Mary Xavier Mehegan
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Mary Xavier Mehegan, S.C. was a Roman Catholic sister who founded the
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth are a Roman Catholic apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in the Convent Station area of Morris Township, New Jersey, USA. The religious order was established in 1859 in Newark, New Jersey ...
and opened
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's first four-year college for women.


Early life

She was born Catharine Mehegan in Ireland in 1825, one of the ten children of Patrick Mehegan and Joanna Miles. Along with a sister, Margaret, she emigrated to the United States in 1842, settling in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. In 1846 she joined the
Sisters of Charity Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some ''Sisters of Charity'' communities refer to the Vincentian tradition alone, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (whose sisters are also of ...
there, who had been founded by Mother (now Saint) Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton in Maryland. A native of New York, in 1817 Seton sent
sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...
from the motherhouse in
Emmitsburg, Maryland Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States, south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town has two Catholic pilgrim ...
, to her native city. Taking the name by which she is now known, Catharine Mehegan joined the Sisters of Charity of New York and took her annual
religious vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of r ...
for the first time on 25 March 1847. In 1853
James Roosevelt Bayley James Roosevelt Bayley (August 23, 1814 – October 3, 1877) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as the first Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Bishop of Newark (1853–1872) and as Roman Ca ...
became the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Newark, with the Pro-Cathedral of St. Patrick serving as its seat. The step-nephew of Mother Seton, he sought a congregation of women religious to care for orphaned children and to operate parochial schools in the Diocese of Newark. Neither the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, MD nor any of its offshoots was able to provide sisters for his diocese. He found five young women who wished to become Sisters of Charity and sent them to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati for a year of formation. Upon their return, the Sisters of Charity of New York agreed to help establish an order of Sisters of Charity in New Jersey, with the understanding that in a few years each Sister of Charity of New York would be free either to remain in New Jersey or to return to New York. Fortunately, Sister Mary Xavier Mehegan and Sister Mary Catharine Nevin cast their lot with the new congregation in New Jersey.


New Jersey

In 1858 Bishop Bayley requested of their superiors in Emmitsburg that the Sisters in New Jersey be established as an independent
congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...
, with Mehegan as Mother Superior. She and Sister Mary Catharine, along with five recruits for the new
religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...
, took their vows on that 19 July, at that time the
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
of St.
Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622, Vincent was appointed as chaplain to the galleys. ...
, whose Rule of Life they followed. This feast was to become the traditional day for the annual renewal of their vows held by the Sisters. Approval of the new institute was received on 29 September 1859 and Mehegan was formally appointed the first Mother Superior of the new congregation, to be known as the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth (in honor of the bishop's aunt and their foundress). Mehegan was to serve in this office until her death in 1915. At the time, they kept the
religious habit A religious habit is a distinctive set of clothing worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally, some plain garb recognizable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious Hermit, eremitic and Anchorite, anchorit ...
and Constitutions of the Sisters in New York. Later in 1880, at the request of the bishop, they replaced the black
widow's cap A widow's cap (or mourning cap), a sign of mourning worn by many women after the death of their husbands, was a sign of religious and social significance
of Mother Seton with a black veil. In less than a year the first Catholic hospital in New Jersey was opened at St. Mary's, Newark.."Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 8 Jun. 2014
/ref> On 2 July 1860, the motherhouse was removed to the old Chegaray mansion at Madison, New Jersey, Madison, which had recently been vacated by Seton Hall College. The Academy of Saint Elizabeth was opened the same year. During the Civil War Sisters of Charity cared for soldiers on both sides in emergency hospitals set up at the train stations in Newark and Trenton. Mother Xavier served as Mother General for 56 years.Neary SC, Noreen. "Celebrating the Life of Our Fouundress", ''New Dimensions'', Fall 2015
Under her leadership, the Sisters opened parish schools, academies, hospitals, a day nursery, orphanages, a home for the incurably ill, and a residence for working women. In 1899 Mehegan founded the College of Saint Elizabeth (renamed in 2020 as
Saint Elizabeth University Saint Elizabeth University (SEU) (formerly College of Saint Elizabeth, CSE) is a private Catholic university in Morris Township, New Jersey, United States. Portions of the campus are also in Florham Park. SEU offer 25 undergraduate degree prog ...
), which was the first four-year women's college in
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. This was among the first women's colleges in the nation. Her Sisters moved beyond New Jersey to serve in Connecticut,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
and
New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
by the time of her death on 24 June 1915."A Brief History of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth", Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth


See also

* Academy of St. Elizabeth


References


External links


New Jersey Women's History "Mary Xavier Mehegan"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehegan, Mary Xavier 1825 births 1915 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States Founders of Catholic religious communities Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns 19th-century American Roman Catholic nuns