RELIGIEUSES DU SACRÉ-COEUR DE JÉSUS OU, AUT RELIGIOSAE SANCTISSIMI CORDIS JESU

12th JUNE: iMMACULATE hEART OF MARY

A little bit of background…

A couple of Links … read below the information presented to learn about the Saints who are

directly associated to what is now Cardinal Newman Catholic School. The information below forms the basis to 12th June, where the Catholic Church Comemorates the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The school was originally a Convent which housed the Sisters from The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Order in France. This Society has its origins to the two Saints described below: St Margaret Mary (Marguerite Marie Alacoque) and St Mary Magdalena Sophia Barat. The History is detailed and I hope I have explained this clearly in the words which follow.

These links provide some background to the very first church community in our Diocese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Sophie_Barat

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Madeleine-Sophie-Barat

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-madeleine-sophie-barat

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=198

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St Margaret Mary (Marguerite Marie Alacoque).

Polio Sufferers, those losing parents

Patron Saint of those suffering with polio, devotees of the Sacred Heart and the loss of parents Born: 22 July 1647 – Died: 17 October 1690. Feast Day: 17 October.

St Mary Magdalena Sophia Barat

Patron Saint of School Girls

St Mary Magdalena Sophia Barat. Born: 12 December 1779 – Died: 25 May 1865.
Feast Day: 25th May (image above)
This stained glass window is located in
the Sacred Heart Chapel (CNCS).

The Society of the Sacred Heart was founded in the turmoil of post-Revolutionary France by Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat. Its history is the story of strong and dedicated women true to the Society’s motto: “One Heart and One Soul in the Heart of Jesus.”

The daughter of a vintner in the wine country southeast of Paris, Madeleine Sophie Barat was educated beyond the norms of her contemporaries, making her well-suited for leadership of a religious community dedicated to prayer and education. In Paris, on November 21, 1800, at the age of twenty, she and three other young women consecrated themselves to “make known the revelation of God’s love.” Centered in personal and communal prayer, they set out to give young women a classical education – not common then – and to offer religious studies and practical skills. They began to call themselves the Society of the Sacred Heart.

In 1806, Mother Barat (women religious took the name Mother or Sister in addition to their family name), was elected superior general. During her 65-year leadership, the Society of the Sacred Heart grew to include over 3500 members, expanded to the Americas, and broadened its educational mission. Madeleine Sophie Barat was canonised in 1925.

THE VERY BEGINNING

Once they had become real religious by receiving the habit of their Vocation, the Sisters of Saint-Jacut thought only of carrying out their charitable mission to the best of their ability, and confided to providential growth of the little tree they had planted. There was nothing more edifying than this community, whose members devoted all their time to work and prayer, helping each other as much as their individual tasks allowed.

Postulants soon began to flock in, and at last a time came when the Sisters could give a satisfactory reply to the parishes asking for new teachers. It was in 1839 that they founded their first establishment at Saint-Congard (north-western France). A second one was founded in Peillac in 1842, then two others in 1846 – one in Caden and one in Saint Gorgon. According to the aims of their Institution, each of these establishments counted one Sister to visit the sick, one or two to teach in school and sometimes a lay Sister for their material needs. From that time up to 1880, new foundations for convents and schools were formed fairly regularly as it were, year after year, though sometimes the establishment of new foundations had to be postponed for lack of sisters. To obtain more members, they had recourse to prayer and had made sacrifices. They went on pilgrimages to the Chapel of Our Lady of Pont d’Arz, which was a simple and prayerful Oratory situated on the bank of a river about half a mile away from the convent. It was a place filled with the prayer of generations for four or five centuries.

The origins to the site of Cardinal Newman School (CNCS), The Upper Drive, City of Brighton and Hove: The Nuns of the RSCJ themselves supervised the building work and were responsible for the landscaping of the site and the planting of the trees that adorn the school today. The sisters followed the order of the “RSCJ” which is short for “Religieuses du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus.” Latin: ”Religiosae Sanctissimi Cordis Jesu.” English “The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” The Building work in Hove started in 1870 and the Convent of the Sacred Heart and School were opened in 1872. The Chapels Foundation Stone was laid in March 1879. It was named the Sacred Heart Convent.

The reason this French order decided to take their establishments world-wide was that in the late 19th century, the French Republic Government through its stance towards Anticlericalism, brought in crippling taxes on all Orders of Convents and Monasteries. This forced the Society of the Sacred Heart to take their educational establishments’ world-wide. Two of the Saints commemorated in the Chapel.

The first Saint shown in the reredo is St Margaret Mary (Marguerite Marie Alacoque). She was the most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form of what it is known today. She was a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Mary, who claimed to have received apparitions of Jesus Christ in the Burgundian French village of Paray-le Monia between December 1779 – 25 May 1865. She was the founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ), a worldwide religious Institute of Educators. We celebrate her Feast Day on 25 May.

It was not until 1966 when the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Hove was sold by the RCSJ. The De La Salle Brothers took over from the Convent. It became known as the De La Salle School. It was run as a private school up until they moved out in 1971. In 1971, it became a Comprehensive School and was renamed to what it is known today, Cardinal Newman Catholic School (CNCS). Next year, we celebrate 150 years since the RSCJ Convent was opened at this site in Hove.
St Madeleine Sophie Barat, R.S.C.J.

The picture of the stainglass window (above, middle image) shows an image of this Saint Barat as found in the Cardinal Newman Chapel. She had a great interest in the education of young ladies, and on 21 November 1800 she entered the religious life. In 1801, she went to Amiens to found the first School and Convent of her new congregation of Nuns, the RSCJ was founded by her in 1801. It was in 1826 with the approval of Pope Leo XII that the Society of the Sacred Heart was formally established. She remained Superior General of the Society from 1806 until her death in 1865. She was Canonised in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart has been in the Liturgical Calendar since 1856, which was established by Pope Pius IX. It was made obligatory for the whole Church.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus from the RSCJ Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Give me a heart that is one with your own;
A humble heart that knows and loves its nothingness;
A gentle heart that holds and calms its own anxiety;
A loving heart that has compassion for the suffering of others;
A pure heart that recoils even at the appearance of evil;
A detached heart that longs for nothing other than the goodness of heaven;
A heart detached from self-love and embraced by the love of God,
Its attention focused on God, Its goodness its only treasure in time and in eternity.

God hears the cry of the poor

Throughout history, God always hears the cry of those who suffer most. The Industrial Revolution in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century brought riches to very few, but misery to thousands of the people who lived during that time.

The roots of our congregation originated in the poorest part of Paris in October 1866. At that time, thousands of young workers migrated to the city in search of employment, leaving behind the poverty of rural France.

Among those chosen by God to respond to the cry of this ‘invisible’ workforce was Peter Victor Braun who came from the small military town of St. Avold, near the German border. A few years later he, moved to “downtown” Paris. Here he reached out to the migrant workers, many of whom came from his home province of Alsace Lorraine. Father Braun soon began to understand the terrible difficulties the young female workers suffered when they found themselves suddenly unemployed, unemployable or even living on the streets.

With the help of a small group of local women, he set up a hostel catering for the basic needs of those women migrant workers where all were sure to find a friendly face. He also came across young mothers who were hopelessly in debt, having to care single-handedly for their young children. For the children he started an orphanage so that the mothers could carry on earning.

Father Braun also put in place a scheme to help the poor who fell ill, both men and women, who had no hope of receiving any form of medical attention. Some of his new helpers would tend the sick in their slum dwellings. Care of the poor in their homes began a long time ago….

In October 1866 Father Braun began a process of discernment to see where the Holy Spirit was calling him at this period in his life. Though he later described himself as a reluctant founder, he became increasingly aware that God was calling him to do something new in the church during this time. And so he named his first three dedicated helpers as the core group of what would become a new congregation of women religious in the church. Because of his deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus he named them the Servants of the Sacred Heart.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War

The sudden outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in the summer of 1870 brought about a change of direction for the Servants of the Sacred Heart. The German sisters had to return to Germany and both British and French, escaped to England. Shortly after their safe arrival in the UK, a larger group followed together with their traumatised founder, Victor Braun, who just returned from the war-front. Cardinal Manning welcomed the young sisters and offered them a refuge in a house close to the newly built church in Stratford. Soon the sisters were replicating their good works in London’s East End, where they were providing for working-class families as those they had so recently set up in Paris. Victor Braun later returned to Paris.

By the end of the nineteenth century the English branch of the Servants of the Sacred Heart had increased in number and their mission had spread to some Welsh and Scottish mining towns where the nursing sisters set up clinics and small local hospitals. Other sisters taught in Parish Schools, while all of the sisters visited the sick, the poor and the needy in the parishes during their weekends.

There was an increasing divergence of vision between the sisters in London and those in administration in Paris. Then in 1902, on the advice of Cardinal Vaughan of Westminster, most of the sisters (117 in all) of the English province of the Servants of the Sacred Heart became a new and separate congregation under the leadership of Sister Winifride Tyrrell who we recognise as co-founder of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (the new name chosen for the congregation). For many years Sister Winifride had been the Head teacher of Guardian Angels’ School in London’s Mile End. At the same time (approximately) the sisters who had to return to Germany and Austria also formed an independent congregation.

History of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Congregation in England chose to establish it’s Mother House in Chigwell, Essex in south-east England on March 5th 1903. They became known locally as the Chigwell sisters.

The purpose of our congregation is to bring the love and compassion of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus to all those whom they meet.

(indeed a lovely quote in itself, something to live by)

In the first half of the twentieth century the Chigwell Sisters spread rapidly responding to the needs of the poor in various parts of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and The Outer Hebrides; then later to Cork in Ireland and Cardiff in Wales. New convents opened also in smaller towns and rural areas. Our principal ministries were in education, nursing, pastoral care, protection and care of the unmarried mother and persons with special needs.

In the 1950’s new initiatives and invitations (through the Bishops of the Church) called them to California and Zambia where small groups of sisters shared the charism and mission of our congregation. They worked in education, hospitals and rural clinics which still continue today under the management of Parishes, other Religious congregations or Government authorities.

Responding to the call of the then Pope John Paul II (1990) to “live in solidarity with the suffering peoples of Latin America” a small group of sisters established a new mission in El Salvador, then still in a civil war. Around the same time we began a new initiative of collaboration with sisters of the Victor Braun Federation in Bogota, Colombia. Both these Latin American countries are still scarred by continued violence and poverty.

By the year 2000 the congregation had spread to four continents, most recently to Asia, in Cebu, the “jewel of The Philippines”. There they continue our work with the poorest of the poor.

In 2001 our first Ugandan home-based care programme for people with HIV/AIDS was started near Kampala. A second foundation in the north of the country brought new hope and practical support to the thousands of displaced Acholi people. They were helped and supported to return to their homes and villages after spending many years in the refugee camp while escaping the horrors of war.

In the UK and Ireland they saw new beginnings in Belfast, Roscrea, Worksop witnessing to their readiness to go forward in hope when called upon to respond to the signs of the times and the needs of the church in a rapidly changing multi-racial and multi-cultural society.

Whilst it has been been neccessary to close some foundatons over the years, our mission moves on with our most recent foundations in Knock, Ireland and Nyumba Yanga, Lusaka.

In 2003, the three congregations (centred in Chigwell, Versailles and Vienna) have come together in a new and special way to form the Victor Braun Federation. These three congregations who share a single founder also share a single charism and spirituality. In 2016 we celebrated 150 years of service of love.

(summary)

Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat
Sainte Madeleine-Sophie founded the Sacred Heart Society in 1800. Seized by the love of Christ and the desire to make him known throughout the world, it creates a new apostolic life, between interiority and union with the Heart of Jesus. She is dedicated to the education of young girls and works to give women a leading role in the reconstitution of the social and ecclesial fabric.

A Burgundian and a woman with an unusual culture
Madeleine-Sophie was a Burgundian, born on December 13, 1779, in a family of copper craftsmen. She was the last of three children. Louis, the eldest, born in 1768, was destined for the Church. His projects were postponed by the Revolution. After much difficulty, he was ordained a priest clandestinely in September 1795 and entered the Society of Jesus, when it was re-established under the Restoration. The second, Marie-Louise, married in 1793: she had ten children.

Thanks to her mother who was interested in the cultural fashions of the time, but especially to her brother Louis who, while waiting to be ordained a priest, was a professor at the college of Joigny, Sophie received an exceptional education for a young girl of her time. She was introduced to secular and religious subjects and learned ancient and modern languages. Begun in Joigny, her training continued, under the direction of Louis, in Paris, where she arrived in the autumn of 1875.

A woman with a lively faith, a foundress
Pious, the young Sophie, from childhood, decided to consecrate herself to God. His family was like many in Joigny, Jansenist. Under the influence of Louis, at the extreme end of the reign of Louis XVI, Madeleine-Sophie Barat was deeply marked by the Revolution, in which she still saw a regime which, by disorganizing and then forbidding worship, hindering the teaching of the faith and chasing priests, had wanted to attack the rights of God. She suffered, like her entire family, from the fate of Louis Barat. After retracting his oath of fidelity to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1792, Louis was incarcerated in Paris and miraculously escaped the guillotine, thanks to the fall of Robespierre.

Under the Directory, Sophie Barat began, in prayer, to envisage a new female congregation which, in order to honor the Heart of Christ and to spread the love of God, would dedicate itself to the education of young women. This project took shape thanks to Father Varin whom his brother Louis made him meet around 1800. Joseph Varin told him about a recently founded congregation, the “Dilette di Jesu”, which had goals close to his own.
On 21 Nov. 1800 Sophie Barat took her first vows in Paris. The following year the apostolic activity of the new institute began with the establishment of a first boarding school for young girls in Amiens.

In 1804, for political reasons, the house of Amiens separated from the “Dilette di Jesu”. In the same year, Madeleine-Sophie Barat had been designated superior of the Ladies of Christian Instruction, the name that was that of the congregation until 1815, since it was impossible to refer to the Sacred Heart, understood, since the wars of Vendée, as a counter-revolutionary symbol.

As the new congregation began to spread, Sophie Barat was appointed Superior General in 1806, a position she was to hold until her death. From now on, madeleine-Sophie’s story merges with that of her congregation.

The Founder travels through France, then Europe. She founded new communities. It defines the activities through which his congregation will manifest itself in the world to give substance to the desire to discover and manifest the love of the Heart of Christ. Boarding schools and free schools are open. Then various establishments adapted to the needs of the time or local societies are created by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Mother Barat also organizes the work of “retreats”, offering spiritual accompaniment to married and unmarried women. Throughout her life, she mobilized energies, supported the efforts of the nuns with a giant correspondence.

A woman with a lively faith, a foundress
Pious, the young Sophie, from childhood, decided to consecrate herself to God. His family was like many in Joigny, Jansenist. Under the influence of Louis, at the extreme end of the reign of Louis XVI, Madeleine-Sophie Barat was deeply marked by the Revolution, in which she still saw a regime which, by disorganizing and then forbidding worship, hindering the teaching of the faith and chasing priests, had wanted to attack the rights of God. She suffered, like her entire family, from the fate of Louis Barat. After retracting his oath of fidelity to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1792, Louis was incarcerated in Paris and miraculously escaped the guillotine, thanks to the fall of Robespierre.

Under the Directory, Sophie Barat began, in prayer, to envisage a new female congregation which, in order to honor the Heart of Christ and to spread the love of God, would dedicate itself to the education of young women. This project took shape thanks to Father Varin whom his brother Louis made him meet around 1800. Joseph Varin told him about a recently founded congregation, the “Dilette di Jesu”, which had goals close to his own.
On 21 Nov. 1800 Sophie Barat took her first vows in Paris. The following year the apostolic activity of the new institute began with the establishment of a first boarding school for young girls in Amiens.

In 1804, for political reasons, the house of Amiens separated from the “Dilette di Jesu”. In the same year, Madeleine-Sophie Barat had been designated superior of the Ladies of Christian Instruction, the name that was that of the congregation until 1815, since it was impossible to refer to the Sacred Heart, understood, since the wars of Vendée, as a counter-revolutionary symbol.

As the new congregation began to spread, Sophie Barat was appointed Superior General in 1806, a position she was to hold until her death. From now on, madeleine-Sophie’s story merges with that of her congregation.

The Founder travels through France, then Europe. She founded new communities. It defines the activities through which his congregation will manifest itself in the world to give substance to the desire to discover and manifest the love of the Heart of Christ. Boarding schools and free schools are open. Then various establishments adapted to the needs of the time or local societies are created by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Mother Barat also organizes the work of “retreats”, offering spiritual accompaniment to married and unmarried women. Throughout her life, she mobilized energies, supported the efforts of the nuns with a giant correspondence.

Sainte Rose-Philippine Duchesne: Called to reach new frontiers

Saint Rose-Philippine Duchesne, who became a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 1801, gave the congregation its missionary dimension. It brings together the first community of the Sacred Heart on the American continent. As schools multiply, she realizes her dream: to go and live among potowatomi children (PopeFrancis would say today to go to the borders). She is nicknamed by the Indians “the woman who always prays”.

“Who is Philippine for us? A courageous, sensitive woman, a religious of deep prayer, a friend of poverty and simplicity, a daughter loyal to the Church even in suffering, a pioneer of the future who dared to go where few others had been before her.

What strikes me most, personally, is his ability to respond vigorously to difficult events and times, to accept and love a totally new and different country, a brand new way of life, to enter wholeheartedly into another culture, another language, another system of values, to appreciate them, to integrate them.

(Letter from H. McLaughlin, Superior General, Sacred Heart Religious Communities, May 1, 1987)

“The example you set when you left Europe to do the first settlement in America is still powerful enough to engage many others to follow it. God be blessed! I am a little surprised to learn that now you are asking to leave Missouri to go to the savages. But when we love God we never say: “enough is enough”. If I didn’t know you, I would say: it’s too much, but no, I know you enough and I tell you: “GO, follow your attraction, or rather, the way of God. He will be with you. Please bless you.”

(Rosati, the new Bishop of Louisiana, in Philippine, 1841)

“We are called to reach new frontiers: to go out, to embark as a Society of the Sacred Heart and with others, to the new geographical and existential peripheries to accompany the life being born, to defend justice, peace and the integrity of creation in response to all those who seek meaning in their lives, those who have been injured, displaced and excluded by poverty, violence and environmental degradation.

The Society of the Sacred Heart was founded in France by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat in 1800. Today, over two thousand Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) serve in 41 different countries around the world. They were sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus. In Him all find their true growth as persons and the way towards reconciliation with one another
They participate in the mission of the Church through the service of education.

history about the diocese of arundel & brighton