Sister Rose Gertrude and the Lepers of Molokaiby Liverpool Catholic Times
New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 47, 14 March 1890, Page 15
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SISTER ROSE GERTRUDE, a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, took her departure from the Mersey for New York on Saturday in the Cunard steamer Bothnia, with the intention of proceeding to the leper settlement at Kalawao, under the auspices of the Hawaiian Government, who have paid her passage out, and attached to her position an annual salary, which at first she did not wish to take, but was persuaded to accept as it gives her a certain official status. She expresses her intention of devoting the money to the benefit of the hospital and the patients.
Sister Rose Gertrude (in the world Miss Amy C. Fowler) is the daughter of the Rev. F. Fowler, a well-known Anglican clergyman, chaplain to the Infirmary at Bath, where she was born 27 years ago, and where she received her education. She had it in her mind for many years -- long before Father Damien's illness and death drew special attention to the Molokai lepers -- to devote her attention to this particular branch of sick-nursing.
Eight years ago, when she became a Catholic, she wished to go, but was too young then. She studied medicine for several years in Paris, not to take a medical degree, but to become an efficient sick-nurse, and holds several certificates. She has also been at the Pasteur Institute, where she says she learned much that she hopes will be of great use to her. She is quite ready to die when her work, to which she looks forward with intense interest, is done.
Some Hawaiian friends, and another friend who lives in Paris, put her in communication with the Government at Honolulu, who accepted her at once and unconditionally.
She has seen lepers in the Paris hospitals, not in a very advanced stage of the disease, but enough to give her an idea of what she shall have to face. Cardinal Manning, when he gave her his blessing before she left London, said: -- "My child, you have had a very special call; a great task has been given you to do; and I would not, could not, prevent you from following the Voice which calls you."
From the hour when she will step ashore on the leper island in the South Seas, she will become Sister Superior of the leper's hospital at Kalawao. A few days ago the Prince of Wales, in his speech at the banquet at the Hotel Metropole, London, Publicly announced that this young lady was going out to nurse the lepers among whom Father Damien had worked and suffered and died a martyr's death.
She is described as a young, fresh, beautiful girl, with large eyes of deepest blue, and a fair, rosy complexion. In every movement of her little figure activity and energy are expressed.
Father Damien's hospital contains from thirty to sixty men and women, and she will reside in a small cottage erected in close proximity to the institution.
By her express desire, the least possible publicity was given to her departure. Having bade farewell to her parents at home (Combe Down, some miles from Bath), she travelled alone to Liverpool. The Rev. Mr. Chapman, of Camberwell, the Secretary of the Father Damien Fund, travelled to Liverpool to bid her farewell. He writes: -- "I have been requested by Sister Rose Gertrude, who sailed on Saturday for Molokai, to express her humble and deep gratitude for the many proofs of kindness received in answer to the appeal on her behalf. The money given amounted to 120 pounds, and five cases of various articles have been despatched to the leper island. A society will shortly be formed for the regular supply of extra comforts which may be required, embracing also other leper communities conspicuous for similar sadness and similar heroism. Sister Rose begged me, as a last favour, to ask that her secular name might not be mentioned, and expressed her intense regret that she had fallen an unwilling victim to a most distasteful publicity. I need only say that her heroism is not more remarkable than her humility. God grant that her example may do much to shame us men out of our selfishness by the sight of what a woman can do when she truly loves. She left this country absolutely alone, and without a sixpence of her own."