Part 1
Mother Francis de Sales Cassidy, the Foundress of the Visitation Monastery in Snellville Georgia, may not be a “typical” mystic, but she certainly had “mystical moments” and a “mission” from the Lord.
Mother was born in Macon, Georgia on February 16,1892 and baptized Margaret Ann. She was one of eleven children born to Patrick and Mary Ann Campbell Cassidy, originally from Ireland.
The family was religious and created a home altar for devotional purposes, praying the family Rosary every day.
The first clue that Margaret had a special vocation seems to have been given on the day of her First Holy Communion, in 1901. On that day that she first received Our Lord Jesus, Margaret heard an “interior voice” and resolved to become a nun. It could be said that she sealed that resolution with “sacrifice” as she also got the measles on the day of her First Holy Communion!
Educated by the Sisters of Mercy, it was not to their Congregation she turned when she began to put her resolution to prayer and practice, but to the Visitation Order, in Georgetown, Washington DC. That decision was based on a recommendation she had received from some Franciscan Missionary Sisters who had told her, “you belong in the Visitation of Georgetown.”
While Margaret pondered her vocation, she lived a lively and vibrant young life, going to dances, riding horses and in her later teen years, dating. But she did not accept a marriage proposal as her heart was set on becoming the Spouse of Jesus Christ.
At 20 years of age, on August 15, 1912, Margaret entered the Visitation Monastery of Georgetown.
During the train journey from Georgia, traveling north, again Margaret experienced a mystical moment.
“ As she looked out the train window at the cotton fields, pine forests sparkling lakes and mountains of her beloved Southland fading into the distance the words of the Master came into her mind, “Behold I say to you, lift your eyes and behold the fields are already white for the harvest.” The seed of a great desire was implanted in her heart to see the Visitation in Georgia.”
How did it happen? We will continue the history tomorrow in Part 2!
Source: In the White Fields of Georgia, By Sr. M Helena O’Connell 1979