paris in 1864, and served as Superior at Marmoutier 1865–1872.
In 1895 Mother Digby became the fifth Superior General – and the first Englishwoman to serve in this post – of the international Congregation, a position she held until her death in 1911. She guided the Society at a time when the anti-clerical French government expelled all religious congregations. From a temporary Mother House in Ixelles, Belgium, Mother Digby directed the Society’s growth, relocating some 2,500 French RSCJ to other countries.
Mabel Digby is buried in the Sacred Heart Chapel on the Digby Stuart College campus.
Image: Mabel Digby. A biography written by M.K. Richardson RSCJ is available online or from the Provincial Archives
Charlotte Leslie RSCJ was the first Principal of Wandsworth College in West Hill, established by Mother Digby in 1874.
Born in Wandsworth, she entered the Society at Conflans in 1859 and took her First Vows at Marmoutier in 1862, teaching English, Italian, drawing and needlework there until 1867, when she made her Profession. After serving as Assistant at Mount Anville and at the novitiate in Roehampton, she was appointed Superior and Principal at Wandsworth College (1874–1879). After this she was Assistant at Sacred Heart schools in Bois l’Eveque, Armagh, Roscrea and Carlisle, ending her days as Choir Mistress at Hammersmith Sacred Heart Day School (1902–1915).
Image: West Hill, site of Wandsworth Sacred Heart Teacher Training College (c.1900)
Born in Courtrai, Belgium, after completing her education with considerable distinction at the Sacred Heart Convent at Jette, Fébronie indicated her desire to become a religious – her family, however, objected. She persisted in reaffirming her intention to enter the Convent, and after ten years, aged 27, Fébronie entered the novitiate at Conflans. During the Franco-Prussian War she organised and directed a hospital to care for the wounded. In 1874 she was Econome – similar to a Bursar/Administrator – first at Roehampton and then at Brighton, supervising the building of the Sacred Heart school there (1877). She went on to become Superior and foundress of the SH school and foundation at Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia, where she remained from 1882 to 1894. She spent the final year of her life as Assistant at the Sacred Heart school in Brighton.
Image: Mother Vercruysse and the first RSCJ at Rose Bay (1882)
Johanna Bumann RSCJ was born in Germany and entered the Society at Riedenburg, Bregenz, Austria in 1862. She made her First Vows in 1864, also at Riedenburg, but made her Profession at Roehampton in 1873. A Coadjutrix Sister, for the next 34years she worked as a cook at the Sacred Heart communities and boarding schools in Roehampton, Brighton and Dublin.
Image: SacredHeart school, Riedenburg (Friedrich Böhringer)
Born in Devon to Lord Henry Kerr and Louise Dorothea Hope, Henrietta Kerr was educated at the Convent of St Margaret in Edinburgh from the age of 11 and entered the Society at Conflans in 1862. After a time as organist and teaching English at the Sacred Heart boarding school in Rome (at Trinità dei Monti, site of the original fresco of Mater Admirabilis painted by Pauline Perdrau RSCJ in 1844), she became Mistress General at Roehampton from 1872 until the year before her death. During her relatively brief life she wrote several influential works including ‘Meditation in Preparation for the Feast of Mater Admirabilis’, ‘Notes of Instructions on the Sacred Heart, Our Blessed Lady and Love of the Church’, ‘Instructions to the Children of Mary (Enfants de Marie)’, two Novenas for the Immaculate Conception and other Notes of Retreat.
A biography, written in 1886, can be found in the Provincial Archives.
Image: Henrietta Kerr, 1876
The foundations of the Sacred Heart Chapel at Roehampton were laid in 1856; however, plans for its completion could not be carried out due to a lack of funds. The architect was William Wardell (1823–1899), a disciple of Augustus Pugin(1812–1852). The interior work of the chapel was begun as a result of the wishes of Sister Lucy Worswick, who was Professed on her death-bed at the age of 26. A former pupil of the school, Lucy had entered the Society in February 1864. Dying of tuberculosis, she asked the Superior (Lucie Mérilhou) to write to her father to express that her last wishes were for him to provide the means to enable the Sacred Heart Chapel to be completed. Her father donated a considerable sum in memory of his daughter, and it was with this money that the altarpiece and reredos were added in 1868. The origin of the reredos is unclear, though there is an undated note in the Society’s Provincial Archives that states that it ‘came from Germany’. The figures, originally unpainted (as shown in this photograph c.1870) portray Jesus revealing his Sacred Heart to the French Visitation nun, St Margaret Mary Alacoque.
The Laprimaudaye family play a significant role in the history of the Society in England. One of seven brothers and sisters – her sister Madeleine was also an RSCJ; two others were religious Sisters in the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; a brother was a Jesuit priest – her parents Charles and Anne had been converts to Catholicism in 1851. Lucy was educated at the Society’s schools in Rome and Roehampton. Hers does not seem to have been an easy decision to become a religious Sister, as the records show that she initially entered in November 1867 but promptly left in December of the same year, entering again in 1873 and taking her First Vows in 1875 at Roehampton. She taught at the Convent school in Roehampton 1875–1877, and was Mistress of Studies at the brand new teacher-training college (established by Mother Mabel Digby) in Wandsworth from 1877–1883, during which time she made her Profession (1880). After this she returned to teach at Roehampton up until the time of her death in 1884.
Image: The chapel at West Hill, Wandsworth
Anne Gertrude Mary Pollen RSCJ came from a family of artists. Her mother Maria (another member of the Laprimaudaye family) was a respected authority on the history of textiles and particularly on antique lace; her father John Hungerford Pollen was a writer and decorative artist (and former Anglican priest). They had settled in London the year after Anne was born, and took active roles in the artistic and literary community there, renewing a friendship with members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which led to John Pollen’s role in the decoration of the Oxford Union debating chamber.
Anne entered the Society in 1881 at Roehampton and made her Profession in 1889. She taught religious instruction and mathematics at the Sacred Heart schools in Roehampton, Brighton and Hammersmith from 1884 to 1914, and wrote well-researched and insightful biographies of her father (1912) and of Mother Mabel Digby (1914). From 1915, however, the records show that she was unwell, and from 1918 she is no longer listed in the annual catalogue of the Province. A later record indicates that she was in a hospital for those suffering mental health problems for the last 16 years of her life, first in England and then in Ireland. She is buried at the Sacred Heart cemetery at Mount Anville, Dublin.
Image: portrait sketch of Maria Margaret Laprimaudaye Pollen by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1857
Known affectionately as ‘Nellie’ by her family and fellow RSCJ, Mother Rumbold was born Helen Hopewell and was raised Protestant by an aunt and uncle when her parents separated; she converted to Catholicism aged 16. In 1868 she married Sir Arthur Rumbold but he died less than a year later, leaving her with a baby son who also died some eight years later. After travelling for the next ten years to Italy, France and the West Indies, she entered the Society in 1882, took First Vows in 1884 and made her Profession in 1889. She was Mistress of Novices at Roehampton (1896–1899) and Superior at Hammersmith (1899–1903) and then at the new foundation in Malta (1903–1907). She became Superior Vice-Vicar of the province of Algiers, Malta and Cairo, then Assistant General at the Mother House in Rome, ending her days back at Roehampton in the summer of 1921.
Image: Mother Rumbold’s sketch of how to adapt one’s habit for playing cricket!
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Mary ‘Minnie’ Murphy was the eldest of 12 children. Educated at home until the age of 14, she was then sent to Roehampton and the Sacred Heart Convent school from 1872 to 1876. She entered the Society in 1880 at Roehampton, taking her First Vows in 1882 before returning to her native Australia and the new Society foundation at Rose Bay, Sydney, in 1883. For the next 40 years she worked as Mother General, Mistress of Studies and in charge of the poor school at the Sacred Heart communities in Australia and New Zealand. In 1923 she was sent to Tokyo to be class mistress at the international school there, then was librarian and Mistress of Studies at the Sacred Heart boarding school in Kobe, Japan, from 1924 until the time of her death.
Image: Rose Bay
Many of the most distinguished Catholic families in England and from all over Europe, such as the Keppels, Stourtons and Bunburys, continued during the years 1872–1887 to send their daughters to the Sacred Heart Convent schools at Roehampton and Brighton. Among these were another member of the Pinto-Leite family: Arizia, who attended the boarding school at Roehampton from 1881–1889.
This photograph of Arizia is from 1886.
Annie was born in Dublin in 1857 and was a pupil at the Sacred Heart school in Roehampton from 1874–1875. A note in the register tells us she received the blue ribbon marking her out as a Child of Mary (Enfant de Marie) and that, ‘if she can master her emotions, she will prove to be of great promise.’
Image: Annie Dunne, c.1874
Born in Bristol in 1864, Sarah Busteed was a student at the Sacred Heart school in Roehampton from 1880–1881. A note in the margin of the school register reads 'Lady Holt'. A bit more digging leads us to the information that she became Lady Holt after having wed Sir Maurice Percy Cue Holt (1862–1954), Major-General and specialist in operative surgery, on 9thFebruary 1887.
The photograph here of Sarah (and her frankly magnificent coat and hat) was taken in 1880.
Christina was born in Kensington in 1866 and attended the Sacred Heart Convent school at Roehampton from 1879 to 1883. An exceptional student, a note in her records praises her singular judgement, virtue and distinction.
This photograph of Christina was taken in 1881.
Mary was born in Croydon in 1867 and was among the first pupils educated at the recently-established Sacred Heart boarding school in Brighton, where she was a student between the ages of 11 and 13 (1878–1880). The picture of her here is from 1882.
For this International Women’s Day we continue our celebration of 180 years of the Society of the Sacred Heart in England.
The years 1887-1902 continued to see the growth of the Society in England. Two new schools and communities were established – at Carlisle in 1889 and in Hammersmith, London in 1893. The Carlisle foundation relocated to Gosforth in1903 and then to Fenham, Newcastle in 1905. In addition, the wider global community meant that many women who started their vocation in London ended up in far flung places like the US, Egypt, Mexico or Japan.
The philanthropist, biographer and benefactor Lady Georgiana Fullerton was considered one of the foremost Roman Catholic novelists of the nineteenth century. She was a convert who, after the tragic death of her only son, devoted her life to philanthropic and charitable works. Georgiana assisted Frances Margaret Taylor in founding, in 1870, the school and community of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God Incarnate, and was a benefactor of that Congregation and of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She is buried in the Sacred Heart cemetery in Roehampton.
Image: Lady Georgiana Fullerton
Born in Dublin, Mother Errington entered the Society at Roehampton in 1878 and made her Profession at the Mother House in Paris in 1884. Her uncle George Errington was Archbishop of Trebizond and Coadjutor Archbishop, with Nicholas Wiseman, of Westminster. Josephine served as sub-Mistress General, Mistress General and Mistress of Studies at Roehampton (1884-1895) and at the teacher-training college at Wandsworth (1895). She was then sent to the Society boarding school in Manhattanville, New York, where she served from 1895 until her death, and was there for the Manhattanville school’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 1897.
Image: Manhattanville
Leopoldine was born into the distinguished Coutts Keppel family. Her father was Viscount Bury who served as an MP and Under-Secretary of State for War (1878-1886); her mother Sophia was daughter of the Premier of the Province of Canada; her niece Hilary Davidson was also an RSCJ; and her great-great-niece is Camilla, Queen Consort. Leopoldine worked as a writer before she entered the Society in 1887,and made her Profession 1896. She was Secretary of the Vicariate over many years, while also serving at the Society schools in Hammersmith and Brighton. She helped in the General Secretariat in Conflans (1908-1909) during the time that the Mother House was there, and in Rome at the Trinità dei Monti, teaching French and English to converts. She organised the men’s retreats at Hammersmith(1928-1938), and in the last ten years of her life was at the Society’s community and school in Hove, writing and engaged in translation work. Mother Keppel’s books include biographies of St Madeleine Sophie, St Philippine Duchesne, Pauline Perdrau RSCJ (painter of ‘Mater Admirabilis’), Janet Erskine Stuart RSCJ and Anne du Rousier RSCJ; she also was editor of the first publication of Mother Stuart’s ‘Prayer in Faith’ (1936) and translated the work of Josefa Menendez RSCJ.
Image: Mother Keppel’s book about ‘Mater Admirabilis’
Born in Ghent, Constance was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Jette St Pierre, Belgium. Her elder sister was also an RSCJ, and Constance made her Profession in 1853. She worked as Sacristan throughout her life, first at the original Society foundation in England, at Berrymead (1844-1850), then Roehampton(1850-1872). After a time as Sacristan at Roscrea (1872-1879), she returned to hold this post again at Roehampton up until the time of her death.
Image: Berrymead
Educated at the boarding school at Roehampton and the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Pau (France), Mary Anne made her Profession in 1891. She studied for a university degree at Mount Anville, Dublin (1899-1905) and worked as a lecturer at the Society’s teacher training colleges in West Hill (London), Fenham (Newcastle) and Craiglockhart (Edinburgh) for most of her life. She was the author of several books including ‘The Little Ones’, ‘The Faith for Children’, ‘Our Inheritance’ and ‘The Bible Beautiful’.
Image: cover of ‘The Little Ones’
Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Marie entered the Society at Roehampton in 1884 and made her profession in 1891. Mistress of French at Roehampton, Hammersmith, Mount Anville and Brighton 1894-1902, she was then sent to Havana, Cuba and worked as Mistress of English in various places throughout Mexico including Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo for the next 34 years. The school founded at Monterrey is today part of the University of Monterrey.
Image: University of Monterrey, Mexico
Aline followed her older sister Marie into the Society after being educated at the Convent school in Roehampton. She took her First Vows at Roehampton in 1889,then was sent first to Mount Anville to work as class mistress, and from thereto Grand Coteau and the community and boarding school founded by St Philippine Duchesne. She went on to serve as Mistress General of the day boarding school in New Orleans (Rue Dumaine) 1904-1912, and as Mistress General at the Society boarding school at St Michel, Louisiana (1912-1913).
Image: Grand Coteau, Louisiana
Born in Straffan, County Kildare, Elizabeth was the eldest of nine children and converted to Catholicism (she had been christened in the Episcopalian church) a few years before she entered the Society at Roehampton in 1886. She took her First Vows and studied at the teacher training college in Newcastle in 1892, then taught in Society boarding schools and colleges in the UK and US, working at Kenwood (Albany, New York); Providence and Elmhurst, Rhode Island; Roehampton; Gosforth; Hammersmith and Fenham, Newcastle. From 1911-1947 she served exclusively in the United States, in St Louis and St Joseph Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Ohama, Nebraska; and Detroit and Grosse Point, Michigan. Infirm for the last two years of her life, she spent this time at the university college in Omaha.
Image: Gosforth
Françoise was born and baptised in Plédrau, Côtes du Nord, France, and entered the Society (1886) and made her First Vows (1888) and Profession (1896) at the Society convent in Le Mans. She worked as cook and ‘dépensière’ at Le Mans (1886-1903) and as cook in Wetteren, Belgium (1903-1924) and Aberdeen (1914-1917) before being sent to work at the Society community in Bonchurch, East Dene, Isle of Wight, which had been founded in 1904.
Image: Bonchurch
Clara was born in St John, New Brunswick, Canada and was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She entered the Society in Halifax in September of 1886. After her clothing (in December 1886) she went to Manhattanville for her Noviceship, returning to Halifax for her First Vows in1889. She taught at the boarding school in Le Sault-au-Récollet (Montreal) for five years, then made her Profession in Paris before returning to Le Sault and moving from there to Bordeaux, Quadrille and La Ferrandière. From 1901-1903 she was at Roehampton, serving as ‘Surveillante’. From here she returned to Le Sault for over 25 years, and from there to Manhattanville for the last three years of her life. For a period of six years she wrote short stories for the American journal 'Messenger of the Sacred Heart' under the name ‘Bride Clare’.
Image: Halifax
Julia was a native of Altdorf, Switzerland, and was educated at the convent schools of the Franciscan Sisters and the Sisters of the Cross before completing her secondary education at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Chambéry. She entered the Society at La Ferrandière in 1886, and made her Profession in 1894. Her employments brought her to Malta (then part of the English vicariate) 1903-1906, and from there to Egypt, where she worked in the Sacred Heart boarding schools in Cairo, Alexandria and Heliopolis from 1906-1930.
Image: Malta
Born in Peckham, London, Mary Anne trained as a lay student at the Society’s teacher training college in West Hill, Wandsworth (1881-1882) before entering at Roehampton in 1887 and taking her First Vows in 1889. She made her Profession at Hammersmith in 1899, and taught there for the next 11 years before being sent to teach in Tokyo (1910-1913) at the school founded there in 1908. She was in charge of the kindergarten at the Sacred Heart Junior School in Japan from1913-1942. Interned with the Dames de St Maur in their large school building with 86 other nuns (27 of these RSCJ) during the Second World War, she returned to the school in Tokyo from 1944 until her death in 1954. The 1963 edition of Digby Stuart College’s Chronicle has a lovely four-page obituary and tribute to Mary, which mentions that during her internment, when she was then some 81 years old, she had ‘used her age and her charm to obtain all sorts of concessions from the authorities’. The article also mentions that she lived to enjoy her Golden Jubilee and her 90th birthday, as well as a visit to the new Society foundation at Susono.
Image: Society of the Sacred Heart school, Tokyo
Katherine was born in what is now a suburb of Barrackpore in West Bengal. She went to primary school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Dublin (Harcourt Street) and to secondary school at Roehampton, where she was Head Girl in 1876. She entered the Society at Roehampton in 1887, and made her Profession in 1895. After teaching at the boarding school in Armagh and being in charge of the Poor School at Mount Anville, she was Superior at the day school in Leeson Street, Dublin (1901-1903) and Mistress General at Roscrea 1903-1908. From 1908 to 1926 she taught English at the Sacred Heart school in Tokyo.
Image: Kuni Palace campus, Japan
Blanche was born in Sudbury, Suffolk and attended the boarding school of St Mary’s Sisterhood in Brighton, after which she studied music in Germany for four years, and painting and music in Florence, Italy for two years. She entered the Society at Roehampton in 1885, and after teaching at Mount Anville (1888-1889) she was sent to New Orleans for four years, returning to Europe to make her Profession in Paris in 1893. For the next 23 years she taught in Sacred Heart schools in the US, chiefly in Louisiana (at Grand Coteau and St Michel) but also in Missouri (Maryville and St Louis) and Ohio (Cincinnati). For the last four years of her life she was sadly infirm and was looked after by the community in Maryville.
Image: Maryville, St Louis
Edith was a student at the Society’s teacher-training college at West Hill. On the occasion of her marriage, in 1890, she was gifted with a commemorative album filled with drawings, poems and other works of the imagination created by her friends and relations. Albums of this kind were all the rage in Victorian and Edwardian times, and this particular one is now in the Provincial Archives, offering a fascinating record not just of how accomplished Edith’s friends were but also of what the Victorians found beautiful, amusing or otherwise important enough to be included in a commemorative album such as this.
Image: a caricature from Edith’s album