The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Nazareth, also called simply the

Sisters of St Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for ...

or Josephites ("Black Josephites"), are a

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religio ...

who have their main centre in

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The congregation was a member of the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph which disbanded in 2013. The Sisters of St Joseph Whanganui received the Decree of Fusion with the

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites or Brown Joeys, are a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Mary MacKillop (1842–1909). Members of the congregation use the postnominal initials RSJ (Religious Sist ...

on 22 February 2013."Federation", Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth website
(Retrieved 9 June 2016)

History

The Sisters arrived in Whanganui in 1880. They arrived as members of the order of

which had been founded in Penola,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in 1866 by

Mary MacKillop Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian religious sister who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known fo ...

and Father

Julian Tenison Woods Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods (15 November 18327 October 1889), commonly referred to as Father Woods, was an English Catholic priest and geologist who served in Australia.D. H. BorchardtTenison-Woods, Julian Edmund (1832–1889) ''Australian Dicti ...

. Early on in her project of founding these Australia-wide Josephite sisters, Mary MacKillop had met opposition from several bishops, who refused to allow them the freedom from direct diocesan control that the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

had recommended for the new institute. The problem dragged on until 1888 before their independence from diocesan control was firmly established. It was during this period of confusion that Josephites came to the Wellington Diocese (which at that time included Whanganui) through the intervention of an Irish Marist priest, Father Charles Kirk, who had ministered in Sydney and there learned of this home-grown congregation that was tackling the problem of the education of Catholic children, especially in outback Australia. Father Kirk had spent about three years as an assistant at St Patrick's Marist church in central Sydney before moving on to be appointed

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

at Whanganui in 1875. Aware of the high reputation of the Sisters of St Joseph in Australia, he set about getting them for his school. They came to him from the Bathurst Diocese where Bishop Matthew Quinn had formed the Josephite sisters there into a diocesan group under his direction, and it was as a diocesan group that they were welcomed in Whanganui on 25 April 1880. The Bishop of Wellington, Francis Redwood recognised them as a diocesan congregation for his diocese. To distinguish them from the Josephites who came directly from

and who had since arrived elsewhere in the Diocese (at

Temuka Temuka is a town on New Zealand's Canterbury Plains, 15 kilometres north of Timaru and 142 km south of Christchurch. It is located at the centre of a rich sheep and dairy farming region, for which it is a service town. It lies on the north ...

in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

), Bishop Redwood asked the Whanganui sisters to change their name to ''Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth'' and that they wear a black veil instead of a brown one. In fact, they soon changed their whole habit from brown to black, and became popularly known as the ''Black Josephites''. Eventually a new convent and large secondary boarding and day school for girls was built on St John's Hill, Wanganui. It carried on the name of the original school which had been built in the centre of Whanganui when the sisters arrived, Sacred Heart Convent. The Sisters opened seven schools between 1880 and 1900 and many more in the twentieth century from

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, and south to Otaki. In 1883 some of the Whanganui Sisters went to

Hiruharama Hiruhārama is a village and rural community in the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It is located just south of Ruatoria and north of Makarika, on State Highway 35. The area has two marae. Hiruharama Marae and Kapohanga a Rang ...

(in English: Jerusalem) with

Suzanne Aubert Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her cleric name Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whangan ...

to help establish the Catholic mission there.

Notes

References

* * * * {{refend

External links

History of the Sisters, Sisters of St Joseph, Whanganui, website
(Retrieved 6 February 2015)
Biographies of all of the deceased Sisters, Sisters of St Joseph, Whanganui, website
(Retrieved 6 February 2015) Catholic teaching orders Religious organizations established in 1866 Catholic religious institutes established in the 19th century Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart Catholic female orders and societies Catholic Church in New Zealand 1866 establishments in Australia