Sister lgnatiuous And St. John Of God Hospital, Subiaco (1952).
Through the early years of Western Australia the nuns from a variety of orders were the front line workers in health and education providing much needed services to the poor and needy in the community. The nuns from the Order of St. John's began to arrive in 1895. One of those early nuns was Sister Ignatiuous from Kilglass, County Sligo, Ireland.
After Sister Ignatiuous' death in 1952 the following article was written about her contribution to Western Australia in the Western Mail. She was born in Ireland, trained and worked in a Government school as a teacher before joining the order of St. John to care for the poor and needy. She came to Western Australia after hearing about a request from Bishop Gibney for volunteers to the early colony.
In 1898, Sister Ignatiuous was one of many sisters who helped open a convent, hospital and school in the Perth suburb of Subiaco working under extremely difficult circumstances
"...Sister lgnatiuous found herself back in Perth, and decided that the chief need of the growing community was nursing. As the other Orders were coping with all the educational needs, she changed her Order's habit to white, and opened a little hospital in a garage like plate under the six old pepper-trees that today still stand in a sea of cement beside the present Convent. There were three wards. One for men, one for women, and six private rooms 10ft. by 8ft., and exceedingly hot in summer...(Western Mail, 20 November, 1952).
The articles are from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Western Mail, 20 November 1952.
The Sisters of St. John helped in the pioneering days
She Cared for the Sick by MOLLIE SIMEON ASPHAR
THE hospitals of the Sisters of St. John of God number five in our State, and several in Victoria, but few realise how closely their history is connected with the development and early history of our State, and with its far-flung needs.
One who had much to do with the building of these hospitals in W.A. died recently at Subiaco. This was Mother Ignatiuous, originally of Kilglass, County Sligo, Ireland, where as a brilliant young teacher, the winner of many scholastic honours, she began her career in charge of a big Government school.
Leaving her brilliant future, she joined the Order of St. John of God, formed by Bishop Furlough, for the care of the poor and needy. Some years later she heard an appeal for volunteers to come with Bishop Gibney to Western Australia to help the struggling population of the infant colony.
They were taken off their arrival to a grey house in Adelaide-terrace where the Loreto nuns were already installed. Mother lgnatiuous was among this little band who daily for the next two years were to be found wherever there was illness or need of any sort. All denominations knew them as an everpresent help in trouble.
It was the time of the gold fever, and men were flocking over to the West in thousands, and dying like flies in the mosquito infested flats and the villages of tents in Kalgoorlie. Bishop Gibney called for volunteers from the Sisters, and sent three, of whom Mother lgnatiuous was one, up to open a school and do what nursing they could on the Goldfields (their Order had a two-fold mission teaching and nursing).
The school was an instant success. It opened with pupils the first day, had ten pupils the second, and in a few weeks there were 400 pupils in regular attendance. The Sisters had their hands full with nursing and teaching under the most primitive conditions. Young Sister lgnatiuous was very popular, as her energy and cheerfulness were endless. Theirs was an 18-hour day most of the time.
On one of the hottest days of that terrible simmering summer. Bishop Gibney visited them and found the Sisters drooping in their heavy black habits, with the temperature at 119, yet rigidly adhering to their rule of no drink or nourishment between meals. He looked at their tired faces and stalked out of the room, returning with a dozen iced soda waters, a rare treat in those barren days. "This is a necessity for your health, Sisters," he said, "and you are in future to have a chop for breakfast. The Goldfields need you."
It was about this time, strangely on the feast of St. John of God, that Sister Brigid died of typhoid, contracted while nursing a very bad case of the fever. On the evening of that sad day the Sisters and many Goldfieldsites were returning from the funeral, when they saw the sky redden and blaze against the fading sunset. The well-loved hospital of Sister Meachem had become a heap of ruins; but the Sisters had no time for their grief, as the patients were all carried across to them.
Beagle Bay Mission was then struggling into existence, under every difficulty possible, and it was thought that if missionary Sisters could care for the women and children, nursing the sick and instructing the others progress might be made. Nine Sisters volunteered from St. John of God, whose numbers had grown with Irish recruits.
From here their success led to their opening a school and nursing in the Govermnent Hospital at Broome. Everywhere they went in those difficult times, order came out of chaos, and their popularity with all types and classes caused the Government to ask them to take over the nursing at the newly erected Leprosarium at Derby. Recently the State Governor, Sir Charles Gairdner, and Lady Gairdner visited and praised the beauty and the happy atmosphere created by the Sisters there.
Sister lgnatiuous found herself back in Perth, and decided that the chief need of the growing community was nursing. As the other Orders were coping with all the educational needs, she changed her Order's habit to white, and opened a little hospital in a garage like plate under the six old pepper-trees that today still stand in a sea of cement beside the present Convent. There were three wards. One for men, one for women, and six private rooms 10ft. by 8ft., and exceedingly hot in summer. That was the beginning of the splendid hospitals that we know today.
References
Warriner, J. (2018). St John of God celebrates 120 years. Western Suburbs Weekly.
