Christmas in the Acre - 1890s

Lowell 100 Yrs

The Sisters of Notre Dame, who still staff St Patrick School, faithfully kept a journal of daily activities from 1852 until 1958.  The Annals, as the volumes were referred to, were daily accounts of Masses attended, rosaries recited, and happenings within the school.  By custom the writers remained unnamed, though there are hints of authorship periodically.  One thread that runs throughout the decades was the visits made by the “mission angel.”  This was the Sisters’ way of saying who was being transferred, very often with little or no notice.  This fictional entry is a combination of facts gathered from the Annals of the Sisters recorded in the 19^th century. 

The Portress has been busy today.  Many come to the door begging food for their children.  Our pantry is not heavily loaded, but we spare what we can.  As Mother Superior says one never knows when it is the Christ Child who is knocking at the door.  Many of the boarding students have gone home to celebrate Christmas with their families.  Those who remain behind are invited to dine with us in the Sisters’ refectory.  You can tell the students are not used to our custom of dining in silence.  I look at up them and see them looking rather uncomfortable while one of the Sisters reads the lives of the Saints as we eat our meal of soup and bread.  The fast before Christmas has begun meaning no meat until the holy day.  It was only a few years ago that I was a student like them, sitting in the same seats looking at the Sisters wondering if I had the call.

I sit here in the Sisters’ dormitory; our beds separated by a simple white sheet.  Already I hear the snores coming from Sister Fidelia’s bed.  On the other side are the rasping coughs coming from young Sister Lourdes.  Dr. Green says he cannot do much more for her.  I am fortunate to have a window that looks out into the convent gardens.  A number of years ago Mother Desiree, may she rest in peace, had a tall brick wall surround the entire school and convent property.  At the same time we were forbidden to join the parishioners in sitting with the congregation.  An opening was made between the convent and the church.  We were to sit behind this wall to attend Mass and all other liturgical functions.  Our Mother General feels this separation will help us focus on our devotions.  One of the priests comes to the opening to distribute Communion.  Looking at the bare trees and mounting snow can make one doubt her call.  Though we are not allowed to have personal conversations I have heard stories of Sisters who have returned to their families.  They have walked right out the door.  But my guardian placed me with the Sisters when I was a young girl, and the Sisters have become my family. 

After morning Mass the church doors were closed, and we were allowed to decorate the church for the Christmas feast.  Garland was strung from the ceiling to the altar.  Wreaths were hung on every column.  There are 22.  I counted them.  Some of the older women from the parish were allowed to help us.  It was nice to speak with someone new.  The best part of today was that I was given the chore of setting up the manger in our chapel.  It is a most beautiful place.  It was recently completed, designed by the famous Patrick Keely.  The colors are pink and blue and very uplifting.  Not as grand as the parish church, but it is where we spend many hours of the day reciting the Divine Office, rosaries, and being in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord.

But my heart is heavy this Christmas Eve.  I sit here waiting to hear the bells of the steeple ring in Christmas.  It is the custom of many, some as far away as across the river and into the city center, to wait until they hear the bells ring before they make their way to midnight Mass.  I sit here holding the little note that the Mission Angel has left on my pillow.  I leave to go to our academy in Roxbury right after Christmas.  I must say good bye to this place that has been my home as long as I can remember.  I recall the words of our foundress, Julie Billard.  “Ah qu’il est bon, le bon Dieu.” (How good the good God is.) 

The bells break the silence of this cold December darkness.  They ring out calling me.  Silent Night, Holy Night.

Salve Regina

Grotto at Notre Dame Academy, Lowell

The portress of the Sisters of Notre Dame’s had a bit of a shock when the wagon pulled up and delivered a box taller than she in the entry way of the convent on Adams Street.  It was just at supper time in February of 1895.  As the boarders and Sisters left the refectory the excitement grew with wondering what could be inside the crate.  The label only said “Handle with Care.”  It had to wait until the next morning when a workman with an ax could remove the boards.   The boarding students were the first to see that it was a life-sized statue of Our Lady of Lourdes donated by a former student of the Academy.    The statue remained in the hall of the convent until the following May when an appropriate grotto could be built in the Sisters’ garden.  On that day Reverend Michael O’Brien led a procession of 600 veiled female students along with the Sisters and parishioners in reciting the Litany of the BVM and the rosary.  Father O’Brien granted plenary indulgences to all who made a visit to the shrine and recited the appropriate prayers. 

Again the Journal of the Sisters of Notre Dame provides an insight into parish life over a century ago.  For decades, hundreds of hundreds of families, students, neighborhood families and religious made the pilgrimage to the grotto.  The May Procession had been a tradition for many years before the erection of the grotto.  It was customary for the school children, at first just the girls of the school and later boys and girls once the Sisters’ rule allowed them to teach both sexes, to process through the Sisters’ cloister garden and crown a statue of Mary.  An eighth grade girl was always chosen to crown the statue, it was a major coup to be given the privilege to put on the satin gown and carry the pillow with the flowered crown.  She was preceded by the entire student body along with any new First Communicants that had received that month, the girls in their white dresses and veils, the boys in white suits and ties.  Up until the 1950s, the garden was out of bounds for men except on special occasions, such as the annual Garden Party, Corpus Christi procession, or May Crowning. 

In the back of the school today the outline of the grotto can still be discerned.  It remained standing until the 1960s when I witnessed its razing.  The nuns constantly warned us not to climb on the grotto at recess.  You can predict what happened next.  A fellow student in my class (who will remain nameless, though the nuns I’m sure inscribed his name in some book of the damned) ignored the Sister’s warnings.  Predictably he fell off, and a few stones fell with him.  The structure was deemed unsafe, and the workmen came and tore it down while we looked out the window.  Our nun looked on sadly and reminded us that Mary no longer had a grotto because of our disobedience.  Ahhh,  good old Catholic guilt!  The statue disappeared for about 40 years, and then was returned to the Sisters at the school.  She’s had some cosmetic work done and doesn’t look too bad for her age.  She’s back at St. Pat’s where she was meant to be.

Thanks to Walt’s family we can share a look into those Acre days-

Down Memory Lane #1, ca. 1954

While going through some of my father's photos the other day we came across my second grade class in two processions at St. Patrick's School.  The first, shown below, may be a rehearsal for First Communion.  We are shown walking past the stone wall in the rear of the sisters' chapel enroute to the church.  In the second we are leaving the church.  Dave was unable to identify me as I did not then have a full white beard. 

  

In the second, we are shown leaving the church.  Visible in the background are the old heavy wooden doors.










These photos show the procession for the “Joyful Mysteries”  in which we as second graders went en masse to church during school. The Sister is Sister Mary Owen, who was our second grade teacher.  In the background of the photo of us leaving the church are the schools and the Sisters' Chapel.  I cannot make out the Mystery written on the pillow of the young lady leading our class, but our group was followed by the Visitation.

Every Picture Tells a Story

St. Patrick Church, stereoview

Oops, I meant to add this to the previous blog entry.  Mea culpa.

Sometimes when folks think about donating a photograph, they just toss it in the trash believing it has no historical significance.  Take a look at the stereoview.  Walt and I sat at my kitchen table with magnifying glasses (I know, we're old school.) noting details that might not seem important at first glance.  Notice the rectory with the Mansard style roof.  That is not the current rectory telling us the photo is pre1925 when the current rectory was built.  Then notice the roof of the church, no clerestory windows.  Aha, this was before the 1904 fire!  Look a little closer.  The fence is part granite and part iron.  There were small remnants of this left through the 1960s, but no one has ever seen how the fence originally looked.  Now we know. The Working Girls Home is not there.  Hmmm, before 1890s then.  Here's the kicker, the brick wall that the Sisters of Notre Dame had around the grounds is missing.  Walter also noticed, because of his personal memories going back decades, that the chapel is not there. 

Because of the Archives, we have a copy of the Sisters Journals going back to 1852.  Your trusty blogger has read it through several dozen times (I know, how boring), but I recalled an entry about the wall.  The Journal of the Sisters mostly said how many rosaries were recited and the number of students in the school.  From time to time little vignettes of convent life were brought to light.  In 1876 the Sisters said that a plan was being made to take down the wooden chapel and build a brick one.  (The one that Walter recalled.)  Another entry says that in 1881 a brick wall around the convent was near completion.  Prior to this time the Sisters sat with the congregation, but the Superior had just ordered the Sisters to become semi-cloistered and remove themselves by building a wall and attending Mass behind doors, away from the public.  So we have narrowed the dates of the stereocard to between 1876-1881. 

There's more to see as well.  The trees on the front lawn.  No one knew those existed.  Also take a look at the canal rubble along the Western Canal, interesting and worth more investigating.  So those pictures you think have no value, think again.  Let the history detectives take a look.  Hey, maybe Walt and I can have our own program.  PBS watch out.

Take a look at your own photos.  No date?  Is there a calendar on the wall?  A magazine cover?  The Name of a movie on a billboard?  Don't know where it was taken?  Look at the buildings in back.  Is there a street sign?  Store sign?  If you watch CSI, you probably have a bit of Sherlock Holmes in you.  It's all elementary, Watson.