Emily Morgan

Emily Malbone Morgan (1862-1937) and Adelyn Howard were the best of friends growing up in Hartford, Connecticut. They climbed apple trees, shared attic treasures, and attended the same Episcopal church. Adelyn moved away to a new home at a considerable distance from her childhood friends. She became ill with a serious hip disease, which confined her to bed. When Emily visited, Adelyn expressed interest in forming a religious society to afford her spiritual companions. Emily talked the idea over with a mutual friend, Harriet, who understood religious societies. They became taken with the idea, drafted a few simple rules, and wrote a prayer to center their newly imagined community in a bond of faith. The Society of the Companions of the Cross, as they called it, would be organized around three objectives: prayer, spiritual growth, and simplicity in life. They shared their design with Adelyn, and the Companions of the Holy Cross came into being in 1884.
Emily had a burden for working women who labored long hours in the Hartford textile mills. When she was a little girl, a lady who was admiring the fine china that belonged to Emily’s mother asked Emily if she was going to collect china when she grew up. “No,” she said, “I’m going to collect people.” Emily’s preferred manner of giving was hospitality. “My greatest desire is to make tired people feel rested and happy,” she said. She mobilized Companions of the Cross to start retreat homes for working women and their children. Emily, who by this time was a novelist, used the proceeds from her novels to cover the expenses. The society grew to hundreds of women and twenty-two retreat homes in New England. One of them is still operated by Companions of the Cross in Byfield, Massachusetts. The prayer they composed in 1884 is still their daily prayer: