Mary Juliana Hardman (name in religion Sister Mary) (26 April 1813 – 24 March 1884) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
nun.
Life
Mary Juliana was one of a large
recusant
Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
family, the Hardmans. Her father was John Hardman, senior, of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, a rich manufacturer, her mother his second wife, Lydia Waring.
She was educated in the Benedictine convent at
Caverswall
Caverswall is a village and parish in Staffordshire, to the south west of Staffordshire Moorlands.
In the middle of the 19th century there were about 1500 inhabitants. In the 1880s an urbanised part of the parish called East Vale was transferred ...
, in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, and, when she was nineteen, her father founded the
convent of Our Lady of Mercy at
Handsworth, near Birmingham. In 1840 Miss Hardman and three friends offered themselves to Bishop Walsh, to form the nucleus of a new community, and by his advice they went to make their novitiate under Mother
Catherine McAuley
Catherine McAuley, RSM (29 September 1778 – 11 November 1841) was an Irish Catholic religious sister who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831.Austin, Mary Stanislas"Sisters of Mercy."''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 10. New York: Robert App ...
, founder of the
Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, Baggot Street, Dublin.
The novices made their profession on 19 August 1841, and a day or two later Mother McAuley accompanied them to the new convent at Handsworth, where they were solemnly received by Bishop
Nicholas Wiseman
Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church who became the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850.
Born ...
. Shortly afterwards Sister Mary Juliana was appointed first prioress of the community, and held that office off and on for thirty-five years, her first appointment lasting for six. She was then elected for three years, and twice re-elected for the same period, and from 1870 she held the office of superioress till her death.
In 1849 she opened another convent at
St. Chad's, Birmingham, and also one at
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
. The next year she built an
almonry
An almonry (Lat. ''eleemosynarium'', Fr. ''aumônerie'', Ger. ''Almosenhaus'') is the place or chamber where alms were distributed to the poor in church (building), churches or other ecclesiastical buildings. The person designated to oversee the di ...
for the relief of the poor, and opened poor-schools. In 1851 she placed the orphanage founded by her father at
Maryvale under the care of Sisters of her community, making her own sister, Mary Hardman, in religion Sister Mary of the Holy Ghost, superioress. In 1858 she built a middle-class boarding-school; twelve years later she erected elementary schools for the working classes at Handsworth; and in 1874 she opened a middle-class day-school for both of boys and girls. She died at Handsworth, at the age of seventy.
Her brother, John Hardman, founded in 1844
Hardman & Co., the ecclesiastical metal works and stained glass works at Birmingham.
References
;Attribution
* The entry cites:
**Amherst, St. Mary's Convent of Mercy, Handsworth (Birmingham 1891);
**
Joseph Gillow
Joseph Gillow (5 October 1850, Preston, Lancashire – 17 March 1921, Westholme, Hale, Cheshire) was an English Roman Catholic antiquary, historian and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics".
Biography
Born in Frenchwood Hous ...
, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardman, Mary Juliana
1813 births
1884 deaths
19th-century English Roman Catholic nuns