The following material is an essay from the book Southward Ho! The Society of the Sacred Heart Enters “Lands of the Spanish Sea.”
By Raquel Perez, RSCJ
Translated and adapted by Carol Bialock, RSCJ
The Sower went out to sow.... (Mt. l 3)
"I understood that the Society should extend to the whole universe, and that thought penetrated deep within me as a call from God!' According to the journal of the noviceship at Conflans, when Madeleine Sophie Barat was certain that she was not the one called, she asked insistently, "Lord, all I ask of you is a companion who will one day do this work in my place, and better than I!' That companion was Rose Philippine Duchesne, the first link in the chain of missionaries who went out from France to the whole world: North and South America, New Zealand and Australia, Asia and Africa. Hundreds of missionaries who would carry to the ends of the world the fire Christ brought to earth.[i]
When the Rebecca carrying Philippine Duchesne and her four companions made its way through the Old Bahamian Canal between the Greater Antilles and the Lucayas, they were scanning the blue-green coasts of the island of Cuba. The weather was resplendent: calm sea, clear sky, and a gentle breeze that swelled the sails and slowed the ship to a contemplative pace. What joy to taste the certainty of land! Land right there in sight. Did they by chance think as Admiral Columbus did: "This is the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen?" To understand how they felt we would have to have had the experience of 52 long days, surrounded by sky and sea…And the bad days besides: torrential rains, violent hurricanes, great heat, sails hauled in and the rudder abandoned; and that, following an endless, capricious wind that forced the boat back and forth over the Tropic of Cancer five times. And as colophon: the confrontation with a pirate ship from Buenos Aires, armed with 11 cannons and 126 men, which "obliged us to stop, but when they found out it was an American vessel, they allowed us to continue on our way without bothering us any further."
The Rebecca arrived almost at the port of Havana and cast anchor. Those were difficult tunes for the government of the island. When the war between England and the United States ended, Spain signed a treaty with England to ban slave trade. English ships were on the watch and seized the boats that docked; the seas swarmed with pirates and Spanish ships full of troops in a last effort to stop the independence movement in the South American colonies. In these circumstances the right to dock was not granted. According to Philippine Duchesne's Journal of the trip, a vessel coming out from port brought a passenger named Martinez, a Catholic gentleman. Learning that the five religious were on their way to make an establishment in America with the hope of serving religion, he gave them forty dollars and urged them to return to Havana if they did not succeed elsewhere.
From New Orleans, in a long letter to the children of Paris and Grenoble, she made comparisons that indicated that she had been searching out information about the island:
In Cuba there are great plantations that use slaves; at least 400 blacks on each plantation. There are also firms that make 250,000 francs a year exporting sugar. Are they happy as a result? They aren't concerned about their salvation, and they leave them without instruction or religious practices..
Here there are figs and oranges, though they aren't as good as they are in Cuba. They gave us some on our trip, and they were better than those in France. They also gave us pineapples and bananas. Cuba is also superior in tobacco and sugar cane. Here, they don't let it ripen; they send it to France for refining and it is very expensive.
And to Madeleine Sophie she wrote: "The kind merchant from Havana has been here to see us. He would like us to go to his country, but makes no promise of aid…”
Ten, twenty, forty years went slowly by. Philippine Duchesne died in 1852, the last of the five original missionaries. But starting years before that, families were insistently asking for a foundation in Cuba. The Society of the Sacred Heart was known by its pupils who left the island to be educated, some at Manhattanville, some in Paris. Some young Cubans who chose religious life had entered the congregation. At that tune the vicar of the Eastern part of the United States was of the same caliber as Mother Duchesne. As student and novice of Eugenie Aude at Grand Coteau and St. Michael's in Louisiana, she profited by her teacher's austere school: Aloysia Hardey directed the vigor and energy of her character towards gentleness and the love of the Heart of Christ. These, joined to her exceptional gifts for government and a complete fidelity to the congregation, moved Madeleine Sophie to confide the direction of the Eastern houses to her.
Aloysia was 34 years old at the time.
In 1854 Archbishop John Hughes of New York visited Cuba and asked Bishop Francisco Fléix y Solans of Havana to insist that Mother Hardey make a foundation in Havana. At the same time families were asking Father Bartalomé Muñar, superior of the Jesuits in Cuba, to visit the superior general of the Society in Paris when next he went to Europe. Ecclesial influences were not the only ones: the Captain General of the island committed himself to make the same request. In Paris Madeleine Sophie received message after message. She waited. She had spent years awaiting the sign for the Cuban foundation; the first reference to such a foundation is in a letter to Hardey, September 27, 1844: "This proposal for the Spanish States is the path towards Havana, which seems to me to be more advantageous.”[ii] After that there was a long silence in her letters about the topic. Now she saw the elongated outline of the island taking shape on the horizon as a hopeful sign for the expansion of the Society in Latin America. Anna du Rousier had just set foot in Chile with the first religious who dared to journey along what seemed an interminably lengthy South America. Cuba would be a restful stop between New York and Santiago de Chile, between Aloysia Hardey and Anna du Rousier. Philippine Duchesne, who had contemplated the expansion to the two extremes, would protect that project, one more among those she herself had not been able to bring about.
Madeleine Sophie carefully planned each foundation. We can imagine her coming out of one of those long prayer times during which she plunged into the depths of the Heart of Christ, her spirit clearer and her enthusiasm renewed. We can see her, 78 years old, sitting down like a great strategist, map in hand, to dream of where and how to show forth the Love of Jesus to the world. She wrote to Mother Hardey: "I just received a letter from one of the most outstanding citizens of Havana, outlining different ways of getting the necessary funds for bringing us to that city. I think I prefer your point of view about your preference for an unconditional gift: 100 men who each pledge 500 francs. When they have the money we will go to choose a convenient location. That way the place will be our property" (Letter, March, 1857; GASSH). Three months later she went into more detail:
Mother {Teresa) Trincano will have written you about Havana. Today I want to do so personally. I spoke at length to Father Muñar, SJ It looks like our fears are groundless; we will have the school without any debt. And the problem with the Sisters of Charity is not their doing but that of their Ecclesiastical Superior. I am happy to clarify these two points. Father will see you and bring you up to date. I think it is essential that if we accept this foundation we will have to send some people this year to see the location, since it would be a shame if things weren't as we need them since they do not cost us anything. If we don't see things on the spot we can't give an opinion about them. Justine Casamajor de Lay, our Spanish widow, would do the job well [she was born in Cuba but considered to be Spanish since Cuba was under Spanish rule]. Another two Spaniards will enter soon. I hope and pray that Our Lord may inspire us with regard to this poor country which, judging by the children we have there, is so well disposed to religion and religious practices. (to A. Hardey, June 1857, GASSH)
Mother Hardey, for her part, was keeping the Mother General posted on the advantages of a foundation in Havana:
It seems to me that we have just the right amount of time to prepare people for Havana and New Granada. The former especially offers the precious advantage of giving us a good number of people for the Society. Since we first talked about the foundation in Havana there is a movement toward the Sacred Heart. Six young women have asked to be admitted: three are already in the noviceship; the others will be arriving in December when I go to the island, if the foundation is made. If the foundation is thrown out there is no reason for me to go for a few months. In either case it is essential to make a decision. If you are still undecided, Reverend Mother, because of the lack of personnel, the passage to meditate on...[illegible]. We can't ignore the fact that Our Lord has given the sign we asked for if he wanted this foundation: an increase in the noviceship. And the 21st of June we received 19 postulants, not counting those who are preparing to enter. Since Our Lord gives the means it is Just that we respond. (September 1857, GASSH)
Aloysia Hardey touched Madeleine Sophies heart. She felt, in the creases of that letter, what she had been waiting for: the movement of the Spirit. She answered:
With you I have admired the goodness of the Heart of Jesus which has given us a concrete and very generous sign of his will with regard to the foundation in Havana. Let us keep praying that he may form the person he destines for this important mission; may he fill her with his Spirit. To be frank, I have no idea who that person might be; I don't know her. I think you have to go to Cuba, decide, and leave some religious there for the time being. But should we stay? What would happen to New York and the rest of the Vicariate? Because, my daughter, we have no one at the moment who would be appropriate for this important mission. So, let us pray, and hope against hope. (October 20, 1857, GASSH)
Madeleine Sophie spoke of Cuba to a group of probanists on an afternoon of relaxation in August of that year:
A long time ago Cuba asked us for a foundation. The Captain General of the island is offering a million pesos for the school. I told him that we don't need that much money, but that we have to see if America provides the personnel. And what a marvel the Lord is! From Manhattanville they tell me that nineteen postulants entered the noviceship. Among them are three Cubans. The Lord wants to be glorified on that island. Yesterday Father Muñar, Rector of the Jesuit school in Havana, came to see me. He has put urgent pressure on me and has declared he won't go back without receiving a formal promise. (Diary of the probation, GASSH)
Mother Barat promised. Then, concerned, she wrote to Mother Hardey. “I’m afraid for those who go because they tell me that yellow fever produces ravages every year and foreigners are the most affected. But this reinforcement the Lord sends us is a sign of his will. All that remains to be done is rekindle our confidence in the Heart of Jesus" (Baunard, II, 306).
The exchange of letters between Paris and New York becomes more frequent at the end of 1857. In a long letter on November 9, 1857 Madeleine Sophie clearly indicates the steps to take. The foundation preoccupies her:
It seems to me that you are going very fast, dear daughter, in the foundation in Havana. Accept it, yes. But before carrying it out, I thought I understood that you would go with some companion to see about dealing with the authorities there:
1) To find out if they accept our way of living, according to the Constitutions; if not, we would have requirements to obey that are contrary to our spirit.
2) To get a suitable place until we can build.
3) To make sure we can finance the foundation and if we can really count on the government's and the families' promises. Because if we make the foundation unconditionally no one will go to any trouble for us, and we will have to pay all the expenses with money we don't have. This is what has happened in other foundations when we have trusted in promises alone.
It seems prudent to me, before we send our sisters, to await the return of Father Muñar. That way they can at least count on a friend and have some spiritual support. The Zamora family is offering their house while they are in Europe. Their friendship and interest may be useful.
In short, my daughter, I've been warned that those who go will be exposed to yellow fever, which causes a lot of damage. What a future, dear Aloysia! That does not deter me, but it does make me tremble. In my note you will see that one of the religious is for New York, the other for Cuba. Sister Lay is still an aspirant, and very new. If you think you should push ahead her third year [probation], remember that she should have completed at least two and a half years from her first vows. I think you should also give her the cross and ring [given at final profession], if you think it would be convenient to do so. (GASSH)
Mother Hardey hastened to reply: "I am only waiting for your permission, Reverend Mother, and the help of your prayers, to begin the work.” The reply was not long in coming: "I can't refuse this chance to glorify God, though there is anguish in my heart. I say: go to Cuba, dear Aloysia.”[iii]
Exactly forty years after that invitation to start a foundation in Cuba, and the prayer of Philippine Duchesne, Madeleine Sophie Barat gave birth to this other dream that her great friend had not been able to bring about.
The Political Situation in Cuba
The history of Cuba in the mid-19th century was tightly bound to that of the mother country, Spain. Francisco Fléix y Soláns was head of the diocese of Havana and Antonio Maria Claret was Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba.
Both obtained Spanish royal approval on November 26, 1852 for the return to the island of religious who had been expelled in 1841: Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Mercedarians, Hospitalers, etc. ln addition, permission was asked for foundations by Escolapians and priests of the Congregation of the Mission. They opened schools in both cities. ln 1847 Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul arrived in Havana, and in Santiago the Archbishop started the foundation of the Religious of the Teaching of Mary lmmaculate in 1852. Thus began, laboriously, the effort to promote institutions for the education of Cuban women.
ln 1854 Lt. General José Gutiérrez de la Concha began his rule. It was he who had led the way in the sad happenings during the so-called bloody year (1851). He arrived with full power from the royal authority after the Spanish revolution in which he had been one of the leaders. But for the island the only thing that mattered was the repression of his dictatorial government. The country was again at a boiling point. It is important to know the position of each of the sectors involved in Cuba's fate:
The Cubans continued their political moves: the minority, in their relations with the United States government, continued working for annexation; others wanted to bring about their ideal of independence. The slaves tirelessly sought liberty. A specialist, researching the means Cuba had of serving the colonial government, wrote to the Council of Ministers that "All Cubans, with few exceptions, in their heart of hearts want independence. The division between Europeans and Cubans has been intensified...the Europeans lack the necessary prudence and overstep the limits in unbridled reproaches and humiliations, with their boasting and bragging. So the result is that even the moderates and the peaceful want respite from the vexations they suffer just for being Creole.”[iv]
The Cubans in exile worked unceasingly in the same two directions as their brothers on the island. It is interesting to point out the observations of an expert. This division is a natural constant, however, their basic union in consciously acquired Cubanism is now distinguished by their acceptance of these measures: 1) independence from Spain; 2) the formation of a definitive Cuban Republic; 3) the abolition of slavery.[v]
The declaration To all the free men of Cuba reads:
I understand well that not I but the Cubans of the island are those who have to make known what should be done for the future...Experience has shown that it would be better to – Unify opinion and ideas among Cuba's sons – Continue the publicity campaign – Get people organized – Strengthen relationships among ourselves – Get those within and outside the country working together so as to move as one and receive the resources needed for absolute independence.[vi]
The authority of the island. The ruling general wrote:
The important and influential part of the country remains hostile and totally separated from the Government. The new flag of independence is naturally more acceptable to the natives than annexation. But there exists an almost generalized conviction that it is impossible to make it triumph. The sons of families of Spanish origin are the most bitter enemies of the Government.[vii]
The authority of the mother country. The population of the island is made up of three races:
1) the Spanish race [sic] is the foundation of our domination in the Antilles. They run, almost exclusively, all commerce; they represent our ideas and aspiration.
2) the African race still remembers the cruel quelling of a slave uprising in 1844. They are blindly obedient and have a marked sympathy for Spain.
3) the Creole race is the nucleus of life in the country, with a pronounced and tenacious hostility toward the Mother Country. From planning for annexation they have begun to favor complete independence.
The authority of the island. In Spain an item in the national archives dated 25 years later includes the following:
They all hate Spanish domination. The irresistible, blind, fateful push toward emancipation, towards deciding their own lives, is a law of history.
Therefore: One must take the means to undermine the forces that strengthen the revolutionary spirit. Since there is no possibility of stopping it altogether, given that it is based on a feeling that cannot be extinguished, at least one can remove the factors that strengthen it.
Therefore, one must give guarantees that slavery will be maintained as the basis of social order on the island, and confide the early education of children to completely loyal religious groups...imprinting on the new generation the spirit of peace and loyalty that favor Spain.[viii]
The United States of North America. In 1854 the Ostend Manifesto appeared. The accompanying document to the Secretary of State says that the government of the United States must make an immediate and powerful attempt to buy Cuba at any price necessary. If these efforts are fruitless there is sufficient justification for the United States to free the island by war because Cuba is as necessary to the Republic of North America as are any other of its members.[ix]
But by now Cuba did not want to be one more state in the Union, nor could it bear the shameful crime of slavery. It was now convinced that while slavery exists in the Antilles, the sun of Liberty cannot shine.[x] (But the Civil War in the United States, 1861-65, put an end to the expansionists' desires of the plantation owners in the Southern states and to the annexationists still left in Cuba.)
As if all these factors in play were not enough, the global business panic of 1857 added to the situation of the inhabitants of the island of Cuba, just when the Religious of the Sacred Heart were getting ready to travel to the island. Was Madeleine Sophie Barat aware of the inherent difficulties of this situation? Did Aloysia Hardey know about them? Whatever the case, the trip was decided on for the final days of December 1857.
The Foundation
There was an unusual shake-up going on in every nook and cranny of the Manhattanville community. Expectancy and upheaval were in the air. Not just any kind of trip was being planned; an exploration was beginning. One more audacious project was underway, led by a woman who knew how to move wills and touch hearts. This time Aloysia Hardey felt the strength of the Spirit in Madeleine Sophie's sending, and in the deep joy which would not let her postpone her mission. Once she knew God's will, nothing could hold her back.
She chose carefully those who would accompany her: a Canadian sister, Marguerite Mercure; an aspirant, Mary Fowler, who could interpret Italian; and Stanislas Tommasini, fluent in her native Italian and also in French and Spanish. Thus, with little baggage and much prayer, they left for the port of New York. As usual for trips, they wore secular clothes, wellprotected against the below zero snow storm raging over the city.
The Cahoba took us on the five-day trip. There, in that tiny cabin, we had a New Year’s vigil. Since the first day of 1858 fell on a Friday, we thought of it as a sign of the predilection of the Heart of Jesus for the island. On the second of January we caught sight of the coast of Cuba. We had gone from a rigorous New York winter to a delightful spring. The ocean, turbulent and gloomy at the beginning of the trip, now seemed like a serene lake, and the blueness of the sky reminded me of my beautiful Italy. Some birds flew around and the perfume of this enchanted country was wafted towards us. If earth is so beautiful, what will heaven be like? (Tommasini 155-57)
The morning they disembarked the travelers appeared on deck in their religious habits. They were met with surprise, respect, good wishes and good will offerings. All this made them smile, though they had the parting words of Archbishop Hughes deeply engraved in their hearts: no doubt great good would come from their project. Many troubles awaited them, but the Cubans would give them generous help.
The commotion and shake-up were not going on just at Manhattanville. In Havana there was a happy bustling, stupefaction and delight over the news that they were going to be able to touch with their hands the fulfillment of so many desires and pleadings. Enriqueta Purroy, owner and director of the school being offered as the initial nucleus for the foundation, carried out preparations with a mixture of sorrow and joy.[xi] The Espinos, the couple who had most insisted that the Sacred Heart come to Cuba, achieved their goal for the arrival: prepare a house for the religious. It was situated on Prado #74 and furnished with care; no detail was missing. Even books of piety were on the night tables and...several instruments of penance; Everywhere flowers and more flowers: carnations, sunflowers, roses. Roses in January!
Two great surprises awaited the travelers; first, the welcome. As soon as the Cahoba was seen approaching the mouth of the Morro, many little boats of every size and color launched out to meet them. Every passenger strained to recognize some relative or friend. Only the religious did not expect anyone. Among them all, the largest boat stood out, with fourteen uniformed rowers and several well-dressed people. The word spread that it was the Governor's boat. The occupants boarded the ship. And then the mystery was solved. It was the Espinos, coming to welcome the religious in the Captain General's name.
The second surprise came the next day. Tommasini describes their first Mass in Cuba. Mother Hardey asked that they be taken to a quiet, unobtrusive section of the church. But the Cubans wanted them to be as much on display as possible. Five highly decorated open carriages drawn by several pairs of horses arrived noisily to take the nuns and their things to the church; the first three were filled with chairs, rugs, shawls, and quartosize books dating from the discovery of the island! The fourth carried the nuns, and servants were in the fifth. Tommasini says, "I couldn't hide my smile and Reverend Mother, in spite of all her dignity, had the same problem.” She then describes in detail the church, including a statue of Our Lady wearing a robe embroidered in gold and encrusted with precious stones, gift of Rosa d'Abreu, already an RSCJ.[xii] The service was equally elaborate and was followed by a detailed tour of the church and sacristy. Needless to say, the first business undertaken by Mother Hardey was to arrange a chapel in their temporary quarters. Very soon they visited Bishop Fléix y Soláns, who graciously gave them all the desired permissions. If hese permissions had been registered at the chancery, much future difficulty could have been avoided.[xiii]
These experiences were followed by continual visits and then the effort to find a site for the school and, what became even more difficult, the effort to unify the opinion of friends. Because, according to Tommasini, the Espinos received them with such enthusiasm and so publicly, this was an obstacle, given the situation of the island, which was politically divided. They had serious and very great difficulties. They had been assured, by among others the Archbishop of New York, that people wanted a school and that they were willing to pledge large amounts for a house. But the world-wide economic crisis of the previous year and the critical political situation made keeping the promise of help difficult. Another difficulty came from the Espinos' desire for a day school for their twelve-year-old daughter so that she could return home in the evening. The religious wanted a boarding school capable of expanding to take the greatest number of families possible.
The third and most painful reality: the nationality of the religious was an obstacle difficult to surmount. Mother Hardey understood that it was not her sisters but herself that was the stumbling-block. When she found that the political climate called for total independence and rejected every type of union with the United States, her presence on the island to carry out the foundation was inadmissible. They felt that the North American with such a refined education without doubt had come to conquer the Cubans for the United States. Bad feeling was rife. The clergy waited and watched, and no one took the initiative. There were days of intense suffering. In confidence, she told one of the religious, "I don’t know what to do. I feel that the foundation depends on my decision."
But Mother Hardey did know what to do. With amazing serenity she set aside days for prayer with all the religious. Aloysia weighed the situation and put it before the Lord. It was a slow process. But when the light of the Spirit came, she did not waver. She set herself to the task with all the energy of character and the amazing clarity God gave her for this kind of affair. She asked Mr. Espino to get her an audience with the Captain General. With Tommasini as her interpreter, she told him that Havana did not seem ready for a foundation, that pressing business called her to New York so that she would depart on the first ship to await a more favorable time, and that she wanted to assure the Captain General of her gratitude for the welcome received during this visit. He asked why she thought they were not ready to receive them. Because of the delay in undertaking the fund-raising and the difficulty in finding a suitable house, she replied. He turned to Mr. Espino and his companion and asked them why the fundraising had not begun. Neither replied, so he declared that it would begin the next day, and that he himself would find the house.[xiv]
On the following day a group of businessmen were invited to the Palace. General Concha began the subscription with a good sum. As a result, within ten days 35,000 pesos had been raised for the purchase of a house. In the meantime the Palace secretary made the rounds of the city to find an adequate site. Mother Hardey chose the Arozarena house, called El Cerro, and they agreed to move. The Lord was arranging things. But it is also true that the Captain General's hand skillfully directed public opinion. It all recalls the orientation of 1855 (see note 7). Now that the two main difficulties were resolved, Mother Hardey hurried to bring the arrangements to a close with the lawyers. And while necessary renovations were taking place in the house she let Manhattanville know that the foundresses could come. These events happened so quickly that the religious were astonished; decidedly, the power of prayer is immense!
On February 3 Mother Hardey was going over her Spanish lesson on the imperfect indicative of the verb “to play.” Suddenly she stopped, saying, “I have a bad headache.” It was a sudden attack. She was delirious that night and the next morning the doctor gave his diagnosis: yellow fever. She was in critical condition. The doctor asked for a nurse, someone capable of caring for her, and Enriqueta Purroy offered to do so. News spread rapidly through the city: "Mother Hardey is dying.” For six days she hovered between life and death. Finally, on the 9th, the doctor announced that she was out of danger.[xv]
The annual letters recount that in the worst days of Mother Hardey's illness a poor woman asked to see her. She told Tommasini that she had come seeking admission to the Society, saying that she had eagerly awaited these religious; she wanted to consecrate her life to the Heart of Jesus. She came to offer herself with the little she was and knew and had, and she brought out all her money, wrapped in the corner of a handkerchief. They had to tell her the situation they were in, and she said, “I’m going to pray hard.” And she left. Later they learned that she spent the whole day in prayer. With the approval of her director, a Jesuit at Belén College, she offered the Lord an extra three days in purgatory if Mother Hardey was cured. She returned the next day to ask about the patient, just as the doctor declared she was out of danger. The power of prayer? A simple coïncidence? Rafaela Donoso, the simple woman who offered herself for Aloysia's cure, entered the Society and lived and died a holy death.
The 14th of February was a bright, calm day. Mother Hardey was convalescing and the religious who were to make up the first community of the Sacred Heart in Cuba arrived: Catherine Conway, Mary Ann Doran, Bridget Fletcher, Mary Guerin, and Justina Casamayor de Lay joined Marguerite Mercure who remained in Cuba until her death in 1881. From that moment on there was no time to lose. The boarding school was scheduled to open on Friday, March 19, Feast of St. Joseph. The founding pupils numbered forty-five. It was a simple, moving ceremony. The Military Band struck up when the Captain General arrived. In the presence of the children's families and some friends, someone spoke on the theme of the education of youth. After the welcome to the religious, a tour of the house began.
Three months after arriving in Havana, Mother Hardey, with Stanislas Tommasini and Mary Fowler who had traveled with her, returned to New York, leaving Justina Lay as the superior. The Society of the Sacred Heart had begun its mission in the city of Havana.
Just four years later, the Board of Directors of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the town of Sancti Spiritus [sic], in the approximate center of the island, invited the Society to take charge of the education of thirty orphan girls, whose dwelling and maintenance the association guaranteed, and to establish an academy and carry on other works in conjunction with these. Mother Barat gave her approval and in February 1863 Mother Hardey sailed for Cuba to make initial arrangements. Soon the boarding school had pupils from Trinidad, Cienfuegos and other parts of the area, and the Society seemed peacefully and permanently established in Cuba. But a new bishop in Havana in 1865, Jacinto María Martinez y Saenz, and the lack of royal approbation, which neither the Captain General nor the former bishop had thought necessary, caused serious difficulties in Havana. Mother Hardey went to Cuba and referred the matter to Rome, with the possibility that the houses in Cuba would be suppressed. The Cardinal Protector mediated with the result that in 1868 basic permissions were given. But by the end of that year Cuba was again in the turmoil of revolution, with hostilities carried on at the very doors of the convent in Sancti Spiritus where the boarding school was almost empty, so that house was closed.
Havana, however, carried on through epidemics, terrible storms, insurrections, clerical disputes. The adult Children of Mary, the St. Anne and Consolers of Mary sodalities, and the League of the Sacred Heart were established, and 100 poor children were in the free school. Stanislas Tommasini, who had translated for Mother Hardey during the difficult days of the foundation, returned as the much loved superior in 1870. And in 1874, the reorganization of the vicariates in North America moved Havana to the vice-vicariate of Louisiana. In the next decade it became the oldest foundation in the newly formed vicariate of Mexico and the Antilles.
[i] This text is taken from Raquel Perez, RSCJ. Religiosas del Sagrado Corazon en Cuba, Chap. 2 – 4 [privately printed], 1997; trans. and adapted by Carol Bialock, RSCJ, except, for final section on Sancti Spiritus see Louise Callan. The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America (New York: Longmans, 1937): 563-66.
[ii] Claire Dykmans RSCJ, ed. Lettres de Sainte Madeleine Sophie (Rome: Villa Lante, 1975): Letter #33.
[iii] Maria Stanislaus Tommasini, Memoires de la Reverende Mere Maria Stanislas Tommasini: Religieuse du Sacre Coeur: 1827- 1913 [Ed. Claire Benoist d'Azy] (Roehampton, 1918): 153.
[iv] Mariano Torrente, Al Gobierno de la Metropoli, Memoria, 1852, 167
[v] Jose Ignacio Rasco, Sociologia del Exilio, Exilio: Revista de Humanidades, 1970: 15-30.
[vi] Domingo de Goicuria. Al Puebla de Cuba, Manifesta, Sept. 25, 1855, p. 13.
[vii] General Jose Gutierrez de la Concha, Al Ministerio de Estado, La Habana: July 12, 1855
[viii] Junta Consultiva para los negocios de Ultramar. Extract from a Reserved Note, 1885. As complement, the directives of the Colonial Government to utilize the Jesuits and the Escolapians, in the Secret Royal Order of April 24, 1855. Quoted in Reynerio Lebrocq, Cuba, Iglesia y Sociedad (1830-1860) (Madrid, 1976): 45
[ix] Carlos de Sedano, Estudios Politicos 1854 (Madrid, 1872): 137-44
[x] Porfirio Valiente, Reformes dans les iles de Cuba et de Puerto Rico (Paris, 1869): 253.
[xi] Enriqueta Purroy not only gave her school to the Society but also entered the noviceship in France; from France she was sent directly to Chile where she directed the normal school in Santiago, was a foundress in Peru, later returned to Chile where she died in 1882. Four others associated with this school also entered at this time: Enriqueta's two sisters, Amalia who died as a novice at Sarria in Spain and Natividad who entered at Manhattanville and later left religious life; Adela Gonzalez who had been orphaned in Cuba and aided by the Espinos entered at Manhattanville and made her vows in Chile, serving there and in Peru until her death in 1901; and Marianne Conway who entered in France and also served in Chile until her death in 1886.
[xii] Rosa d'Abreu, born 1832, entered the noviceship at Manhattanville in 1857. After profession in 1864 she served as superior in Havana and then in Sancti Spiritus, followed by several years in the United States. In 1875 she went to Chile and served in several houses; she died at Chillan in 1889.
[xiii] Tommasini 160-63
[xiv] Tommasini 165-67
[xv] Tommasini 170-73