Our birthday

girls this

week are:

Mary Curtin 6 December

Angelus Cleary 8 December

ST PAUL’S POST St Paul’s Province Weekly Newsletter: 107 3 December 2018

Lord, bless us this Advent

as a people awake

to what you ask of us. Amen

Lord, you call us to be alert

to the signs of the times.

Lord, you call us to be watchful

as you make yourself known in prayer,

in other people and in your creation.

Elmleigh had their Christmas Fayre on

Friday. The proceeds were for St

Gemmas Hospice in their 40th Year.

Kerry Jackson (CEO) came,

accompanied by her mother, and

spoke about St Gemmas.

The Fayre raised £750.

Relatives/friends of Sisters:

Marguerita’s brother, Pat;

Damian’s brother, Brendan;

Anna Hainey’s brother, Danny;

Eily May’s brothers, Tade & Jack, and her sister, Mary Philomena White;

Lisa Greer, daughter of Sue Rix;

Lorraine’s Mum, Mary;

Francis’ niece-in-law, Val McCartan

and Francis’ brother, Austin;

Kathleen Doran’s niece-in-law, Kerry;

The father of Sr Mary Ann (USA), who is unwell;

Mary Curtin’s niece, Breed;

Joanna Jackson, former sister & sister-in-law to Teresa Jackson;

Berney O’Grady, who is seriously ill;

Rosaleen’s cousin, Eileen Greene;

Julie Thompson & her daughter, Danielle;

Alex Kelly, Cecilia Wilkinson’s nephew.

Our Sisters:

Olcan Watt

Cephas Wearden

Evelyn Wilson

Brigid Mary Wright

Margaret Collins

Carmel Comerford

Mary Sloan

CORRECTION: Please pray for Cecilia Foley’s two brothers: Michael, who has been ill for

some time, and Tony, who has been admitted to hospital.

(My apologies to both Cecilia Foley & Cecilia Wilkinson for the confusion in last week’s Post—

Michael and Tony are brothers to Cecilia Foley and not Cecilia Wilkinson!)

Anne Taylor and Carmel Gorman were

part of the large crowd gathered at St

Gemma’s for the LIGHT UP A LIFE

Ceremony. Families gathered to light a

light in memory of those who had died

during the year. Lights were lit for Julie by

the Elmleigh Community, Julie’s London

cousins and Anne Taylor.

Wednesday 28th November was my last day of volunteering at the Destitution Project

Drop-In. Sister Barbara has been unable to attend for some time now. As many of you

will know, this is held in Victoria Hall, the Methodist Church in Bolton town centre.

Just before lunch, as everyone was gathering (asylum seekers and volunteers, about 100

in all), Rev Paul Martin, the Methodist Minister arrived. He was well able to project his

voice above the hubbub and get everyone’s attention. He explained that I was leaving

and he wanted to thank myself and Sister Barbara, in her absence, for all the help we

have given in so many ways to asylum seekers and refugees for the best part of 20

years. Not only had we been present with people needing help, but we had been able

to encourage support from others, both financial and otherwise, in aid of the Project.

Rev Paul stressed that our motivation was a sense of Mission, love of God and of all

God’s people, especially those on the margins of society.

I was then presented with gifts, in particular a framed photograph of all our volunteers

and a lovely watercolour of Rivington Pike, painted for me by Diane, who does art work

with all who want to join in.

However, although I was the one to receive gifts, Rev Paul’s words were a tribute of

appreciation not only for myself and Sister Barbara but for all our Sisters, individually

and corporately, who have supported and continue to support this project. So a BIG

THANK YOU to you all.

Sister Christine

Like St Paul of the Cross, Father Ignatius Spencer found that his noble lineage opened doors to

popes, prelates and princes. Hence, as he crossed Austria, pleading for prayers for the Conversion

of England, he could record in his Diary on 7 September 1856, ‘Saw Comte Stuart and family,

Pressburg’. On the following day he wrote, ‘After supper two hours with Comtesse Stuart’ and on 9

September he wrote, ‘From 9.30 two hours with the Stuart Ladies’. Who were these Stuart Ladies?

Bonnie Prince Charlie, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, had a son. When this son grew up, he had two

sons: the older, John Sobieski Stuart, and the younger, Charles Edward Stuart. This Charles Edward

Stuart married a young widow, Anne Gardiner, previously Anne

Beresford, daughter of the Rt Hon John de la Poer Beresford, brother of

the first Marquis of Waterford. In 1826, at the invitation of the Earl of

Moray, the two Stuart brothers with Charles Edward’s wife and family

went to live at Milton Brodie near Forres in the Highlands of Scotland. In

1829 they moved to Logie House, Forres.

Charles Edward and Anne already had three children, great-

grandchildren of Bonnie Prince

Charlie: Marie Stuart, Charles Edward

Stuart and Louisa Sobieski Stuart.

Their fourth, Clementina Stuart, was

born, according to our Records, in 1830 in Scotland, probably

therefore at Logie House.

In 1838 Lord Lovat gave them the beautiful Island of Eilean Aigas

near Beauly, on the River Beauly, where they built a wooden

lodge.

They were all

highly educated and attended Mass at the

Catholic church in Eskadale. Eventually, their

uncle and father were also buried here, as

indicated by the Celtic Memorial Cross, John

Sobieski Stuart in 1872 and Charles Edward

Stuart in 1880, after dying on a steamer while returning from a holiday in Biarritz.

They all remained at Eilean Aigas until 1845, when John Sobieski Stuart married. Then they went to

live in Austria, where the younger Charles Edward Stuart served in the Austrian Imperial Army and

it was in Austria that Father Ignatius Spencer met them in 1856.

Their friendship continued, for on 13 July 1863 Marie Stuart wrote to Father Ignatius:

My sister and I have been thinking again, lately, of the subject on which I once wrote to you

before, of a convent life. My dear father is averse to our trying it at present, and we wish to take

only your advice, leaving everything in God’s hands….. I shall never forget, my dear Father, the

impression it made on me, when first I heard of your Order, when first I saw the Sacred Heart on

your robe….. Pray recommend us to the prayers of the dear Sisters of the Holy Family [future Cross

Why did St Paul of the Cross pray for England? Watch this space!

PART 12: FATHER IGNATIUS SPENCER & MARIE & CLEMENTINA STUART

Logie House, Forres, probable birthplace of Sr

Ignatius Stuart

The house is the white building. There is a No Trespassing sign

at the top of the lane leading to it.

and Passion Sisters]. I long to hear again of them. When you have time to spare, dear Father, do

send us one of the little ‘Memorials’ for the Conversion of England.

According to his Diary, Father Ignatius Spencer wrote a long letter to Marie Stuart on 6 August 1864,

only two months before he died on 1 October 1864.

Clementina entered the novitiate at Holy Cross Convent, Sutton, St Helens on 1 June 1865. She

received the Habit there from Father Bernardine Carosi CP on 21 November 1865 with the name,

Sister Mary Ignatius and she made her Vows, taking the devotion of Jesus Crucified, before Bishop

William Turner of Salford, in Pilkington Street Convent, Bolton, Lancashire on 21 November 1867.

By then Father Ignatius Paoli CP was looking after the Sisters’ affairs, especially in Rome where their

Rule was being scrutinised for final approval. In 1870, however, he was appointed Bishop of

Nicopolis in Bulgaria. He immediately told Rev Mother Mary Margaret Chambers that he wished to

take the Sisters there, too. In 1872 he wrote to say he was founding a college and a cathedral and

the Sisters appointed to join him should learn French, Italian and German. Such a request

guaranteed that Sister Ignatius Stuart would be one of them! On 4 September 1873 she, the

American Sister Anne Joachim Flanagan and the Irish Sister Agatha Kenny went to pray at the grave

of their Foundress, Mother Mary Joseph (Elizabeth Prout) and then left for Bulgaria via France and

Austria. Marie Stuart, who never married, had died at Beaumanoir on the Loire on 22 August 1873,

only thirteen days before Sister Ignatius Stuart left England.

The Sisters arrived in Routschouk, now Ruse, by 14 January 1874 and were soon teaching in the

school and doing parish visitation. Two years later, however, the Turkish War broke out, during

which the Bulgarian Atrocities against Christians forced the Sisters to flee. They went to Bucharest

(nowadays the capital of Romania), where Bishop Ignatius Paoli and Brother Alphonsus Zeegers CP

built the Cathedral, and then he transferred them to Craiova. They were doing extremely well there

with a school for more than a hundred poor children and numbers of postulants and novices, some

of whom were already teachers. Sister Anne Joachim died in 1883, however, and in the next year or

so their numbers were divided between Craiova and Braila and a return to Roustschouk.

Nevertheless, when Sister Ignatius returned to England in 1885 to give a report to the General

Chapter it was received with joy and approval and when she returned to Eastern Europe she took

four postulants with her. Towards the end of the Chapter, however, the capitulars had received

word that Archbishop Ignatius Paoli had died. When Sister Ignatius arrived in Braila she discovered

that the archdiocese had been subdivided and the new bishop there was ordering the Sisters to

leave Braila. Other insurmountable difficulties followed, including the death of Sister Angela Kenny

in 1887, until finally in 1890 the last Sisters were recalled.

Sister Ignatius Stuart had returned in 1887 and been sent to teach in Kilcullen, where her language

and art classes were highly successful. It must have been the only school in Ireland where the pupils

could learn Hungarian!

In 1893, however, Sister Ignatius became unwell and returned to Sutton, St Helens, where she died

of bronchitis on 9 January 1894. Her Requiem Mass was sung by the Passionist Fathers and

Brothers and then she was buried beside the Foundress, Mother Mary Joseph (Elizabeth Prout) in St

Anne’s cemetery beside the Passionist church and monastery.

Her grave is in the far corner

beyond the white stone which

marks where Mother Mary

Joseph (Elizabeth Prout) was

buried before her remains were

exhumed and transferred to the

Shrine of Blessed Dominic Barberi CP, Sutton.

In her subsequent annual letter to the Congregation Rev

Mother Josephine Magee referred to her as dear, revered

and distinguished Sister M Ignatius (Stuart d’Albanie).

Sister M Ignatius’ distinction in the world is well known to

the seniors of the Congregation, she wrote. Her religious

life was one of exemplary piety, zeal and love of God,

beloved by all the Sisters whose happy privilege it was to

have known and, still more, to have lived with her.

What a wonderful response her life had been to the prayers of both St Paul of the Cross and Father

Ignatius Spencer! Sr Dominic Savio CP

The inscription on the lower part of the headstone over the grave