The priest who helped Mother Mary MacKillop found the order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart - Fr Julian Tenison-Woods (15.11.1832 - 07.10.1889) joined the Passionist Novitiate at St. Saviour’s Retreat, Broadway, Worcestershire in 1851. He spent some time after profession in Passionist Monasteries at Aston Hall and The Hyde, but owing to ill-health, and with great regret, he left the Congregation.
Fr Julian became a Diocesan priest in Australia and at the age of just 24, he was appointed to the south eastern district of South Australia with Penola as its centre. He became increasingly concerned about the lack of Catholic education in his district and these concerns eventually resulted in the establishment of a school at Penola and to his association with Mary MacKillop; also the purchase of an allotment in Naracoorte (1865) and in assisting with the founding of the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (1866).
In 1889, Fr Julian was again seriously ill. Mother Mary MacKillop later wrote -
“On the 6th September, the doctor pronounced the case hopeless, and the Viaticum was administered. The old longing for the Passionist Religious Order which in his youth he had joined, still clung to him; and now, after all these long years, his hope was realised. Father Marcellus CP, at the request of the dying priest, invested him once more in the habit of the Passionists.”
Early next morning, the longed for end had come; Passionist Provincial Father Marcellus CP was with him at the last and Fr Julian Tenison-Woods passed into eternal life, wearing a Passionist habit. At his funeral, Mother Mary MacKillop said that Fr Julian’s greatest regret was that he had not been able to continue his religious life as a Passionist.
In 1873 - 1874, Mother Mary MacKillop was in Rome and visited Ss Giovanni e Paolo (Passionist Generalate) several times! In her diary we read of one of these visits "I was able to hear mass in the Chapel of St Paul of the Cross where, through the kind permission of the Father General, the body of the saint was shown to me. It lay there in its habit, crucifix and beads, and a silver lily of St Joseph in one hand, just as if he was asleep, so tranquil. Father General later gave me a relic containing part of the bone of St Paul of the Cross. I had visited their Generalate several times in my attempts to find priests for Adelaide. I was particularly hopeful that a community of Passionists would be established there, as it might pave the way for Father Woods to join them as he had once tried to do in England. This would have ensured his status among the clergy in Australia".
