Nicholas Pocock (British, 1740–1821)
Oil on canvas, 1797
National Maritime Museum, London
Photo credit: National Maritime Museum / ArtUK
we had the happiness of going to com[muni]on, the Same hour as before. mr neale receiv’d it from mr P. after having given it to us. the weather fine wind fair, some part of the day was almost a calm. I was dressed in a fine Silk petticoat and a chince jacket th[a]t had been given me in alms — w[hi]ch was So becoming & made me look So Extraordinarily fine th[a]t all my companions were jealous of me.
Mother Clare Joseph of the Sacred Heart, O.C.D.
(Frances Dickinson, 1755-1830)
Journal of a Trip to America, 3rd June 1790
(Frances Dickinson, 1755-1830)
Mother Clare Joseph of the Sacred Heart, O.C.D. was one of four foundresses of the Teresian Carmel in the United States of America in the summer of 1790. To her fell the task of keeping a daily journal of their ocean voyage aboard the three-masted, square-sailed, merchant frigate Brothers from Texel, Netherlands — departing 25 April — to New York, where they arrived on “friday Morning the 2d of July”. Although she makes no mention of it in her diary entry on the third of June, Mother Clare Joseph was quietly celebrating the anniversary of her profession in the Carmel of Antwerp on 3 June 1773. As for the mention of the petticoat and jacket: the nuns traveled in civilian attire.
The Carmelite Adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson's Journal of a Trip to America and Other Documents Edited by Constance FitzGerald, O.C.D. © 1990 Constance FitzGerald and the Carmelite Sisters of Baltimore
It is alway a treat to read the writings of our canonized brothers and sisters. This is no exception. The candid comment about attire and jealousy reveals the spiritual state of the other sisters who still suffered attachments to material things and the disfigurement of mind twisted by jealousy. A good mother takes note of her daughters to empower her to help them by prayer, instruction, and example.
Now, there’s a wise observation! Although Mother Clare Joseph is no canonized Saint of the Church, she certainly is a holy figure among the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the USA.