By means of the internet (www.rscjinternational.org) we have all witnessed the exuberant celebration of the installation, in a chapel of the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Paris, of the châsse – the ornate reliquary containing the body of St. Madeleine Sophie. The introduction to the web coverage tells us that Sophie, who traveled so much in her lifetime, continued to travel after her death. Have you wondered why she traveled to Belgium in the first place?

At the beginning of the most recent general chapter, Kathleen Hughes explained the nature of this governmental structure in religious life today. The history of the Society shows us, however, that this structure evolved gradually. In fact, the Society has held “chapters” properly so-called only since 1967. A “chapter” in church terminology implies that there are elected representatives as well as ex officio members. Earlier deliberative gatherings were called general councils or general congregations.

Last month’s article quoted the Annual Letters of 1906-1907-1908 describing the arrival of the colony of RSCJ from Australia who founded the first house of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo in January 1908. Three years later, when it was time to write the circular letter again, the new community had progress to report. They had built a large new building for the boarding school, described as European in style but built according to Japanese methods to withstand earthquakes. They already had 130 pupils.

The Annual Letters, Third Part, 1906-1907-1908 carried the following account, the first from the new foundation in Tokyo: "It was at the dawn of this year, 1908, a special year for us all because of the glorification of our blessed Founder [Madeleine Sophie Barat was beatified in 1908.] that Japan was finally opened to the ardent zeal and desires of the spouses of the Sacred Heart. On January 1, the Nikko Maru cast anchor in the harbor of Yokohama, and the same day Reverend Mother Salmon [vicar of Australia], accompanied by the founders arrived in Tokyo…."

The story of the two Jouve sisters takes us back to Philippine's monastery in Grenoble, Ste Marie d'En Haut. When Philippine met Madeleine Sophie and joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, she handed over Ste Marie with its boarding school to the Society. Soon Philippine's sister Charlotte Euphrosine Jouve sent her daughters there to be educated by their aunt and her new community.

The long life of Mother Jane Fox extended from the last days of St. Madeleine Sophie to the end of World War II. The field of her activity linked the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Her vigorous and enthusiastic personality developed from a literal sense of duty to generous self-giving.

This month we share with you a recent acquisition: an essay by the late Helen Condon, RSCJ, on the Special Chapter of 1967, to which she was an elected delegate. She isolated two interconnected themes that have heavily influenced the Society’s self-understanding in the last forty years.

Anyone entering Mother Hardey’s room at Manhattanville in 1857 could have seen a child of four with Asian features and a western name playing in a corner. This was Susie Maclane, born in Macao on June 21, 1852, of an American father and a Chinese mother.

This month we continue the series on “Builders of the U.S. Province” with a sketch of the life of one of Mother Duchesne’s earliest and best-loved pioneer associates, Adeline Boilvin.

Philippine wrote from Florissant in 1820: “We now have twenty boarding pupils, most of them docile.” Among the most docile was Adeline Boilvin. She was born September 24, 1813, in St. Louis of a Creole family engaged in the fur trader; she had some Osage blood in her veins.

When the novitiate for the Society of the Sacred Heart, U.S. Province, was moved from 860 Beacon Street to Cambridge, the new house was named Layton House for the first American to enter and remain in the Society. Bits of Mary Layton’s story appear in several house journals, and the whole story, expertly told by Margaret Williams, was featured in 1988 in the RSCJ Newsletter in a series entitled “Builders of the U.S. Province.” As we look ahead to 2007, the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Province, a backward look at some of these builders seems in order.