Madame Mary Aloysia Hardey [pp. 844-845]

MADAME MARY ALO OYSIA HARDEY.
MADAME MARY ALOYSIA HARDEY.
THE death of Madame Hardey, which occurred in Paris, June
I7, I886, has deprived the religious of the Sacred Heart in this
country of a most efficient directress and of a loving and most
tenderly beloved mother.
Madame Mary Aloysia Hardey was born in Maryland in
I809. Her parents came of that good old Catholic stock which
preferred to leave its native soil in order to enjoy religious
liberty in the wilds of the then new colony; and well were the
virtues of her ancestors shown forth in the life of this truly
valiant woman.
While she was yet in early childhood the family removed to
Louisiana, and the young Aloysia was placed in the convent
school of the Sacred Heart, then under the direction of Madame
Aude. Here she remained until after her fifteenth year, when
she left her school duties only to assume the habit of a novice in
the society. From the first Madame Hardey was eminent for
her rare prudence and extraordinary virtue, and she was soon
chosen to aid in the government and extension of the order.
She accompanied the gifted Mbre Aud6 to Paris, where she received the approbation and blessing of the Venerable Madame
Barat, the foundress of the society; and then Madame Hardey
went to Rome, where His Holiness Pope Gregory blessed the
young American and strengthened her zeal. After many fruitful
labors in the South Madame Hardey, then but little more than
thirty years of age, was appointed to direct the important mission confided to the society in these Middle States, especially in
New York. Here the first convent of the Sacred Heart was
opened in Houston Street; but the community and academy increasing rapidly, they removed, first to Astoria, and finally, about
the year I847, to their present locality at Manhattanville, the
ancient country-seat of the Lorillards. Thence Madame Hardey
projected and accomplished many important foundations and
works of zeal, and her wonderful energy and unselfish devotion
to the interests of souls led her to spare neither fatigue nor
anxiety in her arduous and responsible tasks. Convents were
opened in Rochester, Albany, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence,
Detroit, Cincinnati, Halifax, St. John's, Montreal, and in many
other cities of the Western States and the Provinces, either by
[Sept.,
844