Religious Of The Sacred Heart

[Lilllabettt]

[url="http://www.sacrocuore.com/comunita/index-en.html"]Religious of the Sacred Heart in Florence, Italy[/url]

The Religious of the Sacred Heart were founded in France by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat. These RSC's were recognized as an "independent house" apart from the main body of RSCs in 1992 ... under the care of the Archbishop of Florence

they teach, and run a boarding school for girls. Apparently they have a number of American vocations.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/Lilllabettt/apostolato8a.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/Lilllabettt/vocazioni6.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/Lilllabettt/vocazioni2.jpg[/img]

Edited October 24, 2010 by Lilllabettt

[Luigi]

Lillabett - Very good information. I have an aunt in the order, and they refer to themselves as the RSCJ's. I didn't know there were any 'reformed' branches. I may be going to Florence next year, and if I do, I'll look this group up.

The habit shown here looks similar to the traditional RSCJ habit but without the 'horse blinders' ruffle around the face.

I wonder if Florence is witnessing a rebirth of religious orders. I forget their exact name - the Congregation of the New Jerusalem? - staff The Badia (the oldest church in Florence), and these reformed RSCJ's are there, too.

[Chiquitunga]

Very neat to hear about! These are the Sisters who taught St. Teresa of the Andes ..

[img]http://www.ignatius.com/Images/Products/stan-m_samples.jpg[/img]

.. and also the community Sr. Josefa Menendez was in. Her writings and revelations are very similar to those of St. Faustina. Seriously, I think [i]everyone[/i], and especially those entering/discerning religious life, needs to read this book!!!

[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41T2083ZACL._SS500_.jpg[/img]

[url="http://www.amazon.com/Way-Divine-Love-Biography-Messenger/dp/0895552760"]http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/0895552760[/url]

[url="http://www.oeuvre-du-sacre-coeur.be/Who-is-Josefa-Menendez"]http://www.oeuvre-du...Josefa-Menendez[/url]

[url="http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/12/sister-josefa-menendez-way-of-divine.html"]http://www.mysticsof...-of-divine.html[/url]

Edited October 24, 2010 by Chiquitunga

[ksterling]

How in the world did they make that ruffle that goes around the face? My friend who always looks for "nun books" for me gave me a copy of "Catholic Sisterhoods" that shows all the old style habits. I have decided I would like to enter a community with a uniform habit but some of those old ones look so uncomfortable - too complicated, too confining, too elaborate. It makes me wonder if on about the third day of someone's novitiate, she didn't go to the superior and say, "I would love to be a sister, but I just can't wear this thing." bThe old Sacred Heart habit might be one of those.

[Lilllabettt]

I think we as modern people are "spoiled" in some ways. Although back then of course there were still different levels of austerity that people would be called to ... back then, people had surgery without anesthesia, they did laundry by hand, they lived without heat and hot water in the winter and without ice and a.c. in the summer ... and they wore uncomfortable things every day, like corsets. To us it seems incredible, but to them, they were just used to it.

Nowadays we are uncomfortable, just in different ways ...

[Lilllabettt]

The Sisters have 6 Americans in the community; Italian is not a requirement for entrance. Most of the Sisters speak both English and Italian.
They have "constitutional" - not papal- enclosure.

[Klaudi87]

[quote name='Chiquitunga' timestamp='1287942012' post='2182067']
.. and also the community Sr. Josefa Menendez was in. Her writings and revelations are very similar to those of St. Faustina. Seriously, I think [i]everyone[/i], and especially those entering/discerning religious life, needs to read this book!!!

[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41T2083ZACL._SS500_.jpg[/img]

[url="http://www.amazon.com/Way-Divine-Love-Biography-Messenger/dp/0895552760"]http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/0895552760[/url]

[url="http://www.oeuvre-du-sacre-coeur.be/Who-is-Josefa-Menendez"]http://www.oeuvre-du...Josefa-Menendez[/url]

[url="http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/12/sister-josefa-menendez-way-of-divine.html"]http://www.mysticsof...-of-divine.html[/url]
[/quote]

Thanks for reminding me about this book.....I read it a few years back (when I wasn't discerning yet) and thought it was awesome!!! The sisters must be awesome too.

Edited November 16, 2010 by Klaudi87

[Luigi]

[quote name='ksterling' timestamp='1288020781' post='2182324']
How in the world did they make that ruffle that goes around the face? My friend who always looks for "nun books" for me gave me a copy of "Catholic Sisterhoods" that shows all the old style habits. I have decided I would like to enter a community with a uniform habit but some of those old ones look so uncomfortable - too complicated, too confining, too elaborate. It makes me wonder if on about the third day of someone's novitiate, she didn't go to the superior and say, "I would love to be a sister, but I just can't wear this thing." bThe old Sacred Heart habit might be one of those.
[/quote]

The ruffle was/is a piece of cloth of some kind - I mean, obviously, right?, but I don't know what kind of cloth - crinoline or something old fashioned. Anyway, they starched it and then used a tool that looked kind of like a curling iron, which they also heated up like old-fashioned irons by laying on the top of a hot stove, and then they'd crimp that poor starched cloth into complete rigidity. I think the curling-iron-type-tool eventually got replaced with something that had a wheel & handle on it, which allowed them to crimp faster. I saw the curling-iron-type-tool in a museum room in one of their convents once, and I must have also seen the wheel & handle operation because I couldn't have made up something like that.

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

[quote name='Luigi' timestamp='1289888482' post='2187394']
The ruffle was/is a piece of cloth of some kind - I mean, obviously, right?, but I don't know what kind of cloth - crinoline or something old fashioned. Anyway, they starched it and then used a tool that looked kind of like a curling iron, which they also heated up like old-fashioned irons by laying on the top of a hot stove, and then they'd crimp that poor starched cloth into complete rigidity. I think the curling-iron-type-tool eventually got replaced with something that had a wheel & handle on it, which allowed them to crimp faster. I saw the curling-iron-type-tool in a museum room in one of their convents once, and I must have also seen the wheel & handle operation because I couldn't have made up something like that.
[/quote]

I think even the stricter communities have done some 'uniform reform' and have toned down the more labour-intensive (and time wasting) frilly bits! Simplicity is really the best (and often the most comfortable as well ...)

[littlesister]

Our old postulant bonnet, discontinued about 50 years ago, had an edging around the face that was very similar to the RSCJ's. Your're right - the "fluting" was done with a piece of equipment that resembled a noodle maker : a corrugated wheel with a handle. And, trust me, the edge of the bonnet was guided through that wheel VERY carefully!

[jkaands]

[quote name='ksterling' timestamp='1288020781' post='2182324']
How in the world did they make that ruffle that goes around the face? My friend who always looks for "nun books" for me gave me a copy of "Catholic Sisterhoods" that shows all the old style habits. I have decided I would like to enter a community with a uniform habit but some of those old ones look so uncomfortable - too complicated, too confining, too elaborate. It makes me wonder if on about the third day of someone's novitiate, she didn't go to the superior and say, "I would love to be a sister, but I just can't wear this thing." bThe old Sacred Heart habit might be one of those.
[/quote]

I met these sisters in 1957 at Eden Hall outside Philadelphia where they taught a very exclusive girls' school. I also met some women who were considering entering.

The tool used for their 19th c habit was a fluting iron. The work was done by LAY SISTERS, not the "choir sisters" who said/sang the office and taught. It took one lay sister TWO HOURS to flue ONE BONNET. Each choir sister wore one bonnet for a week--must have been pretty draggy at the end. Vat II outlawed the lay sisters/brothers. This habit is very similar to the Religious of Jesus and Mary, the Cenacle and a number of other 19th c French orders. This habit is actually a lot more comfortable than many. The neck was open, the veil was transparent, therefore very light. The Srs. of Charity of the BVM were far worse. And I hear that the Daughters of Charity 's cornette was very heavy.

In one account of the old habits that I read, one sister said that her sisters, schoolteachers, spent each entire Saturday washing/ironing/starching and otherwise cleaning/preparing their habits for the next week. She said that they could have conducted a weekly literacy class for the neighborhood during the same time. This is why those habits vanished.

Those RSCJ also gave up their exclusive girls' schools and opted to work amongst the poor, and in eduction for poor girls, as Ste. Madeleine Sophie Barat, their foundress, had originally wished them to do.

This order isn't doing too badly. Last year they had 14 final professions worldwide, celebrated in Rome.

Edited November 17, 2010 by jkaands