Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
24 Jan 2014
24 Jan 2014
Irelands's Sr Phyllis Behan with Amanda Nguyen (holding candle right) who will profess her vows as a Sister of Charity this week
Tomorrow, Saturday January 25, Sydney's Sisters of Charity will gather at St Vincent's Chapel, Potts Point when Amanda Nguyen will profess her vows and become the newest member of the oldest order of religious in Australia.
Just over 175 years ago on New Year's Eve 1838 five young Irish women arrived in Australia. Four were professed religious and the fifth, a novice.
The group had responded to the request of Archbishop Polding, the first Archbishop of Sydney who had asked Mary Aitkenhead, founder and Superior of Ireland's Sisters of Charity to send religious women from her Congregation to help support and minister to the female convicts held in Parramatta Gaol.
Dedicated to helping the poor, vulnerable and marginalised, the Australian Congregation of the Sisters of Charity grew as Sydney grew. Founding St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, the Sisters went on to found St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, as well as hospitals in Toowoomba, Lithgow and Cootamundra.
Sr Annette Cunliffe RSC Congregational Leader of the Sisters of Charity of Australia
Australia's Sisters of Charity also led the way in education, establishing parish primary and secondary schools in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland and for the past 175 years have helped lead the way in education, aged care, health care, medical research and in care and support for the disabled.
During her lifetime Mary Aitkenhead, who continues to inspire Congregations of the Sisters of Charity both here and in Ireland, promised to one day make the journey to Australia and to see for herself the work being carried out by the five young women who had made the long and arduous journey to Sydney.
"If she had been younger and in better health she would have been able to fulfil her promise. Born in 1787, she founded the Sisters of Charity in 1815 and by 1838 when the group left for Australia she was in late middle age," says Sister Annette Cunliffe, Congregational Leader of the Australian Congregation of the Sisters of Charity.
Although the Sisters of Charity in Australia are a separate congregation from Ireland's Sisters of Charity, the two not only share the same founder but retain strong links with one another and both were overjoyed when all these years later the promise made by Mary Aitkenhead almost one and three-quarters of a century ago, was finally fulfilled.
Celebrations at the Sisters of Charity College
Potts Point
Potts Point
Shortly before New Year's Eve, Sr Mary Christian, Congregational Leader of Ireland's Sisters of Charity, and Sr Phyllis Behan, Provincial of Ireland's Congregation touched down at Kingsford Smith Airport to join Australia's Sisters of Charity and celebrate the 175th anniversary of the arrival of the five young Irish women on 31 December 2013.
The two Irish religious joined more than 100 of Sydney's Sisters of Charity community at a Liturgy of Thanksgiving which was held at St Vincent's Chapel, Potts Point. Other Liturgies of Thanksgiving were also held on New Year's Eve at the Congregation's communities in Auburn and the Blue Mountains, NSW, Kew and Clayton in Victoria, Brisbane Qld and in Tarooma Tasmania.
"To have the Leader of our Founding Congregation and the Irish Provincial here with us especially during the Liturgy of Thanksgiving was wonderful and added a very special dimension to our joy in our anniversary celebrations," Sr Annette says.
Sister Mary Christian explains congregational gift to Sr Annette Cunliffe (right) during the 175 celebrations
The two Irish religious leaders, Sr Mary and Sr Phyllis spent 10 days in Australia visiting Sisters of Charity communities in the Blue Mountains, Auburn and Brisbane. They also toured St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst which began as a humble 22-bed facility in Potts Point in 1857 before moving to its current site in 1870. Since then it has grown to become a major international research centre as well as one of the world's most outstanding and highly regarded teaching hospitals.
In addition the Irish sisters shared stories and histories with their Australian counterparts and presented the Sr Annette as Congregational Leader of the Australian Sisters of Charity with a Congregation gift of a superbly framed series of photographs of Mary Aitkenhead and a montage of the community houses she established in Ireland before the four sisters and one novice set off on their long journey to Australia.
The celebrations for the Australian Sisters of Charity in this milestone year continues and after tomorrow's profession of vows by Amanda Nguyen there are plans for an anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving to be held in each state over the next few months.
Celebration cake and gifts marking 175 years since the first Sisters of Charity arrived in Australia
On 22 March Archbishop Denis Hart will preside over a Thanksgiving Mass for the Sisters, their families and friends of the Congregation at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. Bishop Anthony will celebrate the Thanksgiving Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta on 4 April. This will be followed by a Mass of Thanksgiving in Brisbane celebrated by Archbishop Mark Coleridge in May and a Mass of Thanksgiving in Hobart celebrated by Archbishop Julian Porteous in June.
The celebrations will conclude with a Mass of Thanksgiving at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney on 14 August, the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary, patron saint of the Sisters of Charity.
As the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell will be away at this time, Bishop Terry Brady will be the celebrant.
For more information and on the work of the Sisters as well as the Sisters of Charity Foundation and the Mary Aitkenhead Ministeries, log on tohttp://www.sistersofcharity.org.au/
shared from Archdiocese of Sydney
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