The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-18
MOTHER DIGBY'S VISIT.
Head of Catholic Order Who Is Com
ing to America.

Head Of Catholic Order Who Is Com
ing to America.
Mother Mabel Digby is mother general
of all the religieuse of the Order of the
Sacred Heart throughout the civilized
world. Her history furnishes q beautiful
example of what can be done and suffered
when life's forces are early directed to
the accomplishment of one purpose.
Mother Digby was not born of Catholic
parents, but like Mother Seton, the
founder of the Sisters of Charity, Cardi
nal Newman, Cardinal Wiseman and
many other of the brightest intellects
that the church has ever had, she is
convert.
The Digbys of England, where Mother
Digby was born, have long been noted in
social and literary matters. Kenelm
Digby, an English writer, whose works
can truly be said to be both brilliant and
profound. the rarest combination in the
world among writer's and whose most
celebrated work is ''Mores Catholici." is
a relative of Mother Digby.
With every inducement to enter upon
a worldly career and win renown as q
woman of learning and social standing,
with all the family connections and
wealth requisite to the accomplishment OF
any reasonable wish, SO strong was the
religious feeling in this young girl that
at II years of age she was received into
the Catholic church; and although she
did not at that time confess her intention
of becoming religieuse, there is no doubt
that the vow was already taken in her
heart; for shortly after this she began to
serve her time as postulate, and she
took her final VOW when she was only Il.
Her talents for the life she had chosen
We're soon discovered by her superiors.
Her rise to positions of influence was
wonderfully rapid and was due to moth
ing other than that she filed every posi-
ton assigned her with grace and to the
perfect satisfaction OF the heads Oh her
order
Her first important position was that
of superior at Tours. Six or seven years
later she became superior of the Vicariate
of England. She had been superior gem
eral OF the religious order of the Sacred
Heart since the spring of 1895. She is the
fifth mother general of the order, and the
first one that has ever visited America
1t is eminently proper that Mother Digby
should come to the United States, as the
English language is her mother tongue.
Mother Dlgby sailed from france on
the 18th of August. Her itinerary after
reaching the shores of North America
began at Montreal, Canada, and from
there she was to journey on and inspect
and confer with all the ladies of the
Sacred Heart who have charge of educa-
tional institutions, acadeelies and paroch-
ial schools in Canada. then down into the
United States and to the Pacific coast;
from there to Mexico; then back to the
United States. Among the academies of
the Sacred Heart that we may now con-
slider our own are two in Cuba and one
in Puerto Rico; these will also be hon
ored by visit from the mother general.
But all this will be done quietly; she is
not a celebrity on a pleasure trip nor
yet one seeking notoriety She is simply
mother, visiting ser large family of
daughters, pleased and happy also to
know their children, the Children OF Mary
this last being the name by which the
alumnae of the academies of the Sacred
Heart are known. Into every city that
Mother Digby goes she viii be accorded
most hearty welcome by the rel!gieuse
and receptions in her honor will be given
by the Sisters and their graduates, Inc
Children of Mary, but to these receptions
no outsider. not even Catholics. win be
admitted. The world is dead to a nun.
and there is nothing they dislike more
than to be lionized. 1t is seldom that one
of them can be induced to have her pic
ture taken. To this absolute devotion to
their religion. and abandoning of the
Sacred Heart have no likeness of Mother
Barat, the founder of their order.
RUTH EVERETT.