Sr Mary Joseph Eather

Joseph (Mary Agnes)  Eather was the daughter of the pioneering Protestant family of Robert Vincent Eather and Annie Cornwell. Born on September 4, 1860, Joseph converted to Catholicism through the intervention of her aunt, Cecilia Despointes, a great friend of Fr Woods (E. Lea-Scarlett. An Outline History of the Eather Family in Australia, n.d., 93.)¹ Named in the Tasmanian Register as Mary Agnes Eather, native of Newcastle, Joseph entered the Perthville community on April 16, 1879 and received the habit on January 13, 1880. Two of her Sisters had previously joined the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in Sydney in the early 1870s. Known at Perthville as Sister M Bernard of the Power of Mary, Joseph was professed on March 19, 1881. After her final profession on May 10, 1887, she left for the mission to Tasmania within the next two weeks, changing her name to Joseph in order to maintain the tradition of having a Joseph in each new group.

Her presence in the new community at Westbury allowed the teaching of music, as she was an accomplished music teacher. Her role in Tasmania was particularly important as she assumed the position of Sister Guardian (Congregational Leader from 1889 to 1899). Archbishop Daniel Murphy appointed Sr Joseph as Sister Guardian for six years on June 18, 1889. On January 9, 1896 as there was no majority, Sr Joseph was reappointed on the understanding that another sister was to be elected or appointed (TSSJ, 1898, 5).²

Joseph specialised in the violin teaching to students to licentiate level. In so doing she enabled her students to achieve a standard in music that had not been reached in the area before. Remembered as a colourful character by the elderly Sisters, Joseph supplied much information to Fr George O’Neill for the publication (1929) of his Life of Fr Julian (Crowley, 225).³