Founding of the Sisters of Charity in Australia

In response to Bishop Polding's request for a community of Sisters to be established in New South Wales, Mary Aikenhead willingly sacrificed five well-trained and experienced Sisters for the new mission. These were Mother Mary John Cahill, Sister Mary de Sales O'Brien, Sister Mary Baptist de Lacy, Sister Mary Xavier Williams (still a novice) and Sister Mary Lawrence Cator.

Mother Mary John Mary de Sales Sister Mary Xavier Cahill O'Brien Williams The 'Francis Spaight' left Gravesend on August 18, 1838 and on December 31 entered Sydney harbour; on deck were five Sisters of Charity for whom the long journey to an unknown land was drawing to an end. They were welcomed by Bishop Polding, Bishop of Sydney, Judge Therry (a cousin of Sister Francis de Sales O'Brien) and the Attorney General, John Hubert Plunkett, the pupils of St. Mary's School and a large crowd of interested Protestants and Catholics who had never seen a nun before.

On New Year's Day in 1839 there was a capacity congregation in St. Mary's Cathedral for the High Mass of Thanksgiving for the safe arrival of Bishop Ullathorne, Vicar-General, three priests, three ecclesiastical students and five Sisters of Charity. Receptive minds and hearts would have been attuned to the eulogy preached by Dr. Ullathorne in the rich rhetoric of the day. He likened the Sisters to Angels who are drawn to earth because in Heaven there is no misery, and the God they love is merciful and compassionate. Similarly the Sisters had left their friends, families, religious family and the Ireland they loved because they saw Christ suffering in his members in Australia.

Yet even on the voyage to Australia, there was a hint of future difficulties with the hierarchy. The Vicar General, Ullathorne, who accompanied the sisters on their voyage, tried to convince them to change from their Ignatian rule and even went so far as to replace Mother John Cahill as superior.

The Sydney diocese, under its leader Bishop Polding, was fast becoming a Benedictine enclave and such a change would not only have served this purpose, but also given the hierarchy authority over the religious community as such. The resistance by the sisters to this interference reflects their personal strength, solid spiritual formation, clear understanding of their canonical position and complete confidence in Mary Aikenhead's trust in them.

The first task of the Sisters was to bring Christian love into one of the worst remnants of an evil system - a gaol in which up to eight hundred women lived in degradation and misery. Despite their difficulties in obtaining adequate accommodation in Parramatta, the Sisters’ work seemed to bring them instant acceptance. Dr. Polding wrote to Archbishop Murray in Ireland in March 1839 that within three weeks, an almost miraculous change had taken place in a gaol that seemed full of hopeless misery, resentment and despair.

In April 1840 the Sisters moved into St. Mary's Convent, Parramatta, built on land given to them by a staunch friend and benefactor Mr. William Davis, a fervent Catholic who had been transported for making pikes for the Irish rebels of 1898. The laity admired and respected the Sisters, and the Governor, Sir George Gipps, showed respect and readiness to assist, sanctioning their work in visiting gaols, hospitals and schools and granting their first request to establish a laundry and sewing rooms where the convict women could be employed.

Despite the joy of their welcome and their heroic zeal under difficulties, the Sisters of Charity were finding their loyalty to their Irish Constitutions and traditions challenged by their ecclesiastical superiors, particularly by Abbot Gregory, the new Vicar General. They came to rely on the Catholic laity to support them in a new land. In the heart of Sydney in 1840, their friend and benefactor, Mr William Davis, helped them to settle in Burdekin Terrace in College Street opposite Hyde Park. They soon became involved in the work of the Cathedral parish. They visited the poor and sick, gave religious instruction in the six Catholic schools in Sydney, conducted classes in needlework and provided evening classes for adults. Three times a week the Sisters visited Darlinghurst Gaol and the Sydney Infirmary (later Sydney Hospital) in Macquarie Street.

Mother Gertrude Davis, a niece of William Davis, left a description of the historic procession on the 25th August, 1840 from St. Mary's Cathedral for the laying of the foundation stone of St. Patrick's, Church Hill. In the procession of about twenty thousand people, she describes the six hundred children, marching behind a cross being carried by an aboriginal boy. As the description of the ceremony was doubtless included in letters to the Irish Congregation, Mother Mary Aikenhead would have noted that a black boy carried the banner and its inscription echoed her words in sending with the Sisters to Australia a Crucifix whereon the figure was that of a Black Christ. (This black Crucifix is still preserved at Potts Point). Their foundress used the gift to emphasise that the Sisters must present Christ to the black inhabitants of their land as their Brother and Saviour.

Despite the enthusiasm of the people for the work of the Sisters and the heroism of the pioneer Sisters working under extremely hard conditions, the early years of the Congregation were beset with difficulties.

In 1842, the diocese of Hobart was separated from Sydney; Dr. Polding was appointed the first Archbishop of Sydney. While in Rome in 1842 Bishop Polding had obtained a Rescript formally stating what was needed due to distance from Ireland, that the Australian Congregation of the Sisters of Charity was canonically separated from the Irish Congregation. This was known in Ireland but the Sisters in Australia were ignorant of the fact until 1846 when Abbot Gregory, going beyond his legitimate authority, had the Rescript posted on the Chapel door as he assumed the authority of Head Superior of the Australian Congregation.

Existing tensions escalated into a crisis during which three of the original band of five pioneer missionaries felt impelled to leave the Sydney Archdiocese. So, in June 1847, in response to pleas from Bishop Willson of Hobart, Sisters John Cahill, de Sales O'Brien and Xavier Williams set sail aboard the ‘Louisa’ and arrived in Hobart where they were warmly welcomed by the Catholics of the diocese. On July 2, the sisters moved into the residence next to St Joseph's church where they were to remain for over a century.

The ministry of the Congregation in Tasmania was blessed in having the warm support of Bishop Willson and his vicar Father Hall, and it prospered accordingly. In August 1847, they opened St Joseph's school, later described by the state Director of Education:

"There were two thoroughly efficient schools in Tasmania; one was the Central School. The other was that conducted by the nuns in Hobart town."

In 1879, St Joseph's Orphanage was established by Mother Xavier Williams. St Vincent's Hospital Launceston was blessed and opened in 1944.

But the congregation itself struggled to grow in numbers. The first two novices died within a short time after their entrance in 1849. It was not until twenty years later that Eliza Hall, daughter of Dr Edward Hall, a Catholic doctor at the Colonial hospital visited by the sisters, entered the Sisters of Charity. As Sister Agnes Hall, she was to live and minister in Tasmania until just before her hundredth birthday (1934).

Cut off from both Sydney and Dublin, the Sisters began the Tasmanian branch of the Congregation with Mother John Cahill as Superior. After twenty-five years of heroic ministry in Australia, she died on April 13, 1864. In 1871 the second of the pioneers Sister de Sales O'Brien, highly cultured and educated in France, died, leaving a wonderful legacy of commitment to the Australian congregation.

Despite the restriction of numbers, Mother Xavier Williams' faith was unshakeable. For two years she negotiated to restore the unity of the Hobart and Sydney communities and the crowning joy of her long life was to be alive to see the amalgamation of the Sydney and Hobart communities approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1890. Years later in 1972, in telling their story and thanking God that the work of the Sisters of Charity had gone on "in an unbroken golden line" in Tasmania, Archbishop Young assured the twentieth century Sisters of Charity that they were heirs of divine and wonderful gifts because of their noble pioneer Sisters in the Faith - "and not only the divine gifts", he added, "but also the lovely human ones - concern, friendship, interest and loyalty" which makes their friendship and co-operation in the work of the Diocese a joy and benediction for all who come in contact with them.

By the time of her death on March 8, 1892, Mother Xavier Williams saw the Tasmanian community grow to sixteen members. During a life covering most of the nineteenth century, she had seen the growth of the Irish Congregation, the pioneer days in Sydney and had endured the painful separation of the Sydney and Tasmanian branches of the Congregation. But she had faced all these trials with the dauntless courage befitting the daughter of a Captain in the Light Dragoons who had died in the Peninsula War against Napoleon. With similar courage his missionary daughter fought in Christ's army, enduring suffering of mind and body, sowing in Hobart the seeds of a future rich spiritual harvest.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, the sisters suffered their own trials. One key example was the treatment by the hierarchy of Mother Baptist de Lacy, one of the pioneer sisters. St Vincent's Hospital was always intended for all, regardless of creed, so the committee had agreed to provide 'Protestant' bibles for use by non-Catholic patients. A Catholic chaplain's complaint to the Archbishop created havoc for Mother Baptist de Lacy, rectress of the hospital, and ultimately led to her decision to return to Ireland. In June 1859, she sailed on the 'Star of Peace' and was warmly welcomed by Mother Francis Magdalen, Mary Aikenhead's successor as Superior General and the sisters of the Irish congregation. For the next twenty years, she ministered to the poor in Dublin until her death in 1878. She is buried near Mary Aikenhead in the cemetery in St Mary's Convent, Donnybrook.

In Sydney, the continuing pressure upon them to replace their Ignatian spirituality and constitutions with the Benedictine took its toll. Ultimately, in February 1857, Mother Scholastica Gibbons agreed to assist Archbishop Polding to found a new congregation based on Benedictine spirituality. This group was known first as the 'Institute of the Good Shepherd', later as 'Institute of the Good Samaritan'. They were trained by Mother Scholastica until 1876 when she decided it was time for them to elect their own superior. She then returned to her own congregation and ministered with the Hobart community for the next nine years. On a visit to Sydney, the Good Samaritan sisters begged her to return to live with them. She agreed, but until her death, she remained a Sister of Charity.