Golden Jubilee Events

St. Charles, Missouri
June 13-18, 2004

The happy group of Jubilarians* who renewed their vows of fifty years since First Vows on the Feast of the Sacred Heart this June 18th owe a big debt of gratitude to Ronnie Dewey and Mickey McKay who first began thinking about this gathering several years ago. When Mickey died suddenly in 2001, Ronnie took on the task of making this event happen. We are indebted to her for the leadership she took in bringing us together.

In addition, we owe special thanks to Margaret Caire and her staff for the many details that brought this event to fruition. We begin this account with a deep sense of gratitude to those who were instrumental in making these five days such a joyful celebration for each of us.

There are a few people who outdid themselves for us in preparation for this week. Mrs. Carol Pfitzinger is charged with the Shrine and the Museum; she actually went on the tour that she designed for us before we arrived, to make all the arrangements and make sure about every detail of our pilgrimage. She met many of our planes and provided goodies for our bus trip as well. We were truly overwhelmed with her generosity to us during this time. And Margaret Munch was totally dedicated to making our pilgrimage an educational learning experience from start to finish. Margaret went with us on our bus tour so we would have accurate information at every stop. And Barbara Moreau provided fabulous meals and packed lunches for us and took care of our needs before we even knew we had one! And Jo McFayden and Lulu Cotto were constant reminders of the hospitality that is always present at St. Charles.

Saturday, June 12th was the arrival day for those of us able to take part in the Philippine pilgrimages. Tippy Guillory joined us for the tour of Florissant but decided it was best not to make the trip to Kansas. The rest of us proceeded on to St. Mary’s Cemetery, Mound City and Sugar Creek. And then on Tuesday, June 15th, three more of us arrived for our days of sharing together before our Jubilee Celebration on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

Margaret Munch prepared us so well for our pilgrimages—to Florissant and to each stop we made on the bus trip to follow Philippine and Lucille Mathevon and the other RSCJs who spent so many years with the Indians in Kansas. We learned so much that we had not known—like how others have cared for our heritage and have preserved what we did not know about the 30 years of the Society’s presence among the Potawatomie.

There was something very real about seeing the tombstone in St. Mary’s Cemetery where the names and dates of the RSCJ are listed as follows:

Sister Amiotte—died 1857
Mother O’Connor—died 1864
Madame Mercer—died 1868
Mother Deagan—died 1872
Mother Lucille Mathevon—died 1876
Sister Layton—died 1876
Mother Boyle—died 1877

These names and dates made us realize the length of time our sisters served the Indian mission and how all this was preserved and revered by those who benefited from their service.

Then we proceeded on to Bob White’s motel in Overland Park, Kansas where we were greeted by Bob’s daughter and spent the night. Bob White and his family have greeted numerous RSCJ who have made this pilgrimage in Philippine’s footsteps to the Indians. Bob was instrumental in obtaining the 5 acre plot in Sugar Creek where the park commemorating the death march of the Indians as well as the memorial to Philippine Duchesne has been erected since her canonization in 1988. Bob is now suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer’s and the family begs prayers for him and for them. They could not have been more welcoming to us.

On Tuesday our pilgrimage moved on to Mound City, Kansas where we were met by Mrs. Connie Higgins and her husband who care for the Church that was erected in 1941 in honor of the beatification of Philippine. Again, we were deeply touched by the dedication to Philippine that we encountered at each stage of this pilgrimage. The Church is beautiful with a gracious statue of Philippine with an Indian child hanging onto her skirt while she is holding an infant and greeting an adult Indian on his knees before her. This is the Church that has the stained glass windows that were designed by an Ursuline sister; many of us have seen these windows depicted on notecards. One of these windows was reproduced for the banner that hung from St. Peter’s during the canonization in 1988 and which now hangs in the Shrine in St. Charles.

Our next stop was Sugar Creek where we were deeply touched by the Trail of Death—the 61 day march of 618 miles from Indiana to Kansas from September 4-November 5, 1838. More than 600 Potawatomie Indians were buried in the field on which we were standing.

In addition, we read the history that this same land held about the beginning of the mission to the Potawatomie where “In July of 1841 Sr. Duchesne, Sr. Amyot, Sr. Mathevon and Sr. O’Connor lived in a 12X15 cabin owned by the Indian Manope. It had two chairs and sleeping benches”. This was the first of many descriptions artistically erected—that told us the story of the life of our religious and that of the Jesuits who brought them to this land. This land is now called St. Philippine Memorial Park.

With our hearts full of gratitude for all that we had experienced and learned we began our trip back to St. Charles. It is a long trip and it gave us the opportunity to catch up with each other. When we neared St. Charles our bus blew a belt, and we were grateful that happened on Highway 70 near St. Charles and not in Sugar Creek!

On Wednesday, June 16, we met most of the day sharing with one another, mostly about the last 25 years since many of us had connected in one way or another about our earlier years at the time of our Silver Jubilee. This was a very special time of really being in awe of the gift of one another and the growth and maturity we had experienced. What was most important was our deep love of each other and our shared admiration of each one’s life.

On Thursday, June 17, we met again to share, but this time to look toward the future. Of course, we don’t know the future but we did come to a bond with one another, that we would go into this future counting on the support and love of one another. Whatever the future brings we will be there for each other.

Thursday afternoon we were invited to the Provincial House for tea and sharing so we made a call to both the Network Office and the Archives since most of us had not been to either of these new locations. We were delighted to see both of them in operation. At the Archives the staff had put out some photos of some of us and we had fun seeing ourselves at an earlier moment. We had a delightful time at the Provincial House catching the Team and Staff up on our week of pilgrimage and sharing. Marg Miller orchestrated a song with the help of Martha Curry and Nancy Morris who represented us all in expressing our gratitude for all that had been done for us during this week.

And Friday was the Feast of the Sacred Heart. We continued our sharing in the morning about the future and we thanked all those who had been so good to us with the skit that we had performed for the Provincial Team.

Fr. Gregory Kirsch presided at the liturgy in the Shrine at 5 PM. Attached is a copy of the homily delivered by Rosemary Bearss. Our celebration continued at a lovely reception after the liturgy.

* Jubilarians: Rosemary Bearss, Judy Brown, Ann Caire, Margaret Caire, Hilda Carey, Martha Curry, Pati Desmond, Ronnie Dewey, Tippy Guillory, Lucy Hayes, El MacLellan, Sally Mahar, Pat Meier, Marg Miller, Nancy Morris, Nancy Salisbury, Mary Gen Smyth, Marianna Torrano and Annette Zipple. We were united at a distance with Margie Conroy, Maureen Currie, Nilda Jimenez, Barbara Kearins, Betty Renard, Helen Rosenthal, Patricia Tighe-Reid, and with Mickey McKay RIP.