Mary Ann Aloysia Hardey, RSCJ

Biography

Mary Ann Aloysia Hardey, a central figure in the expansion of the Society of the Sacred Heart in North America, was born in Piscataway, Prince Georges County, Maryland, December 8, 1809. Her father was a direct descendant of the original Maryland settlers in 1633-1634. Her mother was a Spalding, from a family that had been in Maryland from 1650. Along with many other Maryland planters, encouraged by the government, the family moved to Louisiana, settling near Opelousas. At the age of twelve, Mary Ann was sent to the newly founded Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau. In the fall of 1822, it was she who gave a welcome address from the students to visiting Mother Duchesne. Two years later, she completed her studies and entered the novitiate, according to the custom of the time, taking a new name, Aloysia. In 1825, she was one of the foundation stones of the new school at St. Michael, closer to New Orleans. She was there when Philippine returned for her second visit to Louisiana. In 1833, Aloysia made her final profession of vows at St. Michael and was soon, at the age of twenty-four, put in charge as superior of the entire house: thirty religious, two hundred students, a separate orphanage, domestic and agricultural staff, and a novitiate. Like others of her time and place, she had grown up with enslavement practiced by her family both in Maryland and Louisiana. The houses in which she lived and which she governed in Louisiana also practiced enslavement, as did most of the families that supported the school.  

In 1842 Aloysia Hardey moved to New York City as one of the first group of religious to found the first school and convent of the Society of the Sacred Heart in the eastern United States. In 1844 she was entrusted with responsibility for all the houses in eastern North America, without the title of provincial or superior vicar that would not come until 1851. In the next years, she opened sixteen houses of the Sacred Heart from Canada to Cuba and throughout the eastern United States. One bishop said of her that she was “born to rule.” A building contractor said of her that if Reverend Mother Hardey had seen the plans for a new building, he did not need to approve them. The word was that when a building was in progress, the workmen were terrified if she showed up because she would want to inspect everything.

During her years as superior in New York, she had occasion to visit Paris and to spend time with Mother Barat several times. A lively correspondence between them is preserved. In 1871, after the death of Mother Barat, Aloysia Hardey was appointed an Assistant General by Superior General Josephine Goetz for the central government of the Society of the Sacred Heart, based in Paris. In this position she was an advisor for the founding and rebuilding of convents in Europe and South America, besides North America and Antilles. She also helped revise the Sacred Heart curriculum to incorporate advanced studies and contributed to the discussion of the Society's role in advancing higher education for women. Aloysia Hardey died in Paris on June 17,1886 and was buried at Conflans, in the suburbs of Paris. With the dissolution of the French convents in the early years of the twentieth century, her remains were brought home to the Kenwood cemetery in Albany, New York.

Note: In some sources, she is Mary, and in others, Mary Ann. It is more likely that Ann was dropped than later introduced.