The following material is an essay from the book Southward Ho! The Society of the Sacred Heart Enters “Lands of the Spanish Sea.”
By Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ
To write a brief life of Aloysia Hardey is not an easy task, since so much is known, and so much has already been written on her. Mistress General at the age of seventeen, superior at twenty-four, and the equivalent of superior vicar at thirty-four, then first American Assistant General, she was in positions of governance from the time of her final profession. One bishop said of her that she was born to rule; another, that she was a woman who could govern the United States. Fanatically loyal to European authority in the Society, she was yet very American, and delighted to introduce new inventions to the European houses: the first steel pen to Lehon, the first sewing machine used in a European convent of the Society, the first photograph of a superior general.
Mary Ann Hardey was born December 8, 1809, in Piscataway, Prince George County, Maryland, the second of eight childrenof a deeply Catholic family. Her father, William Frederick (some sources give his name as Frederick William), was born about 1785, adirect descendant, probably in the fourth generation, of Nicholas Hardy who had come to Maryland among the first settlers sent out byLord Calvert on the Ark and the Dove in 1633-1634. The original spelling of the name was changed to Hardey by Mary Ann's greatgrandfather because a Protestant group of the same name had settled on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay, and he wanted to distinguish the Catholic from the Protestant families. Her mother was Sarah Spalding (called Sally in her family), born in 1788 of an Englishfamily that had been in America since 1650. Their marriage took place on October 25, 1806, at St. Marys, Maryland.
When Mary Ann was only one year old, her doting grandmother used the occasion of an epidemic of whooping cough in her hometown to spirit her away to Baltimore where the grandmother lived, along with her slave nurse "Aunt" Betty Edelin. The visit was to last four years, for travel soon became insecure because of political unrest culminating in the war of 1812. The child was thus in Baltimore duringthe unsuccessful all-night siege of Fort McHenry by the British on September 12, 1814, when Francis Scott Key kept vigil from his prisonship in the harbor and saw that our flag was still there.
Mary Ann herself loved later to tell the story of how, during that time, her grandmother and her nurse tried to get her to wear an attractive pair of red shoes, which were fashionable for children, but she adamantly refused, saying that she would not wear colored shoes. As an adult, she liked to use it as an example of her malice précoce. When at the age of five, she finally returned to her own family, it was quite a shock to be one of several children, since she had spent the last four years doted upon by her grandmother and nurse. She was not to stay there long, forin the next year, the whole family moved to Louisiana.
Spain had wanted Catholic immigrants to settle in Spanish Louisiana, and after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States continued to offer land incentives to encourage settlers to move there. Many Marylanders responded, some to Perryville along the Mississippi River in what is now southern Missouri, the Hamiltons–later to be in interaction with the Society–to St. Louis, and the Hardeys to Opelousas. Anthony Charles Hardey, brother of Mary Ann's father, had gone earlier to this area and encouraged his brother to come with his own family. AnEnglish-speaking plantation population was being established alongside the earlier French population. The move took place about 1816, with children, slaves, and belongings, by covered wagon and then boat down the Mississippi to New Orleans, then by oxcart to Opelousas. Within a month of their arrival, Anthony Charles died, leaving his entire property to his brother. Mary Ann's family thus found themselves in possession ofan extensive plantation, where they had already built a comfortable house.
Mary Ann's older sister Ann was sent to the parish school, where as a ten-year-old, she was in the class preparing for First Communion. Mary Ann, though too young at the age of eight, insisted on corning along. One day, no student in the class knew the answer to a pertinent question asked by the priest. Mary Ann, sitting at the back of the class, gave a complete answer, and so was allowed to make her First Communion with the older children. Within a few years, Ann was sent off to boarding school at St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, Maryland. By the time their parents were considering sending Mary Ann there too, their friend Mrs. Charles Smith had provided the possibility for a new school atGrand Coteau conducted by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, which was already in its first year of operation. It had opened in 1821 withfive students under the direction of Mother Eugénie Audé, and by January, 1822, the number of students was fourteen.
So Mary Ann, at the age of twelve, arrived at Grand Coteau in the spring or summer of 1822 toward the end of the school's first yearof operation. (Since vacation consisted of only two weeks in August, it seems that students could arrive more or less at any time.) The firstmention of her presence is in the treasury journal. The tuition was $45 per quarter, an amount that presented difficulties for the Hardeys, so they worked out an arrangement, attested in the treasury accounts of the convent, that the school laundry would be done by the Hardey slaves in exchange for a $10 reduction in tuition. The Prize of Excellence was won that first year by Zéline Rousseau, a Creole, who later went on to be wife of Alexandre Mouton, member of the United States Senate and Governor of Louisiana. The language of instruction seems to have been mostly French, which Mary Ann had to learn, though English was also spoken, owing to the presence in the area of so many families of the Maryland diaspora. At her mother's first visit to the school, Mary Ann informed her tearfully that the girls were given worms toeat in their soup. Apparently she had never seen vermicelli! Even fifty years later, it was noted that Mother Hardey found it hard to eat soup with spaghetti in it. But she later said that it gave her a special sensitivity to those kinds of confusions that children make.
Mary Ann first appears in the school record in August 1822, chosen to deliver a formal address to Philippine Duchesne, who had arrived unexpectedly with several companions in the final days of the school year. Two years later, on September 18, 1824, Mary Anngraduated with the Prize of Excellence. She then went home, knowing that she would be back to enter the novitiate. Besides Mother Audé,she greatly admired Anna Xavier Murphy, an Irishwoman who had arrived in I 822. One day Xavier told a story about when she was a littlegirl. Mary Ann was forever changed
by it, thinking that if the nuns were once like her, why could she not become like them?
Back at home, she was terrified to ask permission to enter, so she wrote a note to her father and slipped it under his door, then thenext morning waited to emerge until she thought everyone was gone. But there was her father, saying not only that he would give his permission,but that he would drive her there himself–to get the silly idea out of her mind. Everyone else in the family seems to have guessed the truth,however. On September 29, 1825, Mary Ann and her father arrived at the school unexpectedly, and Mary Ann announced that she was there to stay–but would her father please bring her mirror and comb that she had forgotten? Soon her beautiful golden hair was such a distraction to the fervent postulant that she simply cut it all of£ earning a reproof for her precipitous action from Mother Audé. One day soon after her entrance, an elderly slave from her father's estate named Aunt Sophie appeared at the convent tearfully announcing that Mr. Hardey was very ill, and would Mary Ann please come home. The understanding of entrance was such in those days that she would have been in effect leaving. She first refused, then thought about it later and started walking down the road toward home alone. Then she realized that she would be giving up what she really wanted, and turned back. Only later did she learn that her father was not sick at all, and this was Aunt Sophie's ruse to get her to come home.
She took the habit on October 22, and observed the custom of the time, encouraged by Philippine Duchesne, of taking a saint'sname, usually a Jesuit saint. She chose Aloysia. The very next day, she was preparing to leave with Mother Audé, Xavier Hamilton, twosisters, and two other novices, for the new foundation at St. Michael's. Their actual departure was at 1:00 a.m. on October 25, Eugéniewanting a quiet departure, with arrival at 3:00 a.m. two days later. Life at the new foundation was not easy, but Aloysia soon became one of the anchors of the community and the school. Though she thought she could not teach, obedience sent her one day into the classroom toreplace another sister, and she found that she loved it. Mother Audé mentions her several times during this period in her letters to Philippine and Madeleine Sophie as a person with outstanding virtue and strength of character. In one letter to the latter, in the chauvinism typical of the time, Eugénie boasts that Aloysia would do them honor even in the French novitiate. When somewhat later, Philippine asked for Aloysia to come north to one of the St. Louis houses, Eugénie answered in her typical less than submissive way: "Well, dear Mother, if you take her, you might as well take the whole house.”
In the spring of 1827, Matilda Xavier Hamilton, Mistress General at St. Michael's, was dying. Aloysia's first vows were advanced seven months to March 15. In May, Xavier was dead at the age of twenty-four, and Aloysia, aged seventeen, replaced her as Mistress General of a school that already counted more than fifty children. She did not know then that from this time, she was to be in positions ofresponsibility for the rest of her life. Two years later, she was secretary to the American council mandated by Mother Barat at St. Michael's, at which Philippine presided and Xavier Murphy came from Grand Coteau to attend. There were now sixty-five RSCJ in North America, mostof them American. The governance of the American houses needed coordination, but it was not yet time for the creation of vicariates, so Philippine was told to convoke the meeting, preside over it, and come to some cohesive plans. The results were inconclusive, largely because ofPhilippine's reluctance to assume leadership and Eugénie's longstanding habit of circumventing Philippine's authority.
Aloysia was the support of the revered figure, but could also see first hand the problems that lay ahead. The next years saw a cholera epidemic ravage the community and the school, followed by yellow fever. Those at St. Michael's discovered another gift in Aloysia: she wasan excellent nurse. In view of all she had experienced, without any kind of formal probation, she was admitted to final profession on July19, 1833, at the age of twentyfour, an unusual departure from the strict policy of profession not earlier than the age of twenty-five.
Later that same year, Eugénie Audé was summoned to Paris for a General Council, from which she was not to return. The American mission had been too much for her, and she needed to remain in France. Julie Bazire, who had been Mistress General at St. Michael's,became superior replacing her. Aloysia, at the age of twenty-three, became Mistress General, Assistant Superior, and Treasurer. Eugénie had written of her that only her age was an obstacle to her being named superior. In 1836, her old friend and inspiration Xavier Murphy, superior at Grand Coteau, died. Julie Bazire replaced her, and Aloysia became superior at St. Michael's. By this time, there were about thirty religious in the community, two hundred students in the school, a group of orphans, and a novitiate, in which was her own sister, Matilda. Itwas during this time that Aloysia received a letter from Madeleine Sophie, dated February 26, 1838, that called Aloysia one of her first American daughters. This title has sometimes led to the confusion that she was the first American vocation. But that distinction had gone to others: EmilieSt. Cyr may have been the first to receive the habit, and Mary Layton was the first to make vows, in Missouri in 1820, followed by the Hamiltons and others in 1821.
One of the well-known characters of St. Michael's was Liza Nebbit, a young black orphan given by Bishop DuBourg to PhilippineDuchesne at Florissant and sent by her to Eugénie Audé for the foundation at St. Michael's. She became irrevocably attached to the nuns, and especially to Aloysia. She wanted to enter, which alas was impossible for AfricanAmericans at the time. Instead, she had two unhappy marriages, then came back to St. Michael's to stay. Mother Anna Shannon later let her take a vow of charity in the context of the RSCJ community, which she solemnly renewed each Pentecost with lighted candle, in a new white dress and headscarf always provided by Aloysia, even when she was vicar in New York or Assistant General in Paris. Liza was a shrewd observer of character in both children and religious, and was always around to see what happened. When Mother Hardey came to visit, there were always special moments of reunion with Liza.Somewhere along the way, she learned to read and write, for a letter from her to another superior is extant from about 1880. She signsherself colored child of the Sacred Heart. When Liza died, she was buried in the nuns' cemetery by special permission of Mother Lehon. A long biographical circular appeared in the next Lettres Annuelles, and a professional photograph of her was made, now in the United Statesarchives.
Soon after the momentous events of the General Council of 1839, Elizabeth Galitzin, newly appointed Assistant General, was sent asvisitator to the houses of America with the new title of provincial (created among the proposed changes of the Constitutions in 1839 and discontinued after 1851 when the Holy See nullified these changes). On her way to Louisiana by way of New York, she was accosted by BishopJohn Hughes for a foundation in his city. Already in 1827, his predecessor, Bishop John Dubois, had asked Mother Barat for a foundation only oneyear after his assignment to the diocese, and was reluctantly refused. He had renewed his request in a letter carried to France by Eugénie Audé onher way to the General Council of 1833. In 1840, Elizabeth Galitzin now promised his coadjutor John Hughes, in the year of his arrival in office,that she would return the following year to begin a house in New York. Before leaving Louisiana, she picked the members from there whowould go with her. On May 6, 1841, she arrived back in New York with Mothers Catherine Thieffry and Johanna Shannon, staying with the Sisters of Charity because no suitable house had yet been found. Aloysia followed in the second group two weeks later. Several properties were examined and rejected, one of them at New Brighton on Staten Island. The house journal reports that the Mother Provincial probably will notpurchase this one, in spite of its fine location, because it would not be prudent to situate the convent "outside the city where our house would be exposed to the harassment of the Protestants without the help of Catholics and especially of the Irish who are so numerous in New York.”
Finally a good house was found, at 412 Houston Street at the corner of Mulberry, right around the corner from the episcopalresidence and old St. Patrick's cathedral. But it had been used most recently as a men's boarding house and needed much work. The owner, a Miss Seton (sometimes called Mrs. Seton, but referred to as Miss in the house journal), promised that they could take possession when allthe leases had expired, but each time one did, she quickly found another tenant. Aloysia outfoxed her by taking a lease on each room when itbecame available and proceeding to do the renovations necessary in the area under her control. The community finally took possession on July 13. The school opened with one day student on August 3, but soon began to grow. On September 17, a new group of five religious arrived from France, including Bathilde Sallion, who would be superior with Aloysia as Mistress General. The community had two postulantsalmost immediately, who took the habit on December 8.
The General Council of 1842 was to settle the confusion generated by that of 1839. On May 19, Elizabeth Galitzin set sail forFrance, taking Aloysia with her. It was thought good to have an American representative there, and Galitzin had proposed her name. Aloysia was thus the first American RSCJ to attend a General Council, invited when she was not even a superior, though she had held that office previously at St. Michael's. At thirty, she was also the youngest person present, the only one not among the longtime leaders of the Society.They did not find Madeleine Sophie in Paris, so they went to join her in Rome, but she had already gone to Lyon to convoke the Councilthere. Aloysia was able to stay for a short time in Rome, however. She visited the Trinità dei Monti, the Villa Lante, and the new house, Santa Rufina in Trastevere. There she met the young superior, Adele Lehon, and gave her a new American invention: a steel pen, which Mother Lehon kept for many years–but did not use, being accustomed to the usual quill. Aloysia was not able to see again her old mentor, Eugénie Audé, who had died at the Trinita on March 6. Through the intervention of her friend Bishop Joseph Rosati who was then in Rome, she had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI.
Then it was off to Lyon, La Ferrandière, for the General Council, which never took place because Archbishop Denis Affre of Paris forbad holding it outside his city. While waiting for these delicate negotiations to progress, Madeleine Sophie sent all the assembled delegatesoff to retreat in another house located in a beautiful place, Les Anglais. The retreat was con ducted by one of the most sought-after directors ofthe day, Joseph Barelle, SJ. It was a time of special grace for Aloysia, and became a turning point in her spiritual life. Years later, whensituations were difficult, Madeleine Sophie would remind Aloysia by letter to remember the graces of Les Anglais. For several years afterwards, Father Barrelle continued to direct Aloysia by letter.
Unable to resolve the ecclesiastical conflicts, Madeleine Sophie had finally to disband the Council and sent the representativeshome. At one point during the time of uncertainty, Father Jean Rozaven, the Jesuit Assistant General who was in many ways a friend ofthe Society–though sometimes more of an intruder, asked Aloysia which side she was on, meaning that of the 1839 changes oriented towardRome, or the Gallican pressures from the other side. Her unquestioning answer was: On the side of authority.
Aloysia sailed from Europe on October 17, 1842, with four new religious and one postulant for America. They arrived in New York on November 18: the sailing time across the Atlantic was becoming shorter. On November 22, she was one of the band who set out for the newfoundation at Conewago near McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. This foundation was Elizabeth Galitzin's initiative. Almost immediately, the novicesfrom Florissant were moved there. The house in this first phase lasted only until 1846: it was apparently a haven for catching tuberculosis. After four nuns and several students died in one year, it was abandoned, only to be tried once again for a short time, 1848-1852.
Aloysia's stay at Conewago was brief, for less than three weeks after her arrival, she was back in New York on December II, onceagain to assume the office of superior. This time she was replacing Bathilde Sallion, who was called to the foundation of St. Jacques in Canada. So it was in Aloysia's charge that a new house had to be found for the New York school since Houston Street was bursting at theseams. The confinement of the city was also a difficulty, and this time they searched for a property in the country, but not too far from thecity. They found it at Astoria, to which the community and the boarding school moved the next year. The school at Houston Street remainedopen as a day school. By this time Susannah Boudreau, who was later to be Aloysia's successor as vice-vicar, had joined the New York groupfrom Louisiana, and she also went to Astoria. Even there, space seems to have been very limited at first. Aloysia decided that one way tosave space was to give up a superior's room, so she worked wherever she could during the day and slept at night on a cot stored by day in a classroom cupboard.
In July 1843, Elizabeth Galitzin returned to America at her own
request and continued to disseminate her own interpretations of the changes of 1839, in the attempt to consolidate support for her views in opposition to those of Madeleine Sophie. She visited New York, Pennsylvania, Canada, and left on September 24 for Louisiana, where she died unexpectedly of yellow fever on December 8. This left a vacuum of top leadership in America. Philippine Duchesne had previously written to Madeleine Sophie about the need to appoint indigenous leaders, saying: “If I were consulted on the subject, Madame Hardey would be my choice. Both in the Society and the outside world she would be more favorably received than any other.” By spring of 1844, Aloysia had beencharged with the houses of the East, while Maria Cutts, an Englishwoman, held the same position for the Mississippi valley. Both had responsibilities and supervision over a group of houses, but without the official title of visitator. Neither could they be given the title provincial, which had disappeared with the suppression of the 1839 decrees, and the title of superior vicar was not to be introduced until 1851. Actually, however, they exercised much of the authority that would later become reality throughout the Society, and at the GeneralCouncil of 1851, both were confirmed in office and given the title of vice-vicar. Bathilde Sallion from Canada was to be treasurer of the whole. The three were meant to work together, constantly consulting each other. In January, March, and May of 1844, Madeleine Sophie hadsimilar correspondence with all three. By this time, there were ten houses in the East and Canada, and seven in the West.
During the four years at Astoria, Bishop Hughes, who had succeeded Bishop Dubois in 1842, had facilitated a separation in anotherreligious order that resulted in the establishment of the New York group as an independent diocesan congregation. Rumors soon spread thatthe same was about to happen to the Religious of the Sacred Heart, though there is no evidence that anyone actually contemplated such a change. This was a very painful event for Aloysia, who wrote to Madeleine Sophie assuring of her loyalty in the strongest terms. Because Aloysia was such a strong character, someone who had been trusted with responsibility from such an early age, and was seen as thequintessential independent American spirit, the suspicion of some Europeans in the Society about her seems to have remained all her life.
There was a point during these years in which the open trust between Aloysia and Madeleine Sophie was strained. A Jesuit retreat director once said of Aloysia to another RSCJ: “I have never known a more humble soul than your Mother.” Yet Madeleine Sophie remarkedto Elizabeth Galitizin in 1842 that Aloysia had “very good judgment, tact, and finesse; in fact, too much finesse. If she had more simplicity, she would be a rare person indeed.” It is not clear what Madeleine Sophie meant by "finesse" here, but she wrote in another context to Amélie Jouve: "You know how I hate 'finesse:" It is difficult to judge what value Madeleine Sophie placed on the term. Once during these years,Madeleine Sophie wrote to Aloysia some negative things she had heard about the school, and Aloysia responded defensively. This caused some coldness in the correspondence for a few years, until Aloysia apologized, and then the trusting openness resumed.
A letter from Aloysia to Madeleine Sophie dated September 28, 1846, and written at the end of her annual retreat is revealing ofher personal struggles and her openness with her superior general. She accuses herself mainly of a lack of charity, especially with regard to two religious, Mothers Sallion and Louise Dumont, toward whom she is quite judgmental. She says that others mainly reproach her for lack ofpatience. Another fault she finds in herself is postponing things she does not want to do. She has made two vows for one or two months withthe approval of her confessor but has not encouraged this for anyone else, not knowing if it is according to the spirit of the Society. She asks Madeleine Sophie for approval to make two vows, presumably the same ones she had already made temporarily: first, always to do what she believes God asks or duty demands; second, to do her spiritual exercises, especially meditation, with scrupulous attention. These are notextraordinary things, and we might wonder what was the advantage of such vows to do the very things to which she was committed anyway. According to the spirituality of the era, vows were attractive, and Aloysia used them to intensify her commitment. During this time, Madeleine Sophie undertook in her correspondence to form Aloysia to greater simplicity.
Quite a few letters from Aloysia's spiritual director, Father Charles Gresselin, to her are preserved. He was a French Jesuit who metAloysia when he was living at Fordham in 1858. He was usually affirmative and encouraging, but he did reproach her once for a certainunconscious haughty air and coldness of manner. It may have been this characteristic that later caused a rift between her and SusannahBoudreau when Aloysia later left Susannah in charge of Manhattanville at her own move to Kenwood. Yet most people found in Aloysia an open spirit, intelligence, and business sense that gained her the confidence of bishops, parents, and businessmen. One lawyer said of her thatshe had missed her vocation; she should have been a lawyer, “for she is the cleverest woman I have ever met.” Today it is amusing to read among Father Gresselin's pieces of advice to her that “Man is more active, woman more contemplative. Man acts in the world and upsets nature. Woman has more heavenly instincts and rises more toward God. All this is not the effect of prejudice, it is founded upon nature andcomes from God Himself.” One wonders if he was aware just how active Aloysia was in the world of business!
Yet in later years especially intense and deep prayer characterized her. She was known to take a longer time for prayer than prescribedby the Rule, at the direction of Madeleine Sophie. Some who approached her after she had left the chapel said that they could tell where shehad been because of the radiance on her face. An indiscreet young religious who entered her room one day was so awed by the look on her face that she remained in respectful silence, and was finally greeted by the wry comment: "Sister, if you have come only to look at me, you may go.”
This was a time of enormous changes due to new innovations like city water pipes and railroads that revolutionized daily life. Aloysia weighed the importance of changes and whether they were justified. She was viewed as appropriately progressive and flexible, and she knew when changes had to be made that departed from the way things were done in the French schools, yet she knew and inculcated the value ofcontinuity with the center of the Society's traditions. She formed deep and trusting relationships with some of the religious upon whom sherelied the most. In 1854 and 1856, she lost two of them, to Canada Marie-Thérèse Trincano, who with the delightful Stanislas Tommasinihad come to New York as a refugee from the revolutions of 1848 in Europe, and Amélie Jouve to Louisiana to replace as vice-vicar thereMaria Cutts, who had died in 1854. Amélie Aloysia Jouve, Philippine's niece, had come from France in 1847. About Amélie Aloysia Hardey complained to Madeleine Sophie that she had taken from her the only intimate friend of whom she could ask secret advice.
These thirty years saw a flurry of new foundations in the area entrusted to Aloysia's care. A partial list includes the following. St. Jacques near Montreal was founded in 1842, and Halifax in 1849. The Astoria foundation was moved back to the city to the north end of Manhattan Island and renamed Manhattanville in 1847. Meanwhile Houston Street moved to 114 Bleecker Street in 1845, closed for one year 1846-1847, then reopened at 134 Bleecker Street in 1848. This school would go on later to move to 64 West Fourteenth Street in 1852, to 49 West Seventeenth Street in 1855, to Maplehurst in 1905 and finally to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1945. Logan Square, Philadelphia in 1846 became Eden Hall in 1847 (a name changed by Aloysia from the original name of the property, Eton Hill). Bishop John Timon, CM, of Buffalo, who had been previously on the Missouri frontier, got a foundation in his city in 184 7, but it was so plagued by anti-Catholic rumors, lack of students, cholera, and typhoid that it moved to Rochester in June 1855 and thereafter flourished. Aloysia's sister Matilda came from the South to be part ofthis house in 1849, but later left the Society. A new foundation was made in Detroit in 1851 and the previously existing St. Vincent inCanada was transferred to Sault-au-Recollet in 1858. Albany, a newly established diocese, received in 1852 a new house on South Pearl Street; in 1859 the Rathbone estate at Kenwood was purchased and building begun there. New Brunswick and Sandwich, Ontario were founded in1854, the latter transferred to London, Ontario in 1857. A second foundation was made in Philadelphia in 1865, and a first in Cincinnatiin 1869.
The move out of New York to Astoria in 1844 may have been motivated by the surge of anti-Catholic feeling that swept some of theeastern cities that year in the Native American movement. There were riots in New York, while Philadelphia saw massacres and destruction ofchurches. The move to Manhattanville three years later was made possible by the purchase of the Lorillard estate. The owner had died in 1836, leaving the property to his wife, who gave it jointly to their six children. Ten years later, they agreed to sell it, and Bishop Hughes notified them ofthe Society's interest. Mrs. Lorillard, however, opposed the offer, and her children would not act without her consent. After a Way of the Cross novena in the convent, Mrs. Lorillard suddenly and conveniently died, which prompted the bishop to say: "Be careful not to oppose Mother Hardey's wishes, for if necessary she will kill you with her novenas:' But still, the price was $20,000 more than she could afford, so she asked thereligious and the children to say 20,000 Memorares in three days. At the end of the three days, the price was lowered by $20,000 and twelve acres of land had been added to the contract.
Meanwhile, the Society was expanding internationally in another direction: to the South. In 1852, Anna du Rousier, seasoned superior from Piedmont who had been publicly ridiculed during the upheavals of 1848, arrived in the United States with the title of superior vicar, towhom the two vice-vicars, Hardey and Cutts, were accountable. It was indicative of the European mentality of the time that Americans could notbe trusted to be entirely in charge, even as the same kinds of bias were later to repeat themselves among the regions of the United States. Motherdu Rousier visited all the houses of both vicariates, arriving in St. Charles on November 17, the day before Philippine Duchesne's death, to receive her last blessing. Anna and Aloysia did not see eye to eye. The vicar found fault with the government, formation, and location ofhouses. It got so bad that Madeleine Sophie had to write to Aloysia to console her. While in Buffalo, Anna was planning to return to Franceto give her report when she received a letter from Madeleine Sophie mandating a foundation in Chile, to which either she or Aloysia should go. After a tormented night before the Blessed Sacrament, Anna, against her natural inclinations, determined that she would be the one. So she set out amid the dangers and adventures of her travels to found the house in Santiago. Meanwhile, however, she still held the title of Vicar ofAmerica, and Maria Cutts and Aloysia were still supposed to obtain her approval for new ventures. This situation continued until 1858 becausethe plan had been for du Rousier to return to the United States after making the foundation. But in fact she never returned to North America. Maria Cutts and Aloysia tried to consult her, but the mail service was much better to France than to Chile, and they went much more often to Madeleine Sophie directly.
At this time another new venture was taking shape. On May 16, 1818, Philippine Duchesne's ship had anchored overnight outside Havana on its way to New Orleans.. A Señor Martinez, learning that there were five missionary religious on board, came to visit them on the ship and gave them forty dollars, telling them to return to Havana if they could not succeed elsewhere. In 1857, five years after Philippine's death,several events combined to create the auspicious moment to make the foundation. For some years, Cuban girls had been coming to Manhattanvillefor school, under the direction of Mistress General Susannah Boudreau. Now there were three Spanish-speaking novices in the Manhattanvillenovitiate: one Cuban, one of Cuban family born in New Orleans, and another born in Venezuela; and several Cubans ready to enter the novitiate. A Señor and Señora Espino in Havana offered to establish a school of the Sacred Heart. Enriqueta Purroy, born in Venezuela and now director of afine girls' school in Havana, offered to transfer her students to the Sacred Heart and to enter the Society along with her two sisters, Amalia and Natividad, and an Irish teacher, Mary Ann (Marianne in the Society) Conway (whose name is sometimes erroneously given as Conroy). Soon after, Adela Gonzalez, a protégée of Sra. Espino, also asked to enter the Society. The Captain General of the island offered $10,000 to Madeleine Sophie to make a foundation. She hesitated because of the general impression that foreigners there would soon succumb to yellow fever, and that they should thus be prepared to lose many religious, but she left the decision to Aloysia, who promptly accepted. She left New York by ship on December 27 or 28, 1857, with Stanislas Tommasini and two other religious, and landed in Havana on January 3, 1858. They were greeted with pomp by the Espinos and the Captain General of the island.
The promised house and the promised $10,000 failed to materialize. Señora Espino had acquired a very small house in the Calle del Prado with room for only a few students. Apparently she intended it to be more or less a private school for her own daughter, Maria. Themoney had to be raised from the local aristocracy, who were hesitating because of the political tensions of the moment between Spain and theUnited States. No one wanted to be the first to subsidize the American superior. When Aloysia went to see the Captain General to tell him, with Tommasini as translator, that they would withdraw until a more opportune time, he suddenly snapped into action, the money wascollected, and a suitable house was found on the outskirts of town at El Cerro. While they were preparing it with Aloysia's usual efficiency,on February 5 she came down with yellow fever and was at the brink of death.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Rafaela Donoso asked to enter as a lay sister. Upon hearing of Aloysia's illness, she offered to spend three extra days in purgatory in exchange for a cure and her acceptance into the Society. At the same time, Enriqueta Purroy was insisting that she apply her remedy of almond oil to Aloysia, who had to be commanded by the Jesuit superior to depart from her doctor's orders andtake it. Whether it was Rafaela's offer or Enriqueta's almond oil, Aloysia recovered. Her first act was to accept Rafaela into the Society. Aloysia sent off these new vocations in various directions for formation: Enriqueta and Mary Ann and Amalia to Conflans (Amalia died inSpain during formation), and Natividad, Rafaela, and in a few months Adela to Manhattanville. Rafaela died in 1862 in Cuba on the Feast of theAssumption as she had earlier predicted, after spending her final three days in silent suffering. Pious interpretation had it that she had spent the extra three days of purgatory on earth.
On March 19, 1858, the school under the patronage of the Holy Heart of Mary opened with forty-five boarders, amid fanfare andpublic ceremony attended by notables. Aloysia left March 30, leaving the house in the capable hands of Justina Casamayor (sometimeserroneously called Casanova) Lay, a young Cuban widow already known for her heroic charity, who had just made her first vows at Manhattanville. As superior, she wore a cross and ring to keep up appearances (since these were usually the signs of final profession). None ofthe new Cuban vocations could serve immediately in their own country, but others who had finished their novitiate at Manhattanville wereready, and other American, Canadian, and European religious soon joined them. From 1858 to 1874 there was a constant flow of religious from the eastern vicariate to Cuba, and new vocations from Cuba to Manhattanville for formation. As we have seen above, the 1850s was a time ofrapid expansion of the eastern vicariate, and all personnel were needed for staffing. From 1853 to 1860, no religious from the East were sent toChile; because of the rapid expansion elsewhere and the needs of Cuba, they could not be spared. After 1860, Aloysia began to send religious toChile as well.
In 1860, Amélie Jouve arrived in New York on her way to what was to be a General Council in Paris. Aloysia had not received asummons, but assumed that she was also intended to go. They set sail together, but Aloysia found when she arrived that she was not expected; Madeleine Sophie had thought that both should not be away at the same time. In any event, the Council did not take place, and they returned to America after a few weeks.
In 1861, Aloysia was afflicted with her second serious illness, also so grave that her life was despaired of. Again, she recovered. Soon after, there was a night fire in the laundry at Manhattanville. Typically, she quickly took command, but somehow in the course of the fright, or soon after, she suffered a small stroke that paralyzed her right hand. The result was that she could no longer write her own letters. A brief letter to Madeleine Sophie in 1860 is the last thing written in her hand that has survived. This condition was to remain with her for the rest of her life, another twentyfive years. It is said that no one ever heard her complain of this impediment. By 1870, Margaret Hoey, born in New York and professed there in 1867, held the trusted position of secretary.
Meanwhile, the Civil War had broken out. There were a good number of students from the South at Manhattanville. Though other northern schools lost their southern students, none withdrew from Manhattanville where, unusually, both the superior and the mistress general were from Louisiana; but many southern parents could not pay the tuition. Aloysia helped them out in whatever way possible. Union troops passed through New York on the way to defend Washington. When battle there seemed imminent, Aloysia offered Manhattanville as refuge for the Georgetown Visitation nuns, but as it turned out, they did not need to leave. Some of the Union generals who commanded the occupation forces in the South had daughters at Manhattanville. Aloysia used these contacts to secure protection and even supplies for the southern houses, though she did not learn until after the war that these efforts had been successful. The Louisiana houses, under the leadership of Amélie Jouve,were cut off from Missouri and the rest of the world for eighteen months. Madeleine Sophie in 1862 asked Aloysia to visit the houses ofMissouri and Illinois, and to learn what she could. She set off at once, and was able to get through first to the three-year-old foundation in Chicago, then to St. Louis, her first visit to the land of Philippine, and to St. Joseph. Still there was no communication with the southernhouses until 1864, and Aloysia was asked to look after the western houses in the meantime.
Events in Cuba involving Aloysia were not over. El Cerro was doing well, and a second foundation on the other side of the islandat Sancti Spiritu was invited in 1863. The religious were to care for thirty orphans, run a free school, and open an academy for the childrenof neighboring planters. In the meantime, in the midst of all her concerns about the Civil War, Aloysia made two other difficult visits toHavana. The new Bishop, Jacinto Maria Martinez y Saez, disapproved of many aspects of life at El Cerro and he especially did not like that the convent was accountable to a distant American superior. He withdrew many of its guarantees, including the English-speaking confessorfrom the community, just at a time when one of the English-speaking religious was near death. With heavy heart, Aloysia sped to Havana,seeking an audience with the bishop, who refused to see her. There was nothing she could do but go home and ask advice from Paris, suggesting that the Cuban houses be closed. The matter was referred through the cardinal protector of the Society to the pope, who refusedand told the Congregation of Bishops to direct Bishop Martinez to honor the Constitutions of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Josephine Goetz, writing to Aloysia in Madeleine Sophie's name, suggested that humbling herself before the bishop would be the best strategy–not thefirst or last time that such an approach to ecclesiastical authority was advised for women.
There is an amusing story that found Aloysia and Tommasini in secular clothes–to Aloysia's horror–on the same boat to SanctiSpiritu with not only the bishop but also the Captain General. He and the bishop were already at odds, and the addition of the RSCJ made it a trio of tensions. They tried to hide, but Tommasini was recognized because she was too curious. A subsequent discussion between Aloysia and the bishop smoothed out the difficulties. By 1869, the political situation in the area of Sancti Spiritu was so unstable that the religious had to withdraw, never to return. El Cerro continued to flourish, and in 1874 was transferred to the Louisiana vicariate. By this time Susannah Boudreau was vice-vicar there. From then on, choir novices from Cuba went to Grand Coteau for formation instead of to New York.
On January 4, 1864, Aloysia lost a longtime friend and supporter. Archbishop Hughes (New York had become an archdiocese in1850). He was replaced by Archbishop John McCloskey, who had earlier been chaplain at Houston Street and bishop of Albany. He was nowthe first Americanborn bishop of New York, and eventually Cardinal, always a strong supporter of the Society. In June 1864, while theUnited States Civil War was still raging, Aloysia was called to the eighth General Council in Paris. This was to be the last Council presidedover by Madeleine Sophie, and the fifteen vicars in attendance seemed to realize it. There were now eighty-six houses in the Society, twenty-two of them in North America. Governmental changes were needed. Missouri/Illinois and Louisiana were divided into two vice-vicariates, under the direction of Margaret Gallwey and Anna Shannon, respectively. Canada with Detroit became a separate vice-vicariate under Marie-Thérèse Trincano. Amélie Jouve was recalled to France. Aloysia remained vice-vicar of the East with the informal charge also to visit thehouses of both South and West. When she returned to New York on September 8, she learned that her longtime spiritual director, FatherGresselin, had died on August 15 while she was in France.
Less than a year later, Aloysia was called with the other vicars to the ninth General Council upon the death of Madeleine Sophie, to elect Josephine Goetz second superior general of the Society. One of Madeleine Sophie's last wishes was that superiors who had been for a long time inone place change residence. It was agreed while Aloysia was in France, and announced upon her return, that she would move to Kenwood the following year. She had been superior at Manhattanville since 1847, and of that foundation's predecessors since 1842. A complicating factor was that some years previously, when Marie-Thérèse Trincano was in New York she had voiced to Bishop Hughes an anxiety about the possibility ofAloysia leaving New York. This had prompted such alarm on the part of the bishop that he had written to Madeleine Sophie pleading in the strongest terms that Mother Hardey remain in his diocese. Mother Barat had responded graciously, saying that she had no intention ofmoving Mother Hardey. Now in 1866 when her move was announced, Archbishop McCloskey invoked this old assurance, but Aloysia'sanswer was that both parties to the agreement now being dead, it no longer held.
Briefly then, Aloysia moved to Kenwood in 1866, leaving Susannah Boudreau as superior at Manhattanville. Her presence at Kenwood meant that she could supervise personally the new buildings that were rising there after the demolition of the Rathbone estate, putting workmen interror that she would turn up anywhere at any time and insist on inspecting everything. The novitiate also moved to Kenwood from Manhattanvilleat the same time. During her stay there she traveled constantly not only to the houses in her own vice-vicariate but also to those of the West, which she had been given the charge to visit at the General Council of 1864. ln 1869 she was in St. Louis overseeing the acquisition of property and construction of a new house on the south side of town, Maryville. She was especially vigilant about its destiny when in the next few years itran out of money. She delayed some of the construction at Kenwood in order to send the money to use for Maryville.
From St. Louis she visited the Potawatomi mission at St. Marys,
Kansas, and oversaw a division of property between the Society and the Jesuits and a new building there, the four-story “skyscraper of theprairies.” The mission (St. Mary's)[i] was already experiencing difficulties; the erection of the new building really meant the end of themission itself and the beginning of an academy in which the Native Americans were welcome if they met the academic standards. By this time there were too many Catholic girls' schools in the area, however, and it would finally close in 1879, the saddest thing that Susannah Boudreauhad to do. But for the moment, Aloysia gave it a new lease on life.
From 1871 to 1873, a house was briefly opened at Rosecroft in Maryland, a gift to the Society from Pauline (Lena) Hardey, half-sister of Aloysia by her father's second marriage to Elizabeth Millard of Baltimore after Sarah Hardey's death in 1846. Lena intended to enterthe novitiate (where she subsequently died as a novice), and offered the house. But it was too far from everything and could not last. The school begun there was moved to Elmhurst in Providence, Rhode Island. At the last superiors' retreat that Aloysia had attended in Paris in 1869, Reverend Mother Goetz had confided to her that she should be pre pared to be called to Paris as Assistant General. In December 1871, the suggestion became reality, and Aloysia was asked to undertake a tour of three or four months of all the twenty-five houses of Canada, the United States, and Cuba and to arrive at the Motherhouse at the end of August 1872. Because she knew it would be too difficult if all knew that they were saying goodbye to her, she asked to travel as visitator only, keeping the secret of her appointment as Assistant General until the completion of the travel. There were now 731 religious and 146 novices in North America.
The trip took a little longer than anticipated, but by September the tour had been completed and the departure arrangements made. She sailed for France on September 11 with her faithful secretary, Margaret Hoey, now so necessary since she could not write hersel£ and two future novices, one of them her half-sister Lena. Mother Goetz did not send out the announcement of her appointment until the middle of October. In January 1873 Sarah Jones, who had been her novice at Manhattanville many years earlier, replaced Aloysia as vicar of the East.
Once arrived at the Motherhouse, Aloysia was in a new role. Those who knew the confident leader saw a new side to her: she yieldedcompletely to her superior general and saw herself as nothing but an aid to her. Yet she was not allowed to rest long. She was soon sent to visitsome of the French houses. At Orleans, she saw again her old friend and confidant Amélie Jouve. In May 1873, Mother Goetz's health began tofail, and she set out with Aloysia for a rest at Pau in the Pyrenees and a pilgrimage to Lourdes. On this trip Aloysia convinced Josephine Goetz to have her picture taken by agreeing to pose with her, the first head-on photograph of a superior general, since Madeleine Sophie had always refused. Returned to the Motherhouse, Mother Goetz died on January 4, 1874, and was replaced on May 6 by Adele Lehon.
Aloysia's separation from America was not to be final, for in July she was back in America for nine months on urgent business for Manhattanville, and was able to visit many of her old houses. She was thus able to be present at Manhattanville at the end of April 1875 for a celebration there of Archbishop McCloskey's elevation to Cardinal, at which time he lavished praise on her and the Society. On April 20, she left New York for Paris. Margaret Hoey, her secretary, was left behind, having had some kind of accident in St. Louis that required complete rest. Once recovered, she went on to be assistant, treasurer, and superior. She died in 1917. Aloysia's new secretary was Pauline Catherine ApolonieSeymour, born in Washington and professed just one year before, in 1874. She must have been of limited help since she did not know French,but it is she who has left us wonderful details of Aloysia's life in Europe as assistant general. In 1882, she was in poor health and had to remainin America. She recovered, taught in Atlantic City and Eden Hall, and died in 1916.
Still Aloysia's travels continued. In 1876, she was sent on a visit to Spain, because of her knowledge of Spanish. How well she spoke the language is not clear, nor when she learned it. She was studying it during her first visit to Cuba, but was not completely fluent. OnMarch 15, 1877, her golden jubilee was celebrated, for some reason not from final profession as was the custom then, but from first vows. For the occasion, eleven cablegrams arrived from America, from bishops, Children of Mary, and alumnae. American probanists from the Mother House, American novices from Conflans, and American children from the Rue de Varennes all joined in the celebration. Her old friend Amélie Jouve came from Orleans to represent Louisiana, the only vicariate not represented among the probanists.
In September 1877, she was present for the superiors' retreat at the Mother House preached by Michel Fessard, SJ. Among those also present were Susannah Boudreau, vicar of Missouri, Stanislas Tommasini, vicar of Canada, Sarah Jones, vicar of the northeastern United States–all of whom she had known well in earlier days, Mary Elizabeth Moran, vicar of Louisiana, and Mabel Digby, vicar of England-Ireland, who was later to become superior general in 1895. A second visit to New York took place from October 1877 to July 1878, supposedly to rest, but she devoted all her time to giving to others, spending an hour a day with the young religious, and living completely for others in whatever way she could. Back in Paris in the fall of 1878, Aloysia was entrusted with the direction of the probation. Then came visits with Mother Lehon in France, Belgium, England, and Ireland. In 1880 she was appointed administrator of a day school at the Mother House, and she soon began a programthere for adults as well as children.
In 1882 she again crossed the Atlantic for what was to be her last visit to America, but a long one. The voyage by now took only ninedays, but she stayed in New York for a year and a half, engaged in negotiations, not for the first time, to fend off city appropriation ofManhattanville property to run streets directly through it. If the city had succeeded, the school would have had to move. She succeeded in holding the city at bay for the time being and at the same time sold off some of the property on the edges. While she was there, one of her letters to Mother Lehon indicates that the latter must have helped out financially Aloysia's brother and nephew. Then Mother Lehon wrote to ask that she return to France. Her letter of response, dated March 14, 1883, says that she understands that the superior general wants her to return. If thesacrifice of half a million [dollars? francs?] for the sale of lots of Manhattanville property is not important, she will obey joyfully. She stayed.
In February 1884 she was back in France, accompanied by her new secretary, Catherine Grasser; she was born in Luxembourg in 1843, entered the Society at the age of sixteen at Manhattanville, and was professed at Kenwood in 1868. She remained Aloysia's secretary until herdeath in
1886, at which time she returned to America, where she taught and was treasurer at Grosse Pointe, San Francisco, Chicago, and Clifton, before dying in 1918.
Now in February 1884 at the General Council in France, Aloysia was named local superior at the Mother House. In July 1885,her health was deteriorating so much that Adele Lehon sent her off to the seaside house of Calais for a rest. On the way, the train suddenly lurched, which brought on a heart attack, followed by another a few days later at Calais. Mother Lehon hastened to her side at Calais. When Aloysia saw her, she started in on a recitation of her faults and request for forgiveness that went on so long that Mother Lehon had to askher to stop. In September, Aloysia was back at the Mother House, now in a wheelchair. Her health continued to deteriorate, and by early Juneof 1886, it was clear that she was dying. She obeyed so literally the rule that enjoins obedience to one's physician that she balked at having her nurses move her to a more comfort able position because her doctor had said she was not to move. When he heard of it, her physician remarked that he would have to be more careful what he said to her.
Mother Lehon summoned from New York Sarah Jones and Aloysia's old secretary Margaret Hoey, a rather unusual effort in those days. They left June 12 for their nine-day voyage, and Aloysia knew they were on the way, but was not able to wait for them. It was the last sacrifice asked of her. She died on the 17th, and they arrived on the 21st. Her death was peaceful and radiant. The Americans wanted totake her body back to New York, but Aloysia had expressed the preference to be buried in France, and they acquiesced. She was buried at Conflans, with other Assistants General, not far away from the resting place of Madeleine Sophie. Later circumstances were to bring her backhome. By the summer of 1905, the closure of the French houses by the anti-clerical government was in full swing. The body of Madeleine Sophie was taken to Brussels, and that of Aloysia was brought across the Atlantic, her twentieth crossing, to rest first at Manhattanville, and finally, on December 12, in the cemetery of Kenwood. The Latin inscription that is today above her grave on the large granite cross at thecenter of the cemetery is the same inscription that was on her grave at Conflans:
Peace and repose in Christ
To Mary Aloysia Hardey,
Virgin according to the Heart of Jesus,
By whose counsel, prudence, and virtue
Our Society widely expanded
Through the American regions,
In academies for the education of girls
Where the finest learning, observance of rule,
And piety flourished.
In joy she attained the fruit of her labor
On the fifteenth calends of Quintiles [June 17] 1886
Aged seventy-six years and six months [tombstone: ten]
With sixty years and [seven] months [tombstone: number of months blank]
In our congregation.
She was eminently deserving of praise from the whole Church.
Sources
Cunningham, Ruth, RSCJ. First American Daughter: Mary Aloysia Hardey, RSC]. Kenwood, 1981.
[Dufour, Marie, RSCJ]. Vie de la Riverende Mere Mary Ann Aloysia Hardey, Assistante Générale de la Société du Sacre Coeur de Jésus. Paris:n.d.
Garvey, Mary, RSCJ. Mary Aloysia Hardey, Religious of the Sacred Heart, 1809-1886. New York/London: Longmans, 1925.
House Journal, New York, 1841-1842.
Williams, Margaret, RSCJ. Second Sowing: The Life of Mary Aloysia Hardey. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1942.
Williams, Margaret, RSCJ. Mother Hardey, A Religious of the Sacred Heart and First American-Born Superior. New York: Manhattanville College,1945.
Notes and lectures by Marie Louise Martinez, RSCJ.
[i] When referring to the mission, St. Mary's is correct; the town is St. Marys, without the apostrophe.