Margaret Anna Cusack – aka the Nun of Kenmare – and the Hierophant
Ireland’s rebel nun, Margaret Anna Cusack, was born in 1829 in Dublin, on the corner of York Street and Mercer Street, now renamed Cusack Corner. In her early teens, she moved to Exeter following the separation of her parents. After the sudden death of her fiancé, Charles Holmes in 1852, she joined a convent of Anglican nuns and moved to London. During this period, she witnessed poverty in east London that deeply angered and upset her. She later wrote that the people she met there needed food, not the gospel. Disillusioned and disappointed at not being sent as a missionary to the Crimean War, in 1858, she converted to Roman Catholicism. She joined the Order of the Poor Clares, taking the religious name Sister Mary Frances Clare, and moved to a convent in Newry in County Down. She was ordained by Cardinal Wiseman of Westminster who asked her to write literature for a Catholic readership, and thus began her prolific writing career.
In 1861, she and a small group of Poor Clare nuns moved to Kenmare, in County Kerry, to establish a convent where she stayed until she left the order in 1881. She established Kenmare Publications and used the money from her publications to fund charitable works. She wrote 35 books that included private devotions, poems, Irish historical works, and biographies. Kenmare Publications issued 200,000 volumes of her works in less than ten years.
She was an outspoken Irish nationalist, and in 1869, published ‘The Patriot's History of Ireland’. In 1871, she raised and distributed £15,000 to the Famine Relief Fund she had established. She wrote letters to the newspapers in Ireland and abroad, highlighting the plight of the poor and dispossessed, aligning her with those involved in the land agitation. In 1872, she wrote a biography of Daniel O'Connell.
After receiving death threats upon publication of a book she wrote on the abuse of tenants on the Landsdowne and Kenmare estates in Kerry, she was ordered to return to Newry to minimise reputational damage to the Order, but instead, she moved to County Mayo where in 1884, she founded her own convent, the Order of St. Joseph of Peace, in a stable in Knock.
As her writing grew more political, she started to lose support from the Catholic leaders but this did not deter her from her aspirations. She travelled to America with the aim of becoming a spiritual guide to immigrant Irish girls but came into controversy with the local Catholic hierarchy for her political views.
Her criticism of secular and religious injustice gained her many enemies. She was often accused of disregarding ecclesiastical conventions to further her ambitions and when she found herself unable to progress due to opposition from a Bishop who condemned her political views, she reverted to Anglicanism in 1888, bitterly attacking Catholicism for the rest of her life. In 1889 she published her autobiography ‘The Nun of Kenmare,’ and in the following year died in Warwickshire in England.
Although she had been honoured by Pope Leo XIII for setting up the Famine Relief Fund in 1879, the Vatican ordered that her name be ‘effaced’ as Founder of the Order of St Joseph of Peace because of her work for women's liberation, and it was not until the late 1960s that the Vatican reinstated her as the founder of her order.
The Hierophant
The Hierophant leads others with the spiritual wisdom he receives from a divine source. His approach is to combine inquiry with community and existing structures. He is disciplined in his search for wisdom; his deep faith is reason enough to stay devoted.
The Hierophant has been called the Teacher of Wisdom. Antoine Court de Gebelin retitled this card from the Pope to the Hierophant in 1781, as ‘hierophant’ relates to mystical ancient Greek rituals; and the word itself means ‘Revealer of Sacred Things.’ The card is concerned with spiritual initiation and almost always relates to traditional structures of some kind. This can sometimes mean we want to break free from those structures; the card asks us to examine when it is beneficial to follow traditional thinking and when it’s necessary to question authority to create a new set of traditions. The card reminds us of our power to define our own belief systems. Note the keys the Hierophant sits above: he holds the power to unlock universal truths. But so do we; we each hold the keys to our inner wisdom. The Hierophant is not about forcing beliefs, but instead, he guides us to connect with our own authentic wisdom. This card isn’t just about following the rules—it’s about challenging them, and keeping an open mind for something new. It encourages us to question tradition and authority.
The Hierophant’s followers willingly adhere to his direction. He is elected based on his eligibility for the role. Sometimes, the Hierophant appears to remind us of the value that can exist in group identities. We may have much to learn from the right authority figures, and in safe, healthy, and supportive circumstances, participating in spiritual communities can bring a sense of peace and belonging. The Hierophant speaks to the seeker in all of us, and he validates the very human need for connection as we search for and create meaning in our lives.
The Hierophant is all about ‘doing the right thing’. When we struggle with an issue and are unsure of what is the ‘right’ thing to do, the Hierophant reminds us that the answers are within and that the ‘right’ thing for one person may differ for someone else.
When the Hierophant presents himself in a reading, he can signify that traditional values or rigid structures might be hindering progress. He asks us to consider whether a conventional approach is holding us back, forcing us to conform to established norms that do not serve us. The Hierophant calls for us to reflect on the benefits of reassessing these structures and to consider whether a new approach might be in order. The Hierophant is a sign that we need to challenge the status quo, find ways to change rigid structures from within and be willing to stand up for ourselves, just like Margaret Anna Cusack her entire life.
Sources
M.F. Cusack, ‘The nun of Kenmare: an autobiography’, 1889.