The Canossian Story

Magdalen of Canossa was born in 1774 in Verona, Italy. Born into nobility she was not, however, ignorant of the poverty and misery that surrounded her. Every day the queue of people who filled the porch of her ancestral home were a constant reminder of the hardships of those who were hungry and homeless. Even as a teenager, Magdalen often distributed the food and goods to the needy who knocked at her family door.

A vision began to take shape deep within the spirit of Magdalen expressed as a desire to follow Jesus wherever He led. After much prayer and discernment, and family protests, in 1808, Magdalen finally left the family palace to found the Institute of the Daughters of Charity.

Her original desire had been to care for the sick. The increasing number of "youth at risk" however called for a shift of focus. With the blessing of Napoleon, a "refuge" was donated in which Magdalen and her growing number of companions welcomed, sheltered and gave free education to young women, keeping them off the streets and offering them "life-skills".

Before her death in 1835, Magdalen had expanded her horizons to embrace many other needs and to establish many more houses where the materially and spiritually poor could find security and nourishment.

When Magdalen was 14 years of age, in 1788, tall ships from England were carrying their precious cargo of convicts through the still, blue waters of Sydney harbour. News of the penal colony Down Under travelled slowly but surely and as Magdalen matured in both age and wisdom, so too the seed of a dream within her took shape and form. But this particular dream was not to be realised within her own lifetime.

Magdalen was a passionate woman, and her main passion was indisputably her readiness to become as dust and so reach the four corners of the globe in order to MAKE JESUS KNOWN AND LOVED. This deep longing found a certain echo whenever she expressed the desire to go to the "land of the whales", as Australia was then commonly called.

What began as the vision and journey of this noble, yet humble, woman, became the inspiration of many who have since followed in her footsteps; pitching their tents in the sand and soil of the five continents of the globe and finally in 1949, in this great Southern land of Australia. Magdalen had arrived! On the 6th February of that year, five sisters set foot on the red soil plains, missionaries from Italy responding to the request of Brisbane's Archbishop Duhig (1917-1965). Their arrival not only fulfilled one of Magdalen's dreams, but put wheels in motion that continue to turn today.

Last year I made application to the Canossian Sisters at Rome to send out a community of Italian and English speaking Missionary Sisters who would interest themselves particularly in Italian families of the poorer classes in city and country, teaching them English and other subjects comprised in a primary education, as well as domestic science, home management etc.
(Archbishop Duhig, letter to the Minister for Immigration. 19/11/1948)

To speak of the arrival of the Canossian Daughters of Charity in Australia is to recall the simple, challenging events of a mission that should by definition in human terms have turned out a disaster!

Firstly, there was, in the post-war restrictions, no convent for the Sisters lodging. Accommodation was found temporarily with the Sisters of Nazareth at Wynnum. Eventually, Archbishop Duhig managed to purchase a small private hospital on Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill, a very poor district at that time. Although he still had the Italian migrants very much at heart he now asked the Sisters to undertake one of the most urgent charitable works to be done in the community, namely the care of the dying.

And so it was that these religious women, after a short time of discerning, prayer and pondering, rolled up their sleeves and began the delicate task of nursing. Availability and a great trust in the Lord worked miracles! The eventual arrival of Canossian sisters fleeing communist China were a welcome reinforcement which meant that some of them could be made available for the original ministry to the Italian families and their Australian-born children. The seed of Canossian faith was gently planed in fertile hearts and bore fruit. And God saw and blessed. And those he blessed strained a listening ear to hear God's voice leading and guiding along unmarked pathways.

These foundations mark the beginnings of a history of a group of women searching for the face of God and a readiness to serve him when and where He called. We have pitched tents and shifted them according to needs and personnel, according to the signs of the times and the movement of the Spirit.

We believe we carry within us the fidelity of our past that launches us with renewed vigour and passion to incarnate the charism, the love of Jesus Crucified in our present ministries today and into tomorrow in a most dynamic way.