Margaret Cusak
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Foundress of the Sisters of

St. Joseph of Peace

 

 "I do not believe in offering the gospel of talk to starving people." 

 

Mother Margaret

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“O God, we thank you for the life of Margaret Anna Cusack who suffered so much for the cause of justice because she risked to speak

 the truth to those who did not want to hear it. Like Jesus, she endured rejection and alienation from those in authority, and like the

gospel, the work that she began has continued to flourish and bring life.

 

Bless all who work to change unjust structures, that they may have the courage and the humility to continue their efforts in spite of opposition

so that all peoples of the earth may have a better quality of life. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.”

 

Carmelites Prayer:
 The People’s Companion to the Breviary

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"Margaret Anna Cusack was born to an aristocratic family of English origin in  Coolak, County Dublin, Ireland.

Her father was a doctor who was dedicated to the service of the poor.

 

She was raised under the precepts of the Church of England and viewed social justice through Christian concepts. In 1853 she joined the

 Anglican Sisterhood. She quickly became disillusioned with what she considered the petty concerns of the group.

Upon leaving five years later she wrote,

 

  

 

In 1858 she became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. One year later she entered the Order of Poor Clare nuns and took the name Mother Francis Clare.

The year 1861 brought Mother Clare to Kenmare in Ireland where she founded the first convent of the Poor Clares in the west of Ireland. A talented writer, she published on the

 issues of social injustice. Her writings and actions focused on advocacy of women's rights including equal pay, equal opportunity for education and legal reform to give

women control of their own property.

 

The Irish Famine of 1879 plunged the country into crisis. Margaret Anna responded by raising great sums of money to feed the poor. By now her outspoken ways and

success at feeding the poor made her the target of government and church leadership. Church and public resistance forced her to shut down her Famine Relief Fund

and look to England for support of her vision.

 

Her next effort was to establish another convent and to propose development of an industrial school for women ... complete with a day center for their children.

In 1884 Margaret Anna founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Seeking funds to support her sisters' work with women and children, in 1885 she set off for America.

Soon after arriving, she established a home for migrant women who, upon arrival in New York, often found themselves to be homeless and jobless.

 

The success of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace spread. By 1890 the Sisters were being asked to go West to serve the needs of frontier settlements springing up in

the Pacific Northwest. It was in August of this year that Sisters set off from Jersey City, New Jersey on what was to be the beginning of PeaceHealth, and the

continuation of the vision of Margaret Anna Cusack."

 

© PeaceHealth 1999-2006.

 

 

 

 

  

The prophet does not compel;
She invites each person to see herself,
her world, her God,
in a fresh way.
 

'Peace Pays A Price',

Dorothy Vidulich, csjp

 

This was the prophetic invitation Margaret Anna Cusack, foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, extended to women at the end of the nineteenth century. The needs of her day demanded a "fresh way." Her charismatic spirit continues to ignite the fires of courage, creativity, and commitment as we approach the new millennium.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, May 6, 1829, Margaret Anna Cusack was raised in the Anglican Church tradition until her conversion to Catholicism in 1858. She entered the Irish Poor Clare Sisters and was among the first group of Sisters sent to found the convent at Kenmare, Co. Kerry. During her first 15 years at Kenmare, Margaret Anna wrote and published spiritual works, biographies of saints, and histories of Ireland. By 1870, more than 200,000 copies of her works had circulated throughout the world. Profits from the sale of books were used for the Poor Clare Sisters' work with the poor.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Margaret Anna shifted the focus of her writing from research to reform. She now directed her words at those persons and institutions which were obstructing justice for the people of Ireland during the Famine of 1879. Known as "The Nun of Kenmare," she became a symbol of liberation and simultaneously incurred the strong disapproval of Church and political leaders. Her involvement with the Land League brought strong disapproval from prominent clergymen. When her famine relief fund was forced to close, she decided it was time to leave Kenmare. She moved to Knock, Co. Mayo, with the idea of expanding the ministry of the Poor Clares to include a school for young women in the west of Ireland. Instead, she decided to found her own community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

Continued conflict in Knock with Church leaders led Margaret Anna to seek support in England. Under Cardinal Manning and Bishop Bagshawe, she received approbation for the new religious order from Pope Leo XIII and the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace was founded in January, 1884, in the Diocese of Nottingham, England.

Later, Margaret Anna traveled to the United States to continue the education of immigrant Irish women but was immediately rebuked by Archbishop Corrigan of New York. Just at that time, New Jersey stretched out a hand of welcome and encouragement as Bishop Wigger of the Diocese of Newark invited her to establish homes for young Irish working women there. She claimed that because of Archbishop Corrigan's criticism of her among bishops throughout the United States, the work of her new community could not continue as long as she remained with them. Physically exhausted, sick and disillusioned with a patriarchal Church, Margaret Anna Cusack withdrew from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and left behind the Sisters she so dearly loved. She eventually returned to England and her ecumenical affiliations. In later years, she kept in contact with the Sisters and expressed a loving concern for them. She died, June 5, 1899 and was buried in the cemetery reserved for the Church of England at Leamington, England.

Sister Evangelista Gaffney was elected to lead the new congregation in 1888. In 1891 St. Joseph Hospital, Bellingham, Washington was added to works already introduced in England and the United States. Margaret Anna Cusack's emphasis on human rights, especially women's rights, continues to impact the future direction of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace as vowed members and women and men associates seek to realize the goal as stated in our Constitutions:

Our charism of peace
challenges us to prophetic risk
so that God's reign might be more fully realized.


Confident of God's faithful love
and collaborating with others who work for justice and peace,
we face the future with gratitude and hope.

 


Constitutions,

Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace