Sacrament was only
carried out during the day time.
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Rev. Mother Mary
of St. Joseph Bennett, Founderess
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In the course of a
few years several young ladies from the neighbourhood had entered
the convent, and few communities could boast of being more
thoroughly united and happy.
All seemed to promise stability and prosperity, but still the
yearning of Most Rev. Dr. Furlong's heart was far from being
satisfied. His Lordship's frequent and earnest applications to the
Mother General of the Order of Marie Reparatrice, to permit the
establishment of Perpetual Adoration, had failed.
She declined to alter the rules of her society. The nuns, in the
convent he erected, would have been only too glad to carry out his
wishes, but they were subject to another jurisdiction and were not
permitted to do so. Eventually, however, his prayer was heard.
In October, 1874, a lady, high in the Order, and fully authorised
by the Mother General to treat with the Bishop, arrived at
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Rockfield, and
in a short time an arrangement was come to whereby any of the
community who wished to remain and place themselves under the
jurisdiction of the Bishop, and found a Convent of Perpetual
Adoration, were free to do so. By far the greater number remained.
Thus the foundation of the Convent of Perpetual Adoration was
laid, and Mother Mary of St. Perpetua, daughter of Mr. Edmond
FitzGerald Ryan, R.M., of Alma, Wexford, was selected to be
superioress of the infant establishment.
With his Lordship's permission, the Sisters began Perpetual
Adoration in Wexford on the 1st January, 1875, and not for one
moment since that date has this vigil ceased.
The Bishop promptly applied for the sanction of Rome for the
enrolment of the new Society, but it was not until nine anxious
months had passed, in August, 1875, that the requisite authority
arrived. The good old Bishop wept with joyous emotion as he
communicated the news to the Sisterhood and kind, pious friends
outside thanked God for the spiritual boon He had sent them. The
little light fitting caps and black dresses of the nuns were now
cast aside, and the flowing veil, white habit, and crimson
scapular and cord of their Institute were now assumed. Their
beautiful devotional little chapel at Rockfield, so long closed to
the public, was, on the Feast of the Assumption, thrown open, and
at Benediction in the afternoon it was crowded to its full
capacity.
The mission of the good, wise, watchful shepherd was accomplished.
He realised for his flock the desire of his life - Perpetual
Adoration and on the 12th November, 1875, Thomas Furlong, the
learned, pious and polished Bishop of Ferns, yielded to his
Creator a soul ever devoted to Him and His service. Many a time he
expressed a wish that his body might be buried at the foot of the
altar at Rockfield. "But," he used to add, "I suppose they must
have my poor bones in the Cathedral of the diocese."
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health of the then Mother Superior, Mother Mary of St. Perpetua, had
begun to fail. In October, 1876, she was present at the profession of
two of the Sisters, one of them being the late Mother Superior, Mother
St. Rose, and this was the last time she assisted at any of the
ceremonies. Sister St. Rose, in virtue of her office as Infirmarian,
was most constantly with the Mother Superior, who, having a strong
idea that this nun would be the one selected to be her successor,
omitted no opportunity of instructing her in the duties appertaining
to the office of Superioress -of the responsibilities, anxieties and
troubles inseparable from it, and yet encouraging her to face them
without flinching, having thorough reliance on God. Mother Mary of St.
Perpetua died on the 18th April, 1877, in the 26th year of her age and
the 6th of her entrance into religion. |
Mother St. Rose
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She was succeeded as Mother Superior by Mother St. Rose, less than a
year professed, Some time after the death of the late Canon Roche,
P.P., it was decided to remove the community from Rockfield to the
centre of the town, and the spacious new convent adjoining the Church
of the Assumption was built for them. Henceforth the Church of the
Assumption became a Church of Perpetual Adoration. The convent stands
on the site of the old Church of St. Bride, one of the pre-Reformation
Churches in Wexford.
On Sunday, 1st May, 1887, attended by a large congregation, the
ceremonies in connection with the formal installation of the Nuns in
the new convent were performed by the late Most Rev. Dr. Browne,
Bishop of Ferns, in the church of the Assumption. Subsequent to solemn
Pontifical High Mass, an appropriate sermon was preached by Very Rev.
N. Walsh, S.J. After the sermon the Lord Bishop and the clergy
proceeded to bless the new convent, which concluded the morning
ceremonies.
| may gain a
Plenary Indulgence once each day, on the usual conditions. |
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