Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan, A Profound Story of Faith, Hope and Love

MOTHER MARY XAVIER MEHEGAN Foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth and the Academy of Saint Elizabeth among many other important works.

A PROFOUND STORY OF FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE

The Early Years (Part 1)

Mother Xavier, who founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth and the Academy of Saint Elizabeth, once was a young woman much like ourselves.

Catherine Josephine Mehegan was born on February 19th, 1825 to an Irish farmer and his wife.

Catherine was the youngest of a large family and grew up in County Cork. The British, who occupied Ireland at that time, made life very difficult for the Irish people, especially the Catholics. Catholics were forbidden from owning land, it was illegal for a Catholic priest to celebrate Mass, and Catholic parents wouldn’t let their children attend the national schools because they would be forced to take part in Anglican religious instruction, the purpose of which was to separate the children from the Catholic church.

Like many Catholic children, Catherine, her sister Margaret and her brothers were taught in a neighbor’s home. We know that Catherine was bright: she could read, write and do arithmetic, which was all the education that a farmer’s child needed. The children were taught the Catholic faith by their parents. Their mother taught the two girls to sew, to make lace and to do fancy needlework and they used these skills to bring in extra money for their family.

Following her father’s death when Catherine was sixteen, she convinced Margaret that the two of them should slip away and sail to America, where they could earn money to send home to their mother. They sailed from Cobh (pronounced “Cove”) in 1842 when Catherine was merely seventeen and Margaret was nineteen. After a voyage of five months the girls landed in New York and a local priest helped them to find a respectable boarding house and clients for their sewing and needlework.

In time Margaret married and eventually moved to Australia with her husband.

As a young woman Catherine was moved by the plight of the Irish immigrants in New York, especially the many orphaned children. In February 1847 – just three days before her 22nd birthday – Catherine entered the newly established Sisters of Charity of New York and was given the religious name Sister Mary Xavier. In her first ten years Sister Mary Xavier helped to open Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, cared for orphans in Jersey City, taught in an industrial school for girls in Brooklyn, and was sent to Saint Patrick parish in Newark. No one would have guessed that Sister Mary Xavier – quiet, thoughtful, petite and unassuming – would live a long and fruitful life, seeking to serve “God Alone.”

Newark and Madison (Part 2)

The early 19th century was a time much like our own: there was great disparity of wealth and not much of a safety net for poor people. Immigrants were flooding into the United States – but these were Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany who were met with prejudice and hatred, even to the point of violence.

In 1853 the Catholic Diocese of Newark – which encompassed the entire State of New Jersey – was established and James Roosevelt Bayley was appointed its first Bishop. Bishop Bayley was the nephew of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, “Mother Seton” who founded the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Bishop Bayley was concerned for the children of New Jersey – abandoned babies, known as foundlings, were left on doorsteps, many children were orphaned, and he feared that if Catholic children attended the public schools they would lose their faith. Bishop Bayley was determined to have Sisters of Charity in his diocese to care for the foundlings and orphans and to open a Catholic elementary school in each parish. When none of the Sisters of Charity communities could send their Sisters to New Jersey, he found five young women from Newark and Paterson who wished to become Sisters and sent them to the Sisters of Charity in Cincinnati for a year of training.

One of those young women was Margaret Ann O’Neill of Paterson who, as Sister Mary Agnes, would soon become the first Directress of the Academy of Saint Elizabeth.

As the five young Sisters were due to return to Newark, Bishop Bayley asked to “borrow” a few more experienced Sisters of Charity from New York to get the new community started in Newark. It was agreed that those New York Sisters would help Bishop Bayley’s community, but would be free to return to New York in a few years, if they wished. Sister Mary Xavier was appointed the superior of the community in Newark and, fortunately, she and Sister Mary Catherine chose to stay in New Jersey. So, on September 29, 1859, Catherine Mehegan – now called Mother Xavier – founded the Sisters of Charity in Saint Patrick parish in Newark. In their first year the new community cared for foundlings and orphaned children, taught in Saint Patrick School, took care of the sick in their convent, and opened Saint Mary’s Academy for girls. And an additional 21 young women joined their community.

It became clear that Mother Xavier and her Sisters needed more room. Bishop Bayley had relocated Seton Hall College from its original site on our campus to South Orange and then he sold 48 acres of land on this campus to Mother Xavier. On July 2, 1860 Mother Xavier and nine young Sisters traveled to Morris County to establish the new Motherhouse at the foot of the hill overlooking Park Avenue. On that hot day Mother Xavier carried the statue of the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus which had been given to her by the New York Sisters; she brought it to Convent, where it has been treasured for 160 years. Meanwhile, Sister Mary Catherine, now Assistant Mother, and some of the young Sisters remained in Newark to continue the work that had been begun.

Convent Station (Part 3)

The new Motherhouse – known as the Convent of Saint Elizabeth – was located in the largest of the three white houses overlooking Park Avenue; today it is known as Seton House where a dozen Sisters of Charity live.

Mother Xavier and the nine Sisters immediately set to work opening a select school for young ladies and by September 1860 six girls were enrolled as the first students of the Academy of Saint Elizabeth. Sister Mary Agnes O’Neill – one of the five young women who had been trained in Cincinnati – was appointed its first Directress and set about making it one of the finest schools in the area. She held the position of Directress for seventeen years, until her death in 1877 at the age of forty.

These early years were busy ones for the Sisters. In addition to the Academy they opened Saint Joseph’s School for boys, many of whom were the little brothers of the Academy students. The Sisters, the Academy girls and the little boys all shared the Motherhouse. In the first year the community grew to thirty Sisters. There were 29 children in the schools who were taught by three Sisters. The Sisters owned sixty acres of land, two cows, and an old, blind horse and were assisted by one hired man. The Sisters and children were fed by food grown on our farm, where the Sisters planted and harvested the crops. They also carried stones to build the paths and roads on the campus.

The Sisters brought barrels of water carried by a team of oxen borrowed from their neighbors and, because they couldn’t afford gas, they used candles and oil lamps for light.

Almost immediately Mother Xavier had a new building constructed for the Academy, adjacent to the Motherhouse, and in 1862 the 100 girls and their teachers moved into it. From 1865 to 1880 she purchased 225 acres of land, from Park Avenue to the top of the hill near the railroad tracks. Mother Xavier convinced the Lackawanna Railroad to stop at our gates by constructing a small station, building a road from the top of the hill to the station and paying the station master’s salary. In 1876 this part of Madison became known as Convent Station because the train stopped at the gates of our convent.

In addition to the two schools here at Convent, the pastor of Saint Vincent Church in Madison asked Mother Xavier to send Sisters to teach in the school and, until a convent was built in Madison, the Sisters traveled to school each day in a horse-drawn carriage.

Several of the Academy students were affected by the Civil War. In the archives there are letters written by Mary Whelan, later Sister Mary Cecilia, to her father Captain John Whelan who for a time was a prisoner of war in the South. After he had been released, Mary wrote again to him, begging him not to re-enlist. Another Academy student – Mary Ann Davis – was left orphaned when her father was killed in battle. Mother Xavier was able to arrange her marriage to John Dennin of Elizabeth. They were married in the Sisters’ Parlour by a priest who traveled from Madison to Convent to say Mass on Sundays. Sister Gonzaga made Mary Ann’s wedding-traveling suit.

The Sisters also responded to the Civil War. In both Newark and Trenton they set up emergency hospitals near the train stations and cared for both Union and Confederate soldiers. Mother Xavier, herself, went to Newark to nurse the soldiers, some of whom were cared for in Saint Patrick convent in Newark.

By 1875 it was clear that more space was needed for the Sisters and for the Academy. Once she had saved one hundred dollars, Mother Xavier began construction of the new Motherhouse at the top of the hill and, once again, the Academy students shared space in the Motherhouse with the Sisters.

With the founding of the College in 1899 a new academic building was needed and classes for both the academy and college students began in Xavier Hall in winter 1901. It wasn’t until Santa Rita Hall, a dormitory, opened in 1906 and Santa Maria Hall, a classroom building, opened in 1913, that the Academy had Xavier Hall to herself.

And in 1909 Holy Family Chapel was dedicated during the 50th anniversary of the community so that the Academy students, the College students and the Sisters would have a suitable place to worship God.

Holy Family Chapel

The Latter Years (Part 4)

While so much was happening at Convent Station, the Sisters of Charity continued to grow and to help many people.

While Mother Xavier was somewhat reserved, she always responded to those who needed her help.

Once the Sisters teaching at Saint Bernard School in Mount Hope asked Mother Xavier to send them the clothes the Academy girls and the little boys had left behind, so they could be given to the children of the poor miners in the area. Mother Xavier refused, saying that those children deserved better than what had been discarded by others, that they needed sturdy clothes, the best she could obtain for the country children. The next day Mother Xavier herself took the train to New York City and ordered new clothes to be shipped to Mount Hope.

It was a common occurrence for poor men and women to appear at the Motherhouse – the Sisters called them “Mother’s special friends” – who would refuse to speak to anyone else. After Mother Xavier died in 1915, they continued to come to Convent, looking for “that good, holy woman who never refused to help us.” It was only then that the Sisters learned Mother’s secrets: how many heat bills she paid, how much food she supplied, how many rents she covered, and how much clothing she provided to those in need.

Mother Xavier responded to larger needs, too. In 1906 Doctor Francis Reilly wrote to her, asking her to build a Catholic hospital in New Haven, CT. While there were two other hospitals in the city, neither would allow Irish or Italian, Catholic or Jewish doctors to bring their patients to them. Mother Xavier, who was 81 years old, agreed to begin this new work. She mortgaged the Motherhouse here at Convent in order to get the money she needed to build and open Saint Raphael’s Hospital where all were cared for.

When Mother Xavier died in 1915 at the age of ninety, she had been the Superior of the Sisters of Charity for 56 years. In those years the community had grown from five Sisters to more than 1200 Sisters. They had opened 6 academies, 6 hospitals in three states, 5 orphanages, a college for women, a home for incurably ill women and men, and the Sisters were teaching God’s children throughout New Jersey and in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York State. All because this little Irish woman with a third-grade education spent her life working for “God Alone.”

It is with profound gratitude that we acknowledge the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth for sharing their archives with the Academy of Saint Elizabeth to gain a deeper sense of our shared history.