6.05.2008

Founder's Day

Today is the 109th Anniversary of the death of Margaret Anna Cusack, known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Our community celebrates June 5th each year as "Founder's Day."

For this year's Founder's Day post, I thought I'd share with you a short video our novice class put together last year to tell the story of Margaret Anna and the community she founded. It's quite a story!



The video is about 17 minutes long, but the first part tells the very interesting story of Margaret Anna. She was born Anglican, became an Anglican Sister, then Catholic, then a Poor Clare Nun, then the infamous "Nun of Kenmare," then founded our community, then managed to get on the wrong side of the bishops by speaking on behalf of the poor, and then left the community in order to save it. Told you it was interesting - but the video does a much better job of telling the story.

Margaret Anna and I have become close friends during my novitiate - she even "wrote" me a letter on my retreat last summer! And as you can see in my last post, her writings are a source of wisdom and guidance for me.

You can read my earlier Founder's Day posts here and here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVED THE VIDEO. Her life is an amazing inspiration. What biography would you recommend and where would I get it.
Thanks
Barbara

Susan Rose Francois, CSJP said...

Peace Pays a Price by Dorothy Vidulich is the best biography. Not sure where you can get a copy though.

Margaret Anna wrote at least two autobiographies: The Nun of Kenmare and The Story of My Life.

There's another biography I've read which is ok, also called Nun of Kenmare. It's by Irene French Eager.