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Part of the American
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Mother Mary Aloysia Hardey 1809 ~ 1886
As we trace the lineage of Mother Mary
Aloysia Harley we turn to one of the brightest pages in the
history of America. It records the eventful day when under the
leadership of Leonard Calvert a company of English Catholics
sailed from their native land to lay the foundation of civil and
religious liberty in the new world. Among these high-souled
pilgrims was Nicholas Hardey, a man of undaunted courage and of
unflinching fidelity to his faith. Another, the grandfather of
Mary Hardey, came in direct line from this loyal son of the
mother church and was well-known in the colonial times
throughout Maryland and Virginia. He lived near Alexandria and
was an intimate friend of George Washington. Frederick William
Hardey was the third son of Anthony Hardey and inherited the
winning qualities of his father. In 1800, he married Sarah
Spalding.
The year 1803 is noted in the history of
America as the year of the Louisiana Purchase. When this last
territory came into the United States, a tide of emigration
flowed steadily for a number of years in the direction of the
Gulf of Mexico. Among the pioneers from Maryland was Mr. Charles
Anthony Hardey, who fixed his residence in lower Louisiana. The
young Republic of America after separating from the mother
country, entered at once upon a life of intense energy, and the
church was not the last to feel the inspiration of freedom.
Before the close of the eighteenth century the orders of Carmel
and the Visitation were established in the United States. The
first decade of the nineteenth century saw the birth of Mother
Seton's congregation in Maryland, and about this time two
religious communities sprang up in the newly settled regions of
the far West, the Lorettines and the Sisters of Nazareth in
Kentucky.
A little later came the Daughters of St.
Dominic. On the Atlantic coast, the Ursulines had founded
convents in New York and Boston. In 1815, when Bishop Dobourg
was appointed to the See of New Orleans, his first care was to
provide educational advantages for the children of his vast
diocese; hence when in Paris, he made application to Mother
Barat for a colony of nuns. He had been silently preparing among
the Daughters of the Sacred Heart an apostle for the American
mission in the person of Mother Phillipine Duchesne. On the
fifteenth of December, 1804, Mother Barat accompanied by three
nuns arrived at Sainte Marie and took possession of it in the
name of the Sacred Heart. Mme. Duchesne was anxious to undertake
the work for the church in the new field and far off regions of
America. After fourteen years of waiting, her earnest desires
were realized. She was accompanied by Mme. Octavie Berthold, who
was born a Calvinist, her father having been Voltaire's private
secretary.
Mme. Hardey profited so well by the
training she received and made such progress in humility and
self-renunciation that her period of noviceship was abridged,
and she was admitted to her first vows, March, 1827. May, 1827,
Mme. Matilda Hamilton, assistant superior of the School of St.
Michael died. Like Mme. Hardey to whom she was related, Mme.
Hamilton sprang from one of those English Catholic families who
sought liberty on the shores of the Chesapeake. Her father left
Maryland in 1810 for upper Louisiana. In those days the
advantages of education in this part of the world were very
great.
After taking her first vows, Mme.
Hamilton was sent to Cateau and later accompanied Mother Audi to
St. Michael, where her death occurred. In 1832, the Convent of
St. Michael counted two hundred inmates.
In the spring of 1832, the Asiatic
cholera appeared for the first time in America, having been
carried to Quebec. The pestilence turned southward, advancing
with the current of the Mississippi, along whose borders it
mowed down thousands of victims. During the next spring the
contagion swept over Louisiana, and the Convent of St. Michael
was included in its destructive course. Mme. Audi and Mme.
Aloysia Hardey stood valiantly by this little community and
remained at their post of duty. After Mother Hardey's service as
superior at this convent, she was appointed superior of the
Convent of New York.
Her work in Louisiana was the beginning
of a long and eventful career in labors for the church in
various institutions which were established throughout the
country. She assisted in the foundation of orders in Halifax,
Nova Scotia and Buffalo, New York. In 1846, she established a
convent in Philadelphia. In 1847, she purchased the
Cowperthwaite estate, ten miles from Philadelphia, and
established a school known as Eden Hall, and confided it to the
care of Mother Tucker, mistress-general of Manhattanville. The
two foundations of Halifax and Buffalo made heavy demands on the
community of Manhattanville.
Among the many foundations organized by Mother Hardey, there is
probably none more interesting in history than that of Detroit.
In 1852, Mother Hardey established a free school in New York
City for the instruction of poor children. The Manhattanville
School owes its establishment and organization to her. In 1863,
she began labors for the church in Cuba, establishing a boarding
school for girls in Sancto Spiritu, Cuba. At one time when it
was decided that Mother Hardey should leave Manhattanville and
be succeeded by another superior this met with the earnest
disapproval of Archbishop McCloskey, and a letter was received
from Mother Barat at the head of the order in France written to
Archbishop Hughes promising that she would never withdraw Mother
Hardey from Manhattanville. In addition to this she organized
parochial schools and many of the prominent educational
institutions of the church in existence today. She was the
instrument of the church for the foundation in Cincinnati. At
the time of the memorable and terrible conflagration in Chicago
in 1871, Mother Hardey organized bazaars in all her houses and
sent the proceeds to be distributed to the most needy sufferers.
When the terrible days of 1871 had drawn to a close. Mother
Hardey was appointed assistant-general and deputed to visit the
convents in North America, which required several months, as at
this time they numbered twenty-five houses. After this service,
she was permanently transferred to Paris to give to Mother Goetz
the benefit of her experience and judgment in determining
matters of importance to the church. Mother Goetz's death
occurred January 4, 1874. She was succeeded by Mother Lehon as
superior-general and her first act as such was to send Mother
Hardey to America to attend to business matters for the
Manhattanville property.
It was during this visit to America that she established the
Tabernacle Society in connection with the sodality of the
Children of Mary. In 1876, after her return to France, she was
sent by the mother-general to visit the convents of Spain. Fifty
years of labor, zeal, and devotedness to the good of others is
the record of this noble woman. In September, 1877, when the
superiors from sixty houses in the various parts of the world
met for the purpose of a spiritual retreat, Mother Hardey
requested that she be permitted to return to America with some
of the visiting superiors owing to her failing health, and on
the 20th of October, the little party sailed for New York. On
the 18th of July, she sailed on her return journey to France.
She accompanied Mother Lehon on several
tours to various convents in Belgium, England and Italy. In
1882, she was again sent to New York for the purpose of saving
the Manhattanville property, the encroachments of the city
threatening its very existence. While in America on this
mission, she experienced a severe illness, and it was doubtful
whether she would be able to make the return voyage, but on
February 18, 1884, she sailed for France, very weak and at the
risk of her life. Although she never regained her health,
gradually failing physically, she remained mentally strong until
the very last. On Thursday, the 17th of June, 1886, at the age
of seventy-six, she died, after sixty years and ten months'
service for her church. Thus ended the life of one of the most
remarkable women in America in labors for the advancement of
education and religion.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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