Mary Pelletier (1791-1868), the founder of the Good Shepherd Sisters, was born on a remote French Island, to which her parents and her eight siblings had fled from the disruptions of the French Revolution. She was sent to school in Tours, next door to a Refuge established by a group of Sisters whose mission was to house women and girls at risk through poverty and homelessness that accompanied social unrest. Each of the Convents was autonomous. Many of the Tours community had been imprisoned during the Revolution. She joined the elderly community and after some years answered a request to establish a Refuge in Angers.
The Refuge named the Good Shepherd prospered and Pelletier received requests for other foundations. She saw that the independence of each refuge and dependence on the local Bishop for its internal life and mission was an obstacle to the growth and freedom of the ministry and to the formation of the Sisters. She received papal permission to found a congregation based in Angers. The sisters of the Refuge at Angers could choose to remain independent or to join the new Congregation of the Good Shepherd. The independence of the Congregation brought her into conflict with the Bishop of Angers who resisted the move to take away his control of the local congregation. It also isolated her and the Sisters within the local Church, a common response at the time to new initiatives that devoted themselves to work with the poor.
By the time of her death the Congregation had over 3,000 members and had spread throughout the world, including to Australia. In 1863 Mary Pelletier sent French sisters to Melbourne to help women and girls who had been abandoned in the rush for gold. Many could support themselves only by prostitution. Sisters from Ireland soon followed, and residential facilities were built in the Australian Capital cities.
The scope of the ministry and its French origins can still be seen in the buildings of the Convent in Abbotsford, Melbourne. Sixty years ago up to a thousand people would have gathered at the site every day, including the Sisters, the group of Magdalenes who found a life-time refuge in the Convent, the young orphans and girls who had been referred by the courts, and the girls and teachers at the primary school, as well as workers in the laundry and gardens. Seen from the riverbank below, the French style of the convent and its associated buildings, seen through its rows of poplars and other deciduous trees, transport the viewer back to the world of Monet’s landscapes. impressionists.
The spiritual vision of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd can be described as being a reconciling Presence of Jesus the Good Shepherd by empowering lives, restoring rights and upholding dignity. This inspires its mission to affirm the dignity of all people and creation; to be in solidarity to Christ present in people marginalized by poverty and injustice; to confront oppressive and unjust structures and systems, and to create life-giving communities of welcome and inclusion.
St Mary Euphrasia Pelletier
31 July 1796-24 April 1868
Feast Day: 24 April
Patron: Good Shepherd Sisters
Photos: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons