Give us grace, O Eternal Father, that we strive to keep the way of the cross and carry in our hearts the image of Jesus crucified. Make us glad to conform ourselves to thy divine will, that being fashioned after his life-giving death, we may die according to the flesh and live according to the spirit of righteousness, through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Savior. Amen.
—Prayer of the Companions of the Holy Cross
Emily Malbone Morgan (December 10, 1862 – February 27, 1937), the youngest child and only daughter of a family whose roots trace back to colonial New England, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Her mother was a friend and correspondent with leaders of the Oxford Movement, and her brother George a prominent Episcopal priest and Rector of Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut. She was born and reared in a house previously belonging to investment banker, financier, and pioneer of multinational corporations, J. Pierpont Morgan.
A child of wealth and privilege, Morgan enjoyed European travel and, before briefly attending Miss Haines’s School in Hartford, was homeschooled by her mother. Her life was not free of challenges, though; she underwent surgery for a thyroid condition and other ailments. As she grew, her gift for management began to blossom, as did the good humor and cheerful disposition for which she was known.
When her childhood friend Adelyn Howard fell ill and became disabled in 1883, she realized the vocation for which she is venerated today: the founding of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross.
Morgan established this community as a way of alleviating the isolation and loneliness of Adelyn—who, besides being an “invalid,” had no family or friends in the area. The informal group of women met in Adelyn’s home for Bible study and prayer
After a year, Morgan joined with Howard and Harriet Hastings of Wellesley, Massachusetts, to found the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross to create space for devout women for intercession, worship, social justice work, and mutual support in simple living.
The society ministered to women workers in the nearby textile mills, of which New England had many, in part by establishing vacation facilities for women and their children throughout the northeast. Later, when she began writing books, Morgan used the profits to fund and maintain these havens for “tired women, girls, and children.”
When I visited one of the women’s colleges of Western Massachusetts years ago, I took part in a march protesting Indonesia’s attempted annexation of East Timor. Along the route, we passed a shuttered textile mill, confirming what I had read about the factory having sent its jobs to Mexico, throwing many local laborers out of work. Later, when I asked someone why the students weren’t protesting that instead of a conflict in an obscure place on the other side of the globe, she replied, “Because they can’t get laid doing that.” Performative activism seems to be sexier when it is abstract; the more gritty and concrete it becomes, the less opportunity for self-aggrandizement. Also, the class barrier between the unfortunate laborers and the privileged students was disconcertingly real when viewed up close.
Not only did Morgan reach across class lines to fulfill her desire to “make tired people rested and happy,” by centering the most vulnerable in her society, she echoed the mystical sisterhoods for medieval laywomen (such as the Beguines) who, by nurturing women facing barriers to spiritual study and contemplation because of their sex, brought about a flowering of spiritual thought and writing from people at society’s margins.
The small group format and the emphasis on social justice is also redolent of the Christian Base Communities that sprung up all over Latin America after the Second Vatican Council.
Morgan bought what became the SCHC’s headquarters and retreat center, in Byfield, Massachusetts in 1901, naming it Adelynrood after her friend. The Companions also founded a home called Beulahland, which offered aily services of worship attended by Protestants, Catholic, and Jews.
Today, the SCHC has chapters across the United States and India, plus a virtual chapter allowing for participation from members in the United States, Belize, Canada, Great Britain, India and Japan.
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“Because they can’t get laid doing that.” Performative activism seems to be sexier when it is abstract; the more gritty and concrete it becomes, the less opportunity for self-aggrandizement.
Wow. No. What a poor choice to include that anecdote within a post applauding women’s work. College students (I was one in the 80s, and my children are now) take part in protest of global harms because they are curious about and study global issues. It is in college that most students first see past their own neighborhood context, and meet students from other countries. Thankfully, the young women you passed by then and those in college now, learn of obscure places on the other side of the globe. May it continue. And may they never be disparaged for protesting injustice of any kind.