Reverend Mother Febronie VercruyssePrint Page

The stained glass window erected by 84 children of the Sacred Heart commemorates the founder of the Rose Bay Convent, Reverend Mother Febronie Vercruysse who died in 1905. 

In Australia in 1879, when the Parkes Government was preparing a Bill to make education "compulsory, secular and free", Archbishop Roger Bede Vaughan, resolved to maintain the Catholic system, invited several congregations to send teaching religious to Sydney. In 1880, he asked Father Bixio, on a visit to Europe, to transmit his request to the Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Paris.

She in turn referred the matter to Mother Mabel Digby in England, giving her authority to treat the affair with Archbishop Vaughan, and organise the foundation. The outcome was that on April 1st, 1882, a group of five sisters embarked on the S.S. Orient, and after a long sea voyage of 39 days, arrived in Sydney on May 9th. The Superior of the group was Febronie Vercruysse, a Belgian, three were English, all converts of the Oxford Movement and one Irish .

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