| Abbreviation | Post-nominal letters: RSJ |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Josephites |
| Formation | 1880; 145 years ago (1880) |
| Type | Religious Order of Pontifical Right (for Women) |
| Members | 850 as of year |
Superior General | Sr. Monica Cavanagh, RSJ |
Ministry | Education |
Parent organization | Roman Catholic Church |
TheSisters of Saint Joseph of Nazareth, also called simply theSisters of St Joseph orJosephites ("Black Josephites"), are areligious congregation who have their main centre inWhanganui,New Zealand.[1] The congregation was a member of theFederation of the Sisters of St. Joseph which disbanded in 2013. The Sisters of St Joseph Whanganui received the Decree of Fusion with theSisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart on 22 February 2013.[1]
The Sisters arrived in Whanganui in 1880 as members of the order ofSisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, which had been founded inPenola,South Australia in 1866 byMary MacKillop and FatherJulian Tenison Woods. 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 theCatholic Church 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 theWellington 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 appointedRector 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 theBathurst Diocese where BishopMatthew 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. TheBishop of Wellington, Francis Redwood recognised them as a diocesan congregation for his diocese. To distinguish them from the Josephites who came directly fromMary MacKillop and who had since arrived elsewhere in the Diocese (atTemuka in theSouth Island), Bishop Redwood asked the Whanganui sisters to change their name toSisters 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 theBlack Josephites.[2]
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.[1] The Sisters opened seven schools between 1880 and 1900 and many more in the twentieth century fromTaranaki toHawke's Bay, and south toŌtaki.[3] In 1883 some of the Whanganui Sisters went toHiruharama (in English: Jerusalem) withSuzanne Aubert to help establish the Catholic mission there.[4]
The congregation was fused with theSisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in February 2013 and this was formally celebrated in Whanganui on 24 August 2013.,[1]
"The journey of the Whanganui Sisters of Saint Joseph has had its ebbs and flows. Numbers have fallen, ministries changed, buildings demolished. But just as the mighty Whanganui Awa flows onward, so also the charism continues to flow through all those who live the spirit of Saint Joseph."[1]