STORY - A picture that tells many stories

This wonderful photo, taken by an unknown photographer, has captured a moment in time, a diocesan event whose centenary is to be celebrated on 8 August this year.

It was a day that had been long anticipated - to finally declare open their “motherhouse” convent - seventeen years in the building! - and to have it blessed by Cardinal Moran in a grand public ceremony. Many minds and hearts had been engaged in its planning and construction: Bishop James Murray, who had invited the Sisters to Singleton; Mother Mary Stanislaus Kenny, leader of the group of ten who arrived from Ennis in 1875; Monsignor Peter Meagher, parish priest since 1893 and good friend to the Sisters, and the prominent German architect Frederick Menkens.

After years of fund-raising and saving, the Sisters had managed to buy eighteen acres of John Browne’s land for ₤900 cash, and to raise a loan to begin building. The west wing with its schoolroom and dormitory had been built in 1892, the north-facing section containing reception areas in 1901-02, and now the east wing that housed the refectory, kitchen and laundry was finished, and the work could be declared complete. It was a building erected ad maiorem Dei gloriam – “to the greater glory of God” – and the Sisters must have felt a thrill of pride as they anticipated its opening.

As the building neared completion, however, the Sisters, and in particular Mother Stanislaus, must have been feeling a great sadness, knowing that the Bishop of Maitland, James Murray would probably not be with them on the occasion of such rejoicing. In the brief account she wrote of the foundation of the Singleton Sisters of Mercy, Mother Stanislaus referred to him as “the angel of Maitland”. He had been to her a confidant, friend and adviser, and now he was gravely ill. Just one month before the date that had been set for the opening he died, and she must have felt his loss keenly.

Frederick Menkens too was in poor health, and had left the supervision of the final wing to his partner FG Castleden. From the fragment that remains of her shipboard diary, it is evident that Mother Stanislaus knew the German language, and it is no wonder that she had formed a friendship with Menkens also. He would show his reciprocation by gifting the Sisters of Mercy in his will.

When the great day arrived, the local Singleton Argus, in covering this special event, focused on the presence in the town of the Cardinal, who had not visited Singleton for twenty-four years, and on the wonderful reception given to him by the parishioners.

The photographer has focused on the opening itself. The enthroned Cardinal Moran is prominent among the dignitaries on the dais. With him are Bishop Dunne of Bathurst and other clerics who are difficult to identify. There were several church dignitaries in the Diocese at that time for the "month's mind" of the death of Bishop Murray.

The image of the crowd is wonderful: the fashions (especially the hats!), the poses, the small details of children playing, a bored-looking teenager, a lady with an umbrella – for sun or rain? - as the speeches go on!

The image of the Sisters tells its own story. There are well over one hundred Sisters in the community at this time, and here they all are, professed mingling with novices, who have just come from prayer in the Chapel, but remaining totally aloof from the crowd below!! The privacy of the Sisters is further emphasised by the painted windows of the new convent – designed to keep out prying eyes - though today presumably the building is open to general inspection.

The day is a crowning point in the achievement of Mother Stanislaus. In the years after their arrival in the diocese she has concentrated on establishing the traditional Mercy ministries. By the date of this opening the Sisters have parish convents and schools in Gunnedah, Murrurundi, Scone, Muswellbrook, Branxton, East Maitland, Raymond Terrace, Morpeth, Lambton and Hamilton. They have made four independent foundations, two of them in New Zealand. They conduct the Monte Pio orphanage on behalf of the diocese. Now at last she has a home for her growing community, a base where the young women can be trained, and from which Sisters can go out on ministry, and to which they could return for refreshment.

As the Sisters celebrated this day with Mother Stanislaus, they did not know that seven months later she would die of heart failure, just two days after the death of her friend Menkens. And as the Singleton Sisters were celebrating the opening of their motherhouse, the Sisters of St Joseph were at the death bed of their saintly foundress, Mary MacKillop.

Both of these founding women, like the many other Australian foundresses of the nineteenth century, left impressive legacies in bricks and mortar. These buildings, like the Singleton Convent, although planned for practical purposes, were and remain symbols of the greater legacies of faith, hope, love and dedication to service that inspired them.

Monica Sinclair rsm

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