The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-03-05
THE LAST OF THE SISTERS.
Heroic Women Who Established St.
Mary's of the Woods.

In the death of Sister Mary xavier,
at st. Mary's of the Woods, last
week, was the passing away OF the
last of the six sisters of Providence
who came to this country from
France in 1910. So well did they
Law the foundation for the order in
this country that there are now more
than seven hundred members of the
order in this country, and the COM
munity owns anywhere from ST.
OOO,O0 to $10,0O0,0OO worth OF
property, the most valuable piece
being the vast home, St. Mary's OF
the Woods, five miles west of this
city, where six sisters landed from
a rickety stage coach in October,
1910. Sister Mary Xavier had nev-
er lived elsewhere than at St. Mary's
since coming to this country. Dur
ing the past few years she had been
very feeble. She was twenty-seven
years old when she came to St.
Mary's, fifty six years ago last
October. Mother Theodore, who
was at the head Of the little band Of
brave women who responded to the
call of Bishop Beute, of the diocese
|of Vincennes, which then included
about all the central northwest,
died in 1856. She had so strongly
Impressed her plan and ideas on
the community that to this day
they are followed. Sister M. Lii
guori Tiercin, st. Vincent Gage
and Basilde Senechal died within
the following ten or fifteen years.
At the time of the golden jubilee,
in 1890, Sister Olympiade and Sister
Mary Xavier we're the only ones
Of the original community alive.
The first named died few years
later.
Much has been printed in the
newspapers of the work OF the Sis
tiers of Providence in the Catholic
parochial schools of the United
States, and descriptive of the beauti-
Iful mother home in st. Mary's Of
the Woods, but Of the origin OF the
order in France, and the manner OF
its advent in this country little has
been said. After the reign of terror
in France, when churches were in
ruins and almost every trace Of re-
Iligion obliterated, there was sure,
Father Cujarie, Of the Loir. When
the concordant of 1901 had de-
stroyed religious worship he sought
means for the instruction of the
young. Several of his lady peni-
tents in 1902 formed themselves in
to a society for the teaching Of
children. 1t was not until a daugh-
ter of Count du Roscoat joined the
society that it took its permanent
name of Sisters Of Providence.
Mile. Julia Josephine Zoe ROLAND
Roscoat, the daughter of the count,
was obliged to use the talents she
had so literally received before the
revolution in supporting the family,
whose estate had been confiscated.
After peace had been restored they
recovered their castle and part OF
their estate which enabled Mile.
IduRoscoat to devote here time to
the new society, it having been the
purpose to seek obscurity and a life
Iof poverty whenever her family
should not need her services in their
support. She became the found
ress Of the order, which grew so
rapidly that in few years every
diocese in France had the services
of the Sisters Of Providenceof Ruille-
sur-Loir. ~
In 1910 Bishop Beute, Of the do
cese of Vincennes, sent the Rev.
DeLaHailandiere to France for
workers in his vineyard. Ruille
E. !. a..