Frederica Law Became First “Sister of Color” of the Missionary Franciscans
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Thursday, February 5, 2004 FEATURE Southern Cross,Page 3 Frederica Law became first “sister of color” of the Missionary Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception hough life was somewhat austere at the Industrial School for Colored Children at Harrisonville Tnear Augusta, many of the pupils who attended the Franciscan Sisters’ boarding school there later remembered it with affection. Frederica Law, one of the students who shared the sisters’ Spartan life and living conditions at the school, was so impressed by her teachers’ efforts that she went on to join their order. Said by one source to have been Articles of Agreement born into slavery, Frederica Law The sisters’ duties at the boarding school of Savannah ventured to included more than teaching. They were to . Harrisonville in the late repair the ramshackle buildings, till the soil and 1870s to study under Mother milk a cow owned by the community. Mary Ignatius Hayes, Somewhere—between farm upkeep and mainte- foundress of the Missionary nance—they were to find time and energy to Franciscan Sisters of the teach the young girls attending their boarding Immaculate Conception. school, among whom was future Franciscan Fre- In the Shadow of His Wings In the Shadow English by birth and former- derica Law. The children’s daily regimen at the , Rita H. DeLorme OSF ly an Anglican nun, Mother boarding school was set out in the “Articles of Ignatius (nee Elizabeth Hayes) converted to Agreement” written by Bishop Gross and signed Catholicism, embraced the penitential life style by Mother Ignatius. Students were to attend of Saint Francis and—founding her own order— daily Mass, followed by instruction in household took a vow of dedication to the foreign missions duties such as washing, ironing, cooking and in addition to vows of poverty, chastity and obe- mending, which—in Bishop Gross’ words— dience. ”form the daily occupation of women.” Ministry to African Americans Additionally, again in the bishop’s words, stu- Pursuing her missionary calling, Mother dents were to be given “a simple and plain Photos from Sr. from Photos Mary Assumpta Ahles, Ignatius Hayes traveled to various places English schooling”. Sister Frederica Law, MFIC throughout the world before settling her order in Feeling the call Belle Prairie, Minnesota in 1873. With her work While under the Sisters’ tutelage, young records the Sisters have. I do know that my prospering there, Mother Ignatius began to con- Frederica Law felt the call to join their order. In wife’s grandmother, Mrs. Katie Campbell (nee sider the plight of the deprived and underprivi- her book, In the Shadow of His Wings, author Harris), also attended the school in Augusta. It’s leged freed slave population of the American Sister Mary Assumpta Ahles, OFM, describes possible that Zeline’s mother who is ninety-two south. By 1878, the Franciscan foundress and Law in a footnoted entry as “an intelligent and may recall something about her aunt or about several other members of her community were virtuous young woman who was interested in her own mother, Katie Campbell, who went to directing their missionary ministry toward the becoming a Religious—a Franciscan Religious.” school in Augusta, but it isn’t likely.” Photos of African Americans on the Isle of Hope and When Mother Ignatius succeeded in formally both Sister Benedict of the Angels and of Katie Skidaway Island in Savannah. The Sisters establishing her order in Rome, Frederica Law Harris Campbell, appear in the Franciscan remained at Isle of Hope and Skidaway for only traveled with several other sisters to the Eternal Order’s history compiled by Sister Mary a short time before moving to Augusta to a prop- City to enter the novitiate. Along with another Assumpta Ahles, OSF. erty bought by Mother Ignatius Hayes as postulant, Julie Michaud (Sister M. Margaret) “Boarding house food” “Trustee of the Sisters of the Third Order she received her religious habit as Sister Bene- When asked some years ago about her time Regular of Saint Francis” with the permission of dict of the Angels at the Shrine of the Portiun- at the Augusta boarding school, Zeline Foster’s Bishop William H. Gross of Savannah. cula in Assisi on October 19, 1882. Sister Bene- grandmother, Katie Harris Campbell, told one The Barratt property bought by Mother dict’s life as a religious was to be a brief one. interviewer that the students ate “boarding house Ignatius comprised over seven acres of land with She died on December 30,1883, of an unknown food” which meant that they had “lots of corn several freestanding buildings. Concerning this illness, having made her profession on her bread” and “mush” (corn boiled in water). new locale, Sister Mary Angela, one of Mother deathbed. Campbell added that, as crops came in, this diet Ignatius’ Augusta sisters, later wrote: “We had Savannahian Zeline Foster of Saint Benedict’s was supplemented by various vegetables and three small houses formerly occupied by the parish is the great-great-great niece of Frederica fruits. Reminiscences of Mrs. Campbell, who is Negroes. We took one for our chapel and choir Law, the young African-American woman who now deceased, provide insight into the lives led for the sisters, one for the sisters’ residence and followed her dream of becoming a Franciscan by the Sisters and their charges during the period dormitory, and the other for a school for the Sister to Rome. “We are trying to find out more when Frederica Law (Sister Benedict of the Negroes. For our refrectory, we had only a shed about Sister Benedict,” Fred Foster, husband of Angels) was at Harrisonville. covered with rough boards.” Zeline, says. “What we know is mostly from The author of In the Shadow of His Wings, Sister Redempta, cites the acceptance of Frede- rica Law into the Franciscan Order as proof of TV Mass Schedule Mother Ignatius Hayes’ profound belief in her mission to all people irrespective of race. Fre- derica Law, as the first African-American to join Augusta the Missionary Franciscan Order of the Immacu- Sundays, 10:00 a.m. WAGT-TV late Conception and as the first member of that order to die, embodied her own personal beliefs. Macon Buried in Rome an ocean away from all she Sundays, 5:30 p.m. WGNM-TV knew, youthful Sister Benedict of the Angels became a memorable missionary herself. Savannah Saturdays, 6:00 p.m. Cable 7 RITA H. DELORME is a volunteer Sundays, 5:30 a.m. WTOC-TV in the Diocesan Archives..