A Tree is Planted

A WOMAN
OF
INTEGRETY
Mother Winefride Tyrell
First Superior General
Sisters of the Sacred Hearts
of Jesus and Mary,
Chigwell.
Bridget Tyrell was born in Monasterevan,
Co. Kildare, Ireland, and received
the habit of the Servants of the
Sacred Heart in the convent chapel,
Homerton, East London, on December
8, 1878. She was the only sister
professed in the same chapel on
January 8, 1881. However, together
with thirty-five other sisters, Sister
Winefride was finally professed on
August 22, 1895.
She taught in a poor quarter of the
east end of London and was head
teacher in Guardian A ngels School,
Mile End. In 1899, Mother Winefride
was named Provincial of the
English Province of the Servants of
the Sacred Heart, and went to live at
the provincial house at Homerton.
Four years later, on the advice of the
Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal
Vaughan, the majority of the Sisters
of the English Province formed a
separate congregation. Thus was born
the Congregation of the Sisters of the
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Mother Winefride was named the
first Superior General by the Westminster
ecclesiastical superior, Canon
Surmont. By a strange coincidence,
the Canon had come to know Father
Braun, during the period when he
was a curate in Stratford and the
founder was visiting the sisters there.
Mother Winefride was a woman of
integrity, far-seeing and full of confidence
in the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
and in the divine providence of God.
Under her guidance, the congregation
spread as far north as Carlisle and to
North Hyde, Middlesex. She was
untiring in her efforts to visit the
sisters regularly, encouraging and
supporting new works of mercy. But
her health was deteriorating and
fo llowing the general chapter of
1908, she retired to Hillingdon in
Middlesex, where she lived peacefully
until her death on November
20, 1916.
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