Elizabeth Prout – Mother Mary Joseph
Foundress of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion
Elizabeth Prout was born in Shrewsbury, England, in 1820. Her parents baptised her in the Anglican Church. In her early twenties she became a Catholic.
Elizabeth moved to Manchester in 1849. There, touched by the misery and deprivation of the poor, she and a few companions came together to form a community to help the voiceless downtrodden workers in the large industrial towns of nineteenth-century England.
The community was directed and helped by two Passionists, Father Gaudentius Rossi and Father Ignatius Spencer. The rule was based on that of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists. Elizabeth recognised that the Passion of Jesus is the great sign of God’s love reaching out to those in pain.
Now known as Mother Mary Joseph, Elizabeth continued to meet the challenges presented to her in her life of suffering, and to grow in solidarity with the crucified of the world. She died on 11th January 1864 at Sutton, St. Helens, Lancashire.
Her body, together with that of Blessed Dominic Barbari C.P. and Father Ignatius Spencer C.P. lies in the shrine of St Anne’s church, Sutton. People gather around the shrine annually, to commemorate their lives.