MEET OUR FOUNDRESS

Small In Stature,

Giant In Courage and Perseverance.

BEGINNINGS OF A NEW RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE

Elizabeth Prout, aged 29, a delicate Victorian woman, responded to God’s call to do what might be considered impossible at the time. She was called to found a Congregation of religious women to bring the compassion and love of Christ to the poor. This she, and her small band of sisters, accomplished over a period of sixteen years of self-sacrifice, grinding poverty and total surrender to the will of God.

Elizabeth was an innovator, a dowry was not a requirement for entry and this was entirely new for a religious congregation at that time. While her dream and her character were strong and courageous, her health was fragile and she died at the age of 43. She had however, laid the foundations of the infant congregation of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion whose mission later expanded to five continents in ways she could never have envisaged. The desire to keep alive the memory of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection was central to their life together.

Elizabeth, in her mid-twenties, was living in Stone, Staffordshire when she met Fr. Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist, now Blessed Dominic. Under his influence, and at a time when Catholicism in England, was still seen with suspicion, she became a Catholic. In 1848 she entered the convent of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus at Northampton. After six months she developed a tubercular knee and had to return home. Nursed by her mother she got well though forbidden to go to Mass, she was forced to make a choice between her family and her faith. Elizabeth left home and made her way to Manchester looking for work. Here, in September 1849, with the help of Fr. Gaudentius Rossi C.P. she began teaching in St. Chad’s school in Angel Meadows, a very poor area of Manchester.

Manchester in 1849 was at the centre of the Industrial Revolution and it was an age of exploitation and greed. The poor lived and worked in appalling conditions. Many were Catholic, famine refugees from Ireland. Children from the age of five worked long hours in the mills and could neither read or write. Thousands were without any religious instruction. Mill girls were particularly vulnerable. Shocked by this inequality and injustice Elizabeth and a few companions were moved to do something about it.

THE CATHOLIC SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY

In 1852, in St. Chad’s parish, with the help of Fr. Gaudentius Rossi, Fr. Croskell and Fr. William Turner, later to become Bishop of Salford, Elizabeth founded “The Institute of the Holy Family”. Elizabeth, the leader, was given the name Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus. The spirit of the Institute was to be the spirit of the Holy Family living, working and praying in their home at Nazareth.
Elizabeth Prout’s Institute was a new venture. The Sisters lived in community combining a humble and prayerful life with an active ministry outside the convent. There was no class distinction among members. Lack of education was a not an obstacle. Sisters went out to teach, to sew, to work in the mills or in any employment compatible with their religious state. They had no property, no patrons, and no security. They pooled their wages and when they were out of work they, like their neighbours, went hungry. Dire poverty was often their lot.

This was a radical departure from the established Religious Orders of the day. In the 1850’s this ‘classless’ community, was considered ‘revolutionary’. It aroused fierce opposition. The very existence of the Institute was seen as a threat to the ‘status quo’

The annalist tells us:

“The Sisters at this period had to suffer the most determined opposition from all the priests in their neighbourhood who treated them as persons devoid of reason for attempting this foundation under what seemed to them unfavourable circumstances”

Some, loud in their denunciation, called for the Institute to be suppressed. Bishop Turner, in an effort to settle the matter set up a Diocesan Enquiry in July 1858, to examine the charges against the sisters. All aspects of their life and works were scrutinised. The charges were examined, quashed and Elizabeth personally and all the Sisters were exonerated. Their opponents were defeated but a quiet resistance continued . After the enquiry the Sisters had to tread warily maintaining “humble silence”, waiting for the tide to turn in their favour. This took time, but turn it did…. The Annalist records:

“The Institute struggled on, amidst difficulties and opposition, but was supported throughout by the Providence of Almighty God who while he smites with one hand, as surely sustain with the other.”

All this Elizabeth and her companions accepted as sharing in the Passion of Christ. They were not broken. They endured. They had learnt through betrayal and rejection that “Identification with Jesus Christ in the mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection was at the heart of their vocation”.

Elizabeth died on the 11th January 1864 at the convent in Sutton, St. Helen’s, Lancashire. She was 43 years of age. Her body, together with that of Blessed Dominic Barberi C.P and Fr. Ignatius Spencer C.P, now lies in the shrine of St. Anne’s Church in Sutton, which is near Liverpool and is now a place of pilgrimage.