Central Congregational Archive of the
Poor Servants of the Mother of God

Name of Repository
Central Congregational Archive of the Poor Servants of the
Mother of God

Name of Parent Organisation
Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God (SMG)

Address
St. Mary’s Convent
The Butts
Brentford
Middlesex
TW8 8BQ

Phone: 020-8568-7305
Fax: 020-8847-0804
e-mail: paul.shaw@psmgs.org
Enquiries to: Mr. Paul Shaw, Archivist

Access
External Researchers are admitted by appointment only, on
application to the archivist and subject to the approval of the generalate of the congregation.

Historical Background
The order was founded by Frances Margaret Taylor (1832-1900), a Roman Catholic convert from Anglicanism who had served as a nurse in the Crimean War, and whose account of her experiences was published as Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses (1856). Frances Taylor had established a considerable reputation as a journalist and author, being the founder editor of the Catholic periodical The Month (1864-5). One of her most notable works was Irish Homes and Irish Hearts (1866) an account of Irish religious orders. As Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart she was to be the first superior of the order, founded in London in 1869, which by the turn of the century administered over 20 houses and institutions, including the Providence Free Hospital, St. Helens. Great assistance was given to the order in its early years by the support of distinguished clerical and lay Catholics, including Cardinal H. E. Manning (1808-1892), and the novelist and philanthropist Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1812-1885). The order was focused upon work in England and Ireland, but also had houses in Italy and France; more recently it has extended its charitable work to the USA, Africa and South America. Houses were acquired in Roehampton in 1876 and 1927, and the generalate continues to be based there.

Holdings
Include papers of Frances Taylor and her family; records relating to the early years of the congregation, including correspondence with prominent Catholic clergy such as H. E. Manning and J. H. Newman; papers and literary MSS. of Lady Georgiana Fullerton; records of the various works and institutions administered by the congregation, including hospitals, workhouses, refuges and care homes in Britain, Ireland and continental Europe.


Publications
Mother Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart, Foundress of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God by F. C. Devas (London, 1927)

Born to Love, Fanny Margaret Taylor by Mother M. Geraldine SMG (London, 1970)

A Woman of her Time and Ours – Mary Magdalen Taylor SMG by Ruth Gilpin Wells (2nd ed., Charlotte NC, USA, 1994)

Frances Taylor Mother Magdalen S.M.G. by Sister Eithne leonard