THE ORDER OF THE SACRED HEART

New Zealand Tablet, 31 August 1911, Page 1696

THE ORDER OF THE SACRED HEART

ELECTION OF A SUPERIOR GENERAL (From our Wellington correspondent.) The joyful news —that on the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, August 27, Rev. Mother Janet Stuart had been elected Superior-General of the Society of the Sacred Heartwas cabled to the Rev. Mother of the Island Bay Convent of the Order, and by her was immediately transmitted to her Sisters at Timaru and Auckland. It is truly good news for the Religious of the Sacred Heart, as all warmly esteem Rev. Mother Stuart, because of her holiness, wisdom, and kindness. They are therefore grateful to God for having placed the government of their wide-spread, but closely-united, society in her capable hands. _ ; Few persons have passed through more varied experiences than Rev. Mother Stuart. The daughter of a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, residing in the North of Ireland, her youth was spent in an atmosphere antagonistic to Catholicity, yet from the age of thirteen she felt strongly drawn towards it. Her father, whose university career had been distinguished, delighted in cultivating her great intellectual gifts, and even sought her aid in composing his sermons. Nevertheless, she joined with characteristic energy in the outdoor exercises of her brothers, who were proud of her facility in sketching from nature, and her skill as a horsewoman. Long afterwards she remembered her juvenile riding excursions, for as Visitor to the Convents of the Sacred Heart in South America she was obliged to cross the Andes, and part of her adventurous journey was on mule-back. The conversion of Rev. Mother Stuart's relatives, the Earl of Gainsborough and his family, brought her into communication with Catholics, and at London sbs became acquainted with Father Gallwey, S.J., who received her into the Church. The call to the religious life having been heard and faithfully followed, she entered at Roehampton (1882), edifying all the nuns by her fervour. She showed special attraction for the lowly but sublime virtues practised by their holy Foundress, Blessed Mother Barat. Her literary talents were utilised, and she wrote meditations for the novices, also clever essays, plays, etc., to enliven the holidays. Her latest work, The Education of Catholic Girls, was only finished a few weeks ago, and will soon be published by Longmans and Co. As Superior Vicar of the Convents of the. Sacred Heart in the British Isles, her zeal extended to all the works of the society, and she followed with maternal interest the formation of young Catholic teachers at

her great Training College in St., Charles square, London. The boarding-school -at Roehampton under her care rose to one hundred and thirty pupils, the highest number that could be accommodated. While, pleased with their success before the Oxford examiners, she desired above all to ground them in solid piety. In a wider sphere of action she will do far more for the* glory of the Sacred Heart.