Education for girls - Mary Manning

‘Hard work, dangerous for an imperfect soul, brings a great harvest for those who love the Lord.’ Madeleine Sophie Barat

Madeleine Sophie Barat was born in Joigny, in Burgundy, in 1779, died in Paris in 1865 and was canonised in 1925. She founded the Society of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ), which came to Australia in 1882. Mary Manning speaks with her.

MM: You were born in an unsettled time, a decade before the outbreak of the French Revolution and in an area where the theology of Jansenism had taken hold strongly. Can you tell us how you and your family were affected by these troubled times?

MSB: I was also born on the night on the night of a raging fire in Joigny which could be seen as a metaphor for the destruction and renewal I would see in my lifetime. Initially, I was more influenced by the theology of Jansenism that had taken hold strongly in my region. Jansenism taught that God was severe and unforgiving and that humans had no chance of ever pleasing him as they were sinful and corrupt by nature. This led people to think there was no point in approaching God personally or in the sacraments of confession or communion.

My own family, including my mother and my brother Louis who became my teacher, was dominated by this theology and I had to search for a God of tenderness and forgiveness and for a way of sharing this God with others. On the other hand, I received a rich spiritual foundation from my parents. My mother gave me a prayer book that I kept all my life and my father taught me the wonders of the seasons and the soil, how to grow plants and care for animals.

MM: Was there any warmth in the education you received from your brother?

MSB: Louis was eleven years older than me so our relationship was more one of teacher and pupil than of siblings. He was also my godfather. He imposed strict discipline and did not allow any softness or weakness. My mother worried about his harshness but luckily I was a curious child and anxious to learn so his style suited me and he taught me well. I loved his lessons in Latin and Greek, mathematics, science and history. Louis was studying to be a priest and was imprisoned during the Revolution. He escaped and took me to Paris where I studied religion.

MM: Was it in Paris that you discovered your vocation?

MSB: At first I thought I could serve God by becoming a Carmelite lay sister. But a group of French priests of the Sacred Heart who had heard of me through my brother commissioned me and three others to establish a society of women dedicated to the education of girls. We started the first school of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Amiens in 1801.

MM: What was your aim in educating girls?

MSB: During the French Revolution, Christian schools were suppressed and it was hard for young people, particularly girls, to become educated. My aims were to give girls a good education that would prepare them for life as wives and mothers and to train them in ways of transforming society wherever they lived. From the beginning I saw that this must take place in a spiritual context. I said: ‘We must dedicate ourselves to the education of youth, renew in souls the solid foundations of a living faith in the Blessed Sacrament.’

MM: You were only twenty-three at the time and you ran the order for the next sixty-three years. Can you tell us about the leadership qualities you were, and still are, known for?

MSB: My leadership role changed as I went from leading a group to becoming the founder of the order. Then I became the preserver and developer of the order. These changes gave me many opportunities to develop my skills. My brother’s teaching helped me to subdue my softer side which was necessary in order to attract strong, independent women to the society and to lead them in their work, but this was not always easy. Some of these women questioned my leadership methods precisely because they were born leaders themselves.

MM: What kept you going over those years, and how much did you change?

MSB: I had always been able to adapt to change but there were hard times during those years. I survived revolutions, challenges to my leadership and difficulties with friendships. I became accustomed to travel and opened up schools within and outside France. Maybe my personality changed as a result of the constant struggle to make things work. I developed the ability to handle finances and work in the world while being very spiritual. I was described as strong-willed, bossy and blunt, but I could not do what I was called to do if I showed myself as soft and loving.

MM: Did your spirituality change?

MSB: I think everyone’s spirituality changes because of the effect of things that happen in their lives, although they may not recognise this as it is happening. What motivated me throughout my life and did not change was my belief in the love of God. I was doing what I was called to do, to renew spiritual energy through education.

MM: You were able to lead the society until it became at the time of your death an international community of 3359 women in twelve countries including Europe, North Africa, and North and South America.

MSB: And within seventeen years of my death there was a community in Rose Bay, Sydney. This school is now very different from the one opened by the five women who sailed into Sydney harbour in May 1882 but it lives up to my vision of education, that it must be adaptable to a place and a time.

MM: Can you leave us with a prayer?

MSB: In the opening words of my feast day liturgy from the Song of Songs and the psalms (8:6, Ps 108:1) Christ speaks to the soul and the soul responds. This beautiful exchange seems to capture the essentials of my life, my work and my belief.