Annual Retreats Held in June at Motherhouse

View of Motherhouse in St. Augustine from North gardens.

During the summer our Congregation usually has a guided /preached retreat at the Motherhouse. For the last few years the Congregation has also had two Sisters of St. Joseph from the Chesnut Hill (Philadelphia) congregation come to St. Augustine and lead directed retreats for several of the Sisters who like to make those kind of retreats.

For the first time both of these retreats were held the same week and at the same location in the Motherhouse and Lourdes Hall. In addition to many of us living here making the retreats, the Congregation invited Sisters from within the Diocese of St. Augustine to participate in the guided/preached retreat and four Sisters came from other congregations.

The retreats started the evening of June 14th and concluded the morning of June 21st. There were six full days of silence. A Jesuit priest from Ignatius House in Atlanta gave the guided/preached retreat and celebrated daily Mass. On Monday, June 15th, Bishop Erik Pohlmeier celebrated Mass after attending an informational meeting for the Sisters of St. Joseph and diocesan leaders. At this time I cannot share what was presented nor what happened at the Mass that was historically significant. One thing I have learned over my many years serving the Catholic Church is that things move slowly in the Church.

Wall hanging of SSJ seal.

This September will mark the 160th anniversary of the first Sisters of St. Joseph arriving to serve in St. Augustine, Florida, after traveling from Le Puy, France. Bishop Augustin Verot, who was from France, had invited eight Sisters to come to Florida to educate and evangelize the children of the freed slaves following the Civil War as the State of Florida was not educating them.

These French Sisters traveled by ship, river boats, and stagecoach and arrived in St. Augustine on Sept. 2, 1866, four years before the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine was established. They lived with the Sisters of Mercy from Connecticut who were in St. Augustine and had a school for white girls. The Sisters lived with them, learning to speak English, and cleaning up a house that had been owned by Father Miguel O’Reilly, an Irish priest educated in Spain who built the first Cathedral church in the city. He had died in 1812 and said his house, which had been a parish rectory, should go to an order of Sisters that would teach outside of the cloister. Bishop Verot designated that the house and its property should go to the Sisters of St. Joseph. By January of 1867 the Sisters began teaching their first classes there.

The classroom in the Fr. Miguel O’Reilly House Museum in St. Augustine on Aviles Street.

Recently I have begun volunteering as a docent one morning a week in the Fr. Miguel O’Reilly House Museum behind the Motherhouse on Aviles Street. I enjoy meeting people from all over the world and sharing the story of our Sisters with them. The museum has three stories. I work on the first floor and another docent handles the second and third floors. Our curator, Korinne Casarella, has done a wonderful job of updating the exhibits. The garden is lovely also. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed for lunch from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. If you have not seen the museum, I encourage you to come and take a free tour. Our congregation’s history is also part of the history of the Catholic Church in Florida.