It was 9 in the morning and sunlight streamed down on the tall dome of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 25, 1930.
The air was filled with incense and the sounds of a Mass sung by more than 15 priests stationed in the sanctuary and a choir of Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in the loft. The casket of Mother Seraphine Ireland, who died at age 88, rested in the center aisle with tall candles flickering on each side and surrounded by sisters fingering their rosaries. Archbishop Austin Dowling presided, not just because Mother Seraphine was the sister of his predecessor, Archbishop John Ireland, but because she had been a mother to the city.
The Ireland family fled Ireland in 1850 and settled in St. Paul when Mother Seraphine, then Ellen, was 10. Responding to a direct call from Bishop Joseph Cretin, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet at 16 and took the name Sister Seraphine. At first, Sister Seraphine was a teacher, becoming the principal at then-St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Paul only three years after she was among its first class of graduates. She was known as a voracious reader and a born teacher with a passion for English and social studies. Mathematics was not her best subject and accounting would never be her strength.
She was well-respected by her sisters. She was elected as the provincial superior of St. Paul in 1882, and her sisters reelected her as superior 12 times until changes to Church law forced them to choose someone new. She had served for 39 years. Under her leadership, the size of the congregation more than quadrupled from 160 sisters to nearly 700. She worked with many projects, including five hospitals and one of the first Catholic women’s colleges in the country. Along the way, there were unsuccessful projects, but they dropped out of mind for Mother Seraphine. She did not dwell on failure and expected others not to raise the subject.
The sisters’ fundraising to support their hospitals, schools and orphanages was constant and ranged from begging, to painting copies of masterworks, to promoting Archbishop Ireland’s book in exchange for its royalties. Still, the sisters sometimes lived in such poverty that they could not afford milk. Mother Seraphine was known for her willingness to dream on a grand scale and her tendency to plunge into projects, even when finances were uncertain. More practical sisters rallied in her wake to prevent financial disaster.
As leader of the St. Paul Province, Mother Seraphine oversaw sisters across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. She loved travel and made it a point to visit each establishment under her care every year. May 1903 brought her to visit the fledgling St. John’s Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, which had opened in the former bishop’s residence in 1900. In characteristic fashion, she decided a new structure was needed, more than quadrupling the size of the facility. It would cost $50,000 (worth more than $1.8 million today) and was followed two years later by a training school and nurses’ residence across the street.
Back in St. Paul, Mother Seraphine lived at St. Joseph’s Academy on Marshall Avenue for most of her life. This allowed her the daily pleasure of walking up the hill to the Cathedral for Mass, after it was finished in 1915. At her funeral there, Archbishop Dowling preached, “Nobody loved this Cathedral more than Mother Seraphine. She watched it grow under the hands of her brother, and she always said the realization of all her dreams was that her brother’s work should be accomplished.” She accomplished much in her own right, but, like many sisters, it was her desire not to be memorialized for her individual efforts.
Luiken is a Catholic and a historian with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.
