Sister Josephine

Sister Josephine. . Renée Ernestine Françoise Potard was born on February 25, 1822, in Barthelemy, France. She entered the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in LeMans, France in 1846. , After making her vows, she volunteered to come to America to pursue her desire to serve the poor and neglected. She made her perpetual vows in 1857 at Notre Dame, Indiana and took the name Sister Mary Saint Joseph. , In 1871, during Reconstruction, she volunteered for missionary work in Texas and was sent with three other nuns to reopen the Nacogdoches University. Two years later, they were transferred to Clarksville. However, Sister Josephine chose to remain among the abandoned Spanish Catholics of Nacogdoches and teach in one room of the university. During this time, she took the name Sister Josephine. , In 1880, she moved southwest along the Mansola road where a small Catholic church had been dedicated in 1877. There she taught the children, comforted the ill and dying, and attended to the many spiritual needs of the people. Her billowing habit became a familiar sight as she traveled on her mustang pony from house to house along the dirt roads., In 1885, five acres along the Moral Creek was purchased and a new church was built. From a small room at the rear of the church, she often wrote her superiors at Notre Dame telling them of her activities with her "abandoned Mexicans". One such letter ask for monetary assistance to purchase a statue of the Blessed Mary. When the statue arrived in Palestine, Texas, she traveled the 75 miles on her pony and brought it back alone. In 1893 after 20 years of service to the community, she developed pneumonia. The devoted men of the parish led by A.L. Cordova took her by wagon to the train station in Nacogdoches. She was taken to St Joseph's Infirmary in Houston where she died on April 27, 1893. Her remains were transported to Saint Edward's University in Austin and buried in the nearby Assumption Cemetery. Today, a simple granite cross marks the last resting place of this truly remarkable woman of God. , Captions , Upper Left: Catholic Archives of Texas , Lower Left: Notre Dame Archives , Center: Notre Dame Archives , Upper Right: Sacred Heart Archives , Lower Right: ETRC Archives