From the Province of Mexico
History of the Province of Mexico: Foundation (PDF in Spanish) Click to view
From Southward Ho!
The following material is an essay from the book Southward Ho! The Society of the Sacred Heart Enters “Lands of the Spanish Sea.”
By Muriel Cameron, RSCJ
The devotion of Stanislas Tommasini to Our Lady of Guadalupe, conversations with deep, divine desire between Archbishop Antonio Pelagio de Labastida and Aloysia Hardey at Manhattanville, and the unfolding of chaotic political events, all remotely prepared for a trio of Religious of the Sacred Heart to set off from New Orleans on April 16, 1883, to Mexico City, thus initiating the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Mexico.
The socio-political arena into which Mary Elizabeth Moran (vicar of Louisiana and the Antilles), Stanislas Tommasini (mistress of novices at Grand Coteau), and Kate O'Reilly (Moran's secretary) entered was shaped by the legacy of Benito Juarez and the Laws of Reform. Briefly explained, Mexico had recently undergone a radical social revolution begun in 1810 when Miguel Hidalgo, in La Noche de Gritando (the Night of Screaming, 9/15/1810), led the Mexicans in revolt against the Spanish Bourbon monarchy which was ruling Mexico. Prior to this revolt for Mexican independence, only those born in Spain could hold the highest political offices in Mexico. The purely indigenous were largely treated as slaves of the Spaniards; those of pure Spanish blood, but not born in Spain, were the criollos, and those of mixed Spanish and indigenous heritage were known as mestizos. Land holdings, education, wealth and political influence were the patrimony of the upper classes. The Church and great landholders supported the Spanish crown. Social structures were firmly and conservatively held in place until the insurgency led by Hidalgo, when the unexpected occurred: the liberals seized power, transformed the absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy, and threatened the privileges of Church and aristocracy.[i] The liberals, eventually led primarily by the indigenous Benito Juarez (1806-72) for over fifteen years, brought Mexico into modernity through the vicissitudes of chaos and rebellion among the many factions of the Mexican population.[ii]
Key in the new Constitution of 1857 were reforms deliberately affecting the wealth and role of the Church, for the Church was wealthy and a large landholder allied with the aristocratic upper classes. Among Juarez's reforms was desamortizacion, a process whereby uncultivated lands owned by las manas muertos (dead hands: hands that do not work, namely the clergy) were confiscated by the government and divided up or sold.[iii] Many mestizos and indigenous communities also lost land. In many ways the reform movement of Juarez's regime completed the independence movement of Hidalgo. The Laws of Reform gave his revolution a deeper meaning in terms of negating religious associations and communal indigenous land ownership. Church and state were clearly separated and education was disentangled from ecclesiastical domination when Juarez promoted the dissolution of religious orders. Juarez's familiarity with the North American colonies' Declaration of Independence and his friendship with Abraham Lincoln were inspirational in his vision of government. While there were many necessary corrections of abuse under Juarez, there were also serious negative forces, such as his atheistic liberalism which attempted to destroy the God who had been the center of Colonial Mexico, not only for those of Spanish heritage but also for the Indians who had embraced Christianity as their mother.[iv]
Following Juarez's presidency of fifteen years there were various political struggles and financial crises which led to a French intervention in Mexico and the 1864 installation of Maximilian of Austria and Carlota of Belgium as monarchs of the Second Mexican Empire.[v] Their reign was significant in preparing the way for the Society of the Sacred Heart to enter Mexico as it introduced the beginnings of a Francophile culture in Mexican society. Maximilian ruled from 1864 to his execution in 1867 by resistance forces organized by Juarez. Between then and 1876 Juarez was elected president several times. After a period of anarchy and upheavals, Porfirio Diaz was elected president in 1876. Ruling almost uninterruptedly until 1910, Diaz's presidency became known as the Era of Porfuiato, a term describing the longest Latin American dictatorship in history to that time.
The Society of the Sacred Heart came to Mexico early in the Era of Porfuiato, during a brief period when Manuel Gonzalez was president. They entered into a situation of external repression of the Church, with a tightly preserved small class of elites enamored with French culture and Europeanization, following the period of indigenization and liberalization of Mexican culture under Juarez. They found also a deep faith, unshaken by the social upheavals, with the influence of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the soul of the Mexican ineradicable and profound. Thus, despite rampant social and political confusion, the faith of Mexico was strong and sound, eager to welcome the nurturing that could be offered to whomever Divine Providence sent to the Society.
By and large, feminine education in formerly colonial Latin countries left much to be desired. Girls were sent to convents more to learn homemaking and feminine pastimes than for intellectual development, an exception in Mexico being Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz (1661-1695), considered to be on a par with Cervantes. A privileged few seeking more intellectual challenge were sent to the United States or Europe, some to Sacred Heart convents in New York, Paris, Rome. Those who knew the benefits of a strong education, such as the Andrade sisters in Mexico, longed to have other women receive an education such as theirs. As zealous apostles of the love of the Sacred Heart, alumnae took to their homeland a fiery love of this devotion. They sowed seeds ready to welcome the Society of the Sacred Heart and prepared both criolles and Indians to sustain and nurture its message.
As noted in the introductory paragraph, conversations between Archbishop Pelagio de Labastida and Mother Hardey foreshadowed the entrance of the Society into Mexico. The Archbishop had been exiled from Mexico in 1863, at the time of the Laws of Reform. During this exile, between visits to Rome, he accepted Mother Hardey's hospitality at Manhattanville, which resulted in his determination to have the Society of the Sacred Heart in Mexico City. Finally, in 1883, Mother Moran, vicar of Louisiana and the Antilles, was asked by the superior general, Adele Lehon, to go to Mexico to investigate the possibility of a foundation there. Due to the complicated political scene, persecutions of the Church and confiscations of convents, Mother Lehon was initially cautious in responding to the pleas of the Archbishop. One can only imagine his joy when, more than twenty years after his exile, his dream of having the Society in Mexico seemed ready to become reality.
The three religious left for the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico, from the Sacred Heart convent in the French Quarter of New Orleans. They took a train to Morgan City, Louisiana, where they were to set sail on the Whitney. The weather was so clear that the captain estimated their arrival in Mexico would be in a matter of ninety hours. As the nuns began the voyage they thought they were incognito in secular clothes, but an alumna guessed the identity of this tightly knit little group of women. Mother Moran begged her not to divulge their identity, but the young woman could not hold her tongue and spread the news of the nuns' presence to a Mexican Senator on the same ship. As a result, the President of Mexico was probably the first to know of their supposedly clandestine arrival April 21, 1883. Senorita Amanda Andrade greeted the nuns in Vera Cruz and accompanied them to Mexico City. Of this moment Tommasini writes:
A launch came to the ship bearing two ladies in black who whispered mysteriously that they came in the name of the Archbishop to welcome the trio. They later were taken to a lady's home where they were to spend the night. She offered them every kindness and asked them to take off their hats and make themselves at home. But the nuns were not wearing wigs and absolutely refused to remove their hats. The lady decided it was a matter either of American etiquette or a precaution against yellow fever. During the dinner large insects hopped up on the table and all over...but they were told these bugs were inoffensive and just had to be put up with.
The next day, leaving at 5 a.m. and accompanied by Senorita Andrade, the nuns embarked on a full day's journey, with glorious scenery, to Mexico City. Tommasini's Memoires contain charming details of this journey, such as stopping at Orzaba, at the foot of the famous volcano Popocatepel and there dining with Italian Jesuit friends. She described Mexico City as the most beautiful country imaginable, except for the Alps, with fresh green foliage, splendid flowers and sun, an indescribable beauty. Then she goes on to speak of her profound joy and a sense of God's designs surging in her soul. The first of these enormous consolations was the train's passing the site of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepayac.
This was such a dream of my life. Since a child of nine years, I have been so moved by the story of the apparition of the very Holy Virgin to the poor Indian Juan Diego that I had learned it by heart... All my life seemed to pass in front of my eyes as a panorama on which was painted the sweet face of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe...the providence of Go about me led me little by little to this dear country... My instinctive love for her {Mexico] was more than any other outside my Italy, then in America the decision of the Mothers that I learn Spanish...and then among my first children for catechism were Mexicans, among whom was Rafaela Nunez with whom I still correspond after sixty years [when she was writing], how God was served by the revolution by sending the Archbishop to Manhattanville, how God permitted me to be useful as the only person to speak Spanish, and now in 1883 his dream of 1860 would be realized.[vi]
Once in Mexico City, the trio were given hospitality in the house of Amanda Andrade, an alumna well known in the heart of the government, but for now her connections with the Society were well guarded for a more propitious moment. Within a few days the Archbishop invited the nuns to Mass, breakfast and visit at his residence in the heart of Mexico City. For three months they stayed at the Andrade home during which time they searched for property, and alumnae from Havana, Paris, Rome and New York visited them. For the novena of the Sacred Heart,
they gave a beautiful picture of the Sacred Heart and candelabra for an altar set up in the Andrade parlor. Alumnae, their friends, Andrade pupils, filled the parlor for the novena at 4 p.m. each day. We were there in our secular clothes. Prayers, hymns, joy and fervor, longing for a foundation awaited for thirty years...the last three days a triduum was preached by a priest friend known in France and Italy...Exposition on the Feast in the parlor three meters square...Mass of Renovation.
The vignettes in the Annual Letters and in Tommasini's Memoires show the devoted collaboration of the alumnae and their friends in helping this Mexican foundation. However, though there was such strong support, there was a call for courage, determination and faith, for the presence of the nuns was illegal and supposed to be secret. Mexico was still operating under the Laws of Reform at the time of their arrival. But within a year Porfirio Diaz became president and ushered in the era of Pax Porfiriato, a time during which the stature of Mexico soared on the international scene, railroads and industry developed, French culture was emulated (Mexico City turned into a Latin Paris and became the most glamorous city in the world[vii]), and exterior peace reigned in the country, at the price of severe repression of the Indian and rural peoples. The Society, with its French heritage and cloistered lifestyle, could easily slip into the niche of Mexican society where there was a yearning for what the religious could offer. It would not have been possible for religious of that era to enter into a social critique which is such a strong dimension of our contemporary spirit of mission. Rather, religious undertook a work of education for the elite of Mexico who were eager to feed their starved faith and drink in the intellectual vigor of the Society's tradition. Simultaneously, mostly through personal contacts, the religious demonstrated a zeal and love for the indigenous poor as they came to the convent as workers and those seeking particular help. As time went on, free schools were established at each. convent and enormous works for the poor were carried on, primarily by alumnae since the religious were bound to rules of strict cloister.
Descriptions of these early days in Mexico City are filled with escapades of avoiding near disasters such as floods, tires, disease, death and government domiciliary visits which might have ended in termination of the school. Even a year of more revolutionary activities and persecutions was part of these beginnings. Yet, through all these events ran the commitment of nuns, friends and alumnae, and the gift of the celebrating Mexican soul. Poverty of both nuns and school facilities did not curtail the spirits of the Mexicans when they worshipped. A celebration of December 8 was held in a church which only a few days earlier had been stripped of altar, tabernacle, pulpit, communion rail, statues, paintings. In a few days it was to be rented to a club of Free Masons. The children were therefore its sole adornment, but their presence seemed to be a presage of a better time to come when religion in Mexico would undergo a resurrection. An illegal vow ceremony in 1884 was held in secret, presided over by Archbishop Labastida; only the religious were present and all passed in silence. It was like being in the catacombs, and yet it was before the Blessed Trinity and the whole heavenly court that our sister, in great joy, pronounced her vows.
Though the Church was officially persecuted under Porfirio Diaz, he himself and some of his ministers gave much support to the Society. Diaz even made it possible for us legally to possess the former church, convent and school of the Daughters of Charity in the heart of Mexico City, near the metropolitan cathedral. In the first days of the school, Diaz promised his eight-year-old daughter as one of the pupils, and his wife Dona Carmen Romero Rubio was intimately connected with the convent as a Child of Mary and active parent. She often visited and assisted at the distribution of prizes. On her "saint's day" the children even prepared a special presentation in her honor. According to an oral tradition, Diaz also engaged in exchanges with las Madres, though not always in good taste or to their liking. A famous episode speaks of his sending a beautiful pearl collar on Prize Day for La Habladora (the greatest chatterbox). In 1919-1920 various older religious denied that this episode was real, though Micaela Fesser ascertained that one year Dona Carmen had sent a beautifully bound book to a child who had received numerous prizes, and to her was written the inscription, La Habladora.[viii] Alone this episode would seem trivial, yet in the light of the situation in Mexico City, it reveals how close the convent's con
nections were with those in political power, as well as the detailed knowledge which Porfirio Diez must have had concerning the workings of the school.
Some scholars intimate that Diaz's gradual evolution towards a policy of reconciliation between government and church was clearly brought about by his wife, for Diaz was a man governed by his loves and interests.
Carmelita Romero Diaz was surprisingly at the heart of the evolution of General Diaz toward a policy of reconciliation with such profound consequence for the life of the nation: when someone would denounce the secret existence of a convent...Diaz allowed his spouse to send an opportune warning to the nuns so that they might hide themselves in time; and when the District Judge would arrive to inspect the building, he would find that the denunciation had been unfounded, since there was not even a hint of a shelter for recluses but rather a college for poor children who were taught by certain charitable women[ix].
The above quotation does not specifically refer to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, but given the circumstances and nature of its apostolates it could credibly describe occurrences at the Sacred Heart school in Mexico City. An account sent to the mother house from Mexico City tells of a domiciliary visit:
The domiciliary visit which the newspapers had been announcing and which we had feared since our arrival finally took place on April 10, 1885, shortly before noon. Two sinister looking individuals entered the chapel, closely examined everything, stared fixedly at some religious making their examines in the tribune. Dinner had hardly begun when the message came that they wanted to see the superior. Mothers Moran and Tommasini went down to the parlor. The older of the two visitors offered his card which showed him to be Inspector General of Police; he introduced the other as his secretary. He said he had orders to search the house for a young woman named C. Bax who was about to make her profession, and this was illegal. To back up his story he produced a document signed by the Minister of Public Welfare, Romera Rubio. The mothers expressed their amazement, saying they had never heard of C. Bax and that the establishment was a school, not a noviceship. Then followed many questions, with the answers taken down by the secretary. The straightforwardness of the nuns showed these persons they were really on a wild goose chase. Mother Moran insisted, however, that they visit the children in their dining room. He was so struck by the children's air of happiness that he said, 'There has been a false accusation.' He also saw that there was no question of anyone's being about to make her profession. They left with apologies and even with offers of service.
The government papers gave a pretty accurate account of the visit, the questions and answers, and so on. At once the anticlerical journals said that we had tricked the Inspector, that we had hidden the novices among the children. We paid no attention to either, as we had evident proof that the Heart of Jesus had held his shield over us.[x]
Charming and obviously treasured details of Mexican life are found in the same 1885 account:
The ceremony of prefession on March 25, 1885...impressed everyone...When the newly professed left the chapel she found the stairway and corridors carpeted with flowers by the Children of Mary. If we had not stopped them, they would have covered the whole of the chapel floor.
The next day we received a strange visit. At 5 a.m. as some religious were going down to the chapel for meditation, they found a dozen Indians in the chapel vestibule, in perfect silence and holding lighted candles, kneeling around a great case painted black. At night recreation we found out all about it. Mother Tommasini had asked our Indian portress about it; she had said, not to worry, it was the Holy Burial or Sepulcher which the Indians had brought to our house to save it from prison. She then went on to speak to the chief the praying Indians. He opened the casket to reveal an effigy of Our Lord, more than life-sized, wrapped in precious materials and with the face covered with lace. Flowers were scattered in profusion around the figure. The chief explained that during Lent this figure went from house to house...and watch was kept beside it day and night. This time as it was being moved at night a group went with it carrying lighted candies. They were arrested, as the whole thing was illegal. The police wished to confiscate the effigy and take it to headquarters, but its owner offered to go to jail himself if they would let the image alone. 'So,' said the Indian chief, 'Madrecita, we brought it here to keep Our Lord out of prison.' No matter how strange this practice, we were all touched at the faith and courage of these poor people.
At the beginning of 1885 a magnificent new property had been bought... Work began on the foundations and a cornerstone was laid. The Archbishop came for the blessing. The construction workers took up a collection to pay for the little feast. In Mexico such workers have a traditional love of the Cross, so May 3 they raised one to the top of the building to stay there until they had finished. They wrote a letter to Mother Moran inviting her and the other religious to the ceremony. In the morning they went in procession to the parish church for Mass, after which the Cross was blessed. Then, going to the construction site, they set up a pretty little altar in a shady place and raised two crosses upon it, one five feet high and gilded to be placed on the building and a small one as a gift to the superior in memory of the occasion. Meanwhile a band of musicians played hymns. At 11 a.m. a signal was given, all fell on their knees for prayers. Then the tree of life was raised on high while balloons were released, one in the form of a cross. The shooting of many rockets showed that the religious ceremony was over.
In 1884, a year after the foundation of the house in Mexico City, Mother Lehon named Mary Elizabeth Moran Vicar of the Antilles (Cuba and Puerto Rico) and Mexico, separating her for the first time from Louisiana which had been her home from childhood through the early years of her religious life to her years as vicar. Her experiences and gifts of character shone in Mexico as she planned the foundations of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, and Guadalajara. Freedom of spirit in the face of political and social complications, a spirit of adaptability as her Irish-American French influenced background met with the Spanish, mestizo and Indian temperaments of Mexico, and her capacity to show tender love with strong faith, all characterized her as a leader whose influence infused the mission of Mexico with vibrancy and effectiveness. She and her first companions seemed to have had an innate sense of what today we would refer to as inculturation.
Just as seeds for the foundation of Mexico City were fermented by the love of friends and alumnae as well as desires of the hierarchy for the presence of the Society, so too for the next three foundations to be made in Mexico under the leadership of Mother Moran: Guanajuato 1885, San Luis Potosi 1886, and Guadalajara 1895. Micaela Fesser who had been mistress of novices at the tri-lingual noviceship at Grand Coteau was the first superior of Guanajuato, but after two years she became gravely ill and was replaced by Tommasini, until then superior in Mexico City. It appears that serious illness was the sacrificial mark of this foundation. Besides Mother Fesser, Kate O’Reilly (one of the original trio in the beginnings of Mexico City) was also taken ill, sent back to the capital and died there. In spite of these great personal sorrows for Tommasini, her gifts of vivacity, maternal love, zeal and her great pains to make known the vision of Madeleine Sophie Barat brought marvelous recompenses. The school was never very numerous, not more than 70 students, with about 20 boarders and 200 in the free school, but the spirit was tight-knit and close.
These early years at Guanajuato were also marked by an extraordinary cure. Agnes Jordan, treasurer of the house, was so ill that even the rites of extreme unction were abbreviated lest she die before the end of the ceremony. Seeing her deep purple hands and lips, her doctor thought she was dead and ordered her straight, stiff body put into a coffin to avoid violent decomposition. But without doubt in the powers of God, with an impetuous faith and hope, the community prayed a flying novena through the intercession of then-Venerable Madeleine Sophie Barat. In the midst of the prayers, Tommasini went to the bed of the moribunda(the dead one) only to find her sitting up, with a healthy complexion, and assuring all that she was perfectly well as she joined her sisters in their prayers for her. The children, hearing of this resurrection, insisted that all bells be rung and their enthusiasm could not be contained as they saw Madre Jordan with her habituall smile going from class to class, and then to continue a vivacious life for more than twenty years. Not wanting to have the expense of her coffin wasted (as treasurer, she paid for it), she used it as an armoire until her death. Unfortunately, due to irregularities in the doctor's certificates this miracle was not accepted for the beatification of Madeleine Sophie Barat.[xi]
In 1886 Mother Moran led the foundation of San Luis Potosi, invited by Bishop Montes de Oca who had met the Society in Rome during the First Vatican Council. The first house in San Luis Potosi was in the heart of one of Mexico's most exquisite colonial cities, only a few doors from the cathedral and the famous golden baroque Templo del Carmen. The convent was established in an old monastery with both the austerity and the beauty of fresco-covered corridors. Familial spirit, the devotion of alumnae and a great number of vocations contributed to a special spirit, symbolized by the architectural beauties surrounding the foundation. When the Society celebrated ten years in Mexico in 1893, from the three houses one hundred and twenty young women had entered, either as choir religious or as coadjutrix sisters.
Thousands of souls were in contact with our religious in the boarding schools, in the free schools (always more numerous than the academies); above all, with the works such as annual retreats for women in the pueblos, many of whom then made their First Communion, had their marriages blessed, and all of whom were led to sincere desires of attracting others like themselves to grow in their faith.[xii]
The last foundation planned by Moran was Guadalajara in 1895. Since 1886 families in that city had been urging the Society to make a foundation there, but due to lack of personnel permission was refused. Also, poor communication led to misunderstandings between the Society, the Archbishop of Guadalajara and the families begging the nuns to come. Eventually, as the fruit of struggle and determination on the part of women who knew the convent in Mexico City, the Archbishop and Moran reached an agreement that the moment had come to open the house in Guadalajara. As with the foundations in Mexico City, San Luis Potosi and Guanajuato, the first house in Guadalajara was located in the heart of the colonial city, near the present Hospicio de las Cabanas, and the plan was for Moran to be present for the opening in October. However, she was called to the General Council of 1895 which elected Mabel Digby as superior general. Following the council, Mary Elizabeth Moran was named Vicar of Spain. Oral tradition of the Society speaks of her as a woman of breadth, warmth, vision, creativity, and freedom of spirit. She and Tommasini with their companions had remarkably established the Society in Mexico in the midst of gigantic obstacles.
Her successor as vicar was Jeanne de Lavigerie, a Frenchwoman who had been in Peru since 1876; she remained vicar of Mexico until 1904 when she was called to the motherhouse as an Assistant General. During this period in Mexico, the spirit of Mother Moran was replaced by one influenced by Mother Digby's style of strict observance, and Guadalajara became the center of the vicariate with the community exemplifying fidelity to the rule. Unfortunately, fidelity to cloister and the rule, admired within the Society, was interpreted as pride by some of the clergy and hierarchy of Guadalajara. Scorn and public criticism were not limited to the nuns but were also directed toward the adult sodality, the Children of Mary, whose members were devoted to furthering the work of the Church by both spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
Before the time of Mother Lavigerie, clerics were accustomed to freely and frequently entering the convent parlor, as they did with most contemplative religious women. While Lavigerie thought that curtailing such visitations was obedience to the demands of cloister and a protection of the prayer life of the nuns, others concluded she was exerting a proud and personal control of her domain. They could not understand how a teaching order could be so isolated from the public. The discord caused by this misunderstanding of the Society's practices caused not only personal suffering but public rebuke. When Pope Leo XIII decreed that the world be consecrated to the Sacred Heart, many Catholic groups convened in the Guadalajara cathedral for a ritual in which each association addressed a formal petition to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for a particular virtue. The hierarchy gave the Children of Mary the instruction: Pray to obtain Christian humility. The women were indignant. When they reported the incident to Lavigerie, she simply replied that always we must ask to advance in humility. In 1896 she opened an enormous free school in Guadalajara which continued until 1914.
The year 1900 marked the centenary of the Society and the beginnings of more political unrest in Mexico. The mission of the Society was blessed with four strong schools and numerous alumnae who were well prepared in faith and education to cope with the revolutionary struggle ahead. As the history of the Society unfolded during these times, it was the alumnae who preserved the tradition of formal education, opening their haciendas as private places of education under the protection of Mater. In some cases, statues of Mater were enthroned in their own parlors which, besides offering sites for instruction, were also the arena for gatherings of Children of Mary and retreats. Alumnae continued catechetical instruction of the poor. In a majority of social apostolates of the time, an alumna of the Sacred Heart was active, and in the face of priests being imprisoned while soldiers attempted to desecrate consecrated hosts, alumnae firmly demanded the right to open tabernacles, remove the hosts and to consume them.[xiii]
Expulsions of religious in the period 1914-1926 sent many in the Society from Mexico to California, Louisiana and Texas. In 1914, 48 religious and 60 priests, many of them Jesuits, made their way to San Francisco, paying as first class passengers aboard a Chinese vessel taking Chinese workers from Manzanillo, Mexico, to San Francisco. They had fled abruptly and the voyage lasted two months, presenting extreme physical and moral suffering for the passengers who were setting off to an unknown destination and future. Once they arrived in San Francisco, the nuns received obediences for the United States, the Antilles, Peru, Columbia or Argentina.[xiv]
Danger, anxiety, dispersals, persecutions were the lot for those remaining in Mexico until 1926 when the last expulsions drove the communities of San Luis Potosi and Monterrey to seek refuge in Laredo, Texas, and those of Mexico City first to San Antonio, Texas, and then to St. Michael's in Convent, Louisiana. Mary Reid, vicar of the Southern vicariate of the United States, offered the convent as a refuge for the exiled religious.[xv] The plan was approved by the superior general, Marie de Loe, and gratefully accepted by Sophie Lalande, vicar of Mexico. Soon St. Michael's became the Mexican vicariate house and boarding school for the Mexican children who had come with the nuns.
Holy poverty, religious spirit and holy alegria (joy) were the points of competition among the religious and children who withstood with heroism the times of persecution and exile until the Society could return to Mexico. ln 1931 the fourth centenary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe roused in all patriotic Mexican hearts the hope of religious peace and Catholic restoration. The Mexican Religious of the Sacred Heart were confident that their heavenly Queen would reopen to them the doors of their native land, and their trust was rewarded. Acceptable conditions were offered, St. Michael's was abandoned, and work was begun again in Mexico.[xvi]
The return to Mexico was by Pullman train, one specially used by American pilgrims crossing the border, la frontera, for Guadalupan fiestas. The religious and students arrived in Mexico at night. Families welcomed their children whom many had not seen since 1926, and the religious received hospitality from the Madres Reparadoras, a religious order with whom the Society continues sisterly ties to this day. There were no difficulties for the Mexican nuns, but the law against foreign religious being in charge of anything resulted in Lalande, who was French, being jailed with a huge fine; Gertrude Bodkin, vicar in the East, negotiated the fine, using the connections of Ruth Burnett in Washington, D.C. And Sophie Lalande remained vicar in Mexico. But the return was not complete; the Mexican vicariate retained a house for older religious in Laredo, Texas, until 1943; fortunately, it was not again needed as a refuge and the Society was firmly established in Mexico.
[i] Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude (NY: Grove, 1985): 123.
[ii] Marco Aurelio Larios, lectures, La Cultura Mexicana, University of Guadalajara, February 27, 2001.
[iii] Larios.
[iv] Paz, 126-27
[v] Larios, February 28, 2001
[vi] Maria Stanislas Tommasini, Memoires de la Reverende Mere Maria Stanislas Tommasini: Religieuse du Sacre Coeur: 1827-1913, ed. Claire Benoist d'Azy, RSCJ (Roeharnpton, 1918): 408.
[vii] Larios, February 28, 2001.
[viii]Maria Teresa Guevara, Historia de la Sociedad del Sagrado Corazon en Iberoamerica, ts. [ca 1963], 58.
[ix] Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power: A History of Modern Mexico (NY: Harper, 1998): 227
[x] Annual Letters 1884-1885, 203.
[xi] Guevara, 59-60, and Tommasini, 444-46.
[xii] Guevara, 60
[xiii] Guevara, 70
[xiv] Guevara, 71
[xv] St. Michael's had been damaged by a storm and the children had been dispersed to Grand Coteau and the Rosary in New Orleans. The American nuns teaching in the two parish schools remained at St. Michael's.
[xvi] Louise Callan, The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America (New York, Longmans, 1937): 588-89.