On the occasion of the Church of the Magdalene’s 130th Anniversary of its founding in Sleepy Hollow, Sister Susan Gardella, RSHM, was the guest speaker at a celebratory luncheon following a special Mass on July 21st. Sister Susan spoke on the long history the parish shares with the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Tarrytown.
I believe it’s that sense of family that has connected the RSHM Community to the Church of the Magdelene from the earliest days. It all began with James Butler.
James Butler had emigrated to the United States around 1875 and made his fortune building a chain of grocery stores along with other ventures. He purchased a large estate at Eastview, which is now Landmark at Eastview, where Regeneron stands. A great horse lover, he started what is now Yonkers Raceway. Butler amassed a great fortune and shared it with the church as a devout Catholic. He paid a large part of the parish debt. However, one of his greatest gifts to the Magdalene may be the nine beautiful stained-glass windows, the first of which is the beautiful Annunciation window. These windows were dedicated to Butler family members both living and deceased. The windows are believed to be by the Lafarge Studio in New York City; although the designer, G Harry Madigan, was associated with Tiffany. At the time Tiffany and Lafarge were the most well-known stained-glass studios.
Butler certainly lived well but had great sorrow in his life as well. I suspect his faith and connection to the parish sustained him. He and his wife, Mary Ann Rourke, had 11 children but only 4 lived to adulthood. His beloved wife died at the age of 49 in 1906. Before her death, Mary seemingly had great influence with her husband and wanted him to provide for the education of young women.
Now here’s where more family comes in….
Here in the Tarrytown area, we have been known as the “Marymount Sisters” but the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM) are an international congregation founded in 1849, in France. So, we are a bit older than the parish and are celebrating our 175th anniversary this year. We serve in 15 countries today. We first came to the United States in 1877 settling in Sag Harbor NY, where we still have a retreat center, Cormaria.
Mother Marie Joseph Butler was James Butler’s first cousin. While not among the first Irish sisters missioned to the United States, she arrived in the US in 1903 after spending several years teaching in Portugal. Throughout her life, she was considered a visionary educator. To fulfill his wife’s wish to establish a school for young women, James purchased the Reynard estate on Wilson Park Drive. He invited his cousin, Mother Butler, to see the property and on December 8, 1907, Marymount was dedicated in honor of Mary Immaculate and the late Mary Butler. The school started as an Academy and later grew into a College. Marymount Schools continue in New York City, Paris, London, and Rome under the Eastern American Area of the RSHM. The original Marymount College in Tarrytown remained a vital part of the community for the next 100 years.
James Butler died in 1934, we don’t know if he spent time as a parishioner at the Magdalene in later years. He also had a home in New York City and his funeral was in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which he also supported. James and Mary Butler are buried in a crypt beneath Butler Memorial Chapel in Marymount Convent. The Chapel is named for their son, Pierce Butler who was killed in World War I.
The Marymount – Magdalene Connection Grows Stronger
In the early days of Marymount, the sisters could not attend Mass at the Magdelene since they were considered semi-cloistered and would have attended services in their own chapel.
As times changed sisters who served as faculty and staff at Marymount College began attending morning Mass at the Magdelene before classes. Involvement grew over the years and by the 1980s more sisters started attending services here regularly. They became lectors and joined parish committees. Priests from the Magdalene, starting with Monsignor Pryor, began saying Mass at Marymount Convent for our retired sisters. This continued with Father Dietz, Father John Vigilante and Father Tim Wiggins.
As a community, the RSHM have gone back to our roots of serving those “most in need of justice.” In 1995, we opened the RSHM LIFE Center in Sleepy Hollow to serve the immigrant community of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. We haven’t abandoned our history as educators because the LIFE in our name stands for Learning is for Everyone. We work to affect change through education and helping people access truthful information. The Latin community, for the most part, attend St. Theresa’s where there are regular Spanish Masses, and we remember that the Magdalene parish began as an offshoot of St. Theresa’s. Fr. Dietz was the first to embrace the work of the LIFE Center and invited us to tell our story. Parish groups began the Annual Potluck Supper, parishioners became regular volunteers, and others became Board members. Magdalene priests and parishioners continue to be partners in mission with us today, members of our family.
In my 29 years of ministry at the LIFE Center I’ve learned that the only way to gain the trust of new immigrants is to make them feel that they have family who cares about them. If we think of the words that Pope Francis says in Laudato Si, synodality indicates a way of listening to each person as a member of the Church to understand how God might be speaking to all of us. In this way, synodality reminds us of the work of the Holy Spirit through each of us and through all of us working together for our common mission. Our life as Church goes beyond being in church. It calls all of us to listen and respond as best we can to the needs of those around us. If we see each other as family and not as the other and listen with the ear of the heart as St. Benedict suggests, think of how much better our world would be.