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Poor Servants of the Mother of God

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The Poor Servants of the Mother of God are a Roman Catholic religious congregation founded in 1869 by Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart, Frances Margaret Taylor. She was closely assisted by her friend and benefactor Lady Georgiana Fullerton, and following her death, by her husband, A G Fullerton (1808-1907).

History

Frances Taylor had served as a nurse in the Crimea, where she encountered the Sisters of Mercy.[1] She was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Father Woollett on 14 April 1855, and later wrote a book about her wartime experiences.[2] Upon her return to England, she consulted Henry Edward Manning, rector of St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, who put her in touch with Catholic charitable organisations, allowing her to work with the London poor as she desired.

She first met Lady Georgiana Fullerton around 1859. Between 1859 and 1866, Frances explored a religious vocation, including time spent with the Daughters of Charity in Paris and the Filles de Marie (Daughters of the Heart of Mary) in England. Around 1865-7, with the support of Manning and James Clare, rector of the Immaculate Conception Church, Farm Street, Frances visited Ireland to study Catholic charitable institutions, partly to better assist Irish emigrants in England.

Her collaboration with Fullerton led to the foundation of a congregation for work among the poor of London. At first an affiliation with the Little Sisters of Mary (Archduchy of Posen) was considered. In 1867, Lady Georgiana translated the rule of the ‘Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception’, a rural Polish congregation.[3] Permission was granted by the founder, Edmund Bojanowski, to establish the congregation in England. On 24 October 1868, Frances Taylor took charge of a putative English branch of this congregation, in rented rooms in Fleet Street, London. In February 1869, at the invitation of the order of priests, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the community moved to the Catholic mission at Tower Hill, where they worked until June 1870.

On 12 February 1872, the new congregation came formally into being when Taylor took her religious vows and the name Sister Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart. Affiliation with the Polish congregation was found to be impracticable, and the new order was placed under the direction of its own superior general, Mother M. Magdalen. From the first it was approved and encouraged by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, its spiritual training being committed to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, on Farm St., London. Originally, a black habit was worn, with a blue scapular and a black veil.

The members devoted themselves to visiting the poor, teaching in parochial schools, nursing in central London and Soho. The early foundations of the congregation included refuges, night shelters, schools, a workhouse, a home for the elderly, and the Providence Hospital in St Helens, Lancashire.

The main other foundations made during Magdalen's lifetime were: Limerick, Ireland. (1874); Margate, Kent (1874); Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland (1875); Roehampton, London (1871); Brentford, Middlesex (1880); St. Helens, Lancashire (1882); Monkstown, County Cork (1881); North Hyde, Middlesex (1883); Rome (1886); Streatham, London (1888); Dublin (1888); Paris (1890); Liverpool (1891); Woodford Green, Essex (1894); Rhyl, Wales (1899); Selkirk, Scotland (1899); and her last foundation at Loughlinstown, Ireland (1899).

Its constitutions were written by Augustus Dignam, in conjunction with Magdalen. On 18 July 1879 the Brief of Praise or Decretum Laudis was granted, signed by Pope Leo XIII. On 1 May 1892 the Brief of Approbation of the Institute and Constitutions was granted. The definitive approval of the constitutions was granted by the Holy See on 19 July 1900, a month after Magdalen's death.

The Generalate is based at Maryfield Convent, Roehampton, London. The congregation was focused upon work in England and Ireland, but it has also had houses in Italy and France; as of 2017 it had extended its charitable work to the United States, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.[4] The UK social care services of the congregation are under the operating name the Frances Taylor Foundation, which runs homes for the elderly and provides services for people with learning difficulties.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Poor Servants of the Mother of God — A religious congregation founded in 1808 by Mother Mary Magdalen Taylor in conjunction with Lady Georgiana Fullerton (q.v.). Mother M. Magdalen was the daughter of a Church of England clergyman. As one of Miss Nightingale's band of nurses in the Crimea she became acquainted with the Catholic Faith as manifested by many of the soldiers, and on her return to England entered the Church. Her subsequent intimacy with Lady Georgiana Fullerton led to the foundation of a congregation for work among the poor of London, then inadequately served by a single convent. At first an affiliation with the Little Sisters of Mary (Archduchy of Posen) was considered, but this was found to be impracticable, and the new order was placed under the direction of its own superior general (Mother M. Magdalen). From the first it was approved and encouraged by Cardinal Manning, its spiritual training being committed to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, near whose church in Farm St., London, its existence began. Its Constitutions are based on the Rule of St. Augustine, and the congregation was approved by Leo XIII in 1885. The members devote themselves to visiting the poor, teaching in parochial schools, nursing, and conducting institutions of refuge and rescue for women. To the mother-house in Rome are attached two schools and the public church of St. George and the English Martyrs. In this church on Good Friday, 1887, the Three Hours was preached for the first time in English by Father Lucas, S.J. Other houses are in Florence; London (2); Brentford; Roehampton; Streatham; St. Helen's, Lancashire, where the sisters conduct the only free hospital in the town; Liverpool; Brighton; Dublin (2); Carrightowhill, Co. Cork; Youghal, Co. Cork. The congregation is under the direction of a superior general. A black habit is worn, with a blue scapular and a black veil. There are no lay sisters.

TAYLOR, Inner Life of Lady G. Fullerton (London, 1899); IDEM, Memoir of Father Dignam, S. J. (London, s. d.); CRAVEN, Lady Georgiana Fullerton (Paris, 1888); STEELE, Convents of Great Britain (London, 1901); Messenger of the Sacred Heart (April 1901).

References

  1. Back to citation Bolster, Evelyn. The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War (1964); Maria Luddy (ed.), The Crimean War Journals of the Sisters of Mercy 1854–56 (2004)
  2. Back to citation Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses
  3. Back to citation "Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Poland)".
  4. Back to citation "Historical Background", Poor Servants of the Mother of God, 1 April 2017

Bibliography

  • Mother Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart, Foundress of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God by F. C. Devas (London, 1927)
  • A Brief Life of Mother Magdalen Taylor by Sr Rose Joseph Kennedy SMG (St Mary’s Convent, Brentford, 2008)
  • Born to Love – Fanny Margaret Taylor by Mother Mary Geraldine O’Sullivan SMG (London, 1970)
  • Frances Taylor, Mother Magdalen SMG, a Portrait 1832–1900 by Sr Eithne Leonard SMG (St Paul's Publishing, London, 2015)
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