In 1872 Bishop Matthew Quinn invited the Josephites to the Bathurst Diocese. Differences between the bishop and Mary MacKillop over the mode of government of the Sisters forced her to withdraw them from the diocese in 1876. This event led Bishop Quinn, with the later support of Julian Tension Woods, to form a congregation of diocesan Sisters of St Joseph, the Black Josephites. William Lanigan, the Bishop of Goulburn, had recognised the suitability of the Josephites for the conditions of his diocese. The Sisters lived in small, sometimes makeshift houses, willingly resided in places with infrequent opportunities for Mass and were a relatively mobile group. Contrary to the practice of many other religious, all the sisters enjoyed equal status. They recruited many of their members from families who would have been unable to provide the dowry required by other religious congregations.

Consequently, five Sisters from Bathurst - Sister M. Evangelist Duggan (two days short of her 23^rd birthday), Sister M. Ignatius O’Brien (27), Sister M. Teresa Fallon (21), Sister M. Patrick Murphy (20) and Sister M. Joseph Cahill (18) - at the invitation of Bishop Lanigan, arrived in Goulburn on 13 August 1882 to establish the new foundation.

The Congregation progressed steadily. Within eight years of the Sisters coming to Goulburn they had opened convents and schools at Taralga, Adelong, Temora and Tumbarumba and before the turn of the century another four country towns had Josephite convents and schools. However, numbers increased very slowly in the new century and no other house opened until 1910.

From its earliest day the congregation counted young Australian women among its members. By the turn of the century, twelve who came from Ireland to enter and twenty one Australian Sisters worked in the diocese and from a total of 220 members from 1882 to the present about 200 have been Australian.

In 1935 Rome granted the congregation the Decree of Praise and after a seven year trial of the revised constitutions the appropriate documents requesting definitive approval were sent to Rome. The documents, probably a causality of wartime, did not reach the Vatican. Finally in 1963 the Holy Father approved the congregation as an Institute of Pontifical status.

For over one hundred years Sisters of St Joseph of Goulburn have lived and worked in towns in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga and more recently in dioceses of Papua New Guinea. They have identified with and related closely to the people and the communities as they taught in the schools, visited the families of the children and enriched the towns culturally through the teaching of music. Today they continue to work in schools and to support families through adult education and visitation. Other needs, however, have demanded other directions and the Sisters work as parish administrators and assistants, as prison chaplains, as members of palliative care teams and in community organisations such as GROW. Against current trends the Goulburn boarding school has been extended as a service to rural families and hostel accommodation for young women seeking a tertiary education in Canberra has been provided. Above all, the Sisters have committed themselves as a congregation to the public questioning of the unjust structures of society and to the work of changing them.

Player, A. Beginnings: Sisters of St. Joseph of Goulburn 1882-1895, Goulburn 1987

If further information is required about individual Sisters the following address is given:

The Archivist

Goulburn Congregation Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph

St. Joseph’s Convent

Reynolds Street

GOULBURN 2580 NSW

In writing to the Archivist, it would be appropriate that a financial contribution be made for the Archivist’s time and expertise.

Religious Orders or Congregations have released the details on their members. It is understood that the copyright of any material (including the listing of the names of the Sisters) relevant to a particular Order or Congregation in this publication remains with the relevant Order or Congregation.