Appreciations of Teresa Helena Higginson: at St. Alexander's, Bootle

On taking a teaching post at St. Alexander's school, Bootle, Teresa became the penitent of Fr. Edward Powell, the first of two spiritual directors who were to be her guides for the rest of her life.  Both these priests had daily opportunity of knowing Teresa in school and the parish and would have heard many of the accusations made against her when she became an object of controversy.  Yet neither wavered in their belief in her.  What calibre of men were they?

St. Alexander, Bootle, with the school to the left

Fr. Edward Powell (1837 - 1901) early showed a talent for languages and as a student in Rome had won a gold medal in Hebrew against all comers.  After ordination he returned to the Liverpool diocese and became secretary to Bishop Goss.  As a young priest he volunteered to minister to victims of a fever then raging, took it himself and for two weeks lay at death's door.  In 1866 he was appointed to the new mission of St. Alexander's and afterwards made priest - in - charge.  During 13 years of incessant toil he built the church, school and presbytery, and on being transferred to Lydiate worked with like zeal there.  He was a devoted shepherd to his flock - in the pulpit, at the altar, in the people's homes, with a zeal that drove him out to the highways and byways.  His piety was deep and his austerities included the discipline and hairshirt.  After his death his confessor declared his belief that he had never stained his baptismal innocence by any deliberate venal sin, and said that as a confessor and director of souls he had discharged his duties "to the utmost perfection of his gifts".

Fr. Edward Powell

Such was the priest who guided Teresa during her early years at St. Alexander's and put her under obedience to write out her life and spiritual experiences. 

When in 1883 Bishop O'Reilly ordered Fr. Powell to cease his direction of Teresa the latter's curate Fr. Alfred Snow assumed the task, not without heart - searching and prayer.  Recognising the responsibility of guiding a soul being led by extraordinary paths he set himself to the study of mystical theology.  I am afraid I can offer no more details about Fr. (later Canon) Snow than can be found in the books, but we know that in addition to undoubted piety he possessed administrative gifts that led to his being appointed chancellor of the archdioscese.  And as well as being a confessor to Teresa he was a most constant practical friend, e.g. it was Fr. Snow was secured for her a haven in St. Catherine's convent, Edinburgh, where his sister was Mother Superior.  On his deathbed in 1922 he declared to Archbishop Keating "I feel it right to say that I have the firm conviction  that Teresa Higginson was not only a saint but one of the greatest saints Almighty God has raised up in his church."

Canon Alfred Snow

Our two main witnesses to Teresa's life in Bootle are Margaret (Minnie) Catterall and Helen Nicholson who later became Mrs. Lonsdale.  Both remained life-long friends and after death stalwart activists in her cause, giving their testimony under oath and leaving written memoirs.  Isabella Arkwright said that when she and they got together to talk about Teresa they would allow themselves three hours and then felt they had "only touched the surface".  Particularly valuable is the testimony of Miss Catterall who shared accommodation with Teresa, taught in the same school and often accompanied her on parish visits.  In her memoir published as "Minnie Catterall's Narrative" in 1936 she writes:

"I have never before or since seen of known anyone like her - a veritable model of perfection in all circumstances, the very essence of humility, a well of goodness and love of God.  In my mind she stands as the greatest handmaid of God's saints - in her ardent humility, in her intense love of her Spouse in the Blessed Sacrament, in her love of sufferings for His sake, and her complete abnegation of her own dear self.  The mere thought of her is one of my greatest comforts in life, and I shall ever remember what a debt of gratitude I owe to her even since her death, for the many and most remarkable favours she has gained for me."

Minnie - described by her niece as a striking personality - eventually became the headmistress of Holy Cross School, Liverpool, and in retirement lived in Wigan.  She died in 1935 aged 75.

Another witness for this time is Miss Agnes Donnelly.  She was then a schoolgirl but both her parents were on the staff of St. Alexander's and knew Teresa well.  She writes:

"My parents always spoke of Miss Higginson as a saint ... my mother knew her for many years and spent many hours in her company.  On her deathbed she suddenly said 'I wonder when the church will recognise Teresa's sanctity.'"  Her father was once heard to declare "If Teresa had been in an order of nuns she would have been canonised long before this."

On leaving St. Alexander's, Teresa returned home to Neston, and after teaching in village schools , spent the following summer as a guest of Minnie and Helen who were now in charge of a school at Newchurch in Rossendale.  Then we find her in Clitheroe in where she received the grace of the mystical marriage, or transforming union, with Christ.

Appreciations of Teresa Helena Higginson: Alfred Garnett and the Abbé Billé

From the booklet Appreciations of Teresa Helena Higginson, Schoolteacher and Mystic, by Brian Honner.

On returning to England Teresa spent some three years assisting the Garnett family in Liverpool.  Miss Margaret Garnett, who seems to have been their mainstay, had fallen ill and Canon Snow (whose teacher she had been) had asked Teresa to come to their aid.  She nursed Margaret until her death and then secured for the remaining brother and sister a little shop in the Mount Pleasant area of the city.

One witness here is Alfred, the youngest of the family who had from birth been handicapped with a leg disease.  If Mrs. McKeon is the best observer of Teresa in the classroom it is to Alfred that we must turn for an impression of her as a nurse and quietly efficient family friend.  Miss Arkwright who knew him very well, made from their frequent talks together a written account of his testimony.  Some of this, including Teresa's prediction to him of the present Liverpool Catholic cathedral, she published, but the following may be new to readers: 

 Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, with the 'Crown of Thorns' dome, foreseen by Teresa

"When Teresa came to the Garnetts she was eating nothing at all and afterwards in obedience to Canon Snow began to take a little food.  Every morning after hearing two or three masses she sat down to read the very many letters she received daily.  These letters were after her death discovered to have been from priests, religious and others asking advice.  She dealt with her correspondence in a very methodical way, sorting the letters into separate piles, and all were read before breakfast.  Teresa, Mr. Garnett said, never seemed to want food.  He would pour out her half a cup of tea, and more often than not it would get cold.  She would pour hot water into it so that it was more like water than tea.  Sometimes Mr. Garnett would try to put some cream into her tea while she was reading her letters but she would look up at him with her usual sweet smile and put her hand gently over the cup, and he never succeeded in his attempt."

Such was Alfred's devotion to Teresa that after her death, before opening his shop he would go into her old room and pray to her, and after closing at night, no matter how tired he felt, would again enter her room and, in spite of his painful lameness, kneel and pray again.  Until his death in 1940 he paid for a friend to go to Neston each year to put flowers on her grave for her birthday; 35 years of rememberance!

An unforgettable impression of Alfred Garnett in later years has been left by the Abbé Billé, translator into French of Lady Kerr's life of Teresa.  Somewhere about the year 1936 he called on several witnesses, and we find him at Mount Pleasant enquiring of a passerby the whereabouts of Mr. Garnett:

"Oh yes, go down there to that little shop on the corner!"  I directed my steps to the door, which was open.  It was a little grocery of most modest appearance, with all the goods jumbled together, common and uninviting.  No one was there when I entered but  presently an old man emerged from behind the counter.  Before I had time to speak he looked at me and exclaimed 'You are the Abbé Billé!  You are the Abbé Billé!'  In spite of my surprise at being addressed by my own name, I admitted he was right and told him I had come to speak to him about Teresa Higginson.  He then led me into a little back room.  Here everything was piled one on top of the other - clothes, papers, old kitchen utensils, etc.  He looked round for a seat to offer me and drew one out from beneath an pile of old papers.  It was leaning against the wall in a corner.  He sat on an old chest, pushing aside various odds and ends.  His voice was feeble and I had to lean towards him to catch what he said.  'I was the one who accompanied her to the station very late one night in September 1904 when she left us to go to Chudleigh in Devonshire' he said.  'She had a feeling she would not return and gave me her last instructions: 'If I do not return, give this case to Canon Snow' she said.  'This I did, although I did not know what was in it.  She has a particular devotion to the souls in purgatory and prayed continually for them - not those of her own family but for others, the most abandoned, for those Our Lord Himself wished to deliver.  Her favours and care Teresa lavished on others rather than her friends.'

"What struck me particularly in talking to him was the strong conviction of the old man in the necessity of suffering - wretchedness truly seemed to be a mark of predilection, of the special protection of his friend.  And in it he was very, very happy.  'Have confidence in her' he told me, 'she will help you - but has a way of waiting until one gets into great difficulties!'  At last I rose to take my leave.  Mr. Garnett took my hands and looked at me with tears in his large eyes.  Mine also moistened. He knelt for my blessing, and after losing myself in the noisy streets of the great city I still felt that he was following me with his affectionate gaze.  In spite of his extreme poverty this good old man knows how to communicate to his friends a little of the happiness and joy he has deep in his heart."

(From the French magazine Message Jan - Feb 1938).

Appreciations of Teresa Helena Higginson: Margaret Murphy

From the booklet Appreciations of Teresa Helena Higginson, Schoolteacher and Mystic, by Brian Honner.

There is one friend of Teresa who must certainly not be omitted from our list, and that is Margaret Murphy, the former mill-hand who became housekeeper to Canon Musselly at Rawtenstall.  She met Teresa in the summer of 1887, Teresa as has been mentioned staying then with Minnie Catterall and Helen at Newchurch, and having come to Ravenstall for mass.  Margaret fell under the spell of her personality, visited her several times at Newchurch, and later when the Canon moved to St. Patrick's, Manchester, had her there as a guest on several occasions.  Her devotion was exceptional.  She attended Teresa's funeral and the family offered to open the coffin for her. 

Lady Kerr gives a touching account of how a visiting priest found her sitting alone by the fire and asked her how she passed her lonely days of retirement.  Her face lit up, and pointing to Teresa's photo she said: "I speak to her, and she speaks to me."  Two days later she died a holy death.  This was not the well known photo of Teresa in the mantilla, but a gravely beautiful one of her seated and holding flowers, evidently taken towards the end of her days.  Was she perhaps presented with it after the requiem at Neston?  Margaret was a reserved person who kept things in her heart, and is said to have given evidence under oath with much diffidence and pleading her prayers.  I have not heard that she left anything in writing.  Teresa's letters she destroyed at death, also a lock of her hair.

Photo of Teresa in 1904 in Margaret Murphy's possession

Margaret's protege Kitty Deady also knew Teresa at St. Patrick's and went to church with her.  She became a Sister of Mercy and was sent to their convent at Gravesend, taking the name Sr. Mary Evangelist.  She died in 1938.

Blessed Dominic Barberi 1792 - 1849

Blessed Dominic Barberi, the great Passionist missionary who was to receive Blessed John Henry Newman into the church, also knew and loved Teresa Higginson as a child as he was a regular guest at her family home in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.  At that time in the 1840's it also served as the local Catholic mission as their house chapel served the district.  He was to baptise Teresa's sister Louisa Higginson, and he took much delight in carrying little Teresa in his arms.  Lady Cecil Kerr was to comment: 

'...did he, to whom the future was so often shown, perhaps foresee the heights of sanctity to which this child would reach — how steadfastly she would scale the path to Calvary, there to be ennobled by our Lord Himself with the sublime title of “Spouse of the Crucified”? Surely we cannot doubt that his fervent prayers won for her a share in his own heroic zeal for souls, and that his burning words sank deep into the opening mind of this little one whose infant heart was aflame already with the love of God.'

He lies buried in Sutton near St. Helens along with his fellow Passionists Fr. Ignatius Spencer and Mother Elizabeth Prout.  For a full biography (this blog's author has no time!) please click here.

Susan Ryland (Sister Mary St. Barbara) 1852 - 1941

Susan Ryland, later Sister Mary St. Barbara, was one of Teresa's fellow teachers at the school of St. Mary's, Wigan, and was to be the closest friend she ever had, staying with Teresa and her family in Neston during the school holidays.

She was born on February 29th 1852 to James and Elizabeth Ryland in Edge Hill, Liverpool.  Like Teresa she trained to be a teacher and was living with Teresa in Wigan during the period January 1874 to July 1875.  During that time Susan saw at first hand the diabolical attacks on Teresa, was a key witness to her mystical manifestations and came to nurse her during her illnesses.  Their time together was exceptionally close yet very brief, and when they parted although they corresponded they never saw each other again face to face.  Lady Cecil Kerr gives Susan Ryland's accounts of what she herself witnessed at this time:

“To begin with the receiving of the Crown of thorns. It took place on Passion Sunday, 1874. I was the only person present. She asked me to come upstairs in the afternoon. She was apparently suffering and she went to lie down. She asked me to pray that she might be able to go to Sunday school and at night she would bear all our Lord wished. She added: ‘He gave me this pain Himself.’ She was able to get up, and went to Sunday school and also to Benediction. Towards night she got very weak and after we were in bed became very ill. I wanted to go for Miss Woodward who slept in the next room, but she would not let me so I returned to bed. All at once she sprang up and I am sure she left the bed, for I sprang up too to pull her down. For a while she spoke to her heavenly visitor. Then she put out her right hand towards our Lord (for it was He) and said aloud: ‘No, not that, the thorny crown, give me the thorny crown.’ Then in a few moments she fell back just as she had got up. I said to her: ‘Teresa are you going to die? If you are I must go for Father Wells.’ She did not seem to wish to get him up so I left it alone. Then she said to me: ‘Our Lord has given me His Crown of Thorns, and also the Wound in the shoulder.’ I saw no signs of it next day, except I thought there were pimples on the forehead, but I could not say whether they had anything to do with it or not.

“On the eve of Palm Sunday after going to bed (I think I had to take her as I often did on account of her weakness), I was kneeling by her side and she was unconscious (at least so far as I was concerned). She was speaking (to herself) to someone present. She raised her right hand and held it up quite firmly for a minute or two.² Then she let it drop. I did not examine it. I was strangely wanting (as I think now) in curiosity about these things, but the next morning she kept it closed, placing her thumb in the middle. I think she washed herself that morning with the left hand but I forget. However, when she handed me back the towel it was stained with blood. The morning after both hands were closed. I washed her and she said to me: ‘I can wash my own hands, dear.’ So I gave her the same towel and she returned it to me again spotted with blood. This happened every day…

“On Good Friday we went to the morning service leaving Miss Higginson in bed and the house door locked. When we returned we both ran up to her at once and found her stretched on the bed, her arms extended in the form of a cross, and wounds in her hands. As usual I did not go very near. I just saw Miss Woodward throwing up the clothes at the foot of the bed to see if the feet were the same, and I ran off to bring Father Wells. He came. She was still the same, and he said to me: ‘Run for the doctor.’ I went and when I got back accompanied by Dr. Hart she was natural again and talking to Father Wells. Dr. Hart found her extremely weak, but, as Father Wells said, he did not at all know what was the matter with her.”

St Paul's Convent Selly Park

Susan against advice then tried her vocation in a strict contemplative order in France, but it proved she was completely unsuitable for such a state of life.  She then tried her vocation as a Sister of Charity of St. Paul, a teaching order in which she had more success and took the name Sister Mary St. Barbara.  The mother house is based in Selly Park, Birmingham and exists to this day.  The rest of her life was uneventful, and she was to teach in schools of the order around the country, and she died in 1941 at Selly Park aged 88.  She was later to be a key source of testimony for both Teresa's biography Lady Cecil Kerr and the beatification process during the 1930's.