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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Mme. Eugenie Audi
Mme. Eugenie Audi entered the Society of
the Sacred Heart in Paris, and offered herself for the mission
of the Sacred Heart in America. Two lay sisters were chosen to
accompany this little band of missionaries, and on the 29th of
May, the anniversary of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, they
landed on the shores of America about sixty miles below New
Orleans.
After their arrival they determined to
join the Ursulines in St. Louis, arriving there August 21, 1818,
where they established a school about fifteen miles out of the
city. The wife of Mr. Charles Smith, a relative of the Hardey
family, who had left Maryland in 1803 to make Louisiana his
home, built the first Catholic Church in New Orleans, and one of
their plans was the establishment of a school at Grand Cateau
which was the home of Mary Hardey. Proposal for this foundation
was in due time accepted by Mother Barat and the organization
entrusted to Mme. Audi.
In October, five pupils were received,
one of whom was Mary Hardey. Here she spent the early years of
her education, and during this time her thoughts were turned to
a religious life which met with the hearty approval of her
mother, but her father, while not approving did not oppose her
in her plans, and on September 29, 1825, she entered upon her
training for religious orders, receiving the religious habit on
the 22nd of October, 1825.
About sixty miles from New Orleans, on
the left bank of the Mississippi, lie the farm lands associated
with the pathetic story of the Arcadian exiles and glorified by
the charm of Longfellow's magical pen. These woodlands are
embalmed with memories of the gentle Evangeline. Not far from
these smiling scenes, in the midst of a devout Catholic
population, the Society of the Sacred Heart founded its third
convent in America. The Abbe Delacroix, cure of the small town
of St. Michael, appealed to Mother Duchesne to establish a
convent in his parish, and it was decided that Mother Audi was
the only one who could carry on the work. She entered upon it
assisted by some novices, among them being Mary Hardey, who was
then not yet sixteen. On the 23rd of October, 1825, they bade
farewell to their relatives and friends, and on the 20th of
November, took possession of their new convent.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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