AS IT WAS
Print Friendly
One of the unsung
Sister Mary Antonia Wilson (Helen Wilson)

 

The following is to mark the upcoming canonization of Blessed Mary MacKillop.  It was written by Josephine Law (nee Stanley), Sr Mary Antonia’s niece.

 Josie was our next door neighbour at Mitchell Street, Glebe, and had known five generations of my family, the Hunts.  She was also my Godmother.

My father’s two sisters, Agnes and Mary Hunt, were great school friends of Josie’s at St James Good Samaritan Convent School, Forest Lodge.  They were encouraged by Sr Antonia to spend a week each year of their annual holidays sewing for the orphans at Kincumber on the Central Coast.  One memorable holiday the Sisters were given a quantity of animal pelts, which my aunts sewed into hats for the boys to wear during winter.

Helen Wilson was a pupil of the St Augustine’s Good Samaritan Convent School, Balmain.  It was at this school that Blessed Mary MacKillop spoke to the senior girls regarding joining the Brown Josephites, who had opened, in 1880, “The Providence”, in Lower Kent Street, Sydney.

Helen was one girl who was inspired by Blessed Mary MacKillop to join her.  This is Helen Wilson’s story as written by Josie Law.

In 1860 Helen’s father, who was an officer in the British army, left Ireland on the ship The Bowenerges with a compliment of soldiers sent to quell the Maori uprising in New Zealand.  The wives of the officers accompanied them.  It was intended that they settle in New Zealand or Australia.

Helen was born in 1864 in a military tent in Wellington, New Zealand, during hostilities. At the conclusion of the hostilities the Wilson family travelled to Melbourne where a further three daughters were born, one of whom was my mother, Margaret Wilson.

After being discharged from the Army, the Wilson family moved to Balmain where all the daughters attended St Augustine’s Good Samaritan Convent School.

Helen was a brilliant scholar, an accomplished violinist and knew exactly what she wished to do with her life.  She entered The Providence at the age of 16 years in 1880. Helen Wilson was among the first six novices to be received in Sydney into the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. 

On the day she entered her father accompanied her to the city travelling by ferry departing from the Darling Street Wharf, Balmain.  On the way to the ferry they met a friend of Mr Wilson’s who owned a local hotel.  He asked where they were going and when told he burst into a tirade of adjectives.  According to the friend it was a scandal to allow a beautiful young girl like Helen to enter a Convent.

Mr Wilson’s answer was, “If I had a dozen daughters I would be happy to see them all enter the Convent!”

In the afternoon of the same day Helen’s parents visited her and found her in the basement polishing the Sisters’ shoes.  She received the Habit in 1882.

On Christmas Day she would visit with a companion for Christmas lunch.  At this time it was customary for the Sisters to eat by themselves.  I was a young girl at the time and did not understand why my aunt did not join the rest of the family.          

Her faith was very strong; she never wavered and taught in many schools throughout the country.  Sr Antonia’s last teaching assignment was as principal of St John the Baptist Boys Boarding School, Hunters Hill.

Sr Antonia became very ill during her time at Hunters Hill.  I visited her there and she told me she had no regrets with what she had done with her life.  She further said God had been good to her in this life and she hoped he would be half as good to her in the next life.

Sr Antonia died in Lewisham Hospital in 1927 and is buried in the Gore Hill Cemetery.

Pray for us dear Antonia.

Post Script
Margaret Walsh in her book The Good Sams has Mother Mary MacKillop state, “I am happy in being able to show kindness to the Good Samaritans who, in so many places, and on so many occasions, have been kind to me in the past.”  

 

prepared by Alan Hunt and Jill Forrester who are both Good Samaritan Oblates.