About our Foundress, Elizabeth Prout:
journey's end

On January 11, 1864 Mother Mary Joseph died peacefully at Sutton Convent. The evening Angelus was ringing and Fr Ignatius was present to assist her.

A little more than ten years after Mother Mary Joseph's death, the Passionist Fathers allowed the name of the Institute to be changed to 'Sisters of the Cross and Passion'. With this, they also gave permission for sisters to wear the Passionist Sign. In 1887, Rome issued final approval of the Congregation's Rule.

On the occasion of the 1998 Pilgrimage to Mother Mary Joseph's shrine in Sutton, Passionist Provincial Father Nicholas Postlethwaite said:

"[Mother Mary Joseph's] insights as a woman, her ability to analyse English society, and her daily experience of living directly with the poor meant that she journeyed to new lands of Passionist vision, theology and spirit."

Prayer in honor of Mother Mary Joseph

Lord,
receive our prayer in thanksgiving
for your grace bestowed on
Mother Mary Joseph.
We thank you for her unconquerable courage
and her love of your poor ones,
and we ask you for the grace to continue her work in our time.
Through her intercession,
grant us the favor for which we pray.

Amen.

For more information about topics mentioned in this narrative, see

• about Ignatius Spencer, C.P.,
  who assisted our Foundress
• Brother Cadfael
  celebrates Ellis Peters' unlikely detective
• a virtual tour of historic Shrewsbury
  Elizabeth's birthplace
• Industrial Manchester, 1844
  by Friederich Engels
• the Irish famine, 1845-50

• return to Introduction
• our charism and vision
• Sisters today: where and what
• more about Elizabeth Prout
• other sites on the Web
• interested?

Please send questions or comments about this page to vocations@snet.net.
Text for the story of Mother Mary Joseph follows and uses language from A Woman Who Said Yes: the Story of Elizabeth Prout by Anna Maria Reynolds, C.P. All rights reserved.