140th Anniversary - Community Day of Thanksgiving
Each year the Congregation celebrates the 7th of January as our Community Day of Thanksgiving, remembering the day in 1884 when the first Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace professed vows at St. Barnabas Cathedral in Nottingham. This year our celebration also marks the beginning of our 140th year as a religious institute. As we commemorate our heritage on this special day, we invite you to join us in reflecting on these words from and about our founding persons.
Mother Evangelista, Manuscript, 1895
Cardinal Manning became interested in the proposed work for girls and regarded it as the want of the age, gave [Mother Clare] much encouragement, and represented the still greater need of such a work in England. ... Accordingly she went to Nottingham and represented the case to his Lordship the Bishop who looked upon it in the same light as did Cardinal Manning.
Bishop Bagshawe, Letter to Mother Clare, December 19, 1883
I am much obliged to you for your offer to come and make a foundation in this Diocese with your Sisters from Knock. ... I hereby accept you and the Sisters you will bring with you for this Diocese.
Mother Evangelista, Manuscript, 1920
While all arrangements were being made Reverend Mother and her companion stayed at the Bishop's guest house quite near to the Cathedral and in this house the Sisters who came over to join her were also lodged.
Bishop Bagshawe, At the profession of the first sisters, January 7, 1884
My dear sisters in Christ, To-day is a great day in your lives, because you are both offering yourselves to God in religious profession, and are doing so in the commencement of a new Institute ... Our Divine Lord is called the Prince of Peace, and He gave peace to his disciples as his special gift, saying ‘Peace be to you.” … To secure this divine peace for ourselves, and to procure its blessings for [others] in the midst of the sin and strife and turmoil and restless anxiety of this modern world, is the object of your institute. The great enemies of peace are impatience and anxiety.”
From Jacob's Ladder: The Rise of a Catholic Community 1848-1943, William Bedford and Michael J. Knight
When the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace first came to Grimsby in 1884, there were only 2 professed members in the Order and the Order itself had yet to be approved by the Vatican. What was lacking in experience and numbers, however, was compensated for by their enthusiasm that the virtues of Faith, Hope and their own brand of Charity would eventually bring peace. These ideals would have to carry them through many great trials.
[Mother Evangelista and Sister Rose Kelly professed vows on the 7th of January in Nottingham. Sisters Joseph Byrne and Austin Moore professed vows on the 30th of January in Grimsby, the first mission of the Institute.]
Mother Evangelista, Manuscript, 1920
Mother Clare herself could not take vows in the new Institute until released by the Holy See from her vows as a Poor Clare. For this purpose and to receive the blessing of our Holy Father on her new Institute she came to Rome with letters of approbation from His Lordship the Bishop of Nottingham and his Eminence Cardinal Manning. On the 18th of May 1884 she was received by the Holy Father and his Holiness blessed herself and the sisters present and to come and released her from her vows as a Poor Clare only to take them anew in the Institute she had begun.
Mother Clare, Letter from Rome, May 1884
My own darling Children, I have just returned from my audience, & such a happy audience-only funny being all alone with the Pope! ... Fancy the Pope held my hands in his all the time I was talking to him- oh when I tell you all he said how rejoiced you will be my own children please God soon we shall meet. Your own fond mother. M.F.C.
Pope Leo XIII, written on an engraving given to Mother Clare, May 1884
I bless you, I bless your order the Sisters of Peace, God will bless and prosper it. I bless your Sisters present and to come.