* * MONASTERY OF RIED * *
Foundation of the Convent of the Redemptoristines at Ried
(Upper Austria), in 1858
Foundation of the Convent of the Redemptoristines at Ried
(Upper Austria), in 1858
The Convent of the Redemptoristines of Saint Anne of Ried [1] is rightly called the fruit of the sacrifices, tears and prayers of the Redemptoristines of Vienna. Driven out by the Revolution, these fervent religious had to leave their peaceful home on 6th April 1848 and look for a refuge, some with their families, and others in other convents further afield. And also, like the hart thirsting after a spring of refreshing water, this dear Community wished for nothing other than to reconstitute itself anew. But Providence, which is always at hand, did not remain deaf to the sighs of the exiles.
In March 1851, one of the religious learnt through one of her relatives that at Ried, in Upper Austria, there was a house for sale with an adjoining church. The inhabitants desired to see the establishment of a community of religious there. The clergy were also interested in this matter. Consequently, the necessary applications were begun immediately. Mons. Ziegler expressed it thus: “Since I have not been able to attract the sons of Saint Alphonsus to my diocese, I desire to receive his daughters here.” Pius IX himself entered into the matter and wrote about it to the Bishop of Linz.
However, the enemy of all good placed a thousand obstacles in the way of the realisation of this project, and everything seemed destined to fail. But this was when God showed Himself. His hand visibly conducted this work, and on 23rd August 1852, the Emperor Franz-Joseph signed the authorisation needed for the establishment of this convent. On 15th October, they proceeded to the solemn blessing of the house. Mons. Schiedermayer, surrounded by a dozen priests, officiated pontifically in the presence of a dense crowd. The parish priest of Ried, Father Brelsmayer, at once showed himself favourable to the foundation, and deservedly acquired the name of founder of the convent. A truly holy priest, he was charged by his Bishop with the direction of the Community, and fulfilled his duties of Chaplain to the general satisfaction. God blessed his work. His apostolic words attracted such a crowd of the faithful into our church on Sundays that it became too small. This chapel attracted admirers. Count Arko enriched it with a magnificent painting by Strasser that even to this day decorates the master altar.
However, the house, formerly an asylum for lepers, was a very poor one. The roof was in such a pitiful state that the religious found themselves obliged to open their umbrellas in order to protect their beds against rain or snow. This evil was remedied only gradually, as funds were lacking. Everything had been spent on the purchase of a parcel of land, which was indispensable for the growth of the convent. In addition, it had been impossible to bring anything from Vienna, as the revolutionaries had destroyed everything, including the pictures of the saints themselves. All in all, there remained for Ried no more than a poor florin! And with this they had to provide for the support of six religious!
In her distress, Reverend Mother Maria-Victoria of Jesus, born Countess Welsersheimb, prostrate at the foot of the tabernacle, expressed her distress to the good Master. She had scarcely terminated her prayers when a basket was brought to the Monastery full of bread and other provisions. Moreover, the divine Host permitted a young child, who had heard people talking about the nuns, to become bold enough to want to see their poverty for himself. Profiting from a favourable moment, he secretly penetrated the enclosure, and after a sufficient examination, he escaped in all haste. He made the extreme poverty of the good religious known, and his account made such an impression in the town and beyond, that he provoked a compassionate generosity. Gifts arrived from different directions. The Emperor Ferdinand, the Counts Welsersheimb and von Arko, and Baron von Lago became the benefactors of the house. The venerable Servant of God, Mons. Rudiger, having been able to take stock, on the occasion of a taking of the habit, of the great poverty of the Monastery, also sent some help. It was thanks to these generous gifts that it was possible to finish the building in October 1853.
However, they still suffered from the rigorous coldness of winter, as wood was lacking to dry out the new walls. In addition, a furious tempest in one fell swoop demolished the enclosure of wooden planks, and took 8000 tiles off the roof. These new setbacks made them doubt the possibility of a definitive establishment at Ried. In 1857, the situation was again so sad that Reverend Mother Maria-Victoria believed it to be her duty to write about it to His Holiness. Always supportive, Pius IX responded to her request with a beautiful letter preserved in the archives of the convent. He encouraged the Religious, and exhorted them to confidence and perseverance, but especially to tend more and more to perfection. He blessed them and promised them his prayers. The Sisters felt great joy because of it, and, inspired to a new courage, they continued to struggle on. God rewarded their confidence.
In 1860, Mons. Hagn, the Abbot of the Benedictines of Lambach, became the Vicar General of the diocese. Having obtained authorisation to establish a cemetery in the enclosure, he wished to give the benediction of it himself. They immediately brought in the remains of two Sisters, who had previously been interred in the town cemetery. In 1862, the church was enriched with two magnificent windows, and a Way of the Cross, a new Gothic altar, a pulpit and other embellishments. The wooden enclosure was replaced by a solid wall. Finally, in 1867, the convent, now that it had been finished, was able to house the number of religious required by the Rule.
Nothing was dearer to the good Superior than to see the house of the Lord decently furnished. Although the church was not her property, she was always careful to employ the charitable gifts that came her way to a pious end. In 1905 they proceeded to its decoration. Under the able direction of Mr. Schrems, the paintings were harmonised with the colours of the windows. Between the columns, upon the walls, Mr. Streikner, the religiously inspired artist, in his first painting displayed the divine Saviour giving Himself to the soul in Holy Communion. Another painting represented Saint Francis of Assisi who, disdaining the world, gives himself to his divine crucified Lord, who detaches His arm from the cross and embraces him lovingly. Then it is the Patriarch of monks, Saint Benedict, full of a sweet gravity, surrounded on the right and left side by Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus. Saint Gerard Majella has his place before the choir. He contemplates Jesus crucified, is consumed with love and is pouring out abundant tears.
The choir of the religious was also decorated with beautiful paintings. First of all you see the image of the founder, Saint Alphonsus. Plunged into a profound meditation, the artist shows him in the attitude of editing the Rules and Constitutions. Before him he has Saint Francis of Assisi, absorbed in contemplation, Saint Francis de Paul, Saint Dominic armed with the Rosary, and Saint Augustine enraptured in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. A little further on there is Saint Francis de Sales, whom the Redemptorists must honour, because of the numerous points in their Rule borrowed from the Constitutions of the Visitation. Another picture represents the divine Mother with the Child Jesus. Her eyes are saddened by the fear of seeing her Son escaping from her. Then comes Saint Gertrude, totally absorbed in Jesus whom she bears on her heart, then Saint Mechtilde, with her eyes questioning heaven, from which she receives the revelations consigned to the book which she holds in her hands. Above the door, you can see the Sacred Heart and the blessed Marguerite-Mary. At the back there is a painting representing the Annunciation, and then two escutcheons bear the arms of the Most Holy Redeemer and the Eye of God, which recalls His presence in every place.
How much people love to visit this pious church! Early in the morning, or to greet the evening, but especially on Sundays, a large number of people come for the recitation of the Rosary. On days of the taking of the habit or of religious profession, a numerous public crowds to the grille, to see the touching ceremony as closely as possible, which is presided over by Mons. Baumgartner, the Chaplain of the convent. We should not forget that it was this worthy priest who had a retreat house for ecclesiastics constructed near the Monastery. It is to him also that we owe the beautiful Calvary in the cemetery, and the tombstones on which are engraved the names of our dear deceased Sisters.
In March 1851, one of the religious learnt through one of her relatives that at Ried, in Upper Austria, there was a house for sale with an adjoining church. The inhabitants desired to see the establishment of a community of religious there. The clergy were also interested in this matter. Consequently, the necessary applications were begun immediately. Mons. Ziegler expressed it thus: “Since I have not been able to attract the sons of Saint Alphonsus to my diocese, I desire to receive his daughters here.” Pius IX himself entered into the matter and wrote about it to the Bishop of Linz.
However, the enemy of all good placed a thousand obstacles in the way of the realisation of this project, and everything seemed destined to fail. But this was when God showed Himself. His hand visibly conducted this work, and on 23rd August 1852, the Emperor Franz-Joseph signed the authorisation needed for the establishment of this convent. On 15th October, they proceeded to the solemn blessing of the house. Mons. Schiedermayer, surrounded by a dozen priests, officiated pontifically in the presence of a dense crowd. The parish priest of Ried, Father Brelsmayer, at once showed himself favourable to the foundation, and deservedly acquired the name of founder of the convent. A truly holy priest, he was charged by his Bishop with the direction of the Community, and fulfilled his duties of Chaplain to the general satisfaction. God blessed his work. His apostolic words attracted such a crowd of the faithful into our church on Sundays that it became too small. This chapel attracted admirers. Count Arko enriched it with a magnificent painting by Strasser that even to this day decorates the master altar.
However, the house, formerly an asylum for lepers, was a very poor one. The roof was in such a pitiful state that the religious found themselves obliged to open their umbrellas in order to protect their beds against rain or snow. This evil was remedied only gradually, as funds were lacking. Everything had been spent on the purchase of a parcel of land, which was indispensable for the growth of the convent. In addition, it had been impossible to bring anything from Vienna, as the revolutionaries had destroyed everything, including the pictures of the saints themselves. All in all, there remained for Ried no more than a poor florin! And with this they had to provide for the support of six religious!
In her distress, Reverend Mother Maria-Victoria of Jesus, born Countess Welsersheimb, prostrate at the foot of the tabernacle, expressed her distress to the good Master. She had scarcely terminated her prayers when a basket was brought to the Monastery full of bread and other provisions. Moreover, the divine Host permitted a young child, who had heard people talking about the nuns, to become bold enough to want to see their poverty for himself. Profiting from a favourable moment, he secretly penetrated the enclosure, and after a sufficient examination, he escaped in all haste. He made the extreme poverty of the good religious known, and his account made such an impression in the town and beyond, that he provoked a compassionate generosity. Gifts arrived from different directions. The Emperor Ferdinand, the Counts Welsersheimb and von Arko, and Baron von Lago became the benefactors of the house. The venerable Servant of God, Mons. Rudiger, having been able to take stock, on the occasion of a taking of the habit, of the great poverty of the Monastery, also sent some help. It was thanks to these generous gifts that it was possible to finish the building in October 1853.
However, they still suffered from the rigorous coldness of winter, as wood was lacking to dry out the new walls. In addition, a furious tempest in one fell swoop demolished the enclosure of wooden planks, and took 8000 tiles off the roof. These new setbacks made them doubt the possibility of a definitive establishment at Ried. In 1857, the situation was again so sad that Reverend Mother Maria-Victoria believed it to be her duty to write about it to His Holiness. Always supportive, Pius IX responded to her request with a beautiful letter preserved in the archives of the convent. He encouraged the Religious, and exhorted them to confidence and perseverance, but especially to tend more and more to perfection. He blessed them and promised them his prayers. The Sisters felt great joy because of it, and, inspired to a new courage, they continued to struggle on. God rewarded their confidence.
In 1860, Mons. Hagn, the Abbot of the Benedictines of Lambach, became the Vicar General of the diocese. Having obtained authorisation to establish a cemetery in the enclosure, he wished to give the benediction of it himself. They immediately brought in the remains of two Sisters, who had previously been interred in the town cemetery. In 1862, the church was enriched with two magnificent windows, and a Way of the Cross, a new Gothic altar, a pulpit and other embellishments. The wooden enclosure was replaced by a solid wall. Finally, in 1867, the convent, now that it had been finished, was able to house the number of religious required by the Rule.
Nothing was dearer to the good Superior than to see the house of the Lord decently furnished. Although the church was not her property, she was always careful to employ the charitable gifts that came her way to a pious end. In 1905 they proceeded to its decoration. Under the able direction of Mr. Schrems, the paintings were harmonised with the colours of the windows. Between the columns, upon the walls, Mr. Streikner, the religiously inspired artist, in his first painting displayed the divine Saviour giving Himself to the soul in Holy Communion. Another painting represented Saint Francis of Assisi who, disdaining the world, gives himself to his divine crucified Lord, who detaches His arm from the cross and embraces him lovingly. Then it is the Patriarch of monks, Saint Benedict, full of a sweet gravity, surrounded on the right and left side by Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus. Saint Gerard Majella has his place before the choir. He contemplates Jesus crucified, is consumed with love and is pouring out abundant tears.
The choir of the religious was also decorated with beautiful paintings. First of all you see the image of the founder, Saint Alphonsus. Plunged into a profound meditation, the artist shows him in the attitude of editing the Rules and Constitutions. Before him he has Saint Francis of Assisi, absorbed in contemplation, Saint Francis de Paul, Saint Dominic armed with the Rosary, and Saint Augustine enraptured in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. A little further on there is Saint Francis de Sales, whom the Redemptorists must honour, because of the numerous points in their Rule borrowed from the Constitutions of the Visitation. Another picture represents the divine Mother with the Child Jesus. Her eyes are saddened by the fear of seeing her Son escaping from her. Then comes Saint Gertrude, totally absorbed in Jesus whom she bears on her heart, then Saint Mechtilde, with her eyes questioning heaven, from which she receives the revelations consigned to the book which she holds in her hands. Above the door, you can see the Sacred Heart and the blessed Marguerite-Mary. At the back there is a painting representing the Annunciation, and then two escutcheons bear the arms of the Most Holy Redeemer and the Eye of God, which recalls His presence in every place.
How much people love to visit this pious church! Early in the morning, or to greet the evening, but especially on Sundays, a large number of people come for the recitation of the Rosary. On days of the taking of the habit or of religious profession, a numerous public crowds to the grille, to see the touching ceremony as closely as possible, which is presided over by Mons. Baumgartner, the Chaplain of the convent. We should not forget that it was this worthy priest who had a retreat house for ecclesiastics constructed near the Monastery. It is to him also that we owe the beautiful Calvary in the cemetery, and the tombstones on which are engraved the names of our dear deceased Sisters.
Footnotes
[1] Taken from the Monastery Chronicles.
Sister Maria-Victoria of Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Ried (1805 – 1874)
God had permitted the religious Orders to be particularly persecuted in Vienna in the 18th Century, but this great capital, in the 19th Century, was to give the signal for their relief. The Emperor Joseph II had pursued them with his hatred, but in the very heart of his court there germinated, without him even suspecting it, vocations that were to give religious life an unexpected flowering.
Marie Anne Ernestine Welsersheimb was born at Graz in Styria on 12th January 1805. She was the grand-daughter of Count Godefroid Suardi, chamberlain to Joseph II. The Countess, her mother, a woman of lofty intelligence and great piety, brought up her eight children in a most Christian manner, her “eight beatitudes” as she called them. Then, when she had assured their future, she entered religion, thirteen years after the death of her husband. This resolution caused a great deal of talk and aroused much astonishment. The noble Christian was content to reply: “If someone goes far away, into a foreign country, to gather a rich inheritance and deprives himself for a few years of the commodities he has enjoyed in the midst of his own family, no one would think of being astonished. So from where does it come that people feel the need to speak to a person who is attracted by the magnificent promises of Our Lord and leaves everything to follow Him, and renounce for just a small number of years the pleasures that the world offers him!”
Marie Ernestine was worthy of such a mother. After smiling for some time on the brilliant world that surrounded her, she studied her vocation under the guidance of a holy religious, the Venerable Father Passerat, and on 4th September 1825, at the age of twenty, she went to rejoin, in the cloister of the Redemptoristines of Vienna, that great Christian who had brought her into the world.[1] Beginning from this moment, a complete transformation was worked in her. In the footsteps of the divine Redeemer she took up her cross and bore it courageously for the space of nearly fifty years.
In fact this life of privations, renunciations and immolation was a long way of the cross that finally ended with a holy death! Marie-Ernestine had scarcely left the world when she exchanged her brilliant home for a very poor convent, and her gentle and tranquil existence gave way to a life of work. First of all she was occupied with poor, abandoned children. She taught these poor children reading writing and arithmetic. When these years of testing had ended, her religious profession (30th January 1832) brought a new task to her who was now called Sister Maria-Victoria of Jesus. Was it not a very heavy cross for a religious of twenty seven years of age to have to direct the educandes? This meant receiving, as they left the world, persons of every age and every condition. It meant helping them to leave behind their ideas, their own habits and their own will. In a word, it meant struggling against habits of life already adopted and substituting others for them. This difficult office was one that Sister Maria-Victoria fulfilled with success. Soon she had to bear a cross heavier still. When she became Mistress of Novices, she had the future of her entire Institute in her hands, but her courage was at the summit of her mission.
However, separations came to add their thorns to cares already so grave. In 1841, Sister Maria-Victoria saw die before her eyes that pious, that heroic mother who, in a manner of speaking, had given her life twice. In the same year, she said farewell to Mother Marie-Alphonse who went to found the convent of the Redemptoristines at Bruges in Belgium. Finally there arrived that year 1848 which was so full of turmoil of every kind. On 6th April, the ferocious mob which had chased out the Redemptorist Fathers and thrown them out onto the highway, including, although they did not know it, Father Passerat, weighed down with his seventy six years, that impious mob laid waste to the nuns’ church, and they too had to seek their salvation in flight.
Once the rabble had been satisfied, the way of the cross continued for Maria-Victoria of Jesus. To the friendly offers of help, seductive to a soul less strong, she replied: “What! Abandon the Institute to which God has called me? Never! Even if I have to walk hundreds of miles on foot, or undergo the most severe privations, I shall seek out my Sisters, and I shall live and die in the midst of them.” She took refuge at Aix-la-Chapelle with six of her Sisters, and accepted the hospitality offered to them by the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth. Then Galoppe, in Holland, became her home. Three years of privations and sufferings did not discourage her. Finally, a beautiful convent, graciously called “Valley of Mary”, Marienthal, replaced the provisional house in 1851. Maria-Victoria was filled with the greatest joy, but the two years that she spent there were once again marked by her devotion to the common cause. She was Mistress of Novices, Consultor, and Secretary to the Superior. There were always responsibilities, and if you wish to call them that, honours, but there was always the cross.
In 1853 we find Sister Maria-Victoria of Jesus at Ried. She was there for eleven years as the Superior of a convent of her Order. The material situation there was precarious, but, in the school of adversity, a courageous soul is hardened against obstacles. And we may say more, she found her strength in the cross itself which crushes less generous souls. The 30th January 1854 was for this Servant of God the 25th jubilee her religious life. It was a triumph of a day, a charming feast which was to give way to new sorrows! For an elevated heart, what pains there were in seeing the concordat between the Holy See and Austria denounced, and the war in Italy open a long series of outrages and atrocious crimes! Sister Maria-Victoria keenly suffered these grave wounds given to the faith, both in her dear homeland and in the whole world, and how great was her sorrow in seeing, after the Council, a sect of “Old Catholics” establishing even at Ried, and almost at the door of the convent, its sacrilegious assizes! The “fiat voluntas” of the divine Saviour in the Garden of Olives presented itself unceasingly in the memory of the Servant of God in the midst of these circumstances. We may say more: after such long trials, after such a sorrowful climb up to Calvary, this last blow was truly her death blow.
In the month of June 1874, Sister Maria-Victoria’s strength suddenly ebbed. From then on she concentrated all her thoughts on her approaching end, and on heaven which she had so long desired. On 20th July, a severe crisis failed to carry her off, but her presence of mind did not abandon her. Her eyes were drawn to a picture hanging on a wall near her bed. This picture represented Saint Joseph expiring in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Soon she cried out in a loud voice: “Sedes sapientiae, ora pro nobis” – “Seat of wisdom, pray for us.” A touching invocation, very beautiful in the face of death, and very worthy of this wise virgin who had so faithfully imitated the Queen of Virgins! It seems that at that moment, the prayer that the dying Sister had so often addressed to Mary was heard as it had been for Saint Alphonsus, as the poor invalid suddenly said to the infirmarian: “My Sister, the Mother of God has just won a victory. I have never had an apparition during my life, and now I have had one at the approach of death.” This means in a few words the last temptations of the demon and the miraculous assistance of the Mother of the Saviour. On the same day of her death, 25th July, with the aid of her Sisters she accomplished all the exercises of her Rule – the examination of conscience, the Rosary, and the Way of the Cross. She received the last sacraments. One last time, she renewed her vows of religion, and then she gently inclined her head like her heavenly Spouse on the cross. She had courageously completed her course, and went to receive the crown of life.
The special character of the interior life of Mother Maria-Victoria seems to have been Christian strength. One of our former novices writes on this subject: “Our good Mistress was a soul full of generosity, and a great friend of mortification. She had a particular talent for leading her novices to the practice of this virtue. Her instructions were ordinarily about the dangers that a soul courts with an unmortified life, and she would express herself on this point in the starkest terms. ‘No,’ she would often tell us, ‘you cannot count on going directly to an easy life in Paradise.’ ‘One of the things she inculcated the most into her novices,’ says Father Hugues, ‘was the habit of combating and subduing their natural inclinations. And so she applied herself to humbling them often and testing the promptitude of their obedience by commanding them those things painful to nature. Moreover she had a favourite maxim which she put into practice: ‘With us,’ she would say, ‘prayer and mortification must march in front. The more we advance in mortification, the more we advance in prayer.’ – ‘We only advance in the love of God,’ she also said to us, ‘to the degree that we hate our own selves. We must hate not this or that employment, but our bad inclinations, our sensuality, our bad humour. This is what we must hate, and hate it for the love of God, because we know that this displeases Him.’
A soul so upright could not fail to feel a tender devotion to the Passion of the Saviour. Sister Maria-Victoria was particularly devoted to the mystery of the Agony in the Garden of Olives. When she was the Superior at Ried, she had a little chapel constructed in the garden. It was furnished with a statue representing Our Lord in His agony and fortified by an angel. Her great consolation in her moments of anguish and perplexity was to go and pray in this chapel. There, prostrate at the feet of her divine Spouse, herself delivered to a mortal sadness, she was persuaded that He could not fail to let a look of commiseration fall upon her and come to her aid. Often, after a prolonged prayer in this blessed spot, she would intone a canticle of thanksgiving and would go back to the house with her heart filled with a holy joy. As a true daughter of Saint Alphonsus, the pious Sister had a tender love for the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. In particular she loved the martyr Saints. Without doubt in the midst of her innumerable trials she prayed long and hard to these friends of God. Saint Joseph was also the object of her filial confidence, and this great Saint rewarded her more than once for hoping in him.
The desire for heaven always possessed this beautiful soul. She would often sigh and cry out: “When then shall I arrive there finally to sing the eternal alleluia? Oh, how I rejoice in thinking of the first sight I shall have of eternity.” A holy priest advised her one day to take a remedy that cured her, and then awaited her thanksgiving. “Oh my Father,” she told him, “I cannot be grateful to you for that, for my most ardent desire is to die as soon as possible.” It was with the same sentiments that she wrote to Mother Marie-Alphonse in 1868, who was then gravely ill: “I am happy to learn that the doctor expresses the hope of your recovery. But if I rejoice, it is less for you personally than for your community, as you would wish ardently, I am convinced, to be reunited as quickly as possible with your supreme Good. And so, if I come to hear that you have left this earth, my heart will be sensibly afflicted no doubt, but I should not be able to prevent myself from rejoicing with you, and congratulate myself on having so good an advocate in heaven. We shall act in such a way, believe me, that you will not remain for long at the door of Paradise.”
About six weeks had passed since the death of Mother Maria-Victoria, when two religious consultors fell dangerously ill. Overcome with grief, the Superior felt herself brought to pray during the night at the tomb of the venerated deceased. With great confidence she said the following prayer: “Dear Mother Maria-Victoria, you know through your own experience that a Superior will find herself in pain when the consultors of the Monastery cannot fulfil their office, so help me in my distress and obtain for these two Sisters the recovery of their health.” An astonishing thing! A notable improvement was produced immediately, and at the end of five days the two invalids had entirely recovered. Some months before her last illness, Sister Maria-Victoria had written to the Superior of Marienthal that, if she was the first one to die, she would hope to warn by her death two Sisters who were no longer giving her any sign of life. Then on 23rd July 1874, on the same day of the death of Sister Maria-Victoria, a religious of Marienthal heard, at ten o’clock in the evening, a noise very close to her cell. Suddenly she perceived, standing before her bed, a Redemptoristine nun whom she did not know. The apparition was tall. Her veil was of a dazzling white. Her whole cell, which until then had been plunged in darkness, now became ablaze with light. Coming up to the bed of the invalid, the apparition blessed her and told her: “I have come from Purgatory, where I still endure a sharp pain from these two fingers.” And as she spoke, she showed her the thumb and index finger of her right hand. “I am praying for you,” she added, “so that you may go to Paradise.” Then the vision disappeared. The poor rheumatic, more dead than alive, could not close her eyes the whole night. The next morning she hurried to tell her Superior what had happened to her. Three days later, they received the news at Marienthal that Sister Maria-Victoria had died on 23rd July. On that very day, by God’s permission, she had kept her promise and by her own death she had warned her former companions.
Marie Anne Ernestine Welsersheimb was born at Graz in Styria on 12th January 1805. She was the grand-daughter of Count Godefroid Suardi, chamberlain to Joseph II. The Countess, her mother, a woman of lofty intelligence and great piety, brought up her eight children in a most Christian manner, her “eight beatitudes” as she called them. Then, when she had assured their future, she entered religion, thirteen years after the death of her husband. This resolution caused a great deal of talk and aroused much astonishment. The noble Christian was content to reply: “If someone goes far away, into a foreign country, to gather a rich inheritance and deprives himself for a few years of the commodities he has enjoyed in the midst of his own family, no one would think of being astonished. So from where does it come that people feel the need to speak to a person who is attracted by the magnificent promises of Our Lord and leaves everything to follow Him, and renounce for just a small number of years the pleasures that the world offers him!”
Marie Ernestine was worthy of such a mother. After smiling for some time on the brilliant world that surrounded her, she studied her vocation under the guidance of a holy religious, the Venerable Father Passerat, and on 4th September 1825, at the age of twenty, she went to rejoin, in the cloister of the Redemptoristines of Vienna, that great Christian who had brought her into the world.[1] Beginning from this moment, a complete transformation was worked in her. In the footsteps of the divine Redeemer she took up her cross and bore it courageously for the space of nearly fifty years.
In fact this life of privations, renunciations and immolation was a long way of the cross that finally ended with a holy death! Marie-Ernestine had scarcely left the world when she exchanged her brilliant home for a very poor convent, and her gentle and tranquil existence gave way to a life of work. First of all she was occupied with poor, abandoned children. She taught these poor children reading writing and arithmetic. When these years of testing had ended, her religious profession (30th January 1832) brought a new task to her who was now called Sister Maria-Victoria of Jesus. Was it not a very heavy cross for a religious of twenty seven years of age to have to direct the educandes? This meant receiving, as they left the world, persons of every age and every condition. It meant helping them to leave behind their ideas, their own habits and their own will. In a word, it meant struggling against habits of life already adopted and substituting others for them. This difficult office was one that Sister Maria-Victoria fulfilled with success. Soon she had to bear a cross heavier still. When she became Mistress of Novices, she had the future of her entire Institute in her hands, but her courage was at the summit of her mission.
However, separations came to add their thorns to cares already so grave. In 1841, Sister Maria-Victoria saw die before her eyes that pious, that heroic mother who, in a manner of speaking, had given her life twice. In the same year, she said farewell to Mother Marie-Alphonse who went to found the convent of the Redemptoristines at Bruges in Belgium. Finally there arrived that year 1848 which was so full of turmoil of every kind. On 6th April, the ferocious mob which had chased out the Redemptorist Fathers and thrown them out onto the highway, including, although they did not know it, Father Passerat, weighed down with his seventy six years, that impious mob laid waste to the nuns’ church, and they too had to seek their salvation in flight.
Once the rabble had been satisfied, the way of the cross continued for Maria-Victoria of Jesus. To the friendly offers of help, seductive to a soul less strong, she replied: “What! Abandon the Institute to which God has called me? Never! Even if I have to walk hundreds of miles on foot, or undergo the most severe privations, I shall seek out my Sisters, and I shall live and die in the midst of them.” She took refuge at Aix-la-Chapelle with six of her Sisters, and accepted the hospitality offered to them by the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth. Then Galoppe, in Holland, became her home. Three years of privations and sufferings did not discourage her. Finally, a beautiful convent, graciously called “Valley of Mary”, Marienthal, replaced the provisional house in 1851. Maria-Victoria was filled with the greatest joy, but the two years that she spent there were once again marked by her devotion to the common cause. She was Mistress of Novices, Consultor, and Secretary to the Superior. There were always responsibilities, and if you wish to call them that, honours, but there was always the cross.
In 1853 we find Sister Maria-Victoria of Jesus at Ried. She was there for eleven years as the Superior of a convent of her Order. The material situation there was precarious, but, in the school of adversity, a courageous soul is hardened against obstacles. And we may say more, she found her strength in the cross itself which crushes less generous souls. The 30th January 1854 was for this Servant of God the 25th jubilee her religious life. It was a triumph of a day, a charming feast which was to give way to new sorrows! For an elevated heart, what pains there were in seeing the concordat between the Holy See and Austria denounced, and the war in Italy open a long series of outrages and atrocious crimes! Sister Maria-Victoria keenly suffered these grave wounds given to the faith, both in her dear homeland and in the whole world, and how great was her sorrow in seeing, after the Council, a sect of “Old Catholics” establishing even at Ried, and almost at the door of the convent, its sacrilegious assizes! The “fiat voluntas” of the divine Saviour in the Garden of Olives presented itself unceasingly in the memory of the Servant of God in the midst of these circumstances. We may say more: after such long trials, after such a sorrowful climb up to Calvary, this last blow was truly her death blow.
In the month of June 1874, Sister Maria-Victoria’s strength suddenly ebbed. From then on she concentrated all her thoughts on her approaching end, and on heaven which she had so long desired. On 20th July, a severe crisis failed to carry her off, but her presence of mind did not abandon her. Her eyes were drawn to a picture hanging on a wall near her bed. This picture represented Saint Joseph expiring in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Soon she cried out in a loud voice: “Sedes sapientiae, ora pro nobis” – “Seat of wisdom, pray for us.” A touching invocation, very beautiful in the face of death, and very worthy of this wise virgin who had so faithfully imitated the Queen of Virgins! It seems that at that moment, the prayer that the dying Sister had so often addressed to Mary was heard as it had been for Saint Alphonsus, as the poor invalid suddenly said to the infirmarian: “My Sister, the Mother of God has just won a victory. I have never had an apparition during my life, and now I have had one at the approach of death.” This means in a few words the last temptations of the demon and the miraculous assistance of the Mother of the Saviour. On the same day of her death, 25th July, with the aid of her Sisters she accomplished all the exercises of her Rule – the examination of conscience, the Rosary, and the Way of the Cross. She received the last sacraments. One last time, she renewed her vows of religion, and then she gently inclined her head like her heavenly Spouse on the cross. She had courageously completed her course, and went to receive the crown of life.
The special character of the interior life of Mother Maria-Victoria seems to have been Christian strength. One of our former novices writes on this subject: “Our good Mistress was a soul full of generosity, and a great friend of mortification. She had a particular talent for leading her novices to the practice of this virtue. Her instructions were ordinarily about the dangers that a soul courts with an unmortified life, and she would express herself on this point in the starkest terms. ‘No,’ she would often tell us, ‘you cannot count on going directly to an easy life in Paradise.’ ‘One of the things she inculcated the most into her novices,’ says Father Hugues, ‘was the habit of combating and subduing their natural inclinations. And so she applied herself to humbling them often and testing the promptitude of their obedience by commanding them those things painful to nature. Moreover she had a favourite maxim which she put into practice: ‘With us,’ she would say, ‘prayer and mortification must march in front. The more we advance in mortification, the more we advance in prayer.’ – ‘We only advance in the love of God,’ she also said to us, ‘to the degree that we hate our own selves. We must hate not this or that employment, but our bad inclinations, our sensuality, our bad humour. This is what we must hate, and hate it for the love of God, because we know that this displeases Him.’
A soul so upright could not fail to feel a tender devotion to the Passion of the Saviour. Sister Maria-Victoria was particularly devoted to the mystery of the Agony in the Garden of Olives. When she was the Superior at Ried, she had a little chapel constructed in the garden. It was furnished with a statue representing Our Lord in His agony and fortified by an angel. Her great consolation in her moments of anguish and perplexity was to go and pray in this chapel. There, prostrate at the feet of her divine Spouse, herself delivered to a mortal sadness, she was persuaded that He could not fail to let a look of commiseration fall upon her and come to her aid. Often, after a prolonged prayer in this blessed spot, she would intone a canticle of thanksgiving and would go back to the house with her heart filled with a holy joy. As a true daughter of Saint Alphonsus, the pious Sister had a tender love for the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. In particular she loved the martyr Saints. Without doubt in the midst of her innumerable trials she prayed long and hard to these friends of God. Saint Joseph was also the object of her filial confidence, and this great Saint rewarded her more than once for hoping in him.
The desire for heaven always possessed this beautiful soul. She would often sigh and cry out: “When then shall I arrive there finally to sing the eternal alleluia? Oh, how I rejoice in thinking of the first sight I shall have of eternity.” A holy priest advised her one day to take a remedy that cured her, and then awaited her thanksgiving. “Oh my Father,” she told him, “I cannot be grateful to you for that, for my most ardent desire is to die as soon as possible.” It was with the same sentiments that she wrote to Mother Marie-Alphonse in 1868, who was then gravely ill: “I am happy to learn that the doctor expresses the hope of your recovery. But if I rejoice, it is less for you personally than for your community, as you would wish ardently, I am convinced, to be reunited as quickly as possible with your supreme Good. And so, if I come to hear that you have left this earth, my heart will be sensibly afflicted no doubt, but I should not be able to prevent myself from rejoicing with you, and congratulate myself on having so good an advocate in heaven. We shall act in such a way, believe me, that you will not remain for long at the door of Paradise.”
About six weeks had passed since the death of Mother Maria-Victoria, when two religious consultors fell dangerously ill. Overcome with grief, the Superior felt herself brought to pray during the night at the tomb of the venerated deceased. With great confidence she said the following prayer: “Dear Mother Maria-Victoria, you know through your own experience that a Superior will find herself in pain when the consultors of the Monastery cannot fulfil their office, so help me in my distress and obtain for these two Sisters the recovery of their health.” An astonishing thing! A notable improvement was produced immediately, and at the end of five days the two invalids had entirely recovered. Some months before her last illness, Sister Maria-Victoria had written to the Superior of Marienthal that, if she was the first one to die, she would hope to warn by her death two Sisters who were no longer giving her any sign of life. Then on 23rd July 1874, on the same day of the death of Sister Maria-Victoria, a religious of Marienthal heard, at ten o’clock in the evening, a noise very close to her cell. Suddenly she perceived, standing before her bed, a Redemptoristine nun whom she did not know. The apparition was tall. Her veil was of a dazzling white. Her whole cell, which until then had been plunged in darkness, now became ablaze with light. Coming up to the bed of the invalid, the apparition blessed her and told her: “I have come from Purgatory, where I still endure a sharp pain from these two fingers.” And as she spoke, she showed her the thumb and index finger of her right hand. “I am praying for you,” she added, “so that you may go to Paradise.” Then the vision disappeared. The poor rheumatic, more dead than alive, could not close her eyes the whole night. The next morning she hurried to tell her Superior what had happened to her. Three days later, they received the news at Marienthal that Sister Maria-Victoria had died on 23rd July. On that very day, by God’s permission, she had kept her promise and by her own death she had warned her former companions.
AUSPICE DEI GENITRICE MARIA.
Footnotes
Footnotes
[1] See the charming work by Rev. Father Hugues called: Deux religieuses Rédemptoristines [Two religious Redemptoristines], 1 vol. Casterman
Sister Maria-Xavier of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Ried
(1837 – 1852)
(1837 – 1852)
We know nothing of the life that Elisabeth Faust led in the world, except that she was pious and a source of edification for others.
Elisabeth was born on 5th March 1813 at Duren Protring Niedersheim (Prussia). On 19th October 1837, she entered the Redemptoristine Monastery of Vienna, received the holy habit on 7th January 1839, with the beautiful name of Sister Maria-Xavier of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and made her profession on 9th January 1840.
She had spent eight years in the exercise of the virtues of her state when the Revolution of 1848 drove her from her convent. This was on 6th April. On the 15th, she arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle with several of her Sisters and stayed there for some years. On 26th June 1851 we find her at Marienthal, and finally, in October 1852, she was sent with three other Sisters to Ried, in Austria, to establish a foundation there. Six other Sisters soon came there to join her.
It was in this Convent of Saint Anne that the cross of Our Lord especially came to visit our good Sister. With the others, Sister Maria-Xavier happily and joyfully endured the privations of the poverty and inconveniences at the beginning, but a short while afterwards a mysterious dream warned her unawares to the approaching arrival of her heavenly Spouse.
In her dream she saw Our Lord weighed down with His Cross. He was in the street and making His way to the Monastery. Seeing Him at the end of His strength, Sister Maria-Xavier said to Him: “Lord, come in here!” and the Lord asked her: “Do you love Me?” She replied immediately: “Oh, yes, we love you.” And the Lord replied: “Do you also love My Cross?” “Yes, we love it” replied the Sister.
Jesus (we soon saw Him) accepted the invitation that had been given Him. A Sister had caught smallpox in Vienna and was cured of it, but Sister Maria-Xavier then caught the illness and died of it. It was in a matter of three days. On 18th November at one o’clock in the morning, she died quite resigned to the holy will of God and all aflame with the desire to see Him whose cross she loved.
“On Friday,” says the Monastery Chronicle, “she was buried.” Some young ladies in white carried her coffin. On the following Sunday, the Reverend Father gave a sermon in our little church that impressed everyone. “Sister Maria-Xavier was a generous religious, humble and devout, and having in mind only the glory of God. After her several Sisters and the Superior fell ill, but they all recovered. Our Lord had judged Sister Maria-Xavier worthy to be the first victim of the new foundation and to be the first to receive the wonderful hospitality of Paradise.”
Elisabeth was born on 5th March 1813 at Duren Protring Niedersheim (Prussia). On 19th October 1837, she entered the Redemptoristine Monastery of Vienna, received the holy habit on 7th January 1839, with the beautiful name of Sister Maria-Xavier of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and made her profession on 9th January 1840.
She had spent eight years in the exercise of the virtues of her state when the Revolution of 1848 drove her from her convent. This was on 6th April. On the 15th, she arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle with several of her Sisters and stayed there for some years. On 26th June 1851 we find her at Marienthal, and finally, in October 1852, she was sent with three other Sisters to Ried, in Austria, to establish a foundation there. Six other Sisters soon came there to join her.
It was in this Convent of Saint Anne that the cross of Our Lord especially came to visit our good Sister. With the others, Sister Maria-Xavier happily and joyfully endured the privations of the poverty and inconveniences at the beginning, but a short while afterwards a mysterious dream warned her unawares to the approaching arrival of her heavenly Spouse.
In her dream she saw Our Lord weighed down with His Cross. He was in the street and making His way to the Monastery. Seeing Him at the end of His strength, Sister Maria-Xavier said to Him: “Lord, come in here!” and the Lord asked her: “Do you love Me?” She replied immediately: “Oh, yes, we love you.” And the Lord replied: “Do you also love My Cross?” “Yes, we love it” replied the Sister.
Jesus (we soon saw Him) accepted the invitation that had been given Him. A Sister had caught smallpox in Vienna and was cured of it, but Sister Maria-Xavier then caught the illness and died of it. It was in a matter of three days. On 18th November at one o’clock in the morning, she died quite resigned to the holy will of God and all aflame with the desire to see Him whose cross she loved.
“On Friday,” says the Monastery Chronicle, “she was buried.” Some young ladies in white carried her coffin. On the following Sunday, the Reverend Father gave a sermon in our little church that impressed everyone. “Sister Maria-Xavier was a generous religious, humble and devout, and having in mind only the glory of God. After her several Sisters and the Superior fell ill, but they all recovered. Our Lord had judged Sister Maria-Xavier worthy to be the first victim of the new foundation and to be the first to receive the wonderful hospitality of Paradise.”
Sister Maria-Matilda of the Crucifixion,O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Ried
(1874 – 1897)
(1874 – 1897)
Sister Maria-Matilda was born on 10th October 1874 at Lebersham, in the parish of Schwannenstadt in Austria. At an early age she gave the signs of a great piety. Her greatest joy was to erect little chapels in honour of the Blessed Virgin, light candles there and pray there devoutly. Her excellent character made her loved by everybody.
Her three sisters entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross, devoted to the care of the sick. She would also have liked to consecrate herself entirely to God, but her parents did not consent at all and entrusted the direction of the paternal home to her. She submitted, but prayed so well to Him who has the hearts of mankind in His hands, that she obtained the object of her desires. Nonetheless, she was required to fix her choice on the Order of the Sisters of the Cross. More attracted to the contemplative life, the young lady refused. For an entire year, they tried to make her enter as per their original plan, and her Sisters did not spare her, but her fierce resistance disconcerted their efforts. A short time afterwards, her father recognized the holy will of God and sacrificed his cherished child, and she joyously took her flight and entered the convent of Ried on 29th September 1894. “Now,” she cried, “I am happy. I have chosen the better part!” From then on, this was the habitual refrain of her life.
After the most fervent of postulancies, Elise received the holy habit, and with it, the name of Sister Maria-Matilda of the Crucifixion. Yet this only caused an increase in her love for Jesus crucified, to whom she had already given her whole heart. The abundant fullness of her soul overflowed willingly in ardent acts, and her tears often betrayed the affections that filled it, especially at the holy table and on the Way of the Cross. Her fellow Sisters often told the Mistress of Novices: “Our Elise is consumed with love, and will not live for very long.” But what does time matter? “You need less time than will power to become a saint” they rightly said.
On 19th October 1896, Sister Maria-Matilda was joined by her holy vows to the Spouse of souls. From then on, she became more and more attached to the practice of that sincere mortification which is the royal road of prayer. Ingenious in tormenting herself, and even more ingenious in obeying, she showed that the love of Jesus crucified had truly penetrated her heart, and that, in the example of her Saviour, she was seeking for nothing else than the will of God. She became unwell, was dispensed from all her work and installed in the infirmary. However, one day the Mistress of Novices said to her: “Sister Maria-Matilda, go and wash the dishes today. The Sisters are so few in number!” Without saying a single word, Sister Maria-Matilda made her way to the door, took some holy water and appeared in the kitchen. But the Infirmarian in her turn then came running: “My Sister,” she said, “this is not necessary. Another Sister will come and do the work. Return to the infirmary.” And the good Sister returned that instant.
The will of God was soon declared in a more precise manner. It was the cross in all its rigour, that is to say, the sacrifice of her life that the Lord was about to impose on His servant. Throughout the whole duration of her illness, Sister Maria-Matilda had only these words on her lips: “The will of God!” Confined to her chair, she communicated every day in Viaticum and heard the Holy Mass every day. At the beginning of February 1897, she received Extreme Unction. “May I die now?” she asked. And the Infirmarian replied: “Yes, you may.”
This reply filled Sister Maria-Matilda with joy. The pneumonia that was consuming her had reached its last stage. In the night of 10th to 11th February, the invalid suddenly lifted up her head as if to listen to some words that she could hear, and then she fainted. They then recited the prayers of the agonising. The invalid came back to herself and smiled as is she had come back from another world. Her eyes were shining with joy and then seemed to fix on a marvellous spectacle, and when her Superior asked her if she could see her beloved Saviour, and her tender Mother Mary, and Saint Alphonsus her glorious Patron, she nodded her head at each one of these blessed names. Then she looked one last time at her Mistress of Novices and if to say one last “thank you”, and rendered her beautiful soul to God.
Her three sisters entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross, devoted to the care of the sick. She would also have liked to consecrate herself entirely to God, but her parents did not consent at all and entrusted the direction of the paternal home to her. She submitted, but prayed so well to Him who has the hearts of mankind in His hands, that she obtained the object of her desires. Nonetheless, she was required to fix her choice on the Order of the Sisters of the Cross. More attracted to the contemplative life, the young lady refused. For an entire year, they tried to make her enter as per their original plan, and her Sisters did not spare her, but her fierce resistance disconcerted their efforts. A short time afterwards, her father recognized the holy will of God and sacrificed his cherished child, and she joyously took her flight and entered the convent of Ried on 29th September 1894. “Now,” she cried, “I am happy. I have chosen the better part!” From then on, this was the habitual refrain of her life.
After the most fervent of postulancies, Elise received the holy habit, and with it, the name of Sister Maria-Matilda of the Crucifixion. Yet this only caused an increase in her love for Jesus crucified, to whom she had already given her whole heart. The abundant fullness of her soul overflowed willingly in ardent acts, and her tears often betrayed the affections that filled it, especially at the holy table and on the Way of the Cross. Her fellow Sisters often told the Mistress of Novices: “Our Elise is consumed with love, and will not live for very long.” But what does time matter? “You need less time than will power to become a saint” they rightly said.
On 19th October 1896, Sister Maria-Matilda was joined by her holy vows to the Spouse of souls. From then on, she became more and more attached to the practice of that sincere mortification which is the royal road of prayer. Ingenious in tormenting herself, and even more ingenious in obeying, she showed that the love of Jesus crucified had truly penetrated her heart, and that, in the example of her Saviour, she was seeking for nothing else than the will of God. She became unwell, was dispensed from all her work and installed in the infirmary. However, one day the Mistress of Novices said to her: “Sister Maria-Matilda, go and wash the dishes today. The Sisters are so few in number!” Without saying a single word, Sister Maria-Matilda made her way to the door, took some holy water and appeared in the kitchen. But the Infirmarian in her turn then came running: “My Sister,” she said, “this is not necessary. Another Sister will come and do the work. Return to the infirmary.” And the good Sister returned that instant.
The will of God was soon declared in a more precise manner. It was the cross in all its rigour, that is to say, the sacrifice of her life that the Lord was about to impose on His servant. Throughout the whole duration of her illness, Sister Maria-Matilda had only these words on her lips: “The will of God!” Confined to her chair, she communicated every day in Viaticum and heard the Holy Mass every day. At the beginning of February 1897, she received Extreme Unction. “May I die now?” she asked. And the Infirmarian replied: “Yes, you may.”
This reply filled Sister Maria-Matilda with joy. The pneumonia that was consuming her had reached its last stage. In the night of 10th to 11th February, the invalid suddenly lifted up her head as if to listen to some words that she could hear, and then she fainted. They then recited the prayers of the agonising. The invalid came back to herself and smiled as is she had come back from another world. Her eyes were shining with joy and then seemed to fix on a marvellous spectacle, and when her Superior asked her if she could see her beloved Saviour, and her tender Mother Mary, and Saint Alphonsus her glorious Patron, she nodded her head at each one of these blessed names. Then she looked one last time at her Mistress of Novices and if to say one last “thank you”, and rendered her beautiful soul to God.
Sister Maria-Hedwig of the Flagellation of Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Ried
(1892 – 1897)
(1892 – 1897)
She was also a sweet flower of the Passion, this good Sister Maria-Hedwig who, in the humble condition of a converse, merited the heavenly favours during her life and at her death.
She was born at Wirgen, parish of Brixen, in the Tyrol. While still a child, she gave the signs of a tender piety. And also while still a child, she was as if vowed to the cross. Often, indeed, epileptic attacks would throw her to the ground, and the terrible illness left her as though dead before the eyes of her grieving parents. So her pious mother consecrated her little Elise to the Blessed Virgin, made her touch a picture of Mary three times, and had this picture hung on the privileged altar of Our Lady of the Snows. The attacks ceased completely, and thus the child became very devoted to the most holy Mother of God at a very early age.
Her character was sweet and obliging, so her six brothers and sisters happily benefited from it. Elise submitted to them all and did not neglect any occasion to render them service, as a consequence of becoming spiritually enriched. Later on, she entered service in the hospital in Innsbruck, and it was there that she met the Redemptorist Fathers and expressed her desire to them to enter a convent. In the example of her elder sister, she chose the Order of the Redemptoristines and entered the Convent of Saint Anne at Ried (Upper Austria) on 8th September 1892, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.
And so on this wonderful day, as the Chronicle says, she had a new spiritual birth and was admitted to the cradle of religious life. It was with tears of joy and gratitude that she saw her elder sister again, who had taken the veil the preceding year. She cast herself at the feet of the Child Jesus, understanding in advance the words of the Saviour: “unless you be like little children…” and immediately exercised herself, by the practice of humility and obedience, in intimate life with Jesus and Mary. During the ten months of testing in the Postulancy, she climbed, as we may say, the steps of the Temple under the guidance of Mary, and then entered the sanctuary of the Novitiate. She took the veil on 28th September 1893, with the name of Sister Maria-Hedwig of the Flagellation of Jesus.
From then on she gave a good example of all the virtues. For her, work and suffering were the joys of her heart. She set her eyes on only Jesus and Mary and made herself a crown of virtues for the day of her wedding with her beloved Saviour. This much desired day arrived on 28thOctober 1894. Even though she had been greatly elevated by grace, she looked upon herself as the least in the house and made herself the servant of all the Sisters. However, she always remained recollected, absorbed in God, speaking but little, but always courteous and full of kindness. At the end of her Novitiate, the flowers were entrusted to her. She took a very special care of them, without thinking, however, that the divine Gardener would soon come to gather her soul as a flower agreeable to His eyes. Strong and robust as she was, one day she was carrying a heavy burden of flower pots. Suddenly she lost her footing and fell down many of the steps to the green-house. The terrible blow she received soon caused her to start spitting blood, and then pneumonia was diagnosed. This trial was a great one for the community. It was even more so for Sister Hedwig who, having been accepted without a dowry, had promised to make up for this lack of the goods of this world by her devotion and services. But this faithful soul remembered the great law of the will of God, and she generously accepted the cross that her name in religion reminded her of every day. With Mary she had entered, with Mary she had climbed the steps of the Temple, and with Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, she ascended Mount Calvary.
“Her illness made rapid progress. Sister Maria-Hedwig wanted no exceptions for herself and even asked for the soup of the poor. Her true food was doing the will of God, and she never ceased speaking of it. After receiving Extreme Unction, she gave a great witness of her gratitude to God and begged all the Sisters to thank Him with her. At one o’clock in the morning, she was seen to be full of joy and as if transfigured. She opened her arms and cried out: “Ah, here’s Jesus!” And when Mother Superior asked her what she had seen, she replied: “Oh, I am not worthy of such favours. I’m only a poor sinner.” And then she added: “O my Jesus, I love You! What happiness to be able to sacrifice myself!” She continued on like this, with her face all aflame, and did her acts of love and humility until the hour of her death. At the supreme moment she asked for the blessed candle, and radiant with joy, she then expired peacefully. This was on 24th September 1897, at two o’clock in the morning.
She was born at Wirgen, parish of Brixen, in the Tyrol. While still a child, she gave the signs of a tender piety. And also while still a child, she was as if vowed to the cross. Often, indeed, epileptic attacks would throw her to the ground, and the terrible illness left her as though dead before the eyes of her grieving parents. So her pious mother consecrated her little Elise to the Blessed Virgin, made her touch a picture of Mary three times, and had this picture hung on the privileged altar of Our Lady of the Snows. The attacks ceased completely, and thus the child became very devoted to the most holy Mother of God at a very early age.
Her character was sweet and obliging, so her six brothers and sisters happily benefited from it. Elise submitted to them all and did not neglect any occasion to render them service, as a consequence of becoming spiritually enriched. Later on, she entered service in the hospital in Innsbruck, and it was there that she met the Redemptorist Fathers and expressed her desire to them to enter a convent. In the example of her elder sister, she chose the Order of the Redemptoristines and entered the Convent of Saint Anne at Ried (Upper Austria) on 8th September 1892, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.
And so on this wonderful day, as the Chronicle says, she had a new spiritual birth and was admitted to the cradle of religious life. It was with tears of joy and gratitude that she saw her elder sister again, who had taken the veil the preceding year. She cast herself at the feet of the Child Jesus, understanding in advance the words of the Saviour: “unless you be like little children…” and immediately exercised herself, by the practice of humility and obedience, in intimate life with Jesus and Mary. During the ten months of testing in the Postulancy, she climbed, as we may say, the steps of the Temple under the guidance of Mary, and then entered the sanctuary of the Novitiate. She took the veil on 28th September 1893, with the name of Sister Maria-Hedwig of the Flagellation of Jesus.
From then on she gave a good example of all the virtues. For her, work and suffering were the joys of her heart. She set her eyes on only Jesus and Mary and made herself a crown of virtues for the day of her wedding with her beloved Saviour. This much desired day arrived on 28thOctober 1894. Even though she had been greatly elevated by grace, she looked upon herself as the least in the house and made herself the servant of all the Sisters. However, she always remained recollected, absorbed in God, speaking but little, but always courteous and full of kindness. At the end of her Novitiate, the flowers were entrusted to her. She took a very special care of them, without thinking, however, that the divine Gardener would soon come to gather her soul as a flower agreeable to His eyes. Strong and robust as she was, one day she was carrying a heavy burden of flower pots. Suddenly she lost her footing and fell down many of the steps to the green-house. The terrible blow she received soon caused her to start spitting blood, and then pneumonia was diagnosed. This trial was a great one for the community. It was even more so for Sister Hedwig who, having been accepted without a dowry, had promised to make up for this lack of the goods of this world by her devotion and services. But this faithful soul remembered the great law of the will of God, and she generously accepted the cross that her name in religion reminded her of every day. With Mary she had entered, with Mary she had climbed the steps of the Temple, and with Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, she ascended Mount Calvary.
“Her illness made rapid progress. Sister Maria-Hedwig wanted no exceptions for herself and even asked for the soup of the poor. Her true food was doing the will of God, and she never ceased speaking of it. After receiving Extreme Unction, she gave a great witness of her gratitude to God and begged all the Sisters to thank Him with her. At one o’clock in the morning, she was seen to be full of joy and as if transfigured. She opened her arms and cried out: “Ah, here’s Jesus!” And when Mother Superior asked her what she had seen, she replied: “Oh, I am not worthy of such favours. I’m only a poor sinner.” And then she added: “O my Jesus, I love You! What happiness to be able to sacrifice myself!” She continued on like this, with her face all aflame, and did her acts of love and humility until the hour of her death. At the supreme moment she asked for the blessed candle, and radiant with joy, she then expired peacefully. This was on 24th September 1897, at two o’clock in the morning.
* * MONASTERY OF GARS * *
Mother Marie-Cecilia of the Child Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Gars
(1834 – 1890)
Born Angela Druffel
(1834 – 1890)
Born Angela Druffel
Angela Druffel was born at Wiedenbruck in Westphalia on Christmas Day 1834. She felt herself attracted towards the religious life during the exercises of a mission, but she did not make her choice until she had visited several convents. The Institute of the Redemptoristines pleased her above all the others, and she entered the Monastery of Marienthal on 21st November 1854. The holy habit was given to her the following year on the same day, and in 1856 she took her vows on the same day as the feast of Saint Cecilia, her patron in religion.
What distinguished good Sister Marie-Cecilia first and foremost was her admirable calmness, her recollection, her regularity and a maturity quite unusual for her age. Moreover, suffering had already made its mark upon her, by means of premature fasts in her youth. But her strength of soul made her overcome every fatigue. Miserly with her time, she consecrated it entirely to the duties of her state and to prayer, continually nourishing her spirit and her heart with good thoughts, and profiting from everything to acquire the treasures of the soul. Moreover, the Lord led her by the way of spiritual joy, and the heavenly Spouse habitually gave her His interior assurances, which, as Saint Teresa says, makes us fly rather than walk in the way of perfection.
Her love of prayer, recollection and silence was also the soul of the government of Mother Marie-Cecilia when she was elected Superior. At the same time there could be seen radiating from her person a great prudence and a very delicate charity both in her words and in her judgements, with a great humility and a wise distrust in her own illumination. She was still the Superior when the Convent of Marienthal went up in flames in 1877. Meeting one of the Sisters in the corridor while the convent was all in flames, she said to her with an admirable submissiveness: “This is the will of God, we must be resigned to it. What has happened to us happily is not a venial sin.” These were sublime words which show us all the greatness of her faith. Moreover she attributed this trial to her own sins, but in it we can admire her profound humility even more. In the temporary exile which followed this catastrophe, she showed herself at her very best, sustaining all her Sisters by her maternal charity and her unshakeable confidence in God.
After having been the Superior at Marienthal twice, she was appointed in 1884 to fulfil the same functions at the Monastery of Gars [1] in Austria. It was at the end of her triennium that she manifested the symptoms of the illness that was to bear her away. This illness was long and painful, but she sanctified it by a continual prayer and an unchanging patience. In her last days especially she felt as though she was being devoured by an interior fire. “I would never have thought,” she said sometimes, “that a human creature could suffer so much.” The ardour of her love for God here became even more admirable. With what edification did we not hear her often repeating these beautiful words: “My Jesus who is so good, I thank you for these sorrows!”
Her merit was all the greater because her constantly unwell state made her suffer even more than anyone could see. In her last years, her state became a veritable Purgatory, but her constancy was never shaken. On the night preceding her death, she could be heard offering up this admirable act of love, well worthy of a daughter of Saint Alphonsus: “My God, I wish to suffer as much as You wish, and I wish to suffer not so as to escape Hell, not to acquire Heaven, but simply out of pure love for You, since You merit us suffering for You, and You wish it so. O my God, as often as I make a movement of my finger, then as often do I wish to renew the act that I have just made.” Then, turning towards the Sisters, she said: “God is so good!. How many graces have I not received from Him!”
She invoked her guardian Angel with confidence, and Saint Cecilia, her patron saint, but the thought of Jesus crucified was her thought of predilection: “I have been served so well,” she would say, “but Jesus has no one to serve Him!” It was with these beautiful sentiments that, after receiving the last sacraments of the Church, she peacefully rendered her soul to God on 10th May 1890. At the beginning of the month, she had received this devise on that day as her lot to put into practice: Confidence in the mercy of God! It is this mercy that she now sings forever, we hope, in the splendours of Paradise.
What distinguished good Sister Marie-Cecilia first and foremost was her admirable calmness, her recollection, her regularity and a maturity quite unusual for her age. Moreover, suffering had already made its mark upon her, by means of premature fasts in her youth. But her strength of soul made her overcome every fatigue. Miserly with her time, she consecrated it entirely to the duties of her state and to prayer, continually nourishing her spirit and her heart with good thoughts, and profiting from everything to acquire the treasures of the soul. Moreover, the Lord led her by the way of spiritual joy, and the heavenly Spouse habitually gave her His interior assurances, which, as Saint Teresa says, makes us fly rather than walk in the way of perfection.
Her love of prayer, recollection and silence was also the soul of the government of Mother Marie-Cecilia when she was elected Superior. At the same time there could be seen radiating from her person a great prudence and a very delicate charity both in her words and in her judgements, with a great humility and a wise distrust in her own illumination. She was still the Superior when the Convent of Marienthal went up in flames in 1877. Meeting one of the Sisters in the corridor while the convent was all in flames, she said to her with an admirable submissiveness: “This is the will of God, we must be resigned to it. What has happened to us happily is not a venial sin.” These were sublime words which show us all the greatness of her faith. Moreover she attributed this trial to her own sins, but in it we can admire her profound humility even more. In the temporary exile which followed this catastrophe, she showed herself at her very best, sustaining all her Sisters by her maternal charity and her unshakeable confidence in God.
After having been the Superior at Marienthal twice, she was appointed in 1884 to fulfil the same functions at the Monastery of Gars [1] in Austria. It was at the end of her triennium that she manifested the symptoms of the illness that was to bear her away. This illness was long and painful, but she sanctified it by a continual prayer and an unchanging patience. In her last days especially she felt as though she was being devoured by an interior fire. “I would never have thought,” she said sometimes, “that a human creature could suffer so much.” The ardour of her love for God here became even more admirable. With what edification did we not hear her often repeating these beautiful words: “My Jesus who is so good, I thank you for these sorrows!”
Her merit was all the greater because her constantly unwell state made her suffer even more than anyone could see. In her last years, her state became a veritable Purgatory, but her constancy was never shaken. On the night preceding her death, she could be heard offering up this admirable act of love, well worthy of a daughter of Saint Alphonsus: “My God, I wish to suffer as much as You wish, and I wish to suffer not so as to escape Hell, not to acquire Heaven, but simply out of pure love for You, since You merit us suffering for You, and You wish it so. O my God, as often as I make a movement of my finger, then as often do I wish to renew the act that I have just made.” Then, turning towards the Sisters, she said: “God is so good!. How many graces have I not received from Him!”
She invoked her guardian Angel with confidence, and Saint Cecilia, her patron saint, but the thought of Jesus crucified was her thought of predilection: “I have been served so well,” she would say, “but Jesus has no one to serve Him!” It was with these beautiful sentiments that, after receiving the last sacraments of the Church, she peacefully rendered her soul to God on 10th May 1890. At the beginning of the month, she had received this devise on that day as her lot to put into practice: Confidence in the mercy of God! It is this mercy that she now sings forever, we hope, in the splendours of Paradise.
Footnotes
[1] ] The house of Vienna gave birth in 1839 to that of Stein, near Donon. The revolution of 1848 suppressed these two houses and the Redemptoristines of Stein moved to Gard (Bavaria). On 2nd August 1854, the day of the feast of Saint Alphonsus,the community was solemnly installed in its new Monastery.
* MONASTERY OF ST. AMAND-LES-EAUX *
Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of St. Amand-les-Eaux
(1836 – 1903)
Chapter I. Roubain, Esquermes, Malines.
I. In the boarding school.
The revered Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus, in the world Miss Marie Wattinne, was born at Roubaix (France) in one of the most honourable families of that town. Her worthy parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wattinne-Prouvost, in spite of the most striking contrasts of nature, demonstrated in themselves the archetype of Christian spouses.
Mr. Fidèle Wattine, of pure Tourcoing descent, preserved a proverbial good humour under the ice of his old age, and very skillful did he need to be to extricate himself from the pleasant stunts he dreamed up. Later on, the account of his bizarre schemes enlivened more than once the monastic recreations of the pious daughters of the Reverend Mother.
Mrs. Wattinne, a woman of duty par excellence, personified in herself the imperturbable calm of her family lineage. When she was a young lady, she was called the good Therese Prouvost. The revered Mother has said more than once that she could never recall having ever seen her laugh, but she well remembered the tears that she saw her shed one day when her little Marie committed one of those trifling indiscretions usual at a young age.
Nonetheless, the most virile faith united these two hearts by bonds that soon the joys of maternity rendered more sacred and more sweet.
Miss Marie was the sixth or the seventh of their thirteen children, six of which died at an early age. She came into the world on 22nd March 1836 and was baptised the following day in the church of Saint Martin. It was also under the auspices of the Thaumaturge of the Gauls [St. Martin of Tours] that she later made her first communion and received Confirmation. She was held over the baptismal font by her great-great-uncle, Mr. Jacques Desmazières, and by her first cousin, Mrs. Jules Desurmont-Wattinne. She was called Marie Laurente Joseph, names which were always dear to her tender piety.
In the example of her divine Mother and Patron, little Marie was devoted to God from the moment she learnt to know Him, and prayer was the habitual recourse of her soul. Under a timid exterior, the effect of her reserve and angelic modesty, flashes were revealed in her private friendships of a lively, outgoing and always lovable nature. A charming simplicity detracted nothing from the niceties of her little pranks. She was readily given the name of miss busy-body, as her natural activity led her to spread animation and life all around her.
The precocity of her judgement made her appreciated by the venerable Dean of Saint Martin, Father Maës. One day when he had gone to pay a visit to Mr. Wattinne, he was told that one of the little girls was ill. “Which one?” he asked. They told him that it was Josephine. “If it had been Marie,” Father Maës replied, “I would have confessed her.” Yet the child was then but scarcely seven years old.
Marie was enrolled successively as a day scholar at the boarding school run by the sisters Guffroy, and then that of the Ridder ladies, and merited to be seen by them as a model of good behaviour. On 6th April 1847, she had the sorrow of losing her excellent mother, whose virtues and examples had sown in the souls of her children the seeds of the most solid piety. Mrs. Wattine, a true type of the strong woman, left behind her the reputation of a saint. The following story will prove the strength of her faith. Fidèle, one of her sons, had a chest complaint and had been given up by the doctor. The following day, when he called again, he found the boy out of danger. “But Madam, what have you done?” the doctor asked. “Sir,” replied the Mother, “I prayed.” The boy recovered and survived until 28th October 1870.
Justine, the oldest in the family, a worthy scion of her virtuous mother, was thereafter in charge of the government of the house. She demonstrated a remarkable ability for it and pushed her devotion to the point of refusing the most suitable young men, until the day when, feeling herself less necessary to the family, she became in her turn a model spouse and mother.
However, the young Marie joyously saw the long-desired day of her first communion approaching. On 3rd June 1847, the day when the Church that year was celebrating the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the angelic child, now aged eleven, and in the second month of mourning for her mother, received her God for the first time. Some days afterwards, the sacrament of Confirmation was administered to her by Mons. Giraud, the Archbishop of Cambrai. It was doubtless in these memorable days that she heard the first call of the Spouse of virgins in the depths of her heart. A soul so docile and so good was completely prepared for God’s plans.
In addition, she soon saw one of her sisters consecrate herself entirely to God. Two years after the death of Mrs. Wattinne, Sophie, her youngest, obtained permission from her generous father to become a Daughter of Charity. During the last twenty eight years of her religious life she was almost always in charge and died as the Superior of the Orphanage of Providence at Toulon on 6th December 1877, in the fifty first year of her age and the twenty eighth or her religious vocation.
In April 1849, the same year as the departure of her sister Sophie, Marie, now aged thirteen, was sent as a boarder to the Monastery of Our Lady of the Plain, directed by the Bernardine Nuns of Esquermes. Her tender piety, her exactitude and her spirit of piety soon classed her among the most pious Children of Mary in the boarding school. There as everywhere, her sweetness and good behaviour gained hearts for her and merited for her the nickname of little saint which has remained attached to her memory. After four years spent in this blessed house, she had to leave these fervent religious whom she had so greatly edified and whose happy vocation she envied.
II. At the paternal home.
When she came back to the paternal home in the month of August 1853, she gave clear evidence of the fruits of the solid and lovely virtues she had just gathered so abundantly from the vine of the Lord. All her family made it their duty to admire her examples, their law to follow her advice, their need to open their hearts to her, and their happiness to love her.
The following story will prove the greatness of her spirit of conciliation. One of her brothers, who loved her greatly, nonetheless, told her one day: “Marie, I would not like to have you for my wife, because you say ‘yes’ to everything, and I need someone who knows how to rein me in.” The future was to give a response to that remark, and justified sweet Marie by making her a mother as strong as she was tender when duty required it.
Miss Justine married on 29th May 1854 and left the family where for seven years she had taken the place of her mother. Marie, then aged eighteen, replaced her in the government of the house, yet she limited herself in the direction of the household and refused the supervision of the shopping, as she did not wish to make herself indispensable. Besides, her modesty was so great that she made one involuntarily think of her as a religious in the world. And yet she knew how to enjoy the relaxations permitted. On one occasion, the only one perhaps, she had to attend an evening of dancing which was given by her family. She astonished everybody by her joyful spirit, and when later on someone reproached her, she replied: “I assure you that everything happened with the most perfect propriety, and thank heavens, I did not lose my awareness of the presence of God for an instant.”
At the age of nineteen, Marie asked her father, for whom she was his joy and consolation, for permission to leave him in order to embrace the religious life. This request saddened, without surprising, this generous Christian whose faith had never been able to refuse anything to his God. So he authorised his daughter to present herself to the Redemptoristines of Bruges. This was in April 1855.
Thirteen years had scarcely passed since the opening of the first sheep-fold of the Most Holy Redeemer in Belgium, and already the happy flock who had placed themselves under the staff of the revered foundress, Mother Marie-Alphonse, had greatly exceeded the number fixed by the holy Rule.
Mons. Malou, the Bishop of Bruges, judged that the moment had come to establish a new monastery. After discussing it with the Superior, he profited from a meeting with the Belgian Bishops at Malines to ask them to accept this foundation. The suffragan Bishops found difficulties, but Cardinal Sterckx, the Archbishop of Malines, declared that he would be happy to see a house of the Daughters of Saint Alphonsus in Brussels. Mons. Malou went to the Monastery of the Redemptoristines in his episcopal city on 2nd April to himself choose the Sisters destined for the future foundation, and these left Bruges on Monday 16th, and on Wednesday 18th they arrived at the provisional house rented in Josaphat Street, in the suburb of Schaerbeek, Brussels, by Mother Marie-Alphonse.
It was there that our young Marie presented herself on 9th July 1855 to request her admission. Then she went straight back to Roubaix. When she returned to Brussels on 26th November, she stayed at the Monastery for about six weeks as had been arranged with her father. During this time she was so sad and so disappointed that the never ceased weeping. Mother Marie-Alphonse asked her why she was so afflicted. She replied: “I am weeping because everything here displeases me, and yet God wants me to remain here.” Nonetheless the religious, at her departure, asked her if they would see her again. When she went back to Roubaix, she did not say a word to her father about what she had suffered interiorly, but when the time agreed upon had elapsed, she went back courageously to her sheep-fold on 13th May 1856. She was then only twenty years of age.
III. The Novitiate. – Her religious profession. Her first trials.
As in all foundations, the beginnings were hard, and the deprivation of spiritual help was the greatest trial. However, nothing can describe this intimate union of hearts and minds whose memory is inseparable from this poor house in Brussels, where everything was lacking except fervour, good spirits and generosity.
Marie, resolved to belong to God no matter what it would cost, was also sustained by the advice of Mother Marie-Alphonse and the examples of the thirteen professed nuns. This pious community, satisfied with the young postulant, judged her worthy to have the three remaining months of her educandate cut short and admitted her to vesting. This ceremony took place on 19th February 1857. The new novice then received the name of Sister Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus.
The year of her novitiate was spent in the fervent practice of the religious virtues. The 28th April 1858 was the wonderful day of her profession. This ceremony attracted from the other end of Lorraine the Redemptorist priest who had discerned, hatched and nourished this beautiful vocation. Rev. Father Assemaine [1] left his dear Convent of Saint Nicholas de Port for a moment and came to celebrate the grandeurs and duties of the religious life in a very apostolic discourse. There was a fine feast at the Monastery, and a great joy in the midst of the trials it was going through at this moment.
In fact, they had built the convent on a vast property overlooking the zoological garden in Brussels. Every bit of advice had been requested, and all the approvals granted, but, when the building had nearly reached completion, opinions changed and reproaches fell as thick as hail upon Mother Marie-Alphonse. Why had she chosen an estate so near to a public garden for her Monastery? Why had she given so grandiose an air to a refuge intended for poor religious? The good Mother recalled in vain that she had not chosen the site, and that on different occasions, she had recommended to the architect the most severe economy, but nothing sufficed. The good Mother saw only one refuge – prayer, and she threw herself into it. Throughout the whole Sunday that followed the feast of the Apostles Saint Peter and Paul, the Blessed Sacrament was solemnly exposed. While all the religious were at the feet of the Good Master, the Reverend Mother asked the divine Saviour exposed on the altar out loud to deign to save them in their distress. Her prayer was heard. Cardinal Sterckx suddenly felt, while he was celebrating the Holy Mass, irresistibly drawn to offer the Redemptoristines the Saint Louis Institute at Malines, which he could make available in the month of September. As if there was any need to say it, the Community accepted the offer with joyful gratitude.
“At this time,” says a contemporary, “the bills to pay rained down upon the community. Every ring of the bell brought fear into every heart. The good Mother did everything she could to satisfy the pitiless creditors as much as possible. But all the efforts of her heart, at once so upright and so generous, could not avert the catastrophe. Some time after the installation of the community at Malines, the lawsuit brought against her was won and the debts liquidated. The shareholders of the zoological garden of Brussels (Ixelles) became the owners of our magnificent property and the monastery, at a price below their real value.”
On 6th October 1858, on the feast of Saint Bruno, two special carriages left Josaphat Street, bringing, not into the land of captivity, but to the promised land, the religious victims of this long and harsh trial. Canon Van Campenhout, the Superior of the little seminary of Malines gave the community the most paternal welcome and promised them his most devoted assistance. This promise was kept, in both spiritual and temporal matters, with a benevolence that never decreased. The following day, Cardinal Sterckx came to pay the Sisters a visit. On 13th December he returned, accompanied by a numerous clergy, blessed the new Monastery and established the enclosure.
Sister Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus spent seventeen years in the Monastery of Malines. There she held the most diverse functions. Equally apt to the government of souls and the management of temporal affairs, she fulfilled in turn the charges of Mother Vicar and Housekeeper, cared for the sick with the greatest devotion in her capacity as Infirmarian, and was named Mistress of Novices. In brief, her charity, discretion and good judgement had many occasions to be exercised, and her virtues gained her every heart. Also, when it was decided that a new foundation would be established in the Diocese of Cambrai, the community was unanimous in entrusting Sister Marie-Joseph with the direction of this enterprise. The very French heart of the good Sister thrilled at this news, and under the auspices of Our Lady of Grace, the patroness of the Diocese of Cambrai, who had smoothed out all the difficulties, she set off resolutely at the head of her little colony.
Footnotes
[1] Rev. Father Assemaine was born at Tourcoing on 21st March 1825, entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on 15th October 1854 and died at New Orleans on 10th October 1870, after a very apostolic life.
Chapter II. Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.
I. Their arrival at Saint-Amand (1875).
The provisional house. – Trials and consolations.
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux is a little town in the Department of the North, famous for its ancient abbey, whose imposing ruins still evoke astonishment from travellers. It is also renowned for its medicinal waters or mud, whose effect is truly salutary. And so, on the evening of 14th October 1875, Mother Marie-Joseph arrived in this town. She was accompanied by Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Cross, the sister of Mr. Prosper Basiez, the pious lay promoter of the new foundation; Sister Marie-Claire of the Blessed Sacrament; Sister Marie-Ange of the Precious Blood; Sister Marie-Augustine of the divine Providence, who belonged to the community of Velp (Holland), and the niece of Sister Marie-Madeleine; and finally two converse Sisters completed the community, which was entirely of French nationality.
The little colony in the company of Rev. Father de Buggenoms, was received at Lille by Rev. Father Darras, of holy memory, with the most touching cordiality. That evening they were at Saint-Amand. In the light of some pale torches, the Sisters were able to see that the house that had been prepared for them bore the heraldry of poverty. This was the first joy to their hearts. They also saw with pleasure that the furnishing of the kitchen, the gift of charitable benefactors, was similar. Some good straw mattresses, on which they would soon enjoy a refreshing sleep, completed the scene.
On the evening of 15th October, the feast of Saint Therese, Father Duriez, the Dean of Saint-Amand, came to bless the little chapel and placed it under the patronage of the Holy Family. The next day, Father de Buggenoms celebrated the Holy Mass and left the Sisters the treasure of treasures, the Blessed Sacrament. On Sunday the 17th, Father Vaillant, the community’s chaplain, began the ministry that he was to exercise for twenty seven years with a devotion above all praise. Finally, on 5th November, the work of taking possession having been completed, the Dean came to proceed to the ceremony of the enclosure. On that day, a Te Deum of thanksgiving united the voices of the founders and foundresses in a concert of praises to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The life of the community began in poverty, as they had foreseen in the beginning, but also in happiness and peace. Their food was rather scanty, and their resources scarcely sufficient, but Mother Marie-Joseph, through her goodness and examples, stimulated their courage. Soon illness came to be added to their privations. Two Sisters fell ill, and the work of the household, already great, now increased. Water invaded the cellars and they had to get rid of it. In short, there was no lack of sorrows, but everyone had their courage for the work.
However, divine Providence, in whom the good Mother placed her trust, never once failed her. Several times, she found that the payment of the least expenses had not made a hole in her purse, and then, the Sisters of Ireland, whose Superior was Mother Marie-Jeanne de la Croix, gave evidence of their fraternal charity by incessant offerings, always received with gratitude. Other offerings could be recalled here if the limits of our account and the modesty of the benefactors did not impose silence on us.
Soon some postulants presented themselves. The first of them made her entry on 29th February of this leap-year 1876. She herself gives an account in these terms of the history of her admission. “On 2nd February, I presented myself to the Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph, and this first interview left me with a very sweet impression. The goodness, courtesy and simplicity of the Reverend Mother charmed me, and from then on I devoted all my affection to her. Some weeks later, I made my entry into the Monastery, which I found in the most complete state of poverty. They took me to the Educandate, which, it seems, they had hardly prepared to receive me, and which was nothing else than a corner in the attic. A tiny altar had been placed against a wall, decorated with fixtures in pearls. I could not prevent myself from laughing when I entered that garret, which reminded me more of Bethlehem than Nazareth. The floor was so worm-eaten that the foot of my chair made a hole in it the first time I sat down. The beams of the roof were laid bare, and in place of a cupboard they were using a corner of the attic into which they had fitted a door. In spite of this extreme poverty, I was convinced that I would find the happiness there promised to the poor in spirit. The example of the Reverend Mother and the Sisters would fortify my courage and inspire me to sacrifice. My expectations were not deceived.”
Other young persons did not delay in presenting themselves, and on 6th February the following year (1877), on the feast of Saint-Amand, the protector of the city, they were able to give the holy habit of the Order to three novices who received the names of Sister Marie-Alphonse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Marie-Paul of Jesus Crucified, and Sister Marie-Josephine of Jesus. On 9th February of the following year, the first two were admitted to holy profession, and Rev. Father Berthe, Redemptorist, gave the customary sermon. The eloquent preacher did not fail to recommend to the Sisters’ prayers the soul of the glorious Pius IX, who had died two days previously (7th February 1878). The community made it their duty to unite their prayers to the entire world. The Holy Sacrifice was offered and the Divine Office celebrated for the holy Pontiff.
The successor to Pius IX was his Holiness Leo XIII. The community soon received his blessing through the medium of Mr. Etienne Basiez, received in audience with the French pilgrims. When he begged the Holy Father to bless the Redemptoristines of France, His Holiness replied: “Yes, I bless these good religious.” The Holy Father, who had met the Redemptoristines of Bruges when he was the Nuncio in Belgium, repeated his blessing some time afterwards, when he gave an audience to the Most Rev. Father Mauron, the Rector Major of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He added some advice for always maintaining the good spirit and fervour of the Order. This advice was faithfully transmitted to Saint-Amand by the Very Rev. Father Desurmont, the Provincial of the French Province. This holy religious took the keenest interest in the nascent foundation.
II. The New Monastery.
However, the consolations of the present and concern for the future required them to think of leaving a residence that had now become too cramped. Mother Marie-Joseph then turned to His Lordship Mons. Monnier, the coadjutor to Mons. Régnier, the Archbishop of Cambrai, to explain her views and her wish to build a Monastery that would respond entirely to the exigencies of religious life. The venerated Prelate, who for more than forty years did not cease to be the devoted protector of the community, approved the project and gave all the authorisations necessary. Then the good Mother, in the company of two Sisters, went to examine a property situated in Bruille Street, which had been suggested. The sale was completed, and on 21st June 1877, the first stone of the new building was laid. The Monastery was to be constructed according to the plans drawn up by Mr. Leroux, architect, an employee of Mrs. V. Maillard of Tourcoing.
Fifteen months were sufficient for the building, which the good Mother had managed to superintend, and which was constructed under the best conditions. Beginning from 20th September 1878, there was a dispensation from the enclosure to permit the Sisters to tidy up their future convent. On 24th, the Rev. Father Darras, the extraordinary confessor of the community, came to bless the cells, and on 1st October, at five o’clock in the evening, Father Duriez, the Dean of Saint-Amand, blessed the temporary chapel, and it was decided that on the following day the Community would leave Condé Street and move in to their new Monastery. It was not without regret that they were about to say farewell to their little Nazareth, where they had encountered the sweetness of their first trials and their first joys, but they were also happy to have a stable home from now on where they could work without concerns of any kind for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
The departure took place on 2nd October, on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Some pious families sent their carriages in which the fifteen religious who formed the community took their place. They then went in procession to the choir in the new Monastery, the Holy Mass was celebrated, and after a fervent thanksgiving, they had a frugal lunch which was shared by some ladies, the relatives or friends of the Sisters.
Some days afterwards, Mons. Fava, the Bishop of Grenoble, accompanied by his secretary and nephew, Father Méresse, came to visit the Sisters and bring them the wonderful news of the Redemptoristines recently being established at Grenoble. Then on 16th October, it was the good Father Darras who came to bless the Monastery clock, the clock, this faithful and vigilant guardian of regularity. Finally, on 31st August 1879, Mons. Monnier came to perform the solemn ceremony of the establishment of the enclosure. The Vicar General, Father Destombes, the Dean of Saint-Amand, Father Sinsoillez, the Superior of the College of Our Lady of the Angels and Father Vaillant enhanced this ceremony with their presence. His Lordship gave the community an excellent sermon. Monsignor reminded the Sisters of the beauty of their vocation and the obligations it entailed. He promised them, in return for their fidelity, the heavenly joys and consolations. This pious solemnity, which finished worthily with a Papal blessing, finally delivered the community to the peaceful and calm life which is its ordinary element.
Mons. Monnier had preached on the love of sacrifice. The first sacrifice which was imposed on the community by Providence was to be separated from one of its best subjects. The house of Grenoble had just lost its worthy Superior and foundress, Mother Marie-Véronique. It asked Saint-Amand for a subject capable of receiving this inheritance. The community’s choice fell upon Sister Marie-Augustine of the divine Providence. The good Sister had rendered immense services to the Monastery during the three years she had spent there. Her cheerfulness, her energy and her extraordinary love of work had sustained their courage and inspired their good will many times. So they separated with regret, but with the sweet thought that God Himself wanted this departure. The new Superior left on 1st February 1880.
Another separation, equally sorrowful, was brought about by the death of the oldest of the founding Sisters (1st February 1883). Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Cross was aged 69, 40 of which were passed in religion. A model of regularity and fervour, this good religious had earnestly asked her Superior not to let her be interred in the cemetery of Saint-Amand, where, as she said, she could find herself beside a hanged criminal, as the graves were mixed together indiscriminately. Mother Marie-Joseph acquiesced with her request, and bought a concession of land in the cemetery of Nivelles, and this is where Sister Marie-Madeleine was interred. Later on they constructed a vault, and it is there that the Sisters went to sleep their last sleep while awaiting their glorious resurrection.
But if the sacrifice was there, then the promised joys were never lacking. Seven professions had increased the number of the Sisters since the opening of the new Monastery. The Archbishopric rewarded this progress by associating the community with the perpetual adoration established in the Diocese. The favour of nocturnal Adoration was also granted (1882).
The 28th April 1884 was a feast day in the Monastery. They celebrated the 25th anniversary of the religious profession of the Mother Foundress. The humility and modesty of the good Mother did not permit them to give this feast the publicity it deserved, but everyone’s hearts were united in the most sincere prayers and expressions of the greatest gratitude. In addition, the community did not neglect any occasion to witness its gratitude to her who was the true Mother of all the Sisters and the support of each one of them: Saint Joseph, her patron’s feast, the anniversaries of her birth, her entry into religion, her taking of the habit, her religious profession and her entry into responsibility were all celebrated with great happiness. At each triennium, they earnestly sought her re-election, and this favour, which was a remarkable thing, was granted right up to the death of the Foundress, a striking witness to the affection of which she was the object.
However, the days were passing by without one of the most dear wishes of Mother Marie-Joseph being realised – the construction of a chapel. After seven years of waiting, divine Providence rewarded her desires by the medium of Miss Eugenie Grimonprez of Valenciennes. When she entered religion on 29th June 1884, Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Eucharistic Jesus brought with her not just the virtues which were to call her one day to the dignity of Superior, but also the dowry which permitted them to elevate to the Lord the chapel they so ardently desired. It was begun on 8th September 1885. This pretty chapel, the work of Mr. J. B. Maillard, an architect of Tourcoing, was blessed on 23rd June following. When they began it, they would never have expected it to be totally completed.
The time for the profession of Sister Marie-Aloyse had arrived, and they could do no better than to celebrate this pious ceremony in the beautiful sanctuary that she had given so generously. Father Prouvost, the Dean of Our Lady of Valenciennes was the presider at the feast and Rev. Father Berthe gave the usual homily.
Mother Marie-Joseph wanted to use it for splendid celebrations of the feasts of the Church, and also the feasts of the great family of the Most Holy Redeemer. One of these last was particularly a subject of joy for her: the celebration of the first centenary of the death of Saint Alphonsus (1787-1887). Mons. Monnier, the Bishop of Lydda, was happy to be the presider at the ceremonies of 31st July, and 1st and 2nd August and also give the address on the day of the holy Doctor’s feast.
The Beatification of the Venerable Brother Gerard Majella was equally well celebrated in the Monastery of Saint-Amand. Three entire days were given to it in November 1893. A Redemptorist Father exalted the newly Blessed and called on all those attending to have recourse to his powerful intercession. On the third day, an imposing ceremony was conducted by Mons. Monnier - the solemn consecration of the beautiful altar all shining with marble and gold. The Venerable Prelate, in an excellent homily, first of all explained the mysterious and symbolic sense of the prayers and benedictions prescribed in these circumstances by the holy liturgy. Then he proceeded to carrying out the sacred rites. Everyone brought away the sweetest memories from these beautiful feasts.
The year 1899 was marked by a very special event. Many projects of foundation had already been conceived without anyone being able to realise them. But that year a new foundation, issuing from Saint-Amand, was inaugurated at Armentières. It was Sister Marie-Alphonsa of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour who was chosen to be its Superior. She left Saint-Amand on 18th September of that year, accompanied by Sister Marie-Berchmans of the Holy Spirit to superintend the works and make the arrangements for the new Monastery. Later on, Mother Marie-Joseph herself brought two other religious, and she continued to help this nascent house with her wise counsels. Today it has become the flourishing house of Maffles (Belgium).
Such were the principal exterior events that marked the twenty five years whose history we have just sketched. But we have said nothing of the interior life of Mother Marie-Joseph. So now, in outlining the virtues of the venerated Superior, we must show how she knew how to govern the Monastery she had founded wisely, and make the beautiful tree she had planted produce the fruits of salvation.
The provisional house. – Trials and consolations.
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux is a little town in the Department of the North, famous for its ancient abbey, whose imposing ruins still evoke astonishment from travellers. It is also renowned for its medicinal waters or mud, whose effect is truly salutary. And so, on the evening of 14th October 1875, Mother Marie-Joseph arrived in this town. She was accompanied by Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Cross, the sister of Mr. Prosper Basiez, the pious lay promoter of the new foundation; Sister Marie-Claire of the Blessed Sacrament; Sister Marie-Ange of the Precious Blood; Sister Marie-Augustine of the divine Providence, who belonged to the community of Velp (Holland), and the niece of Sister Marie-Madeleine; and finally two converse Sisters completed the community, which was entirely of French nationality.
The little colony in the company of Rev. Father de Buggenoms, was received at Lille by Rev. Father Darras, of holy memory, with the most touching cordiality. That evening they were at Saint-Amand. In the light of some pale torches, the Sisters were able to see that the house that had been prepared for them bore the heraldry of poverty. This was the first joy to their hearts. They also saw with pleasure that the furnishing of the kitchen, the gift of charitable benefactors, was similar. Some good straw mattresses, on which they would soon enjoy a refreshing sleep, completed the scene.
On the evening of 15th October, the feast of Saint Therese, Father Duriez, the Dean of Saint-Amand, came to bless the little chapel and placed it under the patronage of the Holy Family. The next day, Father de Buggenoms celebrated the Holy Mass and left the Sisters the treasure of treasures, the Blessed Sacrament. On Sunday the 17th, Father Vaillant, the community’s chaplain, began the ministry that he was to exercise for twenty seven years with a devotion above all praise. Finally, on 5th November, the work of taking possession having been completed, the Dean came to proceed to the ceremony of the enclosure. On that day, a Te Deum of thanksgiving united the voices of the founders and foundresses in a concert of praises to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The life of the community began in poverty, as they had foreseen in the beginning, but also in happiness and peace. Their food was rather scanty, and their resources scarcely sufficient, but Mother Marie-Joseph, through her goodness and examples, stimulated their courage. Soon illness came to be added to their privations. Two Sisters fell ill, and the work of the household, already great, now increased. Water invaded the cellars and they had to get rid of it. In short, there was no lack of sorrows, but everyone had their courage for the work.
However, divine Providence, in whom the good Mother placed her trust, never once failed her. Several times, she found that the payment of the least expenses had not made a hole in her purse, and then, the Sisters of Ireland, whose Superior was Mother Marie-Jeanne de la Croix, gave evidence of their fraternal charity by incessant offerings, always received with gratitude. Other offerings could be recalled here if the limits of our account and the modesty of the benefactors did not impose silence on us.
Soon some postulants presented themselves. The first of them made her entry on 29th February of this leap-year 1876. She herself gives an account in these terms of the history of her admission. “On 2nd February, I presented myself to the Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph, and this first interview left me with a very sweet impression. The goodness, courtesy and simplicity of the Reverend Mother charmed me, and from then on I devoted all my affection to her. Some weeks later, I made my entry into the Monastery, which I found in the most complete state of poverty. They took me to the Educandate, which, it seems, they had hardly prepared to receive me, and which was nothing else than a corner in the attic. A tiny altar had been placed against a wall, decorated with fixtures in pearls. I could not prevent myself from laughing when I entered that garret, which reminded me more of Bethlehem than Nazareth. The floor was so worm-eaten that the foot of my chair made a hole in it the first time I sat down. The beams of the roof were laid bare, and in place of a cupboard they were using a corner of the attic into which they had fitted a door. In spite of this extreme poverty, I was convinced that I would find the happiness there promised to the poor in spirit. The example of the Reverend Mother and the Sisters would fortify my courage and inspire me to sacrifice. My expectations were not deceived.”
Other young persons did not delay in presenting themselves, and on 6th February the following year (1877), on the feast of Saint-Amand, the protector of the city, they were able to give the holy habit of the Order to three novices who received the names of Sister Marie-Alphonse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Marie-Paul of Jesus Crucified, and Sister Marie-Josephine of Jesus. On 9th February of the following year, the first two were admitted to holy profession, and Rev. Father Berthe, Redemptorist, gave the customary sermon. The eloquent preacher did not fail to recommend to the Sisters’ prayers the soul of the glorious Pius IX, who had died two days previously (7th February 1878). The community made it their duty to unite their prayers to the entire world. The Holy Sacrifice was offered and the Divine Office celebrated for the holy Pontiff.
The successor to Pius IX was his Holiness Leo XIII. The community soon received his blessing through the medium of Mr. Etienne Basiez, received in audience with the French pilgrims. When he begged the Holy Father to bless the Redemptoristines of France, His Holiness replied: “Yes, I bless these good religious.” The Holy Father, who had met the Redemptoristines of Bruges when he was the Nuncio in Belgium, repeated his blessing some time afterwards, when he gave an audience to the Most Rev. Father Mauron, the Rector Major of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He added some advice for always maintaining the good spirit and fervour of the Order. This advice was faithfully transmitted to Saint-Amand by the Very Rev. Father Desurmont, the Provincial of the French Province. This holy religious took the keenest interest in the nascent foundation.
II. The New Monastery.
However, the consolations of the present and concern for the future required them to think of leaving a residence that had now become too cramped. Mother Marie-Joseph then turned to His Lordship Mons. Monnier, the coadjutor to Mons. Régnier, the Archbishop of Cambrai, to explain her views and her wish to build a Monastery that would respond entirely to the exigencies of religious life. The venerated Prelate, who for more than forty years did not cease to be the devoted protector of the community, approved the project and gave all the authorisations necessary. Then the good Mother, in the company of two Sisters, went to examine a property situated in Bruille Street, which had been suggested. The sale was completed, and on 21st June 1877, the first stone of the new building was laid. The Monastery was to be constructed according to the plans drawn up by Mr. Leroux, architect, an employee of Mrs. V. Maillard of Tourcoing.
Fifteen months were sufficient for the building, which the good Mother had managed to superintend, and which was constructed under the best conditions. Beginning from 20th September 1878, there was a dispensation from the enclosure to permit the Sisters to tidy up their future convent. On 24th, the Rev. Father Darras, the extraordinary confessor of the community, came to bless the cells, and on 1st October, at five o’clock in the evening, Father Duriez, the Dean of Saint-Amand, blessed the temporary chapel, and it was decided that on the following day the Community would leave Condé Street and move in to their new Monastery. It was not without regret that they were about to say farewell to their little Nazareth, where they had encountered the sweetness of their first trials and their first joys, but they were also happy to have a stable home from now on where they could work without concerns of any kind for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
The departure took place on 2nd October, on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Some pious families sent their carriages in which the fifteen religious who formed the community took their place. They then went in procession to the choir in the new Monastery, the Holy Mass was celebrated, and after a fervent thanksgiving, they had a frugal lunch which was shared by some ladies, the relatives or friends of the Sisters.
Some days afterwards, Mons. Fava, the Bishop of Grenoble, accompanied by his secretary and nephew, Father Méresse, came to visit the Sisters and bring them the wonderful news of the Redemptoristines recently being established at Grenoble. Then on 16th October, it was the good Father Darras who came to bless the Monastery clock, the clock, this faithful and vigilant guardian of regularity. Finally, on 31st August 1879, Mons. Monnier came to perform the solemn ceremony of the establishment of the enclosure. The Vicar General, Father Destombes, the Dean of Saint-Amand, Father Sinsoillez, the Superior of the College of Our Lady of the Angels and Father Vaillant enhanced this ceremony with their presence. His Lordship gave the community an excellent sermon. Monsignor reminded the Sisters of the beauty of their vocation and the obligations it entailed. He promised them, in return for their fidelity, the heavenly joys and consolations. This pious solemnity, which finished worthily with a Papal blessing, finally delivered the community to the peaceful and calm life which is its ordinary element.
Mons. Monnier had preached on the love of sacrifice. The first sacrifice which was imposed on the community by Providence was to be separated from one of its best subjects. The house of Grenoble had just lost its worthy Superior and foundress, Mother Marie-Véronique. It asked Saint-Amand for a subject capable of receiving this inheritance. The community’s choice fell upon Sister Marie-Augustine of the divine Providence. The good Sister had rendered immense services to the Monastery during the three years she had spent there. Her cheerfulness, her energy and her extraordinary love of work had sustained their courage and inspired their good will many times. So they separated with regret, but with the sweet thought that God Himself wanted this departure. The new Superior left on 1st February 1880.
Another separation, equally sorrowful, was brought about by the death of the oldest of the founding Sisters (1st February 1883). Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Cross was aged 69, 40 of which were passed in religion. A model of regularity and fervour, this good religious had earnestly asked her Superior not to let her be interred in the cemetery of Saint-Amand, where, as she said, she could find herself beside a hanged criminal, as the graves were mixed together indiscriminately. Mother Marie-Joseph acquiesced with her request, and bought a concession of land in the cemetery of Nivelles, and this is where Sister Marie-Madeleine was interred. Later on they constructed a vault, and it is there that the Sisters went to sleep their last sleep while awaiting their glorious resurrection.
But if the sacrifice was there, then the promised joys were never lacking. Seven professions had increased the number of the Sisters since the opening of the new Monastery. The Archbishopric rewarded this progress by associating the community with the perpetual adoration established in the Diocese. The favour of nocturnal Adoration was also granted (1882).
The 28th April 1884 was a feast day in the Monastery. They celebrated the 25th anniversary of the religious profession of the Mother Foundress. The humility and modesty of the good Mother did not permit them to give this feast the publicity it deserved, but everyone’s hearts were united in the most sincere prayers and expressions of the greatest gratitude. In addition, the community did not neglect any occasion to witness its gratitude to her who was the true Mother of all the Sisters and the support of each one of them: Saint Joseph, her patron’s feast, the anniversaries of her birth, her entry into religion, her taking of the habit, her religious profession and her entry into responsibility were all celebrated with great happiness. At each triennium, they earnestly sought her re-election, and this favour, which was a remarkable thing, was granted right up to the death of the Foundress, a striking witness to the affection of which she was the object.
However, the days were passing by without one of the most dear wishes of Mother Marie-Joseph being realised – the construction of a chapel. After seven years of waiting, divine Providence rewarded her desires by the medium of Miss Eugenie Grimonprez of Valenciennes. When she entered religion on 29th June 1884, Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Eucharistic Jesus brought with her not just the virtues which were to call her one day to the dignity of Superior, but also the dowry which permitted them to elevate to the Lord the chapel they so ardently desired. It was begun on 8th September 1885. This pretty chapel, the work of Mr. J. B. Maillard, an architect of Tourcoing, was blessed on 23rd June following. When they began it, they would never have expected it to be totally completed.
The time for the profession of Sister Marie-Aloyse had arrived, and they could do no better than to celebrate this pious ceremony in the beautiful sanctuary that she had given so generously. Father Prouvost, the Dean of Our Lady of Valenciennes was the presider at the feast and Rev. Father Berthe gave the usual homily.
Mother Marie-Joseph wanted to use it for splendid celebrations of the feasts of the Church, and also the feasts of the great family of the Most Holy Redeemer. One of these last was particularly a subject of joy for her: the celebration of the first centenary of the death of Saint Alphonsus (1787-1887). Mons. Monnier, the Bishop of Lydda, was happy to be the presider at the ceremonies of 31st July, and 1st and 2nd August and also give the address on the day of the holy Doctor’s feast.
The Beatification of the Venerable Brother Gerard Majella was equally well celebrated in the Monastery of Saint-Amand. Three entire days were given to it in November 1893. A Redemptorist Father exalted the newly Blessed and called on all those attending to have recourse to his powerful intercession. On the third day, an imposing ceremony was conducted by Mons. Monnier - the solemn consecration of the beautiful altar all shining with marble and gold. The Venerable Prelate, in an excellent homily, first of all explained the mysterious and symbolic sense of the prayers and benedictions prescribed in these circumstances by the holy liturgy. Then he proceeded to carrying out the sacred rites. Everyone brought away the sweetest memories from these beautiful feasts.
The year 1899 was marked by a very special event. Many projects of foundation had already been conceived without anyone being able to realise them. But that year a new foundation, issuing from Saint-Amand, was inaugurated at Armentières. It was Sister Marie-Alphonsa of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour who was chosen to be its Superior. She left Saint-Amand on 18th September of that year, accompanied by Sister Marie-Berchmans of the Holy Spirit to superintend the works and make the arrangements for the new Monastery. Later on, Mother Marie-Joseph herself brought two other religious, and she continued to help this nascent house with her wise counsels. Today it has become the flourishing house of Maffles (Belgium).
Such were the principal exterior events that marked the twenty five years whose history we have just sketched. But we have said nothing of the interior life of Mother Marie-Joseph. So now, in outlining the virtues of the venerated Superior, we must show how she knew how to govern the Monastery she had founded wisely, and make the beautiful tree she had planted produce the fruits of salvation.
Chapter III. The virtues of the venerated Mother.
I. Her love for the Rule. – Her Faith, her Hope and her Love for God.
If her care for their temporal administration made the wisdom of Mother Marie-Joseph stand out, then her daughters admired her even more for the zeal and the gentle sweetness with which she strove to inculcate the spirit of Saint Alphonsus in them.
Let us say first of all that her government was mild and sweet, and full of openness and uprightness. The sensitivity of her procedures was exquisite, her conversation simple and very dignified, her nature was bright and open, and at the same time, sensible and generous.
The great preoccupation of the Mother Foundress was to inculcate in her daughters a love of regularity. She herself was the faithful observer of it, and if we can call perfect the religious who observes her vows and Rules exactly, then we can count Mother Marie-Joseph among the number of these chosen souls, who are the pearls of the convents they inhabit. Sometimes she would say to her daughters: “If you do not observe the Rule, I myself shall be your accuser at God’s tribunal”, and also: “A good religious must be a living Rule by her fidelity in observing it in the smallest details and as perfectly as possible, always having before her eyes her divine Model, Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Her faith was a living one. She had an extraordinary esteem for all the maxims of our holy religion, and the most entire submission to the teachings of the Church, of which she loved to proclaim herself as its daughter. One day a person praised a controversial article to her, and encouraged her to read it. “I shall prefer not to”, she replied, “It is enough for me to believe.” She greatly recommended the spirit of faith, and supernatural views: “See Our Lord in all your Sisters,” she would say, “and serve Him in their persons. Seek to give them pleasure, in order to please Jesus Christ Himself.” “Always see everything in God,” she would also say, “and go straight to God in everything.” And at other times: “In all your actions, make sure you address them: Straight to God! And then they will go straight to heaven.” If someone appeared to be cast down: “Sursum corda!” she would tell them, “What is it in the face of eternity!”
To strengthen the spirit of faith more and more in the hearts of her daughters, she employed all the means indicated by the Rule: retreats, instructions, chapters, special talks and everything which could feed piety and stimulate fervour.
Her firm hope and confidence in God sustained her in all her difficulties, and in the midst of her most grave concerns she would say: “Oh, I put all of that into the heart of our good God.” She had a special gift of bringing peace to troubled souls. To one of them she said: “The good God is all love and mercy, and on our part especially, He wishes to be glorified by our confidence and love. Let us always be guided by the thoughts of our faith, and let us count on Our Lord alone. Let us tell Him often: ‘I despair of myself, but I hope for everything in You.’”
She had a very great confidence in the divine Providence, and received unexpected help many times. At the end of one year, when she had nothing to pay the suppliers of the community with, she was suddenly called to the parlour. There she found Reverend Father Darras, given the task by a charitable person of doing a good work in her name. The good Father had the inspiration to bring the sum of three thousand francs to the community, which he was permitted to dispose of. It is unnecessary to say that it was received with the greatest gratitude. It was just equal to the present needs of the community.
Mother Marie-Joseph made the love of God the continual object of her prayers and thoughts. She loved prayer and the contemplative life, she consecrated to it all the moments she could find, and when the days had been overloaded with occupations, she would employ a part of the night for it. In the last times of her life, her long insomnia permitted her to pray a great deal, and rosaries, ejaculatory prayers, meditations and conversations with God succeeded each other with no relaxation. Her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and the long visits she made to Our Lord, proved her love and maintained this divine fire in her. “I shall nourish”, we read in this respect in her resolutions for her retreat, “I shall nourish in myself a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. May Holy Communion be all my delight and may I always prepare myself for it with more care and love. I shall do a novena on the first Fridays so as to grow in love. May my whole life be a continual preparation for prayer by a complete abnegation of myself. I shall watch attentively to guard my heart so that Jesus alone may reign there, and if creatures wish to enter, I shall give my heart to God, begging Him to forever be its unique possessor.
“I shall recite the Divine Office with great attention and interior recollection. I shall not voluntarily lose a single moment, praying always, be it in coming and going, or in working. I shall often keep company with Jesus in His Passion. When meditating on the love of Jesus, my soul shall learn to find her happiness, her joy, her peace and her treasure in Him. The Passion of Our Lord shall be engraved more profoundly each day upon my soul. The more I shall consider it, the more I shall love this good Saviour. As much as possible, I shall try to be exact in doing the Way of the Cross.”
This was not just a matter of sentiments. Mother Marie-Joseph realised them in practice. She admitted to one of her daughters that, during the first six months of her stay at Kain, she had always lived in union with the Blessed Sacrament, practising the spirit of adoration almost as if she had always been in the chapel. “There are graces,” she added, “that I must not lose by my own fault.”
The divine charity that inflamed the heart of the good Mother had necessarily to be translated by an ardent zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. As a worthy daughter of Saint Alphonsus, her whole life was inspired by this sacred fire. Her works, the Monastery she had founded, the souls formed by her to perfection, the instructions that she had given them, all were the fruit of the divine love that was consuming her soul. Unceasingly she recommended to her daughters to pray for sinners, for the holy Church, the Sovereign Pontiff, the priests and especially the missionaries. The sins of mankind excited her zeal and led her to preach the great duty of reparation. To this effect she established the Association of the Guard of Honour in the Monastery chapel. On every first Friday of the month there was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the day with prayers of reparation recited publicly at Benediction. Each year there was a day of Adoration in union with the Basilica of Montmartre, and each week a day specially set aside for prayers of reparation.
And often too she told her daughters: “Remember that you are Redemptoristines, and that this title obliges you to work for the salvation of souls in union with Jesus the Redeemer.”
How could so fervent a spouse of the Lord not be penetrated by the most tender devotion towards the Blessed Virgin? Every day, she recited the Rosary in its entirety, and prepared herself for all the feasts of the Queen of the Angels by novenas, and sometimes even by forty days of prayers. Often, on the day of the feast of her good Mother of Heaven, she would offer her a crown of a thousand Ave Maria's. To do this she used part of the night, as she did not have enough free time to do so during the day. She encouraged her daughters to a great love for the Blessed Virgin. On the vigil of her feasts, she would deliver to the community, gathered together in the evening, some words of edification concerning the feast for the next day, in order to get them to celebrate it piously.
She requested and obtained an affiliation to the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help being established in the Monastery chapel, under the direction of the Chaplain, who assembled the members of the Association each month and gave them a homily. The feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour was solemnised in a very special manner. She established the custom of having a procession in the Monastery on that day, with the chanting of canticles and the recitation of prayers. At the end of the procession, a solemn consecration was made before the picture of the Madonna, by which the Blessed Virgin was established as the Mother and Superior of the community.
The revered Mother also had a great devotion to Saint Joseph, her holy Patron, the head of the Holy Family, under whose patronage she had placed the Monastery of Saint-Amand. She had recourse to him in all her temporal needs, and more than once unexpected help came to justify her confidence. She also invoked him as the Patron of the interior life. We read this passage in her Resolutions: “I shall continue my four exercises each day in honour of Saint Joseph, the good saint who has already obtained many graces for me. I shall do them especially with an interior spirit.” Moreover, in the first years of her religious life, she had received an assurance from a very enlightened lady that she would receive great favours by means of her holy Patron.
As a true Redemptoristine, Mother Marie-Joseph honoured Saint Alphonsus as her Father and did not cease to ask from him, for herself and her daughters, love for the vocation to which he had called them. She wanted everyone to be attached to reading the spiritual books of the holy Doctor, especially his magnificent work: The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, an inexhaustible treasury of doctrine which is as consoling at it is sure, and a masterpiece of piety, wisdom and profound learning.
She herself composed some forty prayers of preparation for the feast of Saint Alphonsus, and for it, she proposed a point of the Rule for her daughters to meditate on and put into practice, every day. The Very Rev. Father Desurmont, such a good judge in these matters, looked over this writing and gave it his full approval. As for the feast of the holy Founder, it was solemnly celebrated every year. The chapel was clad in its best ornaments, and as long as the Redemptoristines were at Saint-Amand, the choir of the College of Our Lady of the Angels would sing the Mass in music.
Another devotion was also very dear to Mother Marie-Joseph, that of the holy Angels. She had a very great confidence in their protection against dangers and accidents. During the building of the Monastery, every day, one after another, a Sister had the task of reciting a chaplet of the Sanctus in their honour. She herself recited it daily, and she often said that every time some numerous occupations prevented her from reciting it, her whole day felt the effect of it. She established the custom of saying the Trisagion every evening in common, and they attributed their protection by the Angels to it, and never having had to lament unpleasant accidents in the sometimes dangerous work necessitated by the building of the convent. It was also to honour the holy Angels that the good Mother fixed 2nd October for taking possession of the new Monastery. It was with the same intention that she had seven lamps placed in the sanctuary in honour of the seven Angels who are unceasingly before the throne of God. For this reason we read in her Resolutions: “I shall pray to these blessed Angels to help me to acquire the despoliation and interior detachment that God wishes to find in my soul in order to fill it with His holy love.”
Let us not forget to say that the good Mother Marie-Joseph had a tender devotion for Saint Amand, the Patron of the town where she had established her Monastery. This devotion inspired in her the idea of renewing a tradition interrupted by the French Revolution, and she had a beautiful candle burning in the convent chapel night and day in honour of the great saint. This custom goes back to the 9th century, and it was established following a marvellous event told the way it happened by Father Maës in his very interesting Popular Life of Saint Amand. [2]
“One evening, after the Office, when the monks had left the church and gone back to their cells, the Brother porter, at the moment of closing the doors, noticed two candles alight near the casket enclosing the relics of the holy bishop. Persuaded that he had extinguished all the candles on the altar, he was astonished, but, believing he was wrong, he retraced his steps and extinguished the two candles. Arriving at the extremity of the church, how great was his surprise to see the candles once again alight!
“He returned to the tomb and again extinguished them carefully. Finally, after assuring himself that there was no one in the church, he observed attentively, and then for a third time the candles lit themselves spontaneously. The poor Brother, now distraught, then called all the religious, and told them of what had just happened, and made them witness the miracle.
“It was in memory of this fact that at the beginning of this era, in the abbey, they let a candle burn day and night at the tomb of Saint Amand, and this custom was perpetuated until the Revolution.” [3]
If her care for their temporal administration made the wisdom of Mother Marie-Joseph stand out, then her daughters admired her even more for the zeal and the gentle sweetness with which she strove to inculcate the spirit of Saint Alphonsus in them.
Let us say first of all that her government was mild and sweet, and full of openness and uprightness. The sensitivity of her procedures was exquisite, her conversation simple and very dignified, her nature was bright and open, and at the same time, sensible and generous.
The great preoccupation of the Mother Foundress was to inculcate in her daughters a love of regularity. She herself was the faithful observer of it, and if we can call perfect the religious who observes her vows and Rules exactly, then we can count Mother Marie-Joseph among the number of these chosen souls, who are the pearls of the convents they inhabit. Sometimes she would say to her daughters: “If you do not observe the Rule, I myself shall be your accuser at God’s tribunal”, and also: “A good religious must be a living Rule by her fidelity in observing it in the smallest details and as perfectly as possible, always having before her eyes her divine Model, Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Her faith was a living one. She had an extraordinary esteem for all the maxims of our holy religion, and the most entire submission to the teachings of the Church, of which she loved to proclaim herself as its daughter. One day a person praised a controversial article to her, and encouraged her to read it. “I shall prefer not to”, she replied, “It is enough for me to believe.” She greatly recommended the spirit of faith, and supernatural views: “See Our Lord in all your Sisters,” she would say, “and serve Him in their persons. Seek to give them pleasure, in order to please Jesus Christ Himself.” “Always see everything in God,” she would also say, “and go straight to God in everything.” And at other times: “In all your actions, make sure you address them: Straight to God! And then they will go straight to heaven.” If someone appeared to be cast down: “Sursum corda!” she would tell them, “What is it in the face of eternity!”
To strengthen the spirit of faith more and more in the hearts of her daughters, she employed all the means indicated by the Rule: retreats, instructions, chapters, special talks and everything which could feed piety and stimulate fervour.
Her firm hope and confidence in God sustained her in all her difficulties, and in the midst of her most grave concerns she would say: “Oh, I put all of that into the heart of our good God.” She had a special gift of bringing peace to troubled souls. To one of them she said: “The good God is all love and mercy, and on our part especially, He wishes to be glorified by our confidence and love. Let us always be guided by the thoughts of our faith, and let us count on Our Lord alone. Let us tell Him often: ‘I despair of myself, but I hope for everything in You.’”
She had a very great confidence in the divine Providence, and received unexpected help many times. At the end of one year, when she had nothing to pay the suppliers of the community with, she was suddenly called to the parlour. There she found Reverend Father Darras, given the task by a charitable person of doing a good work in her name. The good Father had the inspiration to bring the sum of three thousand francs to the community, which he was permitted to dispose of. It is unnecessary to say that it was received with the greatest gratitude. It was just equal to the present needs of the community.
Mother Marie-Joseph made the love of God the continual object of her prayers and thoughts. She loved prayer and the contemplative life, she consecrated to it all the moments she could find, and when the days had been overloaded with occupations, she would employ a part of the night for it. In the last times of her life, her long insomnia permitted her to pray a great deal, and rosaries, ejaculatory prayers, meditations and conversations with God succeeded each other with no relaxation. Her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and the long visits she made to Our Lord, proved her love and maintained this divine fire in her. “I shall nourish”, we read in this respect in her resolutions for her retreat, “I shall nourish in myself a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. May Holy Communion be all my delight and may I always prepare myself for it with more care and love. I shall do a novena on the first Fridays so as to grow in love. May my whole life be a continual preparation for prayer by a complete abnegation of myself. I shall watch attentively to guard my heart so that Jesus alone may reign there, and if creatures wish to enter, I shall give my heart to God, begging Him to forever be its unique possessor.
“I shall recite the Divine Office with great attention and interior recollection. I shall not voluntarily lose a single moment, praying always, be it in coming and going, or in working. I shall often keep company with Jesus in His Passion. When meditating on the love of Jesus, my soul shall learn to find her happiness, her joy, her peace and her treasure in Him. The Passion of Our Lord shall be engraved more profoundly each day upon my soul. The more I shall consider it, the more I shall love this good Saviour. As much as possible, I shall try to be exact in doing the Way of the Cross.”
This was not just a matter of sentiments. Mother Marie-Joseph realised them in practice. She admitted to one of her daughters that, during the first six months of her stay at Kain, she had always lived in union with the Blessed Sacrament, practising the spirit of adoration almost as if she had always been in the chapel. “There are graces,” she added, “that I must not lose by my own fault.”
The divine charity that inflamed the heart of the good Mother had necessarily to be translated by an ardent zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. As a worthy daughter of Saint Alphonsus, her whole life was inspired by this sacred fire. Her works, the Monastery she had founded, the souls formed by her to perfection, the instructions that she had given them, all were the fruit of the divine love that was consuming her soul. Unceasingly she recommended to her daughters to pray for sinners, for the holy Church, the Sovereign Pontiff, the priests and especially the missionaries. The sins of mankind excited her zeal and led her to preach the great duty of reparation. To this effect she established the Association of the Guard of Honour in the Monastery chapel. On every first Friday of the month there was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the day with prayers of reparation recited publicly at Benediction. Each year there was a day of Adoration in union with the Basilica of Montmartre, and each week a day specially set aside for prayers of reparation.
And often too she told her daughters: “Remember that you are Redemptoristines, and that this title obliges you to work for the salvation of souls in union with Jesus the Redeemer.”
How could so fervent a spouse of the Lord not be penetrated by the most tender devotion towards the Blessed Virgin? Every day, she recited the Rosary in its entirety, and prepared herself for all the feasts of the Queen of the Angels by novenas, and sometimes even by forty days of prayers. Often, on the day of the feast of her good Mother of Heaven, she would offer her a crown of a thousand Ave Maria's. To do this she used part of the night, as she did not have enough free time to do so during the day. She encouraged her daughters to a great love for the Blessed Virgin. On the vigil of her feasts, she would deliver to the community, gathered together in the evening, some words of edification concerning the feast for the next day, in order to get them to celebrate it piously.
She requested and obtained an affiliation to the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help being established in the Monastery chapel, under the direction of the Chaplain, who assembled the members of the Association each month and gave them a homily. The feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour was solemnised in a very special manner. She established the custom of having a procession in the Monastery on that day, with the chanting of canticles and the recitation of prayers. At the end of the procession, a solemn consecration was made before the picture of the Madonna, by which the Blessed Virgin was established as the Mother and Superior of the community.
The revered Mother also had a great devotion to Saint Joseph, her holy Patron, the head of the Holy Family, under whose patronage she had placed the Monastery of Saint-Amand. She had recourse to him in all her temporal needs, and more than once unexpected help came to justify her confidence. She also invoked him as the Patron of the interior life. We read this passage in her Resolutions: “I shall continue my four exercises each day in honour of Saint Joseph, the good saint who has already obtained many graces for me. I shall do them especially with an interior spirit.” Moreover, in the first years of her religious life, she had received an assurance from a very enlightened lady that she would receive great favours by means of her holy Patron.
As a true Redemptoristine, Mother Marie-Joseph honoured Saint Alphonsus as her Father and did not cease to ask from him, for herself and her daughters, love for the vocation to which he had called them. She wanted everyone to be attached to reading the spiritual books of the holy Doctor, especially his magnificent work: The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, an inexhaustible treasury of doctrine which is as consoling at it is sure, and a masterpiece of piety, wisdom and profound learning.
She herself composed some forty prayers of preparation for the feast of Saint Alphonsus, and for it, she proposed a point of the Rule for her daughters to meditate on and put into practice, every day. The Very Rev. Father Desurmont, such a good judge in these matters, looked over this writing and gave it his full approval. As for the feast of the holy Founder, it was solemnly celebrated every year. The chapel was clad in its best ornaments, and as long as the Redemptoristines were at Saint-Amand, the choir of the College of Our Lady of the Angels would sing the Mass in music.
Another devotion was also very dear to Mother Marie-Joseph, that of the holy Angels. She had a very great confidence in their protection against dangers and accidents. During the building of the Monastery, every day, one after another, a Sister had the task of reciting a chaplet of the Sanctus in their honour. She herself recited it daily, and she often said that every time some numerous occupations prevented her from reciting it, her whole day felt the effect of it. She established the custom of saying the Trisagion every evening in common, and they attributed their protection by the Angels to it, and never having had to lament unpleasant accidents in the sometimes dangerous work necessitated by the building of the convent. It was also to honour the holy Angels that the good Mother fixed 2nd October for taking possession of the new Monastery. It was with the same intention that she had seven lamps placed in the sanctuary in honour of the seven Angels who are unceasingly before the throne of God. For this reason we read in her Resolutions: “I shall pray to these blessed Angels to help me to acquire the despoliation and interior detachment that God wishes to find in my soul in order to fill it with His holy love.”
Let us not forget to say that the good Mother Marie-Joseph had a tender devotion for Saint Amand, the Patron of the town where she had established her Monastery. This devotion inspired in her the idea of renewing a tradition interrupted by the French Revolution, and she had a beautiful candle burning in the convent chapel night and day in honour of the great saint. This custom goes back to the 9th century, and it was established following a marvellous event told the way it happened by Father Maës in his very interesting Popular Life of Saint Amand. [2]
“One evening, after the Office, when the monks had left the church and gone back to their cells, the Brother porter, at the moment of closing the doors, noticed two candles alight near the casket enclosing the relics of the holy bishop. Persuaded that he had extinguished all the candles on the altar, he was astonished, but, believing he was wrong, he retraced his steps and extinguished the two candles. Arriving at the extremity of the church, how great was his surprise to see the candles once again alight!
“He returned to the tomb and again extinguished them carefully. Finally, after assuring himself that there was no one in the church, he observed attentively, and then for a third time the candles lit themselves spontaneously. The poor Brother, now distraught, then called all the religious, and told them of what had just happened, and made them witness the miracle.
“It was in memory of this fact that at the beginning of this era, in the abbey, they let a candle burn day and night at the tomb of Saint Amand, and this custom was perpetuated until the Revolution.” [3]
Footnotes
[2] 1 vol in 18-mo of 240 pages. (Desclée, de Brouwer and Co., Lille – Paris, 1894).
[3] This fact is told by the famous monk Milon, after the account of the Abbot Hilderic, an eye-witness.
[3] This fact is told by the famous monk Milon, after the account of the Abbot Hilderic, an eye-witness.
Chapter IV. Virtues of the venerated Mother (continued).
I. Her love for her neighbour.
We have already spoken of the zeal that inspired Mother Marie-Joseph for the salvation of souls. We must now speak of her charity in regard to her daughters.
The goodness of her nature was united to grace to make it easy for her to exercise a very maternal charity. Always disposed to help and devote herself with warmth and good humour, she received the Sisters with a great kindness and family spirit. To everyone she showed a great confidence and a sincere affection. In regard to everyone she acted with uprightness, seeking only God and the good of souls.
To a high degree she possessed the spirit of counsel, and in difficulties, she was found to have a prompt and assured decisiveness, given without emphasis and with the affection of a mother. “God and our neighbour” was the usual sense of her recommendations, but, so that no one was deceived, she insisted most particularly on the love of neighbour, as per the example of Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Alphonsus and so many others. She herself saw all her daughters in the Sacred Heart of the Saviour, made everyone most welcome, and showed herself always ready to do them good. It was a grace that she earnestly requested from God, and she obtained it. Also, in the community, we could testify to the fact that she showed everyone a very special care. Whether they were professed, novices, educandes or postulants, no one was excluded from her heart. As soon as she appeared, joy shone on everyone’s faces, and if some cloud of sadness betrayed interior cares, the good Mother was soon able to make them dissipate. How many times did she in all simplicity make the first move to put a soul at ease and give it serenity! How many times did an admitted fault become the title to a more lively affection towards she who had committed it! How many times did we see the revered Mother show a very special charity towards she who had caused her some distress or brought her some difficulty!
In certain circumstances, however, she deployed a rare firmness. Certain faults found no grace with her. One day, she imposed a penance upon a Sister to which she reacted strongly. “I wished for your good,” she told her some time afterwards, “and you will thank me in Paradise.” – “Oh, I never thought about that!” replied the Sister immediately. “Yes, my Mother, you have done me a great good, and I am very grateful to you for it.”
“The care of the sick,” said Saint Alphonsus, “is one of the principal duties of the Superior.” Mother Marie-Joseph in no way forgot it. It was a terrible trial for her maternal heart when, in the space of a little more than two years (11th January 1890 – 22nd May 1892) five Sisters of a little advanced age were taken from her after long illnesses! How much care and time did she devote to these dear invalids, calculating neither fatigue nor inconvenience when she could console or comfort them! She watched with an extreme care to make sure that the Sisters Infirmarian surrounded them with all their care. As for herself, she attached herself particularly to preserving them from sadness, that bad counsellor, and suggested holy thoughts to them. Far from hiding the gravity of their state from them, she encouraged them to unite their sufferings to those of Our Lord, and showed them heaven as their reward. Assisting them right to the end and burying them with her own hands was for her a duty, as she said, and a duty that she did not cede to anyone. Once they had entered into their eternity, she did not forget them. How many were the prayers that she addressed and had addressed to God for them, and on the return of their anniversaries, she never failed to recall them to the memory of their community and have them pray for them. And so the Sisters lived united with each other, even after deaths, and their memory did not perish.
Everything has been said about goodness. When it is good, that is, based on the love of Our Lord, it infinitely passes the natural goodness that is too often allied with weakness. The revered Mother’s goodness of heart drew from the divine love all its sensitivity and constancy, and her daughters have preserved the most delightful memory of this too.
One of them writes: “When I came to present myself to the Convent of Saint-Amand, what struck me the most vividly in Mother Marie-Joseph was her maternal goodness. From the very first instant I felt at ease and easy to open up to her. A postulant whom I knew then came to see me in the parlour, and I admired the touching benevolence that the venerated Mother showed her, and on the other hand, the filial confidence that inspired the young Sister, who was rather feeble and sickly, in her dealings with her Superior. From this moment I was enlightened about the spirit that reigned in that blessed house. I told myself: “Here is a true house of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. I shall be happy there.”
My presentiments did not deceive me. We know how slow to heal the wound caused by a tenderly cherished child is. Our good Mother excelled in that difficult art. I remember her with my grand-parents who had come full of tears to pour out their regrets and sorrow. The impression caused by the grilles added still further to their torments. They were broken-hearted and grieving, but our venerated Mother knew how to find such good words, and showed herself so sympathetic, so compassionate for them, and so maternal towards me that, from this first visit, they were won over and left less afflicted.
“How can I quote the thousands and thousands of stories about her sensitivity and her goodness? With an incomparable tact, with a rare understanding of the different characters, and the different ranges of spirit and virtue, she knew how to adapt herself, if that is the right term, to the measure of each one, to encourage them, console them in all their pains and give each one of them the best advice. If her intervention was not enough to dissipate certain kinds of anguish, she would call the venerated spiritual Father of the community to her aid, and would seek superior lights from him.”
The Sister to whom we owe these edifying details was one day named Mistress of Educandes. The revered Mother gave her these most wise counsels. “Be united to your Superior,” she told her, “You will not do good except for this condition. As for the Educandes, form them little by little to despoil themselves of the views and habits of the world, and from their too strong attachment to their families, but make them love the yoke of Our Lord. Accustom them to a prompt, simple and entire obedience, and support them in that dilatation of heart which helps them so marvellously to follow the good way. Form them to think habitually of Our Lord, to unite their actions to His, and to imitate His most holy virtues. Nourish in them a great love for the Blessed Virgin, and may they honour her especially on Saturdays. They will go far, if, right from the beginning, they conduct themselves thus according to the views of the faith. So accustom them all to receive everything from God, to offer everything to God, and especially the pains, sufferings and trials of life. Thus they will become the friends of the cross of the divine Redeemer, the only good of our souls and our only true joy here below.”
The revered Mother would forget, if necessary, her own sorrows to sympathise with those of others. The very same day she was struck down by apoplexy, she received, for the Sister whose witness we have quoted, some very painful news concerning the health of her mother. She did not wish to communicate it to her without preparing her first. “At about eight o’clock,” said the Sister, “she had me called, and reading with me, she sympathised greatly about the state of my poor mother, reduced to being not able to express herself except by signs. Her compassion was immense for this kind of trial, so she put all the resources of her great heart into action to console me. I will never be able to forget that last conversation, provoked entirely and uniquely by her maternal goodness, and when, on that very same day, I found that she herself was deprived of language and incapable of saying a single word, you can guess how poignant my feelings were. But the Lord had judged her strong enough to bear this last cross.”
II. Her generosity towards the poor. – Her meekness, her humility, and her spirit of mortification.
The charity of the Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph extended beyond the limits of her Monastery, and when the community was in the position of being able to give a little more, the poor soon felt the effects of this relative ease. Every week, the good Superior would have a certain quantity of bread distributed, and each day she would feed some poor family. The houses in the street at Saint-Amand which she had bought never paid rent. Her goodness led her especially to help the families of Sisters that a reversal of fortunes had tested. It was thus that she invited to the Monastery the two nieces of one of them, whose brother found himself without a position, as his wife was ill. She housed them in the exterior, and these two children were the object of her tender solicitude, until their parents were able to take them back.
She also contributed to good works and helped the priests to do good by providing them with help. She did this one day with a great deal of sensitivity. The brother of one of the nuns in the Monastery had just been named the priest of a parish situated some miles from Paris. When his sister received the news, the Reverend Mother immediately told her: “Child, we must do something for your brother. Embroider a pall, and make it a good one.” A short time later, another sister came to see the nun. Immediately the good Mother wished to know what was lacking in the church, and they told her that there was an old statue of Saint Joseph there, all chipped, that had been relegated to the baptismal font. “I want to give them a new one,” said the Superior, “but your brother must never know where it has come from, and (she added laughing) he must believe it is a miracle.” So she had them make a little bag of white satin on which they attached a piece of parchment with these words: “To do me more honour”, and then they enclosed two bills of a hundred francs. “Go now,” she said to the visitor, “but keep our secret.” As was said, so was done. The good priest could not overcome his surprise when he found what he needed to buy a beautiful statue of Saint Joseph. In his next homily, he did not fail to recommend the unknown benefactor to the prayers of his parishioners. It was only later, on a visit to the Reverend Mother, that he saw the mystery solved.
The question of common recreations in convents is important. The revered Mother wanted them inspired, happy and charitable. The enemy of melancholy, she could not endure it in her Sisters. The conversations there were thus edifying, without being forced, and everyone was able to say her piece. The Reverend Mother had a good memory. From it she drew a mass of instructive stories drawn from the Lives of Saints, and she would recount them with interest. Sometimes she had some little feast organised, and it was filled with much warmth and happiness. Sometimes also, she began a canticle, and they had to continue it, especially if they were sad. The least sadness found no grace with her. And thus it happened that the Sisters would come out of the conversation sometimes more united to God than when they entered it. “It is through humility and meekness,” says Saint Alphonsus, “that a Superior gains the hearts of her Sisters.” The good Mother Marie-Joseph understood this, so one of her great merits was to have a disposition that was always the same. In every circumstance she possessed herself perfectly, and no one ever noticed in her any flashes of impatience or temper. Even in the greatest difficulties she would preserve a calm that recalled the eulogy given of Father Cafaro: “Always the same, Semper idem,” or of that other, applied to another priest: “He is as unchanging as the sun.” But she did not attain this without great humility.
On this point, the good Mother has left us some thoughts in a retreat notebook, the only one which has been preserved, as if providentially, as all the others have fallen victim to the flames. “I must try my best,” she says there, “to seek and aspire only to be scorned and forgotten by everyone. I must regard myself as the sweepings of the convent, which everyone has the right to trample under their feet. As a true Spouse of Jesus Christ, I must desire only humiliations and suffering, and to arrive there, I must try to receive with love and joy the occasions of humiliation, criticism, etc., which the good God will send me. When dame nature cries out, I shall take refuge with Our Lord who has become, for love of me, the opprobrium of mankind, and disowning everything that has happened to me, I shall thank Him and beg Him to aid me with His holy grace. I shall apply myself especially to receive little reproaches with an even temper and in a spirit of humility. If I learn that my conduct is blamed, and I am criticised, I shall not make excuses for myself, and I shall watch especially to be very considerate and charitable towards my Sisters. I recognize that I must apply myself wholeheartedly and not let any occasion pass to humble myself. This virtue is the foundation of the spiritual life, and God has made me see the whole price of it too clearly for me not to feel obliged to apply all my strength to make some progress in it every day.”
While she exercised the office of Housekeeper at Malines, she wrote: “I must try my best to acquire a great love for the cross and suffering. To get there, I shall nourish in myself a true devotion to the Passion, and I shall try to receive the smallest obstacles with respect, as if coming from the hand of God. The state of my health does not permit me to make great mortifications, so I shall apply myself especially to interior mortification, bearing in silence my little failings in the eyes of God, and taking what is given to me, pleasant or not. I shall profit well from the occasions of sacrifice that my work involves, and I shall cheerfully bear its fatigues, being very happy that it gives me some small occasion to suffer.”
Later on, the Reverend Mother had the joy of seeing her health recover, and then she was able to accomplish the mortifications prescribed by the Rule. She even surpassed its measure, but she let herself be guided in everything by obedience.
“Always have,” she said one day to one of her daughters, “a great esteem for suffering. Always accept it generously and unite yourself to Our Lord, but at the same time, ask from Him the strength and courage to bear it well.” She also said: “Let us accept with a good heart, and with love and gratitude, all the crosses that Jesus sends us. If you want to be a true Redemptoristine, you have to suffer.”
The revered Mother, in her position as the Superior, knew a great deal of suffering. Her interior pains were sometimes very great, but she knew that the mystery of the Crown of Thorns belongs most particularly to those persons clothed with authority. And so she united herself interiorly with the Ecce Homo, invoked the aid of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, and sanctified her pains by plunging them, if we are permitted to say so, into these two sources of life.
We have already spoken of the zeal that inspired Mother Marie-Joseph for the salvation of souls. We must now speak of her charity in regard to her daughters.
The goodness of her nature was united to grace to make it easy for her to exercise a very maternal charity. Always disposed to help and devote herself with warmth and good humour, she received the Sisters with a great kindness and family spirit. To everyone she showed a great confidence and a sincere affection. In regard to everyone she acted with uprightness, seeking only God and the good of souls.
To a high degree she possessed the spirit of counsel, and in difficulties, she was found to have a prompt and assured decisiveness, given without emphasis and with the affection of a mother. “God and our neighbour” was the usual sense of her recommendations, but, so that no one was deceived, she insisted most particularly on the love of neighbour, as per the example of Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Alphonsus and so many others. She herself saw all her daughters in the Sacred Heart of the Saviour, made everyone most welcome, and showed herself always ready to do them good. It was a grace that she earnestly requested from God, and she obtained it. Also, in the community, we could testify to the fact that she showed everyone a very special care. Whether they were professed, novices, educandes or postulants, no one was excluded from her heart. As soon as she appeared, joy shone on everyone’s faces, and if some cloud of sadness betrayed interior cares, the good Mother was soon able to make them dissipate. How many times did she in all simplicity make the first move to put a soul at ease and give it serenity! How many times did an admitted fault become the title to a more lively affection towards she who had committed it! How many times did we see the revered Mother show a very special charity towards she who had caused her some distress or brought her some difficulty!
In certain circumstances, however, she deployed a rare firmness. Certain faults found no grace with her. One day, she imposed a penance upon a Sister to which she reacted strongly. “I wished for your good,” she told her some time afterwards, “and you will thank me in Paradise.” – “Oh, I never thought about that!” replied the Sister immediately. “Yes, my Mother, you have done me a great good, and I am very grateful to you for it.”
“The care of the sick,” said Saint Alphonsus, “is one of the principal duties of the Superior.” Mother Marie-Joseph in no way forgot it. It was a terrible trial for her maternal heart when, in the space of a little more than two years (11th January 1890 – 22nd May 1892) five Sisters of a little advanced age were taken from her after long illnesses! How much care and time did she devote to these dear invalids, calculating neither fatigue nor inconvenience when she could console or comfort them! She watched with an extreme care to make sure that the Sisters Infirmarian surrounded them with all their care. As for herself, she attached herself particularly to preserving them from sadness, that bad counsellor, and suggested holy thoughts to them. Far from hiding the gravity of their state from them, she encouraged them to unite their sufferings to those of Our Lord, and showed them heaven as their reward. Assisting them right to the end and burying them with her own hands was for her a duty, as she said, and a duty that she did not cede to anyone. Once they had entered into their eternity, she did not forget them. How many were the prayers that she addressed and had addressed to God for them, and on the return of their anniversaries, she never failed to recall them to the memory of their community and have them pray for them. And so the Sisters lived united with each other, even after deaths, and their memory did not perish.
Everything has been said about goodness. When it is good, that is, based on the love of Our Lord, it infinitely passes the natural goodness that is too often allied with weakness. The revered Mother’s goodness of heart drew from the divine love all its sensitivity and constancy, and her daughters have preserved the most delightful memory of this too.
One of them writes: “When I came to present myself to the Convent of Saint-Amand, what struck me the most vividly in Mother Marie-Joseph was her maternal goodness. From the very first instant I felt at ease and easy to open up to her. A postulant whom I knew then came to see me in the parlour, and I admired the touching benevolence that the venerated Mother showed her, and on the other hand, the filial confidence that inspired the young Sister, who was rather feeble and sickly, in her dealings with her Superior. From this moment I was enlightened about the spirit that reigned in that blessed house. I told myself: “Here is a true house of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. I shall be happy there.”
My presentiments did not deceive me. We know how slow to heal the wound caused by a tenderly cherished child is. Our good Mother excelled in that difficult art. I remember her with my grand-parents who had come full of tears to pour out their regrets and sorrow. The impression caused by the grilles added still further to their torments. They were broken-hearted and grieving, but our venerated Mother knew how to find such good words, and showed herself so sympathetic, so compassionate for them, and so maternal towards me that, from this first visit, they were won over and left less afflicted.
“How can I quote the thousands and thousands of stories about her sensitivity and her goodness? With an incomparable tact, with a rare understanding of the different characters, and the different ranges of spirit and virtue, she knew how to adapt herself, if that is the right term, to the measure of each one, to encourage them, console them in all their pains and give each one of them the best advice. If her intervention was not enough to dissipate certain kinds of anguish, she would call the venerated spiritual Father of the community to her aid, and would seek superior lights from him.”
The Sister to whom we owe these edifying details was one day named Mistress of Educandes. The revered Mother gave her these most wise counsels. “Be united to your Superior,” she told her, “You will not do good except for this condition. As for the Educandes, form them little by little to despoil themselves of the views and habits of the world, and from their too strong attachment to their families, but make them love the yoke of Our Lord. Accustom them to a prompt, simple and entire obedience, and support them in that dilatation of heart which helps them so marvellously to follow the good way. Form them to think habitually of Our Lord, to unite their actions to His, and to imitate His most holy virtues. Nourish in them a great love for the Blessed Virgin, and may they honour her especially on Saturdays. They will go far, if, right from the beginning, they conduct themselves thus according to the views of the faith. So accustom them all to receive everything from God, to offer everything to God, and especially the pains, sufferings and trials of life. Thus they will become the friends of the cross of the divine Redeemer, the only good of our souls and our only true joy here below.”
The revered Mother would forget, if necessary, her own sorrows to sympathise with those of others. The very same day she was struck down by apoplexy, she received, for the Sister whose witness we have quoted, some very painful news concerning the health of her mother. She did not wish to communicate it to her without preparing her first. “At about eight o’clock,” said the Sister, “she had me called, and reading with me, she sympathised greatly about the state of my poor mother, reduced to being not able to express herself except by signs. Her compassion was immense for this kind of trial, so she put all the resources of her great heart into action to console me. I will never be able to forget that last conversation, provoked entirely and uniquely by her maternal goodness, and when, on that very same day, I found that she herself was deprived of language and incapable of saying a single word, you can guess how poignant my feelings were. But the Lord had judged her strong enough to bear this last cross.”
II. Her generosity towards the poor. – Her meekness, her humility, and her spirit of mortification.
The charity of the Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph extended beyond the limits of her Monastery, and when the community was in the position of being able to give a little more, the poor soon felt the effects of this relative ease. Every week, the good Superior would have a certain quantity of bread distributed, and each day she would feed some poor family. The houses in the street at Saint-Amand which she had bought never paid rent. Her goodness led her especially to help the families of Sisters that a reversal of fortunes had tested. It was thus that she invited to the Monastery the two nieces of one of them, whose brother found himself without a position, as his wife was ill. She housed them in the exterior, and these two children were the object of her tender solicitude, until their parents were able to take them back.
She also contributed to good works and helped the priests to do good by providing them with help. She did this one day with a great deal of sensitivity. The brother of one of the nuns in the Monastery had just been named the priest of a parish situated some miles from Paris. When his sister received the news, the Reverend Mother immediately told her: “Child, we must do something for your brother. Embroider a pall, and make it a good one.” A short time later, another sister came to see the nun. Immediately the good Mother wished to know what was lacking in the church, and they told her that there was an old statue of Saint Joseph there, all chipped, that had been relegated to the baptismal font. “I want to give them a new one,” said the Superior, “but your brother must never know where it has come from, and (she added laughing) he must believe it is a miracle.” So she had them make a little bag of white satin on which they attached a piece of parchment with these words: “To do me more honour”, and then they enclosed two bills of a hundred francs. “Go now,” she said to the visitor, “but keep our secret.” As was said, so was done. The good priest could not overcome his surprise when he found what he needed to buy a beautiful statue of Saint Joseph. In his next homily, he did not fail to recommend the unknown benefactor to the prayers of his parishioners. It was only later, on a visit to the Reverend Mother, that he saw the mystery solved.
The question of common recreations in convents is important. The revered Mother wanted them inspired, happy and charitable. The enemy of melancholy, she could not endure it in her Sisters. The conversations there were thus edifying, without being forced, and everyone was able to say her piece. The Reverend Mother had a good memory. From it she drew a mass of instructive stories drawn from the Lives of Saints, and she would recount them with interest. Sometimes she had some little feast organised, and it was filled with much warmth and happiness. Sometimes also, she began a canticle, and they had to continue it, especially if they were sad. The least sadness found no grace with her. And thus it happened that the Sisters would come out of the conversation sometimes more united to God than when they entered it. “It is through humility and meekness,” says Saint Alphonsus, “that a Superior gains the hearts of her Sisters.” The good Mother Marie-Joseph understood this, so one of her great merits was to have a disposition that was always the same. In every circumstance she possessed herself perfectly, and no one ever noticed in her any flashes of impatience or temper. Even in the greatest difficulties she would preserve a calm that recalled the eulogy given of Father Cafaro: “Always the same, Semper idem,” or of that other, applied to another priest: “He is as unchanging as the sun.” But she did not attain this without great humility.
On this point, the good Mother has left us some thoughts in a retreat notebook, the only one which has been preserved, as if providentially, as all the others have fallen victim to the flames. “I must try my best,” she says there, “to seek and aspire only to be scorned and forgotten by everyone. I must regard myself as the sweepings of the convent, which everyone has the right to trample under their feet. As a true Spouse of Jesus Christ, I must desire only humiliations and suffering, and to arrive there, I must try to receive with love and joy the occasions of humiliation, criticism, etc., which the good God will send me. When dame nature cries out, I shall take refuge with Our Lord who has become, for love of me, the opprobrium of mankind, and disowning everything that has happened to me, I shall thank Him and beg Him to aid me with His holy grace. I shall apply myself especially to receive little reproaches with an even temper and in a spirit of humility. If I learn that my conduct is blamed, and I am criticised, I shall not make excuses for myself, and I shall watch especially to be very considerate and charitable towards my Sisters. I recognize that I must apply myself wholeheartedly and not let any occasion pass to humble myself. This virtue is the foundation of the spiritual life, and God has made me see the whole price of it too clearly for me not to feel obliged to apply all my strength to make some progress in it every day.”
While she exercised the office of Housekeeper at Malines, she wrote: “I must try my best to acquire a great love for the cross and suffering. To get there, I shall nourish in myself a true devotion to the Passion, and I shall try to receive the smallest obstacles with respect, as if coming from the hand of God. The state of my health does not permit me to make great mortifications, so I shall apply myself especially to interior mortification, bearing in silence my little failings in the eyes of God, and taking what is given to me, pleasant or not. I shall profit well from the occasions of sacrifice that my work involves, and I shall cheerfully bear its fatigues, being very happy that it gives me some small occasion to suffer.”
Later on, the Reverend Mother had the joy of seeing her health recover, and then she was able to accomplish the mortifications prescribed by the Rule. She even surpassed its measure, but she let herself be guided in everything by obedience.
“Always have,” she said one day to one of her daughters, “a great esteem for suffering. Always accept it generously and unite yourself to Our Lord, but at the same time, ask from Him the strength and courage to bear it well.” She also said: “Let us accept with a good heart, and with love and gratitude, all the crosses that Jesus sends us. If you want to be a true Redemptoristine, you have to suffer.”
The revered Mother, in her position as the Superior, knew a great deal of suffering. Her interior pains were sometimes very great, but she knew that the mystery of the Crown of Thorns belongs most particularly to those persons clothed with authority. And so she united herself interiorly with the Ecce Homo, invoked the aid of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, and sanctified her pains by plunging them, if we are permitted to say so, into these two sources of life.
Chapter V. Exile and the death of Mother Marie-Joseph.
I. Exile. – The Monastery of Kain-la-Tombe.
The year 1900 brought the Monastery of Saint-Amand a triple subject of joy. They were to celebrate at one and the same time the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Redemptoristines in France; the superiority of Mother Marie-Joseph, who had lasted the same amount of time, and finally, the twenty five years in which Father Vaillant had exercised his functions of Chaplain to the Monastery with an admirable zeal.
Everything was done with devotion and the accustomed warmth. The great solemn Mass was accompanied by the singing of the College, and a special sermon for the occasion, a far from ordinary one, was preached by Rev. Fr. Arséne, Redemptorist. Their gratitude and love was transmitted in a thousand ways as varied as they were touching. We should not forget to mention here the two Sisters [4] who had most particularly shared with their Mother the work and suffering of the foundation. And the deceased Sisters, the parents and benefactors who had passed away, all had their fair share of suffrages and prayers.
But so joyful a feast was to be succeeded by more sombre days. At the end of the 18th Century (1790), the Benedictines of Saint-Amand had seen their magnificent abbey become the prey of the revolutionaries, and now the Redemptoristines of Saint-Amand were to see their beautiful Monastery fall into the hands of a greedy treasury, and the road to exile open up before them. Summoned to ask the government for an authorisation which would have been only an illusory one, and in every case very precarious, Mother Marie-Joseph preferred to ask Belgium for its generous hospitality where she and her daughters could at least serve God tranquilly and pray to Him in peace for their ungrateful country. And then she could remember how her Sisters from Vienna, in 1848, had themselves had to bow to the storm and ask neighbouring countries for the liberty snatched away from them by the Revolution. How could she ever forget how Mother Marie-Alphonse, whose Life [5] she had just read, had herself sought refuge in Belgium and had even received amongst the number of her daughters the future Superior of Saint-Amand?
The test was no less a cruel one. It meant saying farewell to the Monastery where they had all spent the best part of their lives and spent the best part of their energies, where pains and joys had been mingled to make the link closer which united their hearts to the blessed walls where they had become a close community. This cloister and this chapel where they had prayed so much together, they now had to leave! The good Mother’s heart was distraught with grief, but her faith and her energy soon took the upper hand. With an unparalleled courage, she went to Tournai and searched for a refuge in the suburbs where she could take her community, no less strong and no less resigned than herself. She spared herself neither journeys nor effort, and finally found a temporary swelling at Kain-la-Tombe. It was a country house, the property of the Count of Hespel. She rented it, adapted it to the present necessities, and installed herself there. She decided to leave Saint-Amand on 25th August 1901, and on 19th September, the feast of Our Lady of Salette, the departure of the exiles took place. Mons. Monnier, their devoted protector, gave them his blessing. A short time afterwards, Mons. Walravens, the Bishop of Tournai, came to give his own to the reunited community. Some months later, the venerable Prelate came to bless her and encourage her once more.
There were not too many of these consolations. Their afflicted hearts had such need, that their Fathers in the faith offered them their sympathies and assured them of their protection! But the Mother had in no way failed her children. Indefatigable in putting everything in order in their new home, she made sure with the solicitude of a Mother that spiritual help was in no way lacking for her children. The episcopal College of Kain came to her aid in this respect with an admirable devotion. On the other hand, the revered Mother gladly reminded her children of the examples of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, and got them to offer their sacrifices to God for this redemption of souls which was the purpose of their whole lives. These were noble thoughts which elevated their hearts above the sorrows of this world and made them courageously accept the harshest trials!
However, these rude shocks had undermined the health of Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph. Several nasal haemorrhages, judged very grave by the doctor, had surprised her in the midst of her labours and alarmed the community. Prayers led to an improvement. On 29th December they were able to celebrate the ninth re-election of the much-beloved Superior, and hearts began to fill with hope again. But a burning pain remained in the good Mother’s heart, that of not being able to establish the enclosure in this house which she had rented for only three years. Her energy and her love of religious regularity made her take on new labours, but this time it was her life that was under threat, as she did not spare herself.
A spacious property, formerly the therapeutic establishment of Kneipp, situated not far from her former house, became available. The courageous Mother obtained permission from the Bishop to acquire it. The contract was signed on 20th March 1903, and they immediately began the work of adapting the house for its new purpose. However, they had to build a chapel and parlours. The construction work soon began. This time, so many preoccupations added to the heart complaint from which the revered Mother suffered, that they took a toll on her constitution, and she had to renounce the supervision of the work. One of her most devoted daughters said: “From then on her life became on long series of sufferings that crucified her and enriched her with merits for heaven by making her practise the most heroic virtues. For more than six months she had to take her rest in an armchair, yet it was still a long time before she would allow one of her children to sleep next to her in her room. Besides, her long insomnias permitted her to deliver herself at leisure to her prayers, and this exercise was her strength and consolation. Soon she let some words escape that seemed to announce to her dear daughters a coming separation. Then she put her papers in order, tore up and burnt all those which were of a personal nature, went to confession regularly twice a week, and held herself ready to respond to the call of her divine Spouse. Some months before her death, in memory of the terrible haemorrhage of 1st November 1902, she pronounced these words: “Oh, the anniversary! What will it bring us this year? By the grace of God, may His holy will be done!” and she accompanied these words with a significant gesture. Soon, in fact, her soul was to take its flight to its homeland.
II. Death of Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus.
“The more the end of our Mother’s life approached,” continues the narrator, “the more also her goodness was manifested, at the same time as her sanctity. Every day, morning and evening, she would bless her children and always a few words of piety and edification to them. She did her best to attend the common recreations, knowing how much her presence was agreeable to us. She herself appeared happy in the midst of her daughters, who showed her their respectful affection. When the time permitted her, she would go out in a little carriage along the paths in the park, surrounded by her dear community, and we all competed zealously with each other to render her this service. But always, before going back to her room to take a little rest, she would pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament."
Every day, she would attend the Holy Mass and take communion. She would often tell us about the benefits of suffering. She would say: “Meditate on the blessings of the Cross. Suffering is a great grace, so accept with love and gratitude everything that Jesus sends us. If we wish to be true Redemptoristines, we should know how to suffer.” She also said: “Let us love the good God well, my children, let us ask Him to make Himself known and loved. There are so many people who no longer want Him! We at least should love Him with all our hearts, so that, on this little corner of the earth, He may be well loved and served.” “O Mary,” she sometimes cried out, “take from the Heart of your Jesus a little spark of love that it encloses, make in burn in our souls.”
Thus the good Mother Marie-Joseph went gently towards her eternity. Faithful to her exercises of piety until her very last day, she satisfied the obligation to the Divine Office as far as her sufferings permitted her, but soon they increased. Apoplexy, the beginning of congestion and a painful eczema all struck her in succession. She offered nothing but the most entire resignation and her usual prayer: “My God, give me patience.” In spite of her pains, she never lost sight of the removal of the community into its new home, and finally fixed the departure for 21st November. But, like Moses, she was not destined to enter this Promised Land. The Blessed Virgin had reserved another for her.
On 11th November, while the Sisters were reciting the Vespers of the day in choir and saying with the disciples of the great Saint Martin: “Father, why have You abandoned us? To whom have You left your grieving sons?”, Mother Marie-Joseph was struck with paralysis. Soon her speech was affected, and the revered invalid was deprived of the ability to speak. A priest, a friend of the community, was there in the convent. He judged it prudent to administer the last sacraments to Mother. She received them with a tender piety, as she still had the lucidity of her mind, and followed all the prayers and ceremonies with great faith. The haste with which it was necessary to proceed to the administration did not permit her disconsolate daughters any demonstration, and this simplicity even helped them in their sorrow.
“The recreations were suppressed,” says the narrator, “and everyone started praying. The following day, the Rosary was recited the whole day, and the chapel did not cease to be the witness of our supplications. But the Lord remained deaf to our ardent desires. Her illness gradually got worse, her paralysis increased, and all hope soon vanished. We were scarcely able to guess if our good Mother was still conscious, but sometimes, however, her eyes recovered their power, and one could have said that she wanted us to understand her thoughts. We made use of this to address some good words to her, but everything stopped there. How much sacrifice and suffering did this state impose on our revered Mother! As for us, we were doubly afflicted by not being able to speak to her or understand her. She was about to leave us without being able to give her last recommendations and receive the homage of our filial love.
"On the 17th, at four o’clock in the morning, the Infirmarians believed that our Reverend Mother was entering into her agony and warned the community, but this state continued right into the following night. They recited the prayers of the agonising, and during the day, the Father Superior and the Parish Priest of La Tombe gave the holy Mother the indulgences in articulo mortis [at the moment of death]. It was at about one-thirty, on the night of Wednesday 18th, that our revered Mother and foundress rendered her beautiful soul to God, surrounded by all her children. She was in her 68th year of age, her 47th year of her religious life, and her 28th year of Superiority. Her death had been as gentle and calm as her life, and it was under the auspices of Saint Joseph her special patron and the Patron of a good death, that her soul took its flight.
“The funeral service was celebrated on 21st November, on the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. The Sisters did not even have the consolation of keeping the mortal remains of their good Mother, near them, in a cemetery that belonged to the community, as authorisation for it had not been granted to them. They decided to have her transported to the community vault at Nivelles, near Saint-Amand. There Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus seems to still watch over the Monastery that was formerly erected by her cares, and await her religious exiles at the moment marked out by the will of God.”
Epilogue.
Many tributes were paid to the memory of the revered Mother, but none, in our opinion, surpasses the one that Father Vaillant, the former Chaplain of the Redemptoristines of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, dedicated to her in the following pages:
“What Mother Marie-Joseph never lost sight of, and what she excelled in, was making her community a truly Alphonsian community, that is to say, completely impregnated and devoted to the spirit of the holy Founder, his principles, his maxims, his teachings, his doctrines, his virtues, and his preferred devotions – in a word, devoted to forming her spiritual daughters in the school and upon the model of the holy Doctor.
“We should recall here that Saint Alphonsus was not simply one of the greatest saints who have shone in the Church. He was also an eminent director of souls, an incomparable doctor and master in the ways of perfection. All the Popes who have succeeded since his death have been pleased to praise his doctrine and his maxims, and recommend them as eminently proper to the sanctification of souls, and to elevating them to the highest peaks of virtue. Both the instructions too of the Reverend Mother, her opinions, her habitual recommendations, as well as the particular direction of each one of the religious, were profoundly marked by this Alphonsian imprint. She herself preached by example, showing herself in everything the image of her Blessed Father. To this special formation she consecrated all her prayers, her efforts, an indefatigable zeal, and her whole soul. Her great and only ambition was to light the fire of true love in the souls of her daughters, and to make it reign there as the master. She had the ineffable consolation of succeeding in it. A quality developed to a rare degree in the heart of the Reverend Mother contributed powerfully to this result. I mean by this the very maternal affection with which she surrounded each one of her daughters, an affection which was truly devout, strong, supernatural, and entirely inspired by a zeal for their perfection. In return, her daughters offered her the most tender affection and the most sincere obedience.
“The Monastery of Saint-Amand was consecrated to the Holy Family and bore their name. Consequently, this was the model always proposed for the imitation of the religious who lived there, and invitation which was always encouraging them to bring about everything this beautiful name recalls, and reproduce the life and virtues of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus could never forget this for a single instant. She put her whole heart and her whole soul into bringing into her community the ineffable union that reigned between Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What happiness for this very loving Mother to manage to establish among her daughters a perfect union of spirits and hearts, an inalterable peace, friendship and cordiality in all their relationships! This view enraptured her heart and brought her a wonderful happiness, paying her for all her labours.
“In addition, the Reverend Mother did not like melancholy, or a bad and taciturn humour. She wanted to see her daughters habitually bright, happy and outgoing, with their faces calm and relaxed, with a disposition always even and open, edifying each other mutually. She herself preached by example, in spite of the continual cares of her position. It was one of her favourite maxims that sadness and concentration on oneself depresses the strength of the soul and the energies of the will, while spiritual joy doubles them, supports generosity and the spirit of sacrifice, and makes us accept everything with warmth, joy and as she said herself, joyfully.”
The year 1900 brought the Monastery of Saint-Amand a triple subject of joy. They were to celebrate at one and the same time the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Redemptoristines in France; the superiority of Mother Marie-Joseph, who had lasted the same amount of time, and finally, the twenty five years in which Father Vaillant had exercised his functions of Chaplain to the Monastery with an admirable zeal.
Everything was done with devotion and the accustomed warmth. The great solemn Mass was accompanied by the singing of the College, and a special sermon for the occasion, a far from ordinary one, was preached by Rev. Fr. Arséne, Redemptorist. Their gratitude and love was transmitted in a thousand ways as varied as they were touching. We should not forget to mention here the two Sisters [4] who had most particularly shared with their Mother the work and suffering of the foundation. And the deceased Sisters, the parents and benefactors who had passed away, all had their fair share of suffrages and prayers.
But so joyful a feast was to be succeeded by more sombre days. At the end of the 18th Century (1790), the Benedictines of Saint-Amand had seen their magnificent abbey become the prey of the revolutionaries, and now the Redemptoristines of Saint-Amand were to see their beautiful Monastery fall into the hands of a greedy treasury, and the road to exile open up before them. Summoned to ask the government for an authorisation which would have been only an illusory one, and in every case very precarious, Mother Marie-Joseph preferred to ask Belgium for its generous hospitality where she and her daughters could at least serve God tranquilly and pray to Him in peace for their ungrateful country. And then she could remember how her Sisters from Vienna, in 1848, had themselves had to bow to the storm and ask neighbouring countries for the liberty snatched away from them by the Revolution. How could she ever forget how Mother Marie-Alphonse, whose Life [5] she had just read, had herself sought refuge in Belgium and had even received amongst the number of her daughters the future Superior of Saint-Amand?
The test was no less a cruel one. It meant saying farewell to the Monastery where they had all spent the best part of their lives and spent the best part of their energies, where pains and joys had been mingled to make the link closer which united their hearts to the blessed walls where they had become a close community. This cloister and this chapel where they had prayed so much together, they now had to leave! The good Mother’s heart was distraught with grief, but her faith and her energy soon took the upper hand. With an unparalleled courage, she went to Tournai and searched for a refuge in the suburbs where she could take her community, no less strong and no less resigned than herself. She spared herself neither journeys nor effort, and finally found a temporary swelling at Kain-la-Tombe. It was a country house, the property of the Count of Hespel. She rented it, adapted it to the present necessities, and installed herself there. She decided to leave Saint-Amand on 25th August 1901, and on 19th September, the feast of Our Lady of Salette, the departure of the exiles took place. Mons. Monnier, their devoted protector, gave them his blessing. A short time afterwards, Mons. Walravens, the Bishop of Tournai, came to give his own to the reunited community. Some months later, the venerable Prelate came to bless her and encourage her once more.
There were not too many of these consolations. Their afflicted hearts had such need, that their Fathers in the faith offered them their sympathies and assured them of their protection! But the Mother had in no way failed her children. Indefatigable in putting everything in order in their new home, she made sure with the solicitude of a Mother that spiritual help was in no way lacking for her children. The episcopal College of Kain came to her aid in this respect with an admirable devotion. On the other hand, the revered Mother gladly reminded her children of the examples of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, and got them to offer their sacrifices to God for this redemption of souls which was the purpose of their whole lives. These were noble thoughts which elevated their hearts above the sorrows of this world and made them courageously accept the harshest trials!
However, these rude shocks had undermined the health of Reverend Mother Marie-Joseph. Several nasal haemorrhages, judged very grave by the doctor, had surprised her in the midst of her labours and alarmed the community. Prayers led to an improvement. On 29th December they were able to celebrate the ninth re-election of the much-beloved Superior, and hearts began to fill with hope again. But a burning pain remained in the good Mother’s heart, that of not being able to establish the enclosure in this house which she had rented for only three years. Her energy and her love of religious regularity made her take on new labours, but this time it was her life that was under threat, as she did not spare herself.
A spacious property, formerly the therapeutic establishment of Kneipp, situated not far from her former house, became available. The courageous Mother obtained permission from the Bishop to acquire it. The contract was signed on 20th March 1903, and they immediately began the work of adapting the house for its new purpose. However, they had to build a chapel and parlours. The construction work soon began. This time, so many preoccupations added to the heart complaint from which the revered Mother suffered, that they took a toll on her constitution, and she had to renounce the supervision of the work. One of her most devoted daughters said: “From then on her life became on long series of sufferings that crucified her and enriched her with merits for heaven by making her practise the most heroic virtues. For more than six months she had to take her rest in an armchair, yet it was still a long time before she would allow one of her children to sleep next to her in her room. Besides, her long insomnias permitted her to deliver herself at leisure to her prayers, and this exercise was her strength and consolation. Soon she let some words escape that seemed to announce to her dear daughters a coming separation. Then she put her papers in order, tore up and burnt all those which were of a personal nature, went to confession regularly twice a week, and held herself ready to respond to the call of her divine Spouse. Some months before her death, in memory of the terrible haemorrhage of 1st November 1902, she pronounced these words: “Oh, the anniversary! What will it bring us this year? By the grace of God, may His holy will be done!” and she accompanied these words with a significant gesture. Soon, in fact, her soul was to take its flight to its homeland.
II. Death of Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus.
“The more the end of our Mother’s life approached,” continues the narrator, “the more also her goodness was manifested, at the same time as her sanctity. Every day, morning and evening, she would bless her children and always a few words of piety and edification to them. She did her best to attend the common recreations, knowing how much her presence was agreeable to us. She herself appeared happy in the midst of her daughters, who showed her their respectful affection. When the time permitted her, she would go out in a little carriage along the paths in the park, surrounded by her dear community, and we all competed zealously with each other to render her this service. But always, before going back to her room to take a little rest, she would pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament."
Every day, she would attend the Holy Mass and take communion. She would often tell us about the benefits of suffering. She would say: “Meditate on the blessings of the Cross. Suffering is a great grace, so accept with love and gratitude everything that Jesus sends us. If we wish to be true Redemptoristines, we should know how to suffer.” She also said: “Let us love the good God well, my children, let us ask Him to make Himself known and loved. There are so many people who no longer want Him! We at least should love Him with all our hearts, so that, on this little corner of the earth, He may be well loved and served.” “O Mary,” she sometimes cried out, “take from the Heart of your Jesus a little spark of love that it encloses, make in burn in our souls.”
Thus the good Mother Marie-Joseph went gently towards her eternity. Faithful to her exercises of piety until her very last day, she satisfied the obligation to the Divine Office as far as her sufferings permitted her, but soon they increased. Apoplexy, the beginning of congestion and a painful eczema all struck her in succession. She offered nothing but the most entire resignation and her usual prayer: “My God, give me patience.” In spite of her pains, she never lost sight of the removal of the community into its new home, and finally fixed the departure for 21st November. But, like Moses, she was not destined to enter this Promised Land. The Blessed Virgin had reserved another for her.
On 11th November, while the Sisters were reciting the Vespers of the day in choir and saying with the disciples of the great Saint Martin: “Father, why have You abandoned us? To whom have You left your grieving sons?”, Mother Marie-Joseph was struck with paralysis. Soon her speech was affected, and the revered invalid was deprived of the ability to speak. A priest, a friend of the community, was there in the convent. He judged it prudent to administer the last sacraments to Mother. She received them with a tender piety, as she still had the lucidity of her mind, and followed all the prayers and ceremonies with great faith. The haste with which it was necessary to proceed to the administration did not permit her disconsolate daughters any demonstration, and this simplicity even helped them in their sorrow.
“The recreations were suppressed,” says the narrator, “and everyone started praying. The following day, the Rosary was recited the whole day, and the chapel did not cease to be the witness of our supplications. But the Lord remained deaf to our ardent desires. Her illness gradually got worse, her paralysis increased, and all hope soon vanished. We were scarcely able to guess if our good Mother was still conscious, but sometimes, however, her eyes recovered their power, and one could have said that she wanted us to understand her thoughts. We made use of this to address some good words to her, but everything stopped there. How much sacrifice and suffering did this state impose on our revered Mother! As for us, we were doubly afflicted by not being able to speak to her or understand her. She was about to leave us without being able to give her last recommendations and receive the homage of our filial love.
"On the 17th, at four o’clock in the morning, the Infirmarians believed that our Reverend Mother was entering into her agony and warned the community, but this state continued right into the following night. They recited the prayers of the agonising, and during the day, the Father Superior and the Parish Priest of La Tombe gave the holy Mother the indulgences in articulo mortis [at the moment of death]. It was at about one-thirty, on the night of Wednesday 18th, that our revered Mother and foundress rendered her beautiful soul to God, surrounded by all her children. She was in her 68th year of age, her 47th year of her religious life, and her 28th year of Superiority. Her death had been as gentle and calm as her life, and it was under the auspices of Saint Joseph her special patron and the Patron of a good death, that her soul took its flight.
“The funeral service was celebrated on 21st November, on the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. The Sisters did not even have the consolation of keeping the mortal remains of their good Mother, near them, in a cemetery that belonged to the community, as authorisation for it had not been granted to them. They decided to have her transported to the community vault at Nivelles, near Saint-Amand. There Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus seems to still watch over the Monastery that was formerly erected by her cares, and await her religious exiles at the moment marked out by the will of God.”
Epilogue.
Many tributes were paid to the memory of the revered Mother, but none, in our opinion, surpasses the one that Father Vaillant, the former Chaplain of the Redemptoristines of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, dedicated to her in the following pages:
“What Mother Marie-Joseph never lost sight of, and what she excelled in, was making her community a truly Alphonsian community, that is to say, completely impregnated and devoted to the spirit of the holy Founder, his principles, his maxims, his teachings, his doctrines, his virtues, and his preferred devotions – in a word, devoted to forming her spiritual daughters in the school and upon the model of the holy Doctor.
“We should recall here that Saint Alphonsus was not simply one of the greatest saints who have shone in the Church. He was also an eminent director of souls, an incomparable doctor and master in the ways of perfection. All the Popes who have succeeded since his death have been pleased to praise his doctrine and his maxims, and recommend them as eminently proper to the sanctification of souls, and to elevating them to the highest peaks of virtue. Both the instructions too of the Reverend Mother, her opinions, her habitual recommendations, as well as the particular direction of each one of the religious, were profoundly marked by this Alphonsian imprint. She herself preached by example, showing herself in everything the image of her Blessed Father. To this special formation she consecrated all her prayers, her efforts, an indefatigable zeal, and her whole soul. Her great and only ambition was to light the fire of true love in the souls of her daughters, and to make it reign there as the master. She had the ineffable consolation of succeeding in it. A quality developed to a rare degree in the heart of the Reverend Mother contributed powerfully to this result. I mean by this the very maternal affection with which she surrounded each one of her daughters, an affection which was truly devout, strong, supernatural, and entirely inspired by a zeal for their perfection. In return, her daughters offered her the most tender affection and the most sincere obedience.
“The Monastery of Saint-Amand was consecrated to the Holy Family and bore their name. Consequently, this was the model always proposed for the imitation of the religious who lived there, and invitation which was always encouraging them to bring about everything this beautiful name recalls, and reproduce the life and virtues of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Mother Marie-Joseph of the Child Jesus could never forget this for a single instant. She put her whole heart and her whole soul into bringing into her community the ineffable union that reigned between Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What happiness for this very loving Mother to manage to establish among her daughters a perfect union of spirits and hearts, an inalterable peace, friendship and cordiality in all their relationships! This view enraptured her heart and brought her a wonderful happiness, paying her for all her labours.
“In addition, the Reverend Mother did not like melancholy, or a bad and taciturn humour. She wanted to see her daughters habitually bright, happy and outgoing, with their faces calm and relaxed, with a disposition always even and open, edifying each other mutually. She herself preached by example, in spite of the continual cares of her position. It was one of her favourite maxims that sadness and concentration on oneself depresses the strength of the soul and the energies of the will, while spiritual joy doubles them, supports generosity and the spirit of sacrifice, and makes us accept everything with warmth, joy and as she said herself, joyfully.”
Footnotes
[4] Reverend Sister Marie-Claire of the Blessed Sacrament, and Reverend Sister Marie-Angèle of the Precious Blood.
[5] See the Life of Mother Marie-Alphonse of the Will of God, by Father Nimal, Redemptorist.
[5] See the Life of Mother Marie-Alphonse of the Will of God, by Father Nimal, Redemptorist.
* MONASTERY OF GAGNY *
Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Love of God, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Gagny (1863 – 1896)
Martha Hello (this was the family name of Sister Marie-Aloyse) was born in Paris on 5th February 1863. She was the fourth child who issued from the marriage of Mr. Charles Hello and Miss Gauthier of Saint-Michel, the worthy guardian of such a home. Her parents, who were profoundly convinced Christians, gave her an excellent education in the paternal home, so she practised good virtues from an early age. The family home, the castle of Keroman, in Brittany, saw her attain the most perfect obedience, and show charity towards the poor, and patience in illnesses. And what is worth even more, from her earliest years, she had the most tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, whose colours she wore until the age of seven. Later on she was to write: “Ah, how much the holy Virgin protected me! Until I was seven, I was vowed to this good Mother, and then when I had to leave the blue and white, I remember that at Saint Merry, in Paris, there was a consecration of my little being to the Blessed Virgin, at her altar. How many prayers surrounded me, I cannot doubt! I attribute all of this as to why I was not in hell.” [1]
Martha made her first communion at the age of eleven, two weeks after having been received as a Child of Mary. Her joy on this wonderful day was immense. She seemed not to touch the ground, and her feet scarcely rested on the carpet with which the apartment had been furnished to honour the divine Host of her heart.
But trials were not long in coming. In 1879, Martha saw her brother Henri leave the paternal home to join his uncle, Father Hello, in the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul. Three years later, the head of the family, Mr. Charles Hello, a councillor at the Court of Appeal in Paris and a magistrate of great merit, was carried away from the affection of his family by a chest complaint. Six months after the illness of her father, the young lady revealed the secret of her heart, and, on the occasion of an offer of marriage, manifested her intention, or rather her firm decision, to leave the world. She then had some conflicts to go through, but her constancy triumphed over everything. After many prayers and much advice, she entered the Convent of the Redemptoristines of Grenoble on 15th February 1884. Less than a year afterwards, on 26th January 1885, she took the habit, and the following year, on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, she made her profession. This was when, following the expression of one of her companions, Martha became Mary. And indeed she received as her name in religion the name of Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Divine Love.
* * * * *
In the admirable sermon that Father Hello gave on the day of his niece’s religious profession, he told her: “Sister Aloyse of the Love of God, launch yourself ardently into the career of the love of God which is open to you, and of which your name in religion will now remind you unceasingly. May your heart overflow with love, may it be wounded with the wounds of love that Our Lord bore on the Cross, and which have made the Saints all suffer and love so much. Do not be half-hearted in your desire for sanctity and in the giving of yourself to God.”
The newly-professed had been well prepared to follow these counsels, but she had to overcome herself, and she had a number of sacrifices to make. Let us now listen to one of her companions, who knew her very well.
“Sister Marie-Aloyse,” she said, “was an elect soul, great, generous, ardent, with an upright and powerful will that a certain native pride sometimes doubled with a little haughtiness, and even rigidity. As for her heart, it was excellent and sensitive, because it was always pure. However, for those who only judged her superficially, the cast of her mind, which was a little caustic, and where the occasion warranted it, had recourse to sarcasm, was capable of doing her great harm. It was not without some work that she was able to redress this little defective point in a good and noble character.
“The habitual cheerfulness of our good Sister, her spiritual and good-humoured conversations in the common recreations would have made anyone believe, at first sight, that joy was overflowing in her soul. This was not the case, however, at least for a certain number of years, and her constancy in covering an often very crucified interior state with a veil of the most gracious sweetness was no little proof of her virtue.
“Her zeal for souls was very ardent and effective. If the state of her health had permitted it, she would have imposed all sorts of penances upon herself for the sake of poor sinners and the souls in Purgatory. She supplied for this physical incapacity by a very sustained constancy in prayer and struggle against her defective tendencies ; every exterior shortcoming had its expiation in an exterior humiliation.
“As for her interior life, she loved to accuse herself in every detail to Our Lord Himself for her least oversights, and spiritual confession was one her favourite practices.
“The customary accusations regarding failures to observe the holy Rule or the Directory she did with great exactitude both in the refectory and in the Chapter of Faults, in terms well measured to put her to shame. She confessed to me a number of times that this cost her enormously. “I sweat on it,” she told me one day, when, for the twentieth time perhaps, she had added her formula of accusation, emphasizing the little word: again, which in the past had cost Rev. Father de Ravignan so much when he was a novice.
“Her exactitude in observing our holy Rule was in all respects absolutely exemplary. At the first sound of the bell, she would leave a letter unfinished, in order to fly to where the voice of God called her.
“Fly is indeed the word, and sometimes even, at the beginning of her religious life, she would fly a little too quickly, so quickly that they had to cut her wings a little. Reverend Mother then stopped her by a little admonition whose ordinary conclusion was to begin her journey again at a monastic pace.
“All our Sisters are also unanimous in testifying in favour of her perfect religious poverty. She kept nothing that was useless, and all the objects for her own use bore the stamp of her favourite virtue. She was very skillful in handing over to the officers what she thought was superfluous regarding clothes or work objects, and kept only what was strictly necessary. Even before she left the world, she exercised a great zeal in the practice of voluntary poverty.
“The virtue of the angels was of an immaculate whiteness in her. This dear little Sister was truly virginal and well merited to bear the name of the holy protector of pure souls, Saint Louis Gonzaga.
“She loved him greatly, her dear Patron. Each month she would prepare herself, by a very fervent novena, to celebrate the twenty-first day of the month in his honour, and how many times did she tell us that she had obtained from him, by this means, the most signal graces!
“As for the most excellent of all religious virtues, holy obedience, she took it so much to heart that she practised it a bit too much at the beginning, and we had to weigh our words when we gave her an obedience, as she was resolved to push the practice of it to the last limits of voluntary blindness.
“Her devotion in the tasks of refectory assistant, robe mistress, portress, sacristan and supervisor of the novitiate which were successively entrusted to her, left us nothing to desire, and her companions who had her for their assistant praise her exactitude, willingness, attention to rendering service, and her dependability.
“This last point cost her more than one struggle, and in return, it brought her many little victories, for as she had a lively mind and quick eyesight, it would take her a long time to come to a solution that she could accept there and then, and which she wanted to carry out in the same way.”
* * * * *
These most instructive details are completed by the following remarks which are no less interesting.
“One salient feature is missing from this sketch if we do not make a special mention of the little drop of spiritual originality which seasoned the words of Sister Marie-Aloyse and her whole manner of being. This often served to entertain us by inspiring the most amusing impromptu verse in her playful little mind. She was quite unique in this, and anyone else would have been hard put to try and imitate her.”
This liveliness also comes across to us in the tone of sweet resignation which reigns in her letters. One day the good Sister was in the grip of painful suffering. She wrote to her brother who was a priest, Father Henri Hello:
“As you can see, your skinny sister is still on earth, in body and soul, and wishes to reassure you a little. I have been in my cell for a whole month now, but I’m getting better, however. Yet I still need a jolly good dose of your lovely prayers if I am to be patient and really cheerful, because I can see that I’m going to need you to make a sign of the cross over my health. The good God does all things well and He has chosen just the right moment to crucify me well and truly.
“Thank my good uncle for his letter, and be sure to tell him that I’m praying as much as I possibly can to be cured. But I’m beginning to run out of patience, because all the good saints are doing so well in Paradise that I think they’ve become a little bit deaf! However, Father Passerat has better hearing than Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Francis Regis. To start with, I did a novena, which, they tell me, does many miracles. Oh yes for sure! Every day I got worse and on the ninth day I took to my bed. Then a Sister did a novena to Saint Regis for me, with the same result. These good saints can only hear together, I think. Finally Father Passerat gave me a little bit more strength.”
A tender and holy affection united Sister Marie-Alphonse to her brother Henri. The pious Redemptoristine was to make the sacrifice of her beloved brother twice in some way before her death. On two occasions, in fact, during his sister’s last months, Father Henri Hello was struck down by an illness which threatened to take him away from the affections of his family. On 19th July, the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, he was struck down by a sudden illness which immediately put his life in danger. These are the terms in which the good nun expressed to her uncle the feelings that inspired these lines:
“What a dreadful surprise the letter I got from you yesterday has caused me! I would scarcely have expected such a cross, but nonetheless my heart remains full of hope.
“Your letter today is more reassuring, but this illness is so often mortal that, like you, I count even more on prayers, and the prayers of little children, than on remedies.
“The good Lord knows what this sacrifice has cost me, but He also knows that I am ready for whatever He wants, as His wisdom is infinite and everything He does is good.
“I was lying down in bed when your first letter reached me. I told the good Lord that it was sufficient for His very useless Sister to suffer, but her very useful brother ought to be cured. Not having permission to do more, I leave it to the good Lord to act.”
* * * * *
Many trials filled the career, outwardly so peaceful, of Sister Marie-Aloyse. Her almost constant condition of poor health was not the least of it, but this hard-working soul wanted to do nothing by halves, so she embraced the cross ardently. Let us listen to some more testimonies.
“What struck me the most about her, especially during the course of her last illness,” wrote the Sister Infirmarian, “was her indomitable energy in following, as far as lay in her power, all the spiritual exercises of the Community, aided by Reverend Mother and Mother Vicar. Her Infirmarian could give her no greater pleasure than to read out loud to her all the prayers of the Rule. She joined in them heart and soul, and she did so not just until her last day, but until the last moment of her life.”
Her Superior also says: “We would see her continuing to come to the refectory when she could no longer participate in the meals and even the very smell of the dishes would cause her nausea. This strength of will extended to everything. Sister Marie-Aloyse carried things so far, that sometimes, when she was full of sorrow, she would show herself happy and laughing during recreation, without letting anyone suspect how much pain she was in. We saw her, during her last illness, persisting in sleeping on one of the straw palliasses that the nuns use. The mere offer of a mattress caused her so much pain that we had to give up on making her accept it.
“Who knows the repugnance that sick people suffer? Sister Marie-Aloyse sometimes felt them profoundly, but her respect for poverty and her spirit of mortification made her over come all this. Whenever we mentioned a remedy or some kind of drink, she would hide her repugnance, and so that nothing would be lost, she would take everything we gave her without leaving anything. Those who have been ill for a long time find it nothing to laugh about.”
The death of Sister Marie-Aloyse was worthy of her life. At the age of thirty three (the age she wanted to die in order to imitate Our Lord), the valiant religious rendered her beautiful soul to God. This was on 17th October 1896, on the feast of the Blessed Marguerite Mary, the hard-working Visitandine who too had once bought, at the price innumerable victories over herself, the love of her beloved Saviour.
Martha made her first communion at the age of eleven, two weeks after having been received as a Child of Mary. Her joy on this wonderful day was immense. She seemed not to touch the ground, and her feet scarcely rested on the carpet with which the apartment had been furnished to honour the divine Host of her heart.
But trials were not long in coming. In 1879, Martha saw her brother Henri leave the paternal home to join his uncle, Father Hello, in the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul. Three years later, the head of the family, Mr. Charles Hello, a councillor at the Court of Appeal in Paris and a magistrate of great merit, was carried away from the affection of his family by a chest complaint. Six months after the illness of her father, the young lady revealed the secret of her heart, and, on the occasion of an offer of marriage, manifested her intention, or rather her firm decision, to leave the world. She then had some conflicts to go through, but her constancy triumphed over everything. After many prayers and much advice, she entered the Convent of the Redemptoristines of Grenoble on 15th February 1884. Less than a year afterwards, on 26th January 1885, she took the habit, and the following year, on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, she made her profession. This was when, following the expression of one of her companions, Martha became Mary. And indeed she received as her name in religion the name of Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Divine Love.
* * * * *
In the admirable sermon that Father Hello gave on the day of his niece’s religious profession, he told her: “Sister Aloyse of the Love of God, launch yourself ardently into the career of the love of God which is open to you, and of which your name in religion will now remind you unceasingly. May your heart overflow with love, may it be wounded with the wounds of love that Our Lord bore on the Cross, and which have made the Saints all suffer and love so much. Do not be half-hearted in your desire for sanctity and in the giving of yourself to God.”
The newly-professed had been well prepared to follow these counsels, but she had to overcome herself, and she had a number of sacrifices to make. Let us now listen to one of her companions, who knew her very well.
“Sister Marie-Aloyse,” she said, “was an elect soul, great, generous, ardent, with an upright and powerful will that a certain native pride sometimes doubled with a little haughtiness, and even rigidity. As for her heart, it was excellent and sensitive, because it was always pure. However, for those who only judged her superficially, the cast of her mind, which was a little caustic, and where the occasion warranted it, had recourse to sarcasm, was capable of doing her great harm. It was not without some work that she was able to redress this little defective point in a good and noble character.
“The habitual cheerfulness of our good Sister, her spiritual and good-humoured conversations in the common recreations would have made anyone believe, at first sight, that joy was overflowing in her soul. This was not the case, however, at least for a certain number of years, and her constancy in covering an often very crucified interior state with a veil of the most gracious sweetness was no little proof of her virtue.
“Her zeal for souls was very ardent and effective. If the state of her health had permitted it, she would have imposed all sorts of penances upon herself for the sake of poor sinners and the souls in Purgatory. She supplied for this physical incapacity by a very sustained constancy in prayer and struggle against her defective tendencies ; every exterior shortcoming had its expiation in an exterior humiliation.
“As for her interior life, she loved to accuse herself in every detail to Our Lord Himself for her least oversights, and spiritual confession was one her favourite practices.
“The customary accusations regarding failures to observe the holy Rule or the Directory she did with great exactitude both in the refectory and in the Chapter of Faults, in terms well measured to put her to shame. She confessed to me a number of times that this cost her enormously. “I sweat on it,” she told me one day, when, for the twentieth time perhaps, she had added her formula of accusation, emphasizing the little word: again, which in the past had cost Rev. Father de Ravignan so much when he was a novice.
“Her exactitude in observing our holy Rule was in all respects absolutely exemplary. At the first sound of the bell, she would leave a letter unfinished, in order to fly to where the voice of God called her.
“Fly is indeed the word, and sometimes even, at the beginning of her religious life, she would fly a little too quickly, so quickly that they had to cut her wings a little. Reverend Mother then stopped her by a little admonition whose ordinary conclusion was to begin her journey again at a monastic pace.
“All our Sisters are also unanimous in testifying in favour of her perfect religious poverty. She kept nothing that was useless, and all the objects for her own use bore the stamp of her favourite virtue. She was very skillful in handing over to the officers what she thought was superfluous regarding clothes or work objects, and kept only what was strictly necessary. Even before she left the world, she exercised a great zeal in the practice of voluntary poverty.
“The virtue of the angels was of an immaculate whiteness in her. This dear little Sister was truly virginal and well merited to bear the name of the holy protector of pure souls, Saint Louis Gonzaga.
“She loved him greatly, her dear Patron. Each month she would prepare herself, by a very fervent novena, to celebrate the twenty-first day of the month in his honour, and how many times did she tell us that she had obtained from him, by this means, the most signal graces!
“As for the most excellent of all religious virtues, holy obedience, she took it so much to heart that she practised it a bit too much at the beginning, and we had to weigh our words when we gave her an obedience, as she was resolved to push the practice of it to the last limits of voluntary blindness.
“Her devotion in the tasks of refectory assistant, robe mistress, portress, sacristan and supervisor of the novitiate which were successively entrusted to her, left us nothing to desire, and her companions who had her for their assistant praise her exactitude, willingness, attention to rendering service, and her dependability.
“This last point cost her more than one struggle, and in return, it brought her many little victories, for as she had a lively mind and quick eyesight, it would take her a long time to come to a solution that she could accept there and then, and which she wanted to carry out in the same way.”
* * * * *
These most instructive details are completed by the following remarks which are no less interesting.
“One salient feature is missing from this sketch if we do not make a special mention of the little drop of spiritual originality which seasoned the words of Sister Marie-Aloyse and her whole manner of being. This often served to entertain us by inspiring the most amusing impromptu verse in her playful little mind. She was quite unique in this, and anyone else would have been hard put to try and imitate her.”
This liveliness also comes across to us in the tone of sweet resignation which reigns in her letters. One day the good Sister was in the grip of painful suffering. She wrote to her brother who was a priest, Father Henri Hello:
“As you can see, your skinny sister is still on earth, in body and soul, and wishes to reassure you a little. I have been in my cell for a whole month now, but I’m getting better, however. Yet I still need a jolly good dose of your lovely prayers if I am to be patient and really cheerful, because I can see that I’m going to need you to make a sign of the cross over my health. The good God does all things well and He has chosen just the right moment to crucify me well and truly.
“Thank my good uncle for his letter, and be sure to tell him that I’m praying as much as I possibly can to be cured. But I’m beginning to run out of patience, because all the good saints are doing so well in Paradise that I think they’ve become a little bit deaf! However, Father Passerat has better hearing than Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Francis Regis. To start with, I did a novena, which, they tell me, does many miracles. Oh yes for sure! Every day I got worse and on the ninth day I took to my bed. Then a Sister did a novena to Saint Regis for me, with the same result. These good saints can only hear together, I think. Finally Father Passerat gave me a little bit more strength.”
A tender and holy affection united Sister Marie-Alphonse to her brother Henri. The pious Redemptoristine was to make the sacrifice of her beloved brother twice in some way before her death. On two occasions, in fact, during his sister’s last months, Father Henri Hello was struck down by an illness which threatened to take him away from the affections of his family. On 19th July, the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, he was struck down by a sudden illness which immediately put his life in danger. These are the terms in which the good nun expressed to her uncle the feelings that inspired these lines:
“What a dreadful surprise the letter I got from you yesterday has caused me! I would scarcely have expected such a cross, but nonetheless my heart remains full of hope.
“Your letter today is more reassuring, but this illness is so often mortal that, like you, I count even more on prayers, and the prayers of little children, than on remedies.
“The good Lord knows what this sacrifice has cost me, but He also knows that I am ready for whatever He wants, as His wisdom is infinite and everything He does is good.
“I was lying down in bed when your first letter reached me. I told the good Lord that it was sufficient for His very useless Sister to suffer, but her very useful brother ought to be cured. Not having permission to do more, I leave it to the good Lord to act.”
* * * * *
Many trials filled the career, outwardly so peaceful, of Sister Marie-Aloyse. Her almost constant condition of poor health was not the least of it, but this hard-working soul wanted to do nothing by halves, so she embraced the cross ardently. Let us listen to some more testimonies.
“What struck me the most about her, especially during the course of her last illness,” wrote the Sister Infirmarian, “was her indomitable energy in following, as far as lay in her power, all the spiritual exercises of the Community, aided by Reverend Mother and Mother Vicar. Her Infirmarian could give her no greater pleasure than to read out loud to her all the prayers of the Rule. She joined in them heart and soul, and she did so not just until her last day, but until the last moment of her life.”
Her Superior also says: “We would see her continuing to come to the refectory when she could no longer participate in the meals and even the very smell of the dishes would cause her nausea. This strength of will extended to everything. Sister Marie-Aloyse carried things so far, that sometimes, when she was full of sorrow, she would show herself happy and laughing during recreation, without letting anyone suspect how much pain she was in. We saw her, during her last illness, persisting in sleeping on one of the straw palliasses that the nuns use. The mere offer of a mattress caused her so much pain that we had to give up on making her accept it.
“Who knows the repugnance that sick people suffer? Sister Marie-Aloyse sometimes felt them profoundly, but her respect for poverty and her spirit of mortification made her over come all this. Whenever we mentioned a remedy or some kind of drink, she would hide her repugnance, and so that nothing would be lost, she would take everything we gave her without leaving anything. Those who have been ill for a long time find it nothing to laugh about.”
The death of Sister Marie-Aloyse was worthy of her life. At the age of thirty three (the age she wanted to die in order to imitate Our Lord), the valiant religious rendered her beautiful soul to God. This was on 17th October 1896, on the feast of the Blessed Marguerite Mary, the hard-working Visitandine who too had once bought, at the price innumerable victories over herself, the love of her beloved Saviour.
Footnotes
[1] Sœur Marie-Aloyse de l’amour de Dieu, rédemptoristine, Marthe Hello [Sister Marie-Aloyse of the Love of God, Redemptoristine], by Charles Maignen, a priest of the Fathers of Saint Vincent de Paul, Paris, imprimerie des Orphelins-Apprentis [press of the Orphan Apprentices], 40, rue de la Fontaine, 1897. A booklet of 50 pages.
* * MONASTERY OF GRENOBLE * *
Sister Marie-Alphonse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Grenoble
(1860-1886)
God has sanctified her in her faith and meekness
(Eccl. XLXV)
(1860-1886)
God has sanctified her in her faith and meekness
(Eccl. XLXV)
It is a consolation for us to speak, even if it is but briefly, of our dear lamented Sister Marie-Alphonse, this lily so pure that the divine Spouse hastened to transport her to the heavenly garden.
She was born at V… (Saone et Loire) on 23rd November 1860, in the bosom of an honourable family of landowners which one could call truly patriarchal. At her holy baptism our dear Sister received the name of Marie-Louise. Her childhood was surrounded only by examples of virtue.
At the first awakening of reason, her young soul opened itself up fully to grace, and from then on she was so faithful to it that we have the private conviction that she ascended to heaven adorned with her baptismal innocence.
Our little Marie-Louise, naturally serious and reflective, did not like games very much, but even then she was much concerned with her duties and was the angel of her home. Filled with a tender affection for her family, she evidenced it even more by her actions than by her words or caresses. She showed herself obedient and respectful towards her grandparents and her own good parents and totally devoted to her little brothers and sisters. Her pious Mistresses had nothing but praise for her application to her studies and her docility in all their lessons, when a little later on her education was entrusted to them.
She began to understand and enjoy the charms of piety at an early age and when, on the day of her first communion, Jesus descended into this pure and fervent heart, He found her well prepared to receive His favours, and so He was pleased to communicate them to her in abundance.
Already this privileged soul was feeling herself attracted to Him. She loved to pray at the foot of the altar, and as she grew up, she was better able to appreciate the happiness of possessing her God. And then Marie-Louise would sometimes flee furtively from the paternal home in order to visit the church and satisfy her piety and love before the tabernacle. Later on she reproached herself for not having attended the Holy Mass during the week then on as many occasions as she could have. This, in her opinion was a great fault against fervour.
Her greatest happiness was to go on pilgrimage with her dear parents or her pious Mistresses, to the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, and there she would forget herself in the delights that the divine Heart of Jesus would fill her soul with. She would have liked to remain there always, as she herself confessed.
The thought of entering the Monastery of the Visitation appealed to her, but she was still very young, and the divine Master had not spoken, and while she was waiting to know His will, our dear Marie-Louise continued her pious and devout life within her family.
She was always a stranger to the foolishness so common at her age. She did not like dressing up, and here is the place to recall an incident that took place some time before her entry into religion and shows her in her natural colours:
The parish priest, Father V…, preaching one Sunday on Christian simplicity, inveighed strongly against the vanity that reigned in the towns and also seemed to be invading the countryside. He particularly blamed the deplorable fashion that replaced the traditional head-wear of the young country folk with hats decorated with flowers and feathers. Our poor Marie-Louise was sitting there adorned with her most beautiful hat, which she only happened to be wearing by the will of her parents. She felt the point strike deep into her heart. Her face flushed red with embarrassment and she went back home very upset.
After this famous sermon, she had no more peace. Every time she encountered her venerable Pastor she would remember his words, and it felt as though he had said them for her sake alone. Finally, believing that it was her duty to surrender to Father’s exhortations, our dear Marie-Louise made earnest requests to her good parents, who, while they admired their daughter’s virtue, nonetheless only granted the permission she was seeking after her repeated prayers. But matters did not finish there, and the most severe test that the timidity of our good Sister had to endure was when she reappeared in the village, and especially in the Church, with a modest country headscarf, and found herself made the object of everyone’s stares. After this generous act, her conscience was satisfied and she was able to find peace again, and the example of her courageous virtue was not without effect on her young companions.
The cross did not spare our dear Sister’s Christian family. Her good parents had the sorrow of seeing many of their young children snatched away by death while they were still in the cradle. Marie-Louise did her best to soften their affliction by redoubling her tenderness. In the midst of the tears that she herself shed over these dear little angels whom she had cared for and loved so much, the thought of heaven was her consolation. She envied the happiness that they had had in flying there before her and in all the freshness of their innocence, and then the heavenly homeland became the favourite object of her meditations and ardent desires.
In 1879, Rev. Father F… of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer came to give the exercises of the Mission to V… Marie-Louise attended them most diligently and grace penetrated her soul. She had many conversations with the good Father, to whom she confided her attraction to the religious life. He recognized her call from God, but to test her vocation even further, he advised her to pray a great deal and to imagine her last moment by asking herself in the face of her eternity: “What would I like to have done by the hour of my death?” Accepting this advice, every evening when she went to bed, our dear Marie-Louise would lie down as if on her funeral bed, and then she would feel a great fear of death and a keen dread of judgement, but her obedience made her find so certain an assurance of her vocation in this exercise that she had no more hesitation. God really wanted her all to Himself! However, what Monastery was she to serve Him in? She still did not know. Rev. Father F… wrote for her to the very respected Mother Superior of the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial, who expressed her regret at not being able to accept her because of the lack of a place, as the number of her religious was complete. Simply the memory of the Apparition of the Sacred Heart which consecrated the sanctuary of Paray to our veneration had attracted our young postulant, and she had never thought of another convent of the Visitation. So placing herself in God’s hands, she awaited a clearer manifestation of His holy will.
Some time afterwards, Rev. Father H… then came to a neighbouring parish to give the Mission exercises. Marie-Louise consulted him, and it was he who managed to decide her, by making her aware of the existence and spirit of our humble Institute vowed to prayer.
At this decisive moment that showed her what would be her coming sacrifice, nature delivered her to violent struggles. How could she ever tear herself away from a family so Christian, so good and so loved, in which she could so easily practise all her devotions and achieve her salvation? And then, if she entered religion, could she be sure of persevering in it? Would she not soon be repelled by the difficulties of religious life that her timid and fearful nature greatly exaggerated to her? She had much to suffer in this combat, but grace rendered her victorious. In spite of the anguish in her heart, she explained her plan to her pious parents, whose spirit of faith was so well known to her. She asked them to agree to her vocation and generously make a sacrifice that she herself was feeling so keenly.
They agreed to her request, and her excellent father himself brought her to Grenoble, on Easter Sunday 1881, to see our Monastery, and be informed by our Reverend Mother about our manner of life. This dear Sister then knew in full certainty that God was calling her to live in our Congregation.
She went back to V…, filled with the desire to be a Redemptoristine, and to complete her sacrifice as soon as possible in separating herself from everything that was the most dear in the world to her.
* * * * *
Our dear Marie-Louise had been a model of filial piety in her family, and the edification of her companions. Her pure and fervent conduct had even been remarked upon by everyone and she had been chosen by her parish as the President of the Congregation of the Children of Mary. Pious and modest, she never gave anything but good examples, and so she was beloved by all and her departure was the occasion for many tears. The truly Christian resignation of her family softened the bitterness of her departure for her, but did not prevent her loving heart from feeling all the sorrow of it. Once again it was good Father H… who fortified both her and her family in these sorrowful moments, by reminding her of the magnificent promises of Our Lord to those who leave everything to follow Him.
She entered our Monastery of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour on 24th May, under the auspices of Our Lady Auxiliatrix, with the firm decision to give herself without reserve to the heavenly Spouse whom she already loved with all her heart.
Our dear postulant was from then on a model of regularity.
The trouble she had in overcoming her excessive timidity increased the difficulties for her in the beginning. She felt she was less than the others because she came from the countryside. She had the conviction of being good for nothing and quite useless in the Community, and all this made her suffer interiorly and hindered her in her exterior actions, by the fear of doing things badly. This dear Sister underwent much torment from these thoughts during her whole first year, but afterwards she was delivered from these puerile fears.
She passed the time of her postulancy in great fervour. Her humility, her obedience and her spirit of prayer all grew from day to day, and laid the solid foundation in her soul of the interior spirit which was to inspire her whole religious life.
Thus prepared, she was admitted to taking the holy habit on 9th May 1882. As she had a great devotion to our Founder, she was very happy to exchange her name of Marie-Louise for that of Sister Marie-Alphonse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After this wonderful day, her fervour found a new impetus, and she was an example of virtue among the novices as she had been among the postulants. She excelled especially in humility, mortification and regularity.
Her obedience towards our good Reverend Mother was inspired by a great spirit of faith. She studied our holy Rules and practised them scrupulously.
While she was still in the world, she had practised fasting with a great rigour, and when she was in religion, she continued to do so, and when our good Mother or another one of us urged her to be less strict, she replied that she did not believe she was fasting if she did not feel hunger.
She always showed herself very diligent in fulfilling well the different tasks that obedience entrusted to her. But it was in choir especially that our fervent novice showed herself at her most edifying. Her serious and recollected demeanour was evidence of her profound respect for this holy place. She would always remain on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament and was always prepared and attentive to the Divine Office, for the recitation of which our good God had endowed her with a very pleasant voice.
Meditation was her delight. She was never tired of it and devoted all her free time to this holy exercise. She always did the Way of the Cross every day, even when she was ill, and with a great devotion. She was filled with zeal for the salvation of poor sinners and for the deliverance of the holy souls in Purgatory. Everything which affected the glory of God and the salvation of souls had a part in her prayers. We loved recommending our different intentions to her and when she learnt of someone in trouble, her charity would encourage her to pray for their relief, which she would do with a great deal of perseverance.
During the whole year of her novitiate, our dear Sister never ceased to sigh after the wonderful day of her religious profession. She was entirely imbued with the gravity of the obligations she was to contract, and she would study them every day to know them better in order to fulfil them more perfectly.
She made her preparatory retreat during the novena of Pentecost with a great deal of ardour. Uniting herself to Mary and the holy apostles during their retreat in the Cenacle, we may say that like them, she received a large part of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It was with a feeling of holy gladness that, in the presence of Rev. Father P…, she pronounced the irrevocable vows that bound her to her heavenly Spouse of Virgins on 15th May 1883. None of us will ever forget the expression of pure and radiant joy which lit up her face under her crown of roses, but what we labour in vain to express is the peace and happiness with which her soul was flooded on that holy day! This Sister had given herself entirely to Jesus and it was clearly visible that He too had given Himself totally to her! We were pleased to have her repeat her cherished words: “My Beloved is everything to me and I am everything to my Beloved!” These words were so true on her lips and inspired every one of her actions.
Indeed, she sought only Jesus. Pleasing Jesus was her only ambition, and she sought in everything only what she believed was the most perfect.
Dating from this moment, she progressed more and more in prayer and union with God, an exercise which was very sweet to her soul, as her divine Spouse continued to reward her fidelity with the abundance of His consolations.
She also advanced in her abnegation of self, working hard to renounce all her natural inclinations. Our good Reverend Mother, who for a long time had appreciated the virtues of this truly interior soul, furnished her an occasion for renunciation which cost her more than one sacrifice… When she had finished her novitiate, she kept her there as Sister Mistress, thus delegating to her a part of her surveillance of the novices. The excessive timidity and profound modesty of our humble Sister suffered more than one struggle before bowing to a role that she believed herself so unworthy and incapable of fulfilling, but especially in that act of generosity which she had to make in renouncing the enjoyment of that dear solitude in her cell which she desired so greatly! She submitted humbly to obedience and fulfilled, with prudence, charity and wisdom, the delicate task that the confidence of our good Reverend Mother had imposed upon her.
In this as in everything else, she both wanted and sought only the accomplishment of the holy will of God made manifest by the voice of His Superior. This divine and adorable will had become, at this time, the dominant feature of her piety, and she surrendered to it with a complete abandonment. And then, on the occasion of our entry into the new building, we renewed the motto that each one of us placed on the door of our cells, she chose one which clearly showed the disposition of her soul: “The will of God is the only desire of my heart.”
The divine Master did not let Himself be outdone in generosity to His fervent Spouse. In return for this abandonment of self, He granted her such a great grace of confidence that this dear Sister appeared quite transformed in our eyes and entirely despoiled of her former fears and pusillanimity. It could be said that then, in all points, she embodied these words of our Father Saint Alphonsus: “Oh, may the progress be rapid that a soul makes in perfection, when her heart is dilated by confidence in God, for she does not simply run, but flies along, because having placed all her confidence in the Lord, she ceases to be feeble as formerly, but becomes strong with the strength of God, which is communicated to all those who hope in Him.” At the same time that confidence dilated her heart and gave her a holy liberty, she increased her love, and then, from this time on, our good Sister loved to repeat the words of Saint John which encapsulated her feelings: “Love chases away fear.”
In the midst of so many interior joys, she felt an increase in her desire to go to heaven to contemplate her Beloved and be united perfectly with Him… She desired death as the gateway to Paradise. She spoke of it readily and thought of it unceasingly.
One day one of our Sisters asked her why she never gave herself a moment of relaxation in her exact vigilance over herself, and she replied: “I cannot. It is stronger than I. If ever I stop for one moment, it is as if I can hear a voice that always repeats to me: You have to do in just a short time what others do in many years…” She added that she regarded this as a great grace and a warning and asked the secret of them, in fear that these words, which seemed to presage her death, might give pain to our good Mother.
Her health, which was always a little weak, began to cause concern. She was forbidden to fast. For her this was an heroic act of obedience in no longer following the common life. She admitted later on that this was the act that had cost her the most during her life and it was indeed her cross, so much love did she have for our holy Rules and horror of dispensations. Her submission contributed not a little to advance her in the work of perfection.
At the beginning of her illness, she had a great deal of grief to overcome. Since she incessantly drifted off to sleep, she could not abandon herself as formerly to her beloved meditations. Nature bore her away on the fervour of her spirit, but in spite of all her difficulties and her lack of apparent consolations, she preserved the same fidelity to all her exercises, and when this first state due to her illness had passed, she returned with a new impetus to her first desires, speaking only of heaven and the happiness of soon seeing her heavenly Spouse.
* * * * *
She had a great struggle within herself to obey our good Mother, who had forbidden her to think of dying so early and told her to pray a great deal against it, in order to obtain a cure so keenly desired by the whole Community. However, in spite of all the care lavished on her by our dear Reverend Mother who did everything she could to give her back her health and strength, in spite of all the novenas and prayers, our dear Sister grew weaker and weaker, and then it became evident that, instead of progressing towards a full recovery, she was gently drifting away to heaven. Although she was languishing, she wanted to follow our community exercises right to the end – the holy Mass, recreation, etc., and as she could not remain in bed, she was allowed this consolation, in spite of the swelling in her feet.
She even went down to the choir for the holy Mass on the last Sunday she spent here below and in the afternoon she made her last visit to the Prisoner of the Tabernacle, with whom she had kept such faithful company every day of her life.
At the news of her illness, her excellent mother hastened to come and see her, accompanied by her young sister, and our dear invalid went painfully to the parlour. Her heart was pierced with sorrow in seeing her poor mother so afflicted! She remained with her a long time, consoling her with holy thoughts of faith, telling her to be of good courage, to generously make her sacrifice by being resigned to the will of God, that one day they would see each other again in heaven, and while they were awaiting their eternal reunion, she would not cease to pray for her. She never tired of repeating to her how much she was consoled to be dying as a Redemptoristine, and that she was in no way terrified by the approach of death. But her good mother, in these cruel and final interviews, could not restrain her tears, in spite of her every effort, and our dear Sister gently chided her: “Please don’t weep,” she told her finally, “there are many people who must wait so long for heaven, and I – I have it at the end of five years!...” When we heard this, we felt that her soul was no longer attached to the earth.
The great charity of which our good Sister had given so much proof, and the tender compassion which made her mix her own tears with those she saw poured out, seemed to be transformed at this hour into a sweet strength of soul, which preserved her loving heart from her own natural weaknesses in the face of such keen sorrow from her beloved Mother.
She was amazed by the care and affection that was lavished upon her, always finding that they were doing too much for her, and persuaded that she was the most incapable, or, to put it in her own words, the most clumsy and useless of creatures. The confidence of her Superiors, as well as their devoted care for her, were an enigma to her humility. The love of her good parents seemed excessive to her, and she believed she did not merit it.
We can say in all truth that this beloved Sister was a model of all the religious virtues, and apply to her the words that the holy Church sings in praise of some young privileged saints: “She has accomplished a long career in a few years.” The perfume of her pure and hidden life was to rejoice the heart of her heavenly Spouse.
In her last days, more than ever, Jesus crucified, whose sorrows she had so often contemplated, became her strength and succour. Her little crucifix never left her, and she looked at it and kissed it at every instant. Her rosary, too, was always in her fingers. How much she loved to pray to her good Mother Mary while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary! Her faithful memory permitted her to continue, right up to her last moment, the practice of her accustomed devotions.
The need for rest that her great weakness made her suffer never prevented her from reciting the Divine Office during her illness, and so she had the very rare consolation of being able to recite it right to the end. On the eve of her death, when she was getting ready to say it once more, while thinking that it would be rather difficult for her, our good Reverend Mother arrived next to her, and seeing her breviary in her hands, she said to her: “It would be better for you not to do your office today, because you are too exhausted to read it.” Immediately our good Sister, stuck by the coincidence of this visit by our worthy Mother and her words so much in agreement with what she was thinking at that moment, exclaimed aloud to her: “How wonderful Superiors are, having the grace of knowing everything! I was just thinking that I could no longer do my office and see how you have arrived at the same moment to dispense me of it!”
Her great spirit of faith in obedience made her continually desire the presence of our good Mother, and in spite of the long and frequent visits she made to her, she asked for them even more frequently, not wishing to do anything without her.
She listened to each one of her words as if God Himself were speaking to her through the mouth of she who tells us His will here below, and she obeyed her with such a noticeable consolation that this appeared upon her face in her contented and happy demeanour. We shall speak again of this consolation which our dear Sister found in obedience, as it always went on increasing and became the most striking feature of the last hours she spent amongst us.
In spite of the excessive weakness of our patient, we did not think that she was so close to her end. Her good mother and sister were called away by their family duties and decided to leave, but they promised to come back and see her soon.
On Monday, 31st May, towards evening, she suffered such violent palpitations of her heart that our Reverend Mother was frightened and immediately had the doctor called. He found her gravely ill and was greatly astonished to see that the approach of death deprived his patient of none of her joy in dying to go and see God, but quite the contrary, it served only to increase with the progress of her illness. This good doctor, having unfortunately, like most of his colleagues, abandoned the practices of our holy religion, had nonetheless preserved his faith. With the desire of making a salutary impression upon him, our excellent Mother turned the conversation to the subject of death and eternity, which had always been the delight of our dear Sister Marie-Alphonse, and so she gave free rein to the sentiments of joy which flooded out of her heart at the thought of soon going to contemplate her God and be united with Him without the fear of ever losing Him!
The doctor was most impressed by her words and this spectacle and could not prevent himself from letting it appear. On his way out, he told our Reverend Mother: “What a great thing faith is!... I see death very often, but never like this!...” And this is how the joy with which our dear Sister was inundated was changed into a veritable jubilation which lasted the whole night long. Our dear Reverend Mother told us she had never seen a religious so consoled by obedience in her last moments.
Our dear invalid had no other desires than heaven, and she would smile every time she heard the name pronounced.
We all went to give her our commissions for the heavenly homeland. She received them with a modest assurance and a holy joy like the exile who is the first to have the happiness of returning to her native country and bears the wishes and memories of those who must still await the hour of their return. She asked us, in return for our pious messages, to pray a great deal for her and her dear parents whose inconsolable grief was her preoccupation. She herself prayed for them at every instant, beseeching our good God with all her heart to grant them the graces of resignation and consolation which they had so much need of. We were never tired of being beside her, for she was so sweet and so grateful for the least services, always smiling and saying “thank you” to us, or rather: “May our good Jesus reward you!” The devotion of the infirmarians greatly touched her, and she did everything in her power to spare them any trouble. She never ceased to witness the gratitude her heart was full of. How many times did she thank our excellent Mother for her goodness and maternal care! She even recommended to her good parents to do this for her even after her death.
* * * * *
We would most happily let ourselves speak much more fully still of our beloved Sister, but the brevity of a simple notice does not permit this to us, and so we must limit ourselves to these few facts about her beautiful life and arrive at her last moments, which so worthily crowned it, for she most clearly showed at her death what she had been during her life – a soul of a truly interior obedience, and having but God alone in view in all her actions.
After the visit by the doctor which we have mentioned, and which was the last one, our dear invalid, in spite of new remedies, continued to weaken and the violence of her palpitations prevented her from resting in bed, so she was put in an armchair near a half-open window, so that she could breathe more easily. As the assurance of her death drew nearer, our angelic Sister felt herself dilated by a confidence and an ever more intimate joy, and it was with these sentiments that she received the last sacraments with great fervour, as our good Mother believed that it was her duty to wait no longer in the face of the progress of her illness. It was our Chaplain who came to administer them to her. As this supreme ceremony took place at night after the Community had gone to bed, we did not all have the consolation of attending her, but those who witnessed it have remained most edified by her profound humility, the pious calmness of our holy invalid, and especially the great love with which she received in viaticum the heavenly Spouse who was already leading her to the eternal wedding.
The night was spent in prayers and thanksgiving.
Our good Reverend Mother became more and more the living representation of God for this soul of faith. She wanted her always at her side, and she was totally trusting and abandoned in her hands. She told her over and over again of her happiness in dying in obedience, and we felt a supernatural tenderness in her affection. At midnight, according to the desire she had shown, we reminded her that the beautiful month of Mary had finished and that the month of the Sacred Heart had begun. She immediately began ardently saying ejaculatory prayers and praying interiorly to this divine Heart which she loved so much, and which had always filled her with the most precious favours.
At four o’clock, our good Mother, who had visited her so many times during this last night, came once more to see her. Taking her by the hand she told her: “Your pulse is very weak..” At these words, our beloved invalid was filled with joy and fixed her great eyes on her. Their expressive gaze seemed to reflect the ardours of the desires of her soul!
She was again granted the consolation of receiving Holy Communion, because of the gravity of her state. This was the last time that she received, under the veils of the sacrament, Him who was about to show Himself to her in all the splendour of His divine glory…
Our dear sister preserved the full and perfect use of her faculties right to the end. She was astonished by this herself, telling us that she could remember all her prayers and was reciting them internally. Then she read some lines once more from the beautiful book called “Let us go to Heaven!” as well as the apology and consecration to the Heart of Jesus that she did every day.
Her dear novices, who had surrounded her with so much care and consideration during her illness, came once more to give her new witnesses of their affection and gratitude, and entrust their commissions for heaven to her one last time.
Our dear Sister wanted to die at a moment when the Community was free of any common exercise, and this, she said, was so as not to cause any disruption. Her pious desire was heard.
When we were finishing the hours of Terce and Sext, she had our Reverend Mother called with the intention of discussing something with her, and while our good Mother was speaking to her about the happiness she would doubtless have of dying during the month of the Sacred Heart to which she was so devoted, our dear invalid interrupted her, saying: “But, they are saying that I am going to die soon …. and I do feel as if I am going to die!...” Then, in calmness and recollection she listened once again to our worthy Mother’s pious exhortations, with the same tranquillity as if it was all about someone other than herself.
Seeing that she was failing more and more, the Community was notified, and we came to pray beside our dear invalid. She looked reasonably well. Always smiling and tranquil, she said her prayers quietly, invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, the Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Our good Mother, standing by her armchair, held her propped up against her chest and supported her bowed head in her hands. This was indeed the supreme moment… some gentle sighs growing weaker and weaker and more drawn out indicated that her life was ebbing away. And in this way, in the arms of our good Mother, our angelic Sister Marie-Alphonse rendered her pure soul to God, without her face undergoing the least contraction or agony! She flickered and burnt out like the blessed candle that was burning between her fingers. This was on 1st June 1886.
The heavenly smile that remained on her lips seemed to radiate her joy, which was now eternal! Oh what must have been the transports of her soul in finally seeing face to face Him whom she had so much desired?
In the midst of our tears we felt an immense consolation in the intimate conviction of the happiness now enjoyed by the dear and holy soul who had just left us, and we all envied her…
After having reclothed her body in the holy religious habit that our dear Sister had worn all her life with so much respect, we brought her down to the choir where she was laid out before the open grille. A crown of roses was placed on her head as on the day of her holy profession. Her hands held her crucifix and rosary beads with a lily flower, the emblem of the virginal purity the freshness of which she had never sullied.
Thus decorated and placed on a white bed, the body of our dear Sister still had the appearance of life, and we never tired of contemplating her, because she looked so good. Beside these virginal remains we felt the impression of a heavenly peace. Death lost its horrors and showed itself only as the blessed passage from earth to heaven. This is what was felt by all the people who came to pray beside her.
The poor parents of our beloved Sister had scarcely returned to Varennes before they received from our Reverend Mother the sad news of the sudden aggravation of her illness and the sad announcement of the death of their beloved daughter. Filled with grief, they once again set off for Grenoble and arrived on Thursday morning, 3rd June. How profound was their sadness when they beheld her stretched out upon her funeral bed! But the heavenly Consoler of the afflicted, from the depths of His tabernacle, blessed this heart-rending meeting. In the midst of their tears and the cries of nature, through His omnipotent grace, He was able to make their hearts, so profoundly Christian, feel assured of the perfect happiness of the daughter whom they mourned, and the consolation of having ensured it for her by their most generous consent to her vocation.
And then, how could our good Jesus, who had deigned to let us see all the tenderness of His affection for His friend Lazarus when He wept at his tomb, now refuse to console those afflicted hearts who had abandoned themselves to Him? Yes, we are convinced that one of the first graces that our dear defunct Sister obtained from the Heart of her divine Spouse, was the grace of consolation and strength for her good parents, for our Reverend Mother, and for us, which she had so often promised us.
Her excellent father, her good mother and her young sister, in spite of their overwhelming grief, wished to spend the night beside the dear remains. Their prayers softened the bitterness of their tears which, in spite of their Christian resignation, they could not retain. Divine Providence brought them Rev. Father H… as their support in this cruel affliction. He was the same Father who had encouraged them to the sacrifice, at the time of our dear Sister’s entry. Our worthy Bishop, Mons. Fava, whose paternal benevolence for the members of our humble community was so perceptible a consolation at this moment of testing, himself wished to bless our dear departed. He kneeled on the floor with much emotion before this virginal body and prayed for some moments.
When he got up, he was struck by the expression of peace and heavenly joy that was seen upon her face and that sweet smile that death could not efface. He could not prevent himself from expressing his pious sentiments, and he applied to our beloved Sister the following words of Sacred Scripture: “The strong woman shall smile at her last moment.”
Our humble and modest and dear deceased Sister would have been most astonished and confused if she had been able to see the pious throng that surrounded her funeral bed. Their testimonies of esteem and respect were lavished on her memory and her mortal remains. One would have believed that our good God was pleased to exalt our Sister who had never sought anything but to be abased and hidden. The solemnity of Ascension delayed the funeral, which took place only on 4th June (1886) afterwards. The impression of peace and joy experienced by all those who approached our beloved deceased Sister permitted us to do something that people who do not have the happiness of understanding the things of God would have found little in agreement with the preparations for a burial. After the Mass of the Ascension of Our Lord, we sang the beautiful canticle: Heaven, Heaven! which she loved so much. One would have said that she herself encouraged us in it by her angelic smile.
This chant produced an indelible impression upon everyone, which nothing could remove! One would have said that at that moment the Church in heaven was united with the Church on earth to make it taste something of the happiness that it celebrates in its chants.
The next day, the Parish Priest of Saint-Bruno, assisted by Rev. Father H…, Rev. Father G… and our good and devoted Chaplain, presided at the funeral ceremony. After the Mass and the absolution, our Sisters transported the coffin along the garden paths to our little cemetery.
The bright sunshine co-operated in giving the pious convoy the appearance of a festive triumph, and more than ever the thought of heaven dominated everyone else, even when we placed the body of our beloved Sister in the tomb where she awaits the resurrection, in the shadow of the cross.
Our account has reached its end. It has been very sweet for us to write it, but we have succeeded only imperfectly in depicting some of the virtues of a beautiful life crowned by a holy death. We hope, however, that, by recalling the hidden virtues of this humble flower in the garden of the Spouse, we have contributed to augmenting His divine glory, and in increasing in the hearts of those who knew and loved our beloved Sister, the desire to imitate her, so as to have, like her, the consolation of dying in the embrace of the Lord!
She was born at V… (Saone et Loire) on 23rd November 1860, in the bosom of an honourable family of landowners which one could call truly patriarchal. At her holy baptism our dear Sister received the name of Marie-Louise. Her childhood was surrounded only by examples of virtue.
At the first awakening of reason, her young soul opened itself up fully to grace, and from then on she was so faithful to it that we have the private conviction that she ascended to heaven adorned with her baptismal innocence.
Our little Marie-Louise, naturally serious and reflective, did not like games very much, but even then she was much concerned with her duties and was the angel of her home. Filled with a tender affection for her family, she evidenced it even more by her actions than by her words or caresses. She showed herself obedient and respectful towards her grandparents and her own good parents and totally devoted to her little brothers and sisters. Her pious Mistresses had nothing but praise for her application to her studies and her docility in all their lessons, when a little later on her education was entrusted to them.
She began to understand and enjoy the charms of piety at an early age and when, on the day of her first communion, Jesus descended into this pure and fervent heart, He found her well prepared to receive His favours, and so He was pleased to communicate them to her in abundance.
Already this privileged soul was feeling herself attracted to Him. She loved to pray at the foot of the altar, and as she grew up, she was better able to appreciate the happiness of possessing her God. And then Marie-Louise would sometimes flee furtively from the paternal home in order to visit the church and satisfy her piety and love before the tabernacle. Later on she reproached herself for not having attended the Holy Mass during the week then on as many occasions as she could have. This, in her opinion was a great fault against fervour.
Her greatest happiness was to go on pilgrimage with her dear parents or her pious Mistresses, to the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, and there she would forget herself in the delights that the divine Heart of Jesus would fill her soul with. She would have liked to remain there always, as she herself confessed.
The thought of entering the Monastery of the Visitation appealed to her, but she was still very young, and the divine Master had not spoken, and while she was waiting to know His will, our dear Marie-Louise continued her pious and devout life within her family.
She was always a stranger to the foolishness so common at her age. She did not like dressing up, and here is the place to recall an incident that took place some time before her entry into religion and shows her in her natural colours:
The parish priest, Father V…, preaching one Sunday on Christian simplicity, inveighed strongly against the vanity that reigned in the towns and also seemed to be invading the countryside. He particularly blamed the deplorable fashion that replaced the traditional head-wear of the young country folk with hats decorated with flowers and feathers. Our poor Marie-Louise was sitting there adorned with her most beautiful hat, which she only happened to be wearing by the will of her parents. She felt the point strike deep into her heart. Her face flushed red with embarrassment and she went back home very upset.
After this famous sermon, she had no more peace. Every time she encountered her venerable Pastor she would remember his words, and it felt as though he had said them for her sake alone. Finally, believing that it was her duty to surrender to Father’s exhortations, our dear Marie-Louise made earnest requests to her good parents, who, while they admired their daughter’s virtue, nonetheless only granted the permission she was seeking after her repeated prayers. But matters did not finish there, and the most severe test that the timidity of our good Sister had to endure was when she reappeared in the village, and especially in the Church, with a modest country headscarf, and found herself made the object of everyone’s stares. After this generous act, her conscience was satisfied and she was able to find peace again, and the example of her courageous virtue was not without effect on her young companions.
The cross did not spare our dear Sister’s Christian family. Her good parents had the sorrow of seeing many of their young children snatched away by death while they were still in the cradle. Marie-Louise did her best to soften their affliction by redoubling her tenderness. In the midst of the tears that she herself shed over these dear little angels whom she had cared for and loved so much, the thought of heaven was her consolation. She envied the happiness that they had had in flying there before her and in all the freshness of their innocence, and then the heavenly homeland became the favourite object of her meditations and ardent desires.
In 1879, Rev. Father F… of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer came to give the exercises of the Mission to V… Marie-Louise attended them most diligently and grace penetrated her soul. She had many conversations with the good Father, to whom she confided her attraction to the religious life. He recognized her call from God, but to test her vocation even further, he advised her to pray a great deal and to imagine her last moment by asking herself in the face of her eternity: “What would I like to have done by the hour of my death?” Accepting this advice, every evening when she went to bed, our dear Marie-Louise would lie down as if on her funeral bed, and then she would feel a great fear of death and a keen dread of judgement, but her obedience made her find so certain an assurance of her vocation in this exercise that she had no more hesitation. God really wanted her all to Himself! However, what Monastery was she to serve Him in? She still did not know. Rev. Father F… wrote for her to the very respected Mother Superior of the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial, who expressed her regret at not being able to accept her because of the lack of a place, as the number of her religious was complete. Simply the memory of the Apparition of the Sacred Heart which consecrated the sanctuary of Paray to our veneration had attracted our young postulant, and she had never thought of another convent of the Visitation. So placing herself in God’s hands, she awaited a clearer manifestation of His holy will.
Some time afterwards, Rev. Father H… then came to a neighbouring parish to give the Mission exercises. Marie-Louise consulted him, and it was he who managed to decide her, by making her aware of the existence and spirit of our humble Institute vowed to prayer.
At this decisive moment that showed her what would be her coming sacrifice, nature delivered her to violent struggles. How could she ever tear herself away from a family so Christian, so good and so loved, in which she could so easily practise all her devotions and achieve her salvation? And then, if she entered religion, could she be sure of persevering in it? Would she not soon be repelled by the difficulties of religious life that her timid and fearful nature greatly exaggerated to her? She had much to suffer in this combat, but grace rendered her victorious. In spite of the anguish in her heart, she explained her plan to her pious parents, whose spirit of faith was so well known to her. She asked them to agree to her vocation and generously make a sacrifice that she herself was feeling so keenly.
They agreed to her request, and her excellent father himself brought her to Grenoble, on Easter Sunday 1881, to see our Monastery, and be informed by our Reverend Mother about our manner of life. This dear Sister then knew in full certainty that God was calling her to live in our Congregation.
She went back to V…, filled with the desire to be a Redemptoristine, and to complete her sacrifice as soon as possible in separating herself from everything that was the most dear in the world to her.
* * * * *
Our dear Marie-Louise had been a model of filial piety in her family, and the edification of her companions. Her pure and fervent conduct had even been remarked upon by everyone and she had been chosen by her parish as the President of the Congregation of the Children of Mary. Pious and modest, she never gave anything but good examples, and so she was beloved by all and her departure was the occasion for many tears. The truly Christian resignation of her family softened the bitterness of her departure for her, but did not prevent her loving heart from feeling all the sorrow of it. Once again it was good Father H… who fortified both her and her family in these sorrowful moments, by reminding her of the magnificent promises of Our Lord to those who leave everything to follow Him.
She entered our Monastery of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour on 24th May, under the auspices of Our Lady Auxiliatrix, with the firm decision to give herself without reserve to the heavenly Spouse whom she already loved with all her heart.
Our dear postulant was from then on a model of regularity.
The trouble she had in overcoming her excessive timidity increased the difficulties for her in the beginning. She felt she was less than the others because she came from the countryside. She had the conviction of being good for nothing and quite useless in the Community, and all this made her suffer interiorly and hindered her in her exterior actions, by the fear of doing things badly. This dear Sister underwent much torment from these thoughts during her whole first year, but afterwards she was delivered from these puerile fears.
She passed the time of her postulancy in great fervour. Her humility, her obedience and her spirit of prayer all grew from day to day, and laid the solid foundation in her soul of the interior spirit which was to inspire her whole religious life.
Thus prepared, she was admitted to taking the holy habit on 9th May 1882. As she had a great devotion to our Founder, she was very happy to exchange her name of Marie-Louise for that of Sister Marie-Alphonse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After this wonderful day, her fervour found a new impetus, and she was an example of virtue among the novices as she had been among the postulants. She excelled especially in humility, mortification and regularity.
Her obedience towards our good Reverend Mother was inspired by a great spirit of faith. She studied our holy Rules and practised them scrupulously.
While she was still in the world, she had practised fasting with a great rigour, and when she was in religion, she continued to do so, and when our good Mother or another one of us urged her to be less strict, she replied that she did not believe she was fasting if she did not feel hunger.
She always showed herself very diligent in fulfilling well the different tasks that obedience entrusted to her. But it was in choir especially that our fervent novice showed herself at her most edifying. Her serious and recollected demeanour was evidence of her profound respect for this holy place. She would always remain on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament and was always prepared and attentive to the Divine Office, for the recitation of which our good God had endowed her with a very pleasant voice.
Meditation was her delight. She was never tired of it and devoted all her free time to this holy exercise. She always did the Way of the Cross every day, even when she was ill, and with a great devotion. She was filled with zeal for the salvation of poor sinners and for the deliverance of the holy souls in Purgatory. Everything which affected the glory of God and the salvation of souls had a part in her prayers. We loved recommending our different intentions to her and when she learnt of someone in trouble, her charity would encourage her to pray for their relief, which she would do with a great deal of perseverance.
During the whole year of her novitiate, our dear Sister never ceased to sigh after the wonderful day of her religious profession. She was entirely imbued with the gravity of the obligations she was to contract, and she would study them every day to know them better in order to fulfil them more perfectly.
She made her preparatory retreat during the novena of Pentecost with a great deal of ardour. Uniting herself to Mary and the holy apostles during their retreat in the Cenacle, we may say that like them, she received a large part of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It was with a feeling of holy gladness that, in the presence of Rev. Father P…, she pronounced the irrevocable vows that bound her to her heavenly Spouse of Virgins on 15th May 1883. None of us will ever forget the expression of pure and radiant joy which lit up her face under her crown of roses, but what we labour in vain to express is the peace and happiness with which her soul was flooded on that holy day! This Sister had given herself entirely to Jesus and it was clearly visible that He too had given Himself totally to her! We were pleased to have her repeat her cherished words: “My Beloved is everything to me and I am everything to my Beloved!” These words were so true on her lips and inspired every one of her actions.
Indeed, she sought only Jesus. Pleasing Jesus was her only ambition, and she sought in everything only what she believed was the most perfect.
Dating from this moment, she progressed more and more in prayer and union with God, an exercise which was very sweet to her soul, as her divine Spouse continued to reward her fidelity with the abundance of His consolations.
She also advanced in her abnegation of self, working hard to renounce all her natural inclinations. Our good Reverend Mother, who for a long time had appreciated the virtues of this truly interior soul, furnished her an occasion for renunciation which cost her more than one sacrifice… When she had finished her novitiate, she kept her there as Sister Mistress, thus delegating to her a part of her surveillance of the novices. The excessive timidity and profound modesty of our humble Sister suffered more than one struggle before bowing to a role that she believed herself so unworthy and incapable of fulfilling, but especially in that act of generosity which she had to make in renouncing the enjoyment of that dear solitude in her cell which she desired so greatly! She submitted humbly to obedience and fulfilled, with prudence, charity and wisdom, the delicate task that the confidence of our good Reverend Mother had imposed upon her.
In this as in everything else, she both wanted and sought only the accomplishment of the holy will of God made manifest by the voice of His Superior. This divine and adorable will had become, at this time, the dominant feature of her piety, and she surrendered to it with a complete abandonment. And then, on the occasion of our entry into the new building, we renewed the motto that each one of us placed on the door of our cells, she chose one which clearly showed the disposition of her soul: “The will of God is the only desire of my heart.”
The divine Master did not let Himself be outdone in generosity to His fervent Spouse. In return for this abandonment of self, He granted her such a great grace of confidence that this dear Sister appeared quite transformed in our eyes and entirely despoiled of her former fears and pusillanimity. It could be said that then, in all points, she embodied these words of our Father Saint Alphonsus: “Oh, may the progress be rapid that a soul makes in perfection, when her heart is dilated by confidence in God, for she does not simply run, but flies along, because having placed all her confidence in the Lord, she ceases to be feeble as formerly, but becomes strong with the strength of God, which is communicated to all those who hope in Him.” At the same time that confidence dilated her heart and gave her a holy liberty, she increased her love, and then, from this time on, our good Sister loved to repeat the words of Saint John which encapsulated her feelings: “Love chases away fear.”
In the midst of so many interior joys, she felt an increase in her desire to go to heaven to contemplate her Beloved and be united perfectly with Him… She desired death as the gateway to Paradise. She spoke of it readily and thought of it unceasingly.
One day one of our Sisters asked her why she never gave herself a moment of relaxation in her exact vigilance over herself, and she replied: “I cannot. It is stronger than I. If ever I stop for one moment, it is as if I can hear a voice that always repeats to me: You have to do in just a short time what others do in many years…” She added that she regarded this as a great grace and a warning and asked the secret of them, in fear that these words, which seemed to presage her death, might give pain to our good Mother.
Her health, which was always a little weak, began to cause concern. She was forbidden to fast. For her this was an heroic act of obedience in no longer following the common life. She admitted later on that this was the act that had cost her the most during her life and it was indeed her cross, so much love did she have for our holy Rules and horror of dispensations. Her submission contributed not a little to advance her in the work of perfection.
At the beginning of her illness, she had a great deal of grief to overcome. Since she incessantly drifted off to sleep, she could not abandon herself as formerly to her beloved meditations. Nature bore her away on the fervour of her spirit, but in spite of all her difficulties and her lack of apparent consolations, she preserved the same fidelity to all her exercises, and when this first state due to her illness had passed, she returned with a new impetus to her first desires, speaking only of heaven and the happiness of soon seeing her heavenly Spouse.
* * * * *
She had a great struggle within herself to obey our good Mother, who had forbidden her to think of dying so early and told her to pray a great deal against it, in order to obtain a cure so keenly desired by the whole Community. However, in spite of all the care lavished on her by our dear Reverend Mother who did everything she could to give her back her health and strength, in spite of all the novenas and prayers, our dear Sister grew weaker and weaker, and then it became evident that, instead of progressing towards a full recovery, she was gently drifting away to heaven. Although she was languishing, she wanted to follow our community exercises right to the end – the holy Mass, recreation, etc., and as she could not remain in bed, she was allowed this consolation, in spite of the swelling in her feet.
She even went down to the choir for the holy Mass on the last Sunday she spent here below and in the afternoon she made her last visit to the Prisoner of the Tabernacle, with whom she had kept such faithful company every day of her life.
At the news of her illness, her excellent mother hastened to come and see her, accompanied by her young sister, and our dear invalid went painfully to the parlour. Her heart was pierced with sorrow in seeing her poor mother so afflicted! She remained with her a long time, consoling her with holy thoughts of faith, telling her to be of good courage, to generously make her sacrifice by being resigned to the will of God, that one day they would see each other again in heaven, and while they were awaiting their eternal reunion, she would not cease to pray for her. She never tired of repeating to her how much she was consoled to be dying as a Redemptoristine, and that she was in no way terrified by the approach of death. But her good mother, in these cruel and final interviews, could not restrain her tears, in spite of her every effort, and our dear Sister gently chided her: “Please don’t weep,” she told her finally, “there are many people who must wait so long for heaven, and I – I have it at the end of five years!...” When we heard this, we felt that her soul was no longer attached to the earth.
The great charity of which our good Sister had given so much proof, and the tender compassion which made her mix her own tears with those she saw poured out, seemed to be transformed at this hour into a sweet strength of soul, which preserved her loving heart from her own natural weaknesses in the face of such keen sorrow from her beloved Mother.
She was amazed by the care and affection that was lavished upon her, always finding that they were doing too much for her, and persuaded that she was the most incapable, or, to put it in her own words, the most clumsy and useless of creatures. The confidence of her Superiors, as well as their devoted care for her, were an enigma to her humility. The love of her good parents seemed excessive to her, and she believed she did not merit it.
We can say in all truth that this beloved Sister was a model of all the religious virtues, and apply to her the words that the holy Church sings in praise of some young privileged saints: “She has accomplished a long career in a few years.” The perfume of her pure and hidden life was to rejoice the heart of her heavenly Spouse.
In her last days, more than ever, Jesus crucified, whose sorrows she had so often contemplated, became her strength and succour. Her little crucifix never left her, and she looked at it and kissed it at every instant. Her rosary, too, was always in her fingers. How much she loved to pray to her good Mother Mary while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary! Her faithful memory permitted her to continue, right up to her last moment, the practice of her accustomed devotions.
The need for rest that her great weakness made her suffer never prevented her from reciting the Divine Office during her illness, and so she had the very rare consolation of being able to recite it right to the end. On the eve of her death, when she was getting ready to say it once more, while thinking that it would be rather difficult for her, our good Reverend Mother arrived next to her, and seeing her breviary in her hands, she said to her: “It would be better for you not to do your office today, because you are too exhausted to read it.” Immediately our good Sister, stuck by the coincidence of this visit by our worthy Mother and her words so much in agreement with what she was thinking at that moment, exclaimed aloud to her: “How wonderful Superiors are, having the grace of knowing everything! I was just thinking that I could no longer do my office and see how you have arrived at the same moment to dispense me of it!”
Her great spirit of faith in obedience made her continually desire the presence of our good Mother, and in spite of the long and frequent visits she made to her, she asked for them even more frequently, not wishing to do anything without her.
She listened to each one of her words as if God Himself were speaking to her through the mouth of she who tells us His will here below, and she obeyed her with such a noticeable consolation that this appeared upon her face in her contented and happy demeanour. We shall speak again of this consolation which our dear Sister found in obedience, as it always went on increasing and became the most striking feature of the last hours she spent amongst us.
In spite of the excessive weakness of our patient, we did not think that she was so close to her end. Her good mother and sister were called away by their family duties and decided to leave, but they promised to come back and see her soon.
On Monday, 31st May, towards evening, she suffered such violent palpitations of her heart that our Reverend Mother was frightened and immediately had the doctor called. He found her gravely ill and was greatly astonished to see that the approach of death deprived his patient of none of her joy in dying to go and see God, but quite the contrary, it served only to increase with the progress of her illness. This good doctor, having unfortunately, like most of his colleagues, abandoned the practices of our holy religion, had nonetheless preserved his faith. With the desire of making a salutary impression upon him, our excellent Mother turned the conversation to the subject of death and eternity, which had always been the delight of our dear Sister Marie-Alphonse, and so she gave free rein to the sentiments of joy which flooded out of her heart at the thought of soon going to contemplate her God and be united with Him without the fear of ever losing Him!
The doctor was most impressed by her words and this spectacle and could not prevent himself from letting it appear. On his way out, he told our Reverend Mother: “What a great thing faith is!... I see death very often, but never like this!...” And this is how the joy with which our dear Sister was inundated was changed into a veritable jubilation which lasted the whole night long. Our dear Reverend Mother told us she had never seen a religious so consoled by obedience in her last moments.
Our dear invalid had no other desires than heaven, and she would smile every time she heard the name pronounced.
We all went to give her our commissions for the heavenly homeland. She received them with a modest assurance and a holy joy like the exile who is the first to have the happiness of returning to her native country and bears the wishes and memories of those who must still await the hour of their return. She asked us, in return for our pious messages, to pray a great deal for her and her dear parents whose inconsolable grief was her preoccupation. She herself prayed for them at every instant, beseeching our good God with all her heart to grant them the graces of resignation and consolation which they had so much need of. We were never tired of being beside her, for she was so sweet and so grateful for the least services, always smiling and saying “thank you” to us, or rather: “May our good Jesus reward you!” The devotion of the infirmarians greatly touched her, and she did everything in her power to spare them any trouble. She never ceased to witness the gratitude her heart was full of. How many times did she thank our excellent Mother for her goodness and maternal care! She even recommended to her good parents to do this for her even after her death.
* * * * *
We would most happily let ourselves speak much more fully still of our beloved Sister, but the brevity of a simple notice does not permit this to us, and so we must limit ourselves to these few facts about her beautiful life and arrive at her last moments, which so worthily crowned it, for she most clearly showed at her death what she had been during her life – a soul of a truly interior obedience, and having but God alone in view in all her actions.
After the visit by the doctor which we have mentioned, and which was the last one, our dear invalid, in spite of new remedies, continued to weaken and the violence of her palpitations prevented her from resting in bed, so she was put in an armchair near a half-open window, so that she could breathe more easily. As the assurance of her death drew nearer, our angelic Sister felt herself dilated by a confidence and an ever more intimate joy, and it was with these sentiments that she received the last sacraments with great fervour, as our good Mother believed that it was her duty to wait no longer in the face of the progress of her illness. It was our Chaplain who came to administer them to her. As this supreme ceremony took place at night after the Community had gone to bed, we did not all have the consolation of attending her, but those who witnessed it have remained most edified by her profound humility, the pious calmness of our holy invalid, and especially the great love with which she received in viaticum the heavenly Spouse who was already leading her to the eternal wedding.
The night was spent in prayers and thanksgiving.
Our good Reverend Mother became more and more the living representation of God for this soul of faith. She wanted her always at her side, and she was totally trusting and abandoned in her hands. She told her over and over again of her happiness in dying in obedience, and we felt a supernatural tenderness in her affection. At midnight, according to the desire she had shown, we reminded her that the beautiful month of Mary had finished and that the month of the Sacred Heart had begun. She immediately began ardently saying ejaculatory prayers and praying interiorly to this divine Heart which she loved so much, and which had always filled her with the most precious favours.
At four o’clock, our good Mother, who had visited her so many times during this last night, came once more to see her. Taking her by the hand she told her: “Your pulse is very weak..” At these words, our beloved invalid was filled with joy and fixed her great eyes on her. Their expressive gaze seemed to reflect the ardours of the desires of her soul!
She was again granted the consolation of receiving Holy Communion, because of the gravity of her state. This was the last time that she received, under the veils of the sacrament, Him who was about to show Himself to her in all the splendour of His divine glory…
Our dear sister preserved the full and perfect use of her faculties right to the end. She was astonished by this herself, telling us that she could remember all her prayers and was reciting them internally. Then she read some lines once more from the beautiful book called “Let us go to Heaven!” as well as the apology and consecration to the Heart of Jesus that she did every day.
Her dear novices, who had surrounded her with so much care and consideration during her illness, came once more to give her new witnesses of their affection and gratitude, and entrust their commissions for heaven to her one last time.
Our dear Sister wanted to die at a moment when the Community was free of any common exercise, and this, she said, was so as not to cause any disruption. Her pious desire was heard.
When we were finishing the hours of Terce and Sext, she had our Reverend Mother called with the intention of discussing something with her, and while our good Mother was speaking to her about the happiness she would doubtless have of dying during the month of the Sacred Heart to which she was so devoted, our dear invalid interrupted her, saying: “But, they are saying that I am going to die soon …. and I do feel as if I am going to die!...” Then, in calmness and recollection she listened once again to our worthy Mother’s pious exhortations, with the same tranquillity as if it was all about someone other than herself.
Seeing that she was failing more and more, the Community was notified, and we came to pray beside our dear invalid. She looked reasonably well. Always smiling and tranquil, she said her prayers quietly, invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, the Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Our good Mother, standing by her armchair, held her propped up against her chest and supported her bowed head in her hands. This was indeed the supreme moment… some gentle sighs growing weaker and weaker and more drawn out indicated that her life was ebbing away. And in this way, in the arms of our good Mother, our angelic Sister Marie-Alphonse rendered her pure soul to God, without her face undergoing the least contraction or agony! She flickered and burnt out like the blessed candle that was burning between her fingers. This was on 1st June 1886.
The heavenly smile that remained on her lips seemed to radiate her joy, which was now eternal! Oh what must have been the transports of her soul in finally seeing face to face Him whom she had so much desired?
In the midst of our tears we felt an immense consolation in the intimate conviction of the happiness now enjoyed by the dear and holy soul who had just left us, and we all envied her…
After having reclothed her body in the holy religious habit that our dear Sister had worn all her life with so much respect, we brought her down to the choir where she was laid out before the open grille. A crown of roses was placed on her head as on the day of her holy profession. Her hands held her crucifix and rosary beads with a lily flower, the emblem of the virginal purity the freshness of which she had never sullied.
Thus decorated and placed on a white bed, the body of our dear Sister still had the appearance of life, and we never tired of contemplating her, because she looked so good. Beside these virginal remains we felt the impression of a heavenly peace. Death lost its horrors and showed itself only as the blessed passage from earth to heaven. This is what was felt by all the people who came to pray beside her.
The poor parents of our beloved Sister had scarcely returned to Varennes before they received from our Reverend Mother the sad news of the sudden aggravation of her illness and the sad announcement of the death of their beloved daughter. Filled with grief, they once again set off for Grenoble and arrived on Thursday morning, 3rd June. How profound was their sadness when they beheld her stretched out upon her funeral bed! But the heavenly Consoler of the afflicted, from the depths of His tabernacle, blessed this heart-rending meeting. In the midst of their tears and the cries of nature, through His omnipotent grace, He was able to make their hearts, so profoundly Christian, feel assured of the perfect happiness of the daughter whom they mourned, and the consolation of having ensured it for her by their most generous consent to her vocation.
And then, how could our good Jesus, who had deigned to let us see all the tenderness of His affection for His friend Lazarus when He wept at his tomb, now refuse to console those afflicted hearts who had abandoned themselves to Him? Yes, we are convinced that one of the first graces that our dear defunct Sister obtained from the Heart of her divine Spouse, was the grace of consolation and strength for her good parents, for our Reverend Mother, and for us, which she had so often promised us.
Her excellent father, her good mother and her young sister, in spite of their overwhelming grief, wished to spend the night beside the dear remains. Their prayers softened the bitterness of their tears which, in spite of their Christian resignation, they could not retain. Divine Providence brought them Rev. Father H… as their support in this cruel affliction. He was the same Father who had encouraged them to the sacrifice, at the time of our dear Sister’s entry. Our worthy Bishop, Mons. Fava, whose paternal benevolence for the members of our humble community was so perceptible a consolation at this moment of testing, himself wished to bless our dear departed. He kneeled on the floor with much emotion before this virginal body and prayed for some moments.
When he got up, he was struck by the expression of peace and heavenly joy that was seen upon her face and that sweet smile that death could not efface. He could not prevent himself from expressing his pious sentiments, and he applied to our beloved Sister the following words of Sacred Scripture: “The strong woman shall smile at her last moment.”
Our humble and modest and dear deceased Sister would have been most astonished and confused if she had been able to see the pious throng that surrounded her funeral bed. Their testimonies of esteem and respect were lavished on her memory and her mortal remains. One would have believed that our good God was pleased to exalt our Sister who had never sought anything but to be abased and hidden. The solemnity of Ascension delayed the funeral, which took place only on 4th June (1886) afterwards. The impression of peace and joy experienced by all those who approached our beloved deceased Sister permitted us to do something that people who do not have the happiness of understanding the things of God would have found little in agreement with the preparations for a burial. After the Mass of the Ascension of Our Lord, we sang the beautiful canticle: Heaven, Heaven! which she loved so much. One would have said that she herself encouraged us in it by her angelic smile.
This chant produced an indelible impression upon everyone, which nothing could remove! One would have said that at that moment the Church in heaven was united with the Church on earth to make it taste something of the happiness that it celebrates in its chants.
The next day, the Parish Priest of Saint-Bruno, assisted by Rev. Father H…, Rev. Father G… and our good and devoted Chaplain, presided at the funeral ceremony. After the Mass and the absolution, our Sisters transported the coffin along the garden paths to our little cemetery.
The bright sunshine co-operated in giving the pious convoy the appearance of a festive triumph, and more than ever the thought of heaven dominated everyone else, even when we placed the body of our beloved Sister in the tomb where she awaits the resurrection, in the shadow of the cross.
Our account has reached its end. It has been very sweet for us to write it, but we have succeeded only imperfectly in depicting some of the virtues of a beautiful life crowned by a holy death. We hope, however, that, by recalling the hidden virtues of this humble flower in the garden of the Spouse, we have contributed to augmenting His divine glory, and in increasing in the hearts of those who knew and loved our beloved Sister, the desire to imitate her, so as to have, like her, the consolation of dying in the embrace of the Lord!
Sister Marie-Raphael of the Love of God, O.SS.R. of the Monastery of Grenoble
(1875 – 1899)
(1875 – 1899)
Born Maria G…
The predestined child whose short existence we are now about to relate, was born at F…, in the Department of the Loire, on 13th July 1875, of virtuous and honourable parents, to whom the Lord granted a numerous family. Her father was called Marcellin G… and her mother Catherine R…
At baptism she received the name of Maria, a privilege she was always happy and proud of, and quite rightly, as she regarded it as a pledge of her heavenly Patron’s protection.
Her good mother, whose multiple occupations with rather important matters absorbed all her attention, saw herself deprived of the consolation of feeding her dear little daughter herself. So she confided her to an outside nurse, a young and inexperienced lady, in whose hands she became so sickly, that Mrs. G… feared she would lose her, and so she took her back. Thereafter, her care and maternal love soon restored the fresh colours of health back to her.
For nine years she was the Benjamin of the family, pampered and caressed by her elder sisters, and protected at every instant by her older brother, who bore her the greatest affection.
In this Christian household, her young soul opened up as if naturally to matters of piety, while at the same time her very loving heart gave itself up, with a very childish abandonment, to the warm and salutary influences of family life.
She had a marked predilection for her Godmother, her aunt Mariette, and this was a reciprocal one. She spent long days with her without becoming tired of her company, as her aunt Mariette was indeed the most excellent person that one could meet – good, sweet, kindly, forgetting herself absolutely for others, and especially for her little God-daughter.
As her mother testifies, she spent even more time with her aunt than she did in the paternal home. They knew that she was in such good hands that no one was concerned about her long absences.
She did not have the restlessness typical of this age. Noisy games scarcely amused her, and more often she was quite content with somewhat serious conversations with her little friends.
If, however, the little group rebelled a little, aunt Mariette had in reserve a wonderful way to restore the peace. She would cry out in a winning tone of voice:
“Come, children, come and find for me all the four-leafed clover you can find in this field. I will give you a coin for each one, and you will be able to do what you want with it.”
They would dart forth, searching as best they could in all the clumps of grass, and when they returned, their good aunt gave coins to those children who were so proud of their discoveries, and who then ran to exchange their treasure with the first shopkeeper who sold lollies…
In these circumstances, our little child many times made the sacrifice of this little pleasure, which children are so avid for at this age, and, discreetly, she would give money and lollies to certain poor children whom she had a great compassion for. According to the testimony of her family, she could never refuse them anything. When her little finances were exhausted, she knew how to convince aunt Mariette about the hard luck of her protégés, and this was never in vain. The dear child and her Godmother were made so as to understand one another, and both of them had a heart of gold. This need, and this pleasure in giving was indeed one of the most remarkable features of our Maria.
When she went out walking, she would always linger behind gathering great armfuls of flowers, and, triumphant with her booty, she would run, out of breath, to bring them to her family, who were by now far ahead on their way.
Sometimes, however, her natural vivacity seemed to prevail over the meekness that she habitually showed. Little quarrels would arise with her sisters over her little friends, and she could be seen, with eyes of fire, ready to hurl herself upon them and support her side of the discussion with the power of her little arms… but these were indeed rare cases, and most often, seeing her so calm, one would have believed that meekness was natural to her.
She already loved prayer and everyone noticed her childish seriousness whenever attention turned to our good God, the catechism or anything else of piety.
Her intelligence was lively and open, and study had a great deal of attraction for her, even more than manual work, which she always found onerous.
At about the age of nine, she had a sort of cyst on her right hand that caused her a great deal of pain, and sometimes hindered the course of her studies. She showed a great deal of self-control on that occasion, and her very pronounced taste for reading served as much to subdue her sufferings as to repair the forced delay in her instruction.
In the meantime, the birth of a little brother was announced to her. Little Benjamin, in an attack of unconscious egoism, did not welcome his coming with much enthusiasm, but quite the opposite, showed her worst face to this poor dear, who had come to replace her as the pampered child.
Little by little, however, when she was permitted to play together with him, she came to enjoy the role of being a little mother, and when a second little brother followed the first, she came to love these two little babies with all her heart, so much so that Mrs. G… was able to entrust her with the task of supervising and amusing them.
The blessed time of First Communion was approaching for Maria. Until then, nothing had given any hint of her beautiful vocation. In her interests, her conversations, her attitude to the Church or anything else, she had demonstrated nothing else other than the ordinary devotion of a child from a Christian family. She fulfilled her religious duties with an extreme regularity, but quite simply, doing neither more nor less than the other children of her age. We know from herself, however, that it was at this solemn moment in her life that Jesus revealed Himself to her heart, captured all its affections and placed the blessed seed in it, which was to grow from year to year and flower, on the day marked by Providence, into the most sublime of vocations.
* * * * *
She made her first communion very piously with a great and profound joy, and thereafter she never spoke without emotion about this day, which was so truly called the most beautiful of her life. From that time on, a taste for the Eucharist became her principal joy.
At the age of fourteen, her good parents confided her to the care of the Marist nuns, who were vowed to the education of young ladies from the country. Together with the rest of her education, she drew from them a more lively piety, and even more enlightened still. Her vocation then became her whole ambition. She worked to study and develop it with a quiet, but profound and secret ardour, speaking of it only to Jesus.
She spent three years in this pious house, where her intellectual labours were crowned with success. She won many laurels in the peaceful contests of the annual competitions, and returned to her family with reputation of being an intelligent, pious and docile student.
This return home, which, for so many young hearts, is the long-desired moment for a freer existence, in which life, in all its effervescence, too often becomes a danger to piety, was successfully negotiated by our pious Maria without damage to her virtue. The angel of vocations watched over this virginal heart, which nothing was able to tarnish.
One of her friends speaks of it in these terms at this time: “She often told me: “How much I long to leave the world! No, no, I am no longer thinking of living here – I want to be in the cloister, as it is only there that I shall be assured of escaping damnation and going to heaven!”
Very often she would sing these lines from a hymn she loved:
“They are no more, these days of woe;
I soon discovered peace of heart,
When all the joys I first did know
Of tabernacles where Thou art!”
This leads us to say that indeed, the dear young lady had days of “woe”. At the age of seventeen, her vocation, which had been nourished since her first Communion in private dialogues with the God hidden in the tabernacle, now seemed so certain and so divine to her, that she could scarcely comprehend the wisdom of her confessor in taking his time to test out the desires which, moreover, she had confided to him for the first time. To her great desolation, all she obtained by way of reply to her overtures were these words, which were most disconcerting to her opinion: “Later, later, we shall see. These are all the ideas of a young lady coming from a convent (referring to her boarding-school), and you will get over them…” Poor Maria wept, returned to her ambition and begged the Lord, “if He so willed”, to enlighten her confessor and not let her languish much longer in the world.
All around her, certain flattering remarks about the graces of her person and the vivacity of her spirit had awoken certain fears in her heart.
Her native pride, if she had not made it her business to subdue it, would have had a field day. She knew it, and this was another spur to encourage her to depart from the world.
She no longer wished to be seen out on the busy main streets, and complained to a friend that she was still obliged to remain in a world that she detested. “I have no need,” she told her, “to go and become better known by the world. I no longer want it, and I wish with all my heart that I was already a nun.”
She expressed her sentiments by this other hymn she preferred among all others:
“Disappear, deceitful human forces:
You will not have the homage of my heart.
God leads me now to much purer sources,
Where torrents of joy are all my part.”
However, she knew how to hide her repugnance and show herself pleasant to her family, where she was very jolly, even full of laughter, loving the innocent amusements that she found there with her young friends.
The wedding of one of her sisters was the occasion for her to show her taste for a contrary vocation. Her devotion and recollected attitude was greatly remarked upon at the marriage ceremony. Many of the attending priests even told her parents as they left the church: “Miss Maria has prayed well for the happiness of her sister!” However, no one had the slightest suspicion that this solemn and pious recollection hid such resolute plans.
The following year, a mission was preached at Firminy by the Fathers of the Most Holy Redeemer. This was no doubt Jesus’ reply to this soul which wanted only Him and had not found either the light or the support she needed to respond to the divine call.
Maria followed the Offices very assiduously, heard nearly all the sermons, and devoted herself with great zeal in the following holy exercises in everything that depended on her. She realised, beyond all doubt, that the good God was making use of this mission to determine her vocation and settle her departure.
Unknown to her family and friends, she went and confided her desires to one of the Fathers who were preaching. He received her “very badly”, she said later, and did not wish in any way to hear her speak of this vocation, which he believed was borne of enthusiasm generated by the mission within this young lady’s ardent heart. The poor child was most disconcerted, but not discouraged, and thought she would find a better welcome in the next confessional … so sure was she of her vocation! Unfortunately, the second Father gave her the same reply, and then, with the sureness of her confidence, she told him: “If you do not want to listen to me, Father, I shall address myself to another, until I find someone who really wants to guide me and advise me, as I am firmly resolved to become a religious, and this is not a passing whim, as you seem to believe.” The Father understood from these words how resolved her soul was, and agreed to give her a few hints about the religious Orders he knew of, but reserved himself until he was more sure of the solidness of her vocation by the usual testing. To his questions about the kind of community which would be suitable for her, she replied without hesitation: “I wish to enter a cloistered Order, but I am rather afraid that the Carmel will be too austere for me and that I will not be able to get accustomed to it. However, I do not wish to enter a teaching Order, like that of the Visitandines, for example.”
Then the Father, who, through a prudent reserve, had not let her suspect the existence of the Redemptoristines, realised that this Order, which is intermediary between the Carmel and the Visitation, was the one that would suit her, and after some further examination, he obtained for her all the information she required, relating to our way of life. Maria, the more she became informed about it, the less she could contain her joy. The spirit of the Rule and the type of community suited her so well that she felt absolutely convinced that God was calling her in amongst us.
Upon leaving the church, the radiant expression upon her face betrayed the joy of her soul, to the point that a good priest who saw her then said to himself: “There is a child who has just taken a great decision!” He mentioned it later to her family, after her departure for the cloister. But she said nothing of it yet, praying with all her soul to the Virgin of Perpetual Succour, whom she had learned to love in the boarding school, to help her to leave this world that she could no longer endure.
At the end of the month of May, entrusting herself to the protection of her Mother in heaven, she made the effort to speak one day to Mrs. G…, not without some difficulty, and embraced her tenderly. She began by asking pardon of her for the involuntary pain that she was going to cause her … and then, in a more assured voice, she told her: “Mother, I want to become a religious in a cloistered convent, in the Redemptoristines. There is a monastery of this Order at Grenoble, and this is where I want to go.”
The good mother’s surprise soon changed into a supernatural joy, seeing the noble energy of her young daughter. She realised all the exquisite goodness of her loving heart, and understood very quickly that her vocation had to be a serious and divine one, to give her such strength to make the sacrifices it required so generously.
Besides, this pious lady had always sought and asked of God to choose Himself a bride from among her daughters and a minister from among her sons. Maria therefore was well placed to hope for her mother’s consent. She explained in detail to her mother about the rule, habit and customs of the religious of the Most Holy Redeemer, and communicated to her all the information that she had been able procure about it. After some moments of mutual outpouring, Mrs. G…’s conviction was formed, and the dear child for her part did not have to undergo the crucifying uncertainties of spirit or heart that are the trial and the martyrdom of certain vocations.
* * * * *
A pilgrimage to the grotto of Lourdes was organized at Firminy at about this time. Her good parents permitted her to take part in it, in order to obtain from the Blessed Virgin the fullness of the light required upon the way for her to follow. So she left with a friend and certain persons of confidence to whom they had been recommended. At Lourdes, Maria spent all her time in prayers in the grotto and the basilica, or in following the processions and joining ardently in the chanting of the hymns, so much so that her voice became quite hoarse with it. She scarcely took any rest before midnight, so much did she prolong her devotions. The persons to whom her parents had entrusted her finished by losing sight of her, which permitted her, even unknown to her friend, to pay a visit to the Reverend Mother Prioress of the Carmelites, with the aim of seeing if God was truly not calling her to the Carmel.
The Mother Prioress, arriving in the parlour, showed herself much astonished and very incredulous when she heard what so young a lady had to say… Maria, a little disconcerted at not seeing herself taken more seriously, replied to her questions in but a trembling and stammering voice, which, joined to her hoarseness, served as a pretext to the Reverend Mother to show her out politely and tell her: “I do not believe, Miss, that you will be able to accustom yourself to the Rule of our convent, and besides, your voice does not seem clear enough to me to satisfy the obligation of the holy Office.”
Maria, who later on recounted this setback good-humouredly, was not troubled by it, but comforted. She departed from the Carmel, persuaded now that her noticeable lack of attraction for this Order was not an illusion.
We cannot fail to admire here how God, through His Providence, arranges everything, so as to lead souls to the place that He has prepared for them from all eternity.
The dear fugitive returned very late to the hotel that evening, where everyone was in search of her person on all sides. She accepted the reproaches that seemed justified, and so as not to reveal the secret of her vocation, she did not let even her friend suspect what had been the reason for this solitary excursion.
Upon their return, they made a stop at Cette, where the view of the sea made a profound impression upon her naturally contemplative soul. We leave aside a thousand joyous incidents which a too long to relate and irrelevant to our subject, but which thereafter were the fruit of her most lively recreations.
The aim of the pilgrimage was attained, since our dear young lady brought back from the blessed grotto the interior and absolute certainty that God wanted her to be a Redemptoristine at Grenoble.
Her good mother, who finally decided not to make her wait too long a time, accompanied her to our Monastery in the month of June, with the aim of letting her examine close up the convent she so much desired. They were welcomed by our Reverend Mother Marie-Philomene, who from the very first meeting won all their confidence and deep affection, as did the community. Maria was completely filled with joy. Everything pleased her. She felt at ease, at home, in her place finally. Mrs. G… left her for ten days with the intention of giving her the ability of informing herself better about everything, and prepare herself, with a good retreat, for her departure from her family.
She was thus able to attend the beautiful feasts of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in our chapel, and hear a Redemptorist Father preach, which gave her great pleasure and did her great good.
At the same time as her, a young lady of a certain age was studying her vocation in our Monastery. Our happy Maria found, in this unexpected companion, a mentor as original as she was pleasant, for going on the little walks they did then. How many joyful remarks the memory of this evoked later on! For indeed we must say, her fine perspicacity very quickly found the pleasant side of people or things, and the novitiate was to mellow a little more that innocent maladroitness that was starting to become noticed in her.
Fully convinced of the divine call, her return to F… was enlivened by the prospect of forthcoming entry into our convent, and saddened at the same time, in her affectionate heart, by the thought of the definitive sacrifice that she was about to make.
She wanted to bring back some blessed souvenirs to her family, and in the process of procuring them she spent the rest of her limited funds.
Mrs. G… was busy at this time in obtaining the consent of her good father, who could not give up, except by means of floods of tears, this dear Benjamin to God who had chosen her for His bride. He objected especially to Maria’s age, but her good Mother replied to him very judiciously: “If she has no vocation, the younger she enters, the younger she will come out, and the less harm it will do her; but, if she truly has a vocation, as I believe, she cannot give herself too early to our good God.”
For two months Maria occupied herself with great ardour for her departure. A certain great trunk, that we were to find later, held all the objects she kept or believed to be useful. They were all crammed one upon the other.
On her table she had placed a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, before which she loved to kneel down to recite her chaplet, or do her prayers and pious readings. It was there that she would spend her days, after making her long visits to the church and finishing her duties to her family, scarcely paying attention to her interior travails, which never had any attraction for her, and less still to the news of the world. Some of her closest friends had occasion at that time to appreciate the firmness of her decision and the ardour of her desires. “I am saying farewell with all my heart to everything I love here,” she said, “to our church, and even the chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, where I have received so many graces. Pray for it well.”
However, in spite of her enthusiasm, she never imposed her opinions upon anybody. If sometimes, in conversation, she met with resistance, she would simply change the subject without blaming anybody.
On a walk she took with some of her companions, she talked for a long time to one of them with a great abandonment, and this lady affirmed that she was quite astonished and very edified with the simple and judicious good sense with which she valued everything.
In her fervour, she would have liked the persons in whom she was interested to be full of religious sentiments like her. She would discreetly encourage the fidelity of her friends to all the duties of piety, especially those that she thought they were somewhat neglecting. A zeal for souls was thus burning in the soul of our future Redemptoristine.
She had set the date for her departure for the first days of September 1894, and now there only remained to her the time for her farewells. She prayed a great deal to her beloved Lady of Perpetual Succour, about whom she had spoken in confidence to one of her little study companions while she was still at the boarding school: “This holy Virgin is granting me everything I ask, even to know my lessons when I have not learnt them.” And then our dear postulant rose up quite resolute and with a strengthened heart to go and embrace all her family.
We have already spoken of the tenderness of her affections, that those around her conveyed by this apt expression: “Maria has a heart of gold.” We can only guess at what these last days meant to her, these last hours and these last embraces. How many tears did she pour out, in spite of her supernatural strength in the accomplishment of her sacrifice! But they were blessed tears! The angels counted them, and the harvest of merits that were watered by them has already been gathered into the barns of Paradise.
A friend has preserved for us the words of the solemn farewell that she uttered on the vigil of her departure. They bring out the beautiful sentiments of her soul into the daylight:
“Farewell, for I do not think I will see you again here below, but I shall see you in heaven! As for coming back into the world, I would rather die! Pray well to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and to blessed Gerard, whose picture I am leaving you. Our good God is separating us for a time, in order to reunite us forever in His beautiful heaven. Always go forward in courage and confidence! When we make sacrifices, we need to make them completely. “All or nothing” – this is the motto we should follow. I am going to Grenoble to be further away from my family, as I would not have the courage to be a religious near my family.”
She spoke likewise of the worthy mistresses who had brought her up, when they made clear their regrets and not seeing her enter their own institute, to devote herself there with them to the education of young people. Maria showed herself so resolved to embrace the contemplative life, and for such good reasons, that these good nuns understood her and congratulated her sincerely on her determination.
* * * * *
She left the paternal home on 5th September at four o’clock in the morning, accompanied by two of her sisters. Her good mother was consoled in not being able to make the journey with her, by promising to come soon to see her in her dear monastery. Mr. G…, in spite of the sobbing torn from his father’s heart by the sorrowful separation, decided to bring the travellers himself as far as Saint-Etienne, where they took the train for Lyon. They were all weeping, and Maria, although she was very brave, wept even more than the others, as she left those places where her youthful purity had run its course, innocent and happy, among so many loving hearts and which she had so tenderly loved. To give themselves more courage, the three sisters decided to make the pilgrimage of Our Lady of Fourvieres at Lyon together. Our young postulant received the Bread of the strong there, with the particular unction of sacrifice that God imparts to the beautiful days of vocation, when grace bears souls along. Then, with much interest, they visited the basilica under construction, and after meeting up with some of their friends from the boarding school, they could not refuse spending a few moments with them. The day was spent like this, hiding the feelings that filled all their hearts under a veil of apparent distractions.
They took the train at four o’clock and arrived in Grenoble at eleven o’clock at night. On the following day they had a long meeting with the Reverend Mother, who was happy to see them again. Finally on 7th September, having accompanied her two sisters to the station, she said her farewells to them and returned alone to the monastery, where she found Miss Noemi D… (Sister Marie-C... of the Holy Cross) who had come, like her, to consecrate herself to God. They both entered at two thirty pm. The chaplain presided at this touching ceremony. Maria, in spite of some tears and a great deal of astonishment, as everything was unknown to her inside the enclosure, found her every wish fulfilled and could not contain her childlike joy.
They had scarcely entered when the bell called them to Vespers. Reverend Mother led the two postulants there and they followed, as they loved to recall later on, with the solemness of canonesses, one beside the other.
Her good heart very quickly became attached to her new family, which received her very cordially, and yet how hard and painful the sacrifice of her family was to her! For long months, this was the subject of very meritorious efforts and bitter holocausts, which she made with all the generosity of her rich nature, aided by a lively and sincere piety. It is not possible to leave so Christian, so loving and so united a family without breaking your heart!
During one of those first days, her mistress suddenly heard cries and sobbing in her cell and came running. She found her sitting in the middle of it, on the floor, in a veritable fit of childish sorrow, striking her head and weeping hot tears. To console her, she knelt down beside her, trying by all the means suggested by her heart to soften this bitter desolation. Nothing worked. Maria sighed in a tone of utter anguish: My family, my family!... Getting up in a single leap she said: “I am going to find Reverend Mother” and she fled, running as fast as she could. It seemed that the cup of maternal consolations was difficult to drain, as she was not seen until a long time afterwards in the educandate. This little scene describes her vividly.
The beginnings of religious life were very arduous for this good child who, it is true, brought to Our Lord a soul full of candour and generosity, but which, having scarcely ever known any other yoke than that of her whims as a spoilt child, collided with all our observances. It required time, much meekness and a powerful grace to bend to the exigencies of an austere rule this spirit of infantile independence which dominated her, unknown to her. Yet to no one did success ever appear to be in doubt, because the dear educande, in spite of her boarding school pranks, showed a truly remarkable constancy in prayer, and a will to do well which one day was to become the source of her real virtues. She said: “I used to believe that, to be a religious, it was enough to love the good God well and do my prayers, and afterwards, I could go and talk with my friends and do whatever I wanted.”
So her first few months were rather difficult in certain respects, but in fact this served to highlight the strength of character with which Maria was endowed.
Very outgoing and active as she was, she had her work cut out to contain herself, and how many times did she have to retreat in order to advance! But then finally she showed that she had set her nature to one side after many sincere attempts.
As soon as she understood that religious life is a life of abnegation and sacrifice for the love of God, she moved forward, with a courageous and very sustained ardour, along this way of holiness, and she was never to stop. Of her sensitive and affectionate nature, she kept what was necessary for this good family life which our first Mothers have bequeathed to us, but she pitilessly immolated all satisfaction or seeking of heart that was too human, through efforts that God blessed visibly and by which the whole community was greatly edified.
Her outbursts of temper became more rare, and she was obliged to repair for them by acts of humility which were at no little cost to her natural pride.
Liveliness, going sometimes to little acts of temper; habits of independence and comfort; attachment to many persons or little things, especially those contained in her famous trunk, remained legendary; all this gave her the salutary need for this struggle which ended with the reform of herself according to the model of the virtues of Jesus Christ.
The educandate at this time contained five educandes, a number sufficient for this friction of tempers where we learn so well to know and contend against ourselves. She knew how to profit from it, and when, after six months of testing, she was presented to the chapter, the community admitted her with joy, in the hope of soon finding in her an excellent novice.
She made the retreat in preparation for her taking of the habit with a fervour whose echo we find in a letter written at this time to one of her friends. She told her:
“My dear retreat! Oh, such wonderful days! How quickly they have passed! Yet if only I was inflamed by the love of God… Our poor nature in itself is not very inflammable, especially if it is for a sacrifice. Pray well for me to really give everything to our good God, so that I may become a good religious, a true Redemptoristine, really all for Him, and it is in His Heart that I shall always find you. With God we are never lost.”
Another time she wrote to her: “Pray well for me that I may always follow my vocation courageously, without looking back. Religious life is a life of sacrifice, and when you enter, you need to have a good provision of courage in reserve.”
This courage was something she always had, because she was constantly faithful in asking for it through prayer. Her retreat was a laborious one. She willing gave herself to it, and God, who never allows Himself to be outdone in generosity, filled her with practical graces (as she said good-humorously) instead of spiritual sweet-meats, which her sensitive piety would perhaps have preferred.
Her vesting took place at the same time as that of her companion who entered with her, on 3rd September 1895, the feast of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd. Maria received the beautiful name of Sister Marie-Raphael of the Love of God. She was radiant with joy. Rev. Father F…, a Redemptorist, gave the usual homily.
After seeing her so happy under her white veil, her parents were no longer able to hold a single doubt about her vocation, which was considered by everyone as a blessing from God, reflecting upon the entire family.
Dating from this moment, she went forward with an even firmer step along the path of renunciation and mortification. The great openness of her heart and her perfect observance facilitated the way of perfection for her. Her novitiate was therefore very fervent, and her companions of that time remember with much edification her many acts of virtue, which took place before their eyes.
She was ingenious in profiting from little occasions to mortify her taste, saying that she had indulged it too much by the thousand dainties of her childhood. So this is why, with the permission of her mistress, she set aside the rare sweetmeats distributed in the noviciate during recreations, and brought them to the Reverend Mother, so that she could give them to the poor. Besides the penances prescribed by the Rule, which she always did with great fidelity, and for the sake of poor sinners, she applied herself very conscientiously to profit from all occasions, in the refectory and elsewhere, to mortify herself. She would have liked to wear instruments of penance, and pestered her mistresses to obtain them, but in vain, as her constitution and her youth commanded a prudent reserve which her ardour scarcely understood. Indeed, it was to her great sorrow that she was not able to attain her ends.
More than once she found matter for virtue, for her ardent and outgoing nature, in mutual relationships, and she made remarkable progress on this point. They are the indubitable index of her fidelity to grace. She brought to everything that perseverance of will which, with her piety, was the principal feature of her character.
Our feasts and recreations allowed her good heart to blossom.
No one was more ingenious than her in tearing Reverend Mother away from her occupations and bringing her either to the educandate or the novitiate. This was her happiness! When she became sad because of the long obligatory intervals that this good Mother placed between her visits, she would rise up very excited and say: “Permit me to go and find her, Mother Mistress, and you will soon see that I will bring her to you.” In fact, she often had this filial success dear to her heart. Many times she would repay her personally in the form of little poems, more rich in inspiration than in rhyme and metre, perhaps, but always full of life and religious spirit.
Her devotion to the community knew no other bounds than that of the impossible. She would importune parents and friends, without ever being dismayed by any delay.
“We are so poor,” she would say, “that you simply must come to the aid of the community.” And as her family’s generosity never failed her little requests, this was a great joy to her. The first year of her novitiate passed in this way, in a sincere fervour and application to her religious formation. We saw our dear novice change very rapidly and give us the most beautiful hopes. It was then that she took the recollected expression that she kept right to the end, and which spread across her whole personality the stamp of a modest gravity.
During the course of her novitiate, she had one of the most perilous temptations possible against her vocation. She read the life of Saint Teresa written by the Carmelites and imagined that she had been deceived, and that it was to the Carmel that God had called her. She felt herself attracted in this way and yet she did not wish to leave the dear community that she loved so much. She opened herself up to her Mother Mistress, who tried to make her understand that what she was experiencing was pure temptation and the attempt of the demon to deflect her from her true vocation, but this reasoning had little effect and the temptation continued. Then Mother Mistress spoke more strongly, telling her that since she was always thinking of the Carmel then she ought to go there. This time these words cut short her dangerous temptation, which did not return.
When the time arrived, the Chapter admitted her easily to her holy Vows. She prepared herself for them like a soul which understands the importance of this great act. Her retreat, like that of her vesting, was certainly not an oasis of pleasant sweetness, but a field of battle where her victory was complete. In a moment of abandonment, when she was in the infirmary, she said one day to her companion in profession, in a tone of malicious reproach: “You always take everything for yourself! During the retreat for my profession, and the three days that followed, our good God said nothing to me. You took everything!” (emphasizing these words with a smile full of good spirit). So we know from herself that our good Jesus left her all the merit of her immolation, which was the means of elevating her more and more into the serene region of forgetfulness of self, through love and the accomplishment of only the will of God, this manna in our desert, according to the words of the revered Father Desurmont.
This was the last testing of her vocation. A letter to a faithful friend initiates us again into her feelings:
“I am to make my profession on 8th September,” she wrote to her, “and I am fortunate in seeing this day arrive that I have desired for so long, a day of complete sacrifice which will make me the Bride of Our Lord forever. Oh, how the good things I am leaving behind seem as nothing compared to those I am acquiring! I am abandoning perishable things to have eternal ones… Ask our good God for me to become a very fervent religious, for if the honour we receive is a great one, it means we must live up to it in consequence: noblesse oblige – and I shall not leave my poor nature under the mortuary cloth, but suffering valiantly borne will merit us heaven. Courage, dear friend, and besides, what does it matter if the way is more or less a long one, a more or less united one, provided that we arrive in heaven! Always move forward, and we shall soon arrive at our goal.”
We can hear the young novice’s soul maturing and the enthusiasm of her infantile piety give way to the solid foundations of the religious virtues.
* * * * *
The great day finally arrived. It was 8th September 1896, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. Under the protection of her Mother in heaven, whom she loved so much, she vowed herself forever to poverty, obedience, chastity and perpetual enclosure, having well weighed this yoke of the Lord, which love rendered light. With a great and ardent love she gave herself totally to Jesus and did not hesitate once. Rev. Father G…, following the end of the retreat where he preached the exercises, presided at the ceremony of the vows and gave a beautiful homily on the excellence of the religious life.
Her family, so profoundly Christian, surrounded the dear novice at this solemn moment, which was a sweet consolation to her heart.
Full of the graces of this beautiful day, Sister Marie-Raphael continued her exercises in the novitiate with a fervour that was even more sustained and a very visible union of her soul with God. Her good character became more at ease than ever, transfigured by virtue. Little by little she acquired the habits of humility and punctual regularity, which had been so onerous for her at the beginning, and her spirit of prayer became almost continual. On the days when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, she would spend all her time in adoration. On those days, she told our Reverend Mother many times: “My Mother, your occupations prevent you from praying as much as you would like, but give me your heart, and I shall bring it with mine before the Blessed Sacrament.”
In the same way, on Sundays or during the week, she would devote all her free time faithfully to prayer, and when everyone retired to bed after our long Offices for the days of Lent or feasts of the 1st class, we would see Sister Marie-Raphael, always avid for prayer, still kneeling before the altar and remaining there until the last minute, whenever her duties permitted. This did not do any harm to her work, because, although she was more favoured with intellectual gifts than manual skills, our dear little Sister devoted herself joyfully to the service of the community in everything that was within her powers.
Finally she had to leave this dear noviciate, the home of the happiest years of her life. The poor little Sister poured out many tears. The sacrifice was a hard one, a very hard one for her loving heart, but, aided by the exercises of a solid retreat, she did so generously, and we had the joy of welcoming her into the community on 8th September 1897. And by her warmth, she was the joyful element there of our recreations. Her good family spirit made her participation welcome to all our Sisters. Nothing is so salutary as the cordial and open manner of a religious who is quite clearly dedicated to God and her community, and Sister Marie-Raphael had this gift more than anyone.
She was in turn portress, assistant to the refectorian and the laundry mistress, and practised a constant virtue in these different employments. Her transformation was complete, and there was not even a question of outbreaks of independence, of the kind that made her reply formerly to her mistress in the educandate, when she urged her to show obedience to the Reverend Mother:
“First of all I have to do the work, and I’ll be obedient afterwards.”
No more, either in her tone, or in her words, was there anything reprehensible. There was only a bright blushing which showed suddenly on her face during severe obstacles, and which showed the struggle in her nature, held in the vice of her strong will.
She had much to struggle with in her heart, which was very much disposed to lively and natural affections, and she did so with determination. She greatly loved Reverend Mother, and in the first year of her religious life she profited from the least occasions to go and find her and remain with her as long as she could without worrying in her mind if she was distracting her in her occupations. Later on, during her noviciate, especially in the last year, she mortified herself on this point and restrained herself from going to the Reverend Mother, doing so only for genuine reasons. She felt that Our Lord was jealous of this affection, and that He wanted her heart entirely to Himself, and so she made a complete sacrifice of it to Him.
Another little trait will also depict for us her generosity in virtue. The Very Rev. Provincial was visiting the Monastery, and the community was called to the parlour to receive his blessing and profit from a very paternal meeting. Our dear Sister greatly loved these meetings, but on this day she had to make a sacrifice of it. Being employed as the Companion, she had been sent to supervise the workmen who were working in the house. This privation cost her a great deal, but nonetheless she did not give the least little sign of annoyance or discontent.
Although her voice was off-key, she put herself to a great deal of trouble to learn the principles of Gregorian chant, so as to better fulfil her vocation. She said: “If only I could manage to intone the Psalms when I am the first choir Sister!” She loved the Divine Office so much that she studied the meaning of the liturgical words in a translation kept for the use of the Community. She showed a diligence that never wavered.
The keenness of her intelligence and her excellent memory, aided by the light of grace, also helped her to appreciate more and more this divine function which makes us similar to the angels in heaven.
Her health, without being the most robust, permitted up till then to follow the common life. But towards the middle of summer she began to cough from time to time, and somewhat neglected the precautions that she was recommended to take, telling the Infirmarian: “It’s nothing, it’s just a frog I have in my throat”, and she laughed at herself.
However, at the end of October, going with her companions to hang out the washing on wash day, she noticed that she was spitting some blood. As she did not know that this was a case that could turn serious, she did not say a word to anyone, and for three days she continued the same work. On 25th October, feeling a great weariness and having a headache, she thought she had a migraine, to which she was subject, and with an edifying energy, she would never take a moment’s rest except when she could not stand on her feet. So she went to ask if she could go and lie down on her bed with her migraine, without saying anything more, but one of our Sisters, who had seen her handkerchief stained with blood, told the Infirmarian, who informed herself of everything, and immediately understood the gravity of the imprudence she had committed.
Our Sister Marie-Raphael, with her heart of gold, had concealed her illness, as she admitted herself, because, knowing that Reverend Mother, whom she loved with such devotion, was very affected by the state of a sick Sister in the community, she did not want to add to her pain by speaking to her about her own misfortune, and also, in her simplicity, she did not believe that it would be anything of consequence.
Very quickly, she was submitted to an examination by the doctor who declared that her state was serious. She had to go to bed and maintain complete rest. The fever became intense. Nonetheless, Sister Marie-Raphael, in her inexperience, did not understand that it was a matter of life and death, but, ardent and pious as she was, she accepted this cross joyfully and let herself be looked after like a child.
Reverend Mother gave her an obedience to unite herself with the prayers the community was saying to obtain her cure from the revered Father Desurmont,[1] and she replied: “My Mother, I shall unite myself to them through obedience.”
She was entrusted with a handkerchief which this holy religious had once had. She put it on her chest with great confidence, and every time she felt her blood bubbling, she would cry out with a charming naïveté: “Father Desurmont, I must not spit blood, I do not wish to spit blood, because our Mother has forbidden me!” In fact she obtained this grace, but she did not obtain the grace of her cure. Divine Providence hastened the degrees of the ascension of her soul in such a manner, that she was very close to attaining her end, even though she was still so young, as she was only twenty three. It was very hard for us to think that we would not be able to be edified by the spectacle of her virtues for much longer. Her time amongst us was a very short one. Having entered on 8th September 1894, she was to leave us for heaven in February 1899. But always, especially at the beginning of her novitiate, she wanted to die young. She would say: “Life is not so wonderful that we can sin too much, and it is not worth the trouble to live a long time.”
On 20th November, the doctor declared that she would be lucky to last three months. So all we could do was to be resigned to this terrible news which cut all our hearts to the core. She was sent down to the infirmary where every care imaginable was offered to her, but without any appreciable result.
Even on this occasion she still gave proof of her strength of will, when it came to taming nature. Having recently come out of the Novitiate, and having then had some very distracting tasks to do, right up to the moment of her illness, she was little accustomed to the solitude of a cell, a solitude which is so agreeable once it is experienced! It also cost her a great deal to find herself alone in that great infirmary, and in spite of the promises which the Sister Infirmarian made to her about coming every moment and sending visitors to her, she scarcely welcomed being in her new residence. For three days we could see a struggle in her heart, but on the fourth day, when the Sister Infirmarian came in, she found her patient radiant with joy, and asked her the cause of it. “Ah!” she said, “it is because I have promised our good God to be very happy in the infirmary, and I have made my act so well from the bottom of my heart that now I am completely happy.”
Our dear invalid in no way had any inkling of her approaching end. It was the Rev. Father M…, who came to us for extraordinary confessions, who made her understand this, with a tact and delicacy by which she was greatly touched. She came out of the confessional radiant, happy that she would soon be going to Paradise.
In spite of this announcement, in spite of such evident symptoms of consumption, Sister Marie-Raphael still did not understand what illness had attacked her. And also, when Reverend Mother came a moment afterwards in the infirmary, our invalid asked her: “My Mother, what illness do I have?” – “An illness in your chest, my poor dear.” – “Ah, an illness in my chest! I didn’t know. But what I do know is that I will soon be going to see our good God, because Father M… has just told me. Oh, how happy I am! I am going to use the time that our good God has still given me for nothing else than acts of love and abandonment.”
From the very first visit by the Sister Infirmarian, our dear invalid hasten to communicate her joy to her also and once again witnessed the happiness that was flowing out of her soul at the thought of shortly being with out good God. The Sister Infirmarian was moved and told her: “Oh well! What acts would you like me to suggest to you, when the strength of your illness will prevent you from doing them by yourself?” – “Oh, acts of love and abandonment – yes, acts of abandonment, because this is what is the most perfect.”
All this happened on 7th December, the vigil of the Immaculate Conception, her privileged feast.
On the 24th, the vigil of Christmas, she asked Reverend Mother for permission to attend our beautiful night feasts, a permission that was granted to her. On that occasion our invalid gave fresh proof of her fervour, which seemed to grow the more the solemn moment approached. When, in the course of the procession, Reverend Mother came to the infirmary to bring her the blessing of the Infant Jesus, she expected to have to go right up to the bed where her invalid was, but you can imagine her surprise when she saw Sister Marie-Raphael at the door of the infirmary, just like all the other Sisters who were not sick, at the doors of their cells. And in spite of her extreme weakness, she also wanted to go and renew her vows. “Yes,” she said, “I have to go and renew my vows, and do so with all the strength I have, as I want everyone to know that I am blessed in being given to our good God and in soon going to begin my union with Him.”
In fact, she renewed her vows with a rather strong voice, but she had to stop at almost every word, because her suffocations were almost continuous.
On 28th December she received a visit from one of her sisters who thought she was saddened by the prospect of her approaching death and tried to delude her about her state: “You are still young,” she told her, “and you will soon be better, all the more so because you have never been ill before, and so you will have the strength to get on top of it more than other people.”
When she heard these words, our dear invalid contented herself with replying with a smile, and an instant afterwards, when she bid her farewells to her beloved sister, she told her: “We shall not see each other again here below, but I shall pray well for you, your husband and your children. I shall see you again in heaven, where I promise you I shall keep places for all of you.”
She keenly desired to arrive there on 31st December, the day dedicated to attracting all the Patrons of the year to her, so she would learn, she said, which Saint the Divine Providence would appoint to bring her to heaven. When Reverend Mother visited her for the first time, she told her: “My Mother, I am counting on your goodness to draw down my Patron of the year to me. As soon as you know who it is, I beg you, come quickly and tell me, so that I can tell them to bring me there as soon as possible.”
Providence appointed Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, which filled her with joy. “I could not be presented there better than by them to the Blessed Virgin, their august daughter, and to Our Lord. What powerful protectors our good God has given me!”
It would be difficult to say what edification our invalid gave us from day to day. At the beginning of January she told Reverend Mother that she was quite surprised to find herself in such great security in regard to the affairs of her soul. Her delicate conscience made her fear that she was living in an illusion, and in the false peace which is so much to be feared. She wanted to seek light on this subject from Rev. Father G…, who, as we recall, had preached the retreat which preceded her profession, and presided at the ceremony, and who, she said, had heard her general confession and was perfectly aware of the state of her conscience.
The Reverend Father hastened to reassure her by sending her the following letter on 9th January, which left her in such peace that no cloud, no matter how small, was ever able to trouble her. “Your letter, my dear Sister, has touched me profoundly. You are suffering, and yet you have thought to send me a few words. Regard this revelation about your state as a very great grace, and also the confident acceptance with which you have received it. Yes, my child, you are right, death is before anything else the gateway to heaven, and the entry into the palace of Jesus, our God, the beloved Spouse of your heart, for whom you have left everything else. You are not under any illusion in envisaging things thus – on the contrary. Your general confession has been well made; do not return to it again and be in peace. All the past has been annihilated completely in the blood of our divine Saviour.
“This is how you are to sanctify yourself. Renew often your acceptance of death, and tell Jesus that you are giving Him full power over your person. Enjoy repeating your vows of religion and offering them to God together with your life. To these acts join acts of repentance and love especially, or rather, acts of repentance through pure love, and then abandon yourself. Repeat the words of the Blessed Virgin: Fiat mihi (Let it be done to me). Unite yourself to Jesus in His agony on the cross, and often murmur the words of this good Saviour: “O my God, may Your will be done! – Do not abandon me. – I place my soul into Your hands…”
“It is quite probable, my dear child, that I shall not see you again upon this earth, but let us both say: “May the will of God be done!” I shall see you in the Heart of Our Lord and when you are there with our good God, you will not forget me, will you? You must pray for Reverend Mother, for your community, for me, for my works, and for one thing especially – that our good God will make you known in Paradise.
“So farewell, dear child, I bless you from the depth of my heart, and I promise you all of my prayers. Have confidence. Pray to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Saint Joseph, Saint Alphonsus and Blessed Gerard. Accept the consolations that are offered you in all simplicity. Take them the same way that you would offer them to another, that is the best thing.
“Have faith in your little brother. Once again, I bless you and I shall meet with you again in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and later on in heaven.
“Your devoted Father,
A. G…”
* * * * *
After reading these words, which were as consoling as they were fortifying, our invalid did just as she had been advised and did nothing else other than multiple acts of love and contrition. Her desire to go and see her Jesus grew from day to day.
Towards the end of January she received a visit from the doctor from whom she learnt with joy that she could expect no more than a few weeks, and said to him humorously: “For how many more months then, doctor?” – “Ah, my poor little Sister, not months, but days, and only a few days at that.” At these words, our dear invalid, who had the pious habit of joining her hands together when she had something to say or had to listen to something important, now joined her trembling hands and replied, radiant with joy: “I thank you, doctor, for the good news that you have brought me today, and I promise you that in gratitude for the pleasure that you have given me by your announcement, and also for the devoted care that you have given me, I shall pray a great deal for you and all your family.”
The doctor, who was a profoundly religious man, replied: “My Sister, I understand your joy at the approach of death. You have already given yourself to our good God with all your heart, and you realise that shortly you will be giving yourself to Him in an absolutely irreversible manner. Your fate is indeed worthy of envy. Pray for me to die with the same dispositions.”
* * * * *
One of her infirmarians has given us several notes which will help to show us to what degree of perfection our dear invalid had managed to raise herself in so few years. We shall include every word of them:
“What struck the most about Sister Marie-Raphael was her candour and her childlike simplicity. She had the soul of a child.
“We saw her always united to God. She did not have to say any words, but her eyes, whether they were fixed on the Crucifix, or on the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, or Saint Alphonsus, announced that her soul was praying. She would do like little pilgrimages to the paper pictures decorating her cell.
“The first time Reverend Mother came to tell her that the Chaplain would confess her and the next day he would give her communion in viaticum, I went up to her and found her in tears. “Why are you weeping?” I asked her. – “It is because I am happy, very happy, because tomorrow I will communicate.” The deprivation of Holy Communion was very painful for her. She slept but little, and most often with her mouth open, because of her painful oppression, and so her lack of sleep, taken in such conditions, became a new suffering for her, without mentioning her cough, which at every instant tore at her chest.
“When she experienced a more acute pain, she would repeat under her breath: “Everything for you, my Jesus, everything for you!” When she was able to walk for a while, her joy was in making a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. She had a very confident soul; not a shadow, not a cloud in the sky.
“When she was not in too much distress, she would take up her little breviary of the Sacred Heart, and look over the little office of the day with her eyes. She particularly loved the Sunday one which was all about confidence, and the Tuesday one which was all about the cross. From this last one she transcribed these words which she often reread: “We become holy only by humbling ourselves, renouncing ourselves, and crucifying ourselves in everything and everywhere.” She was so good and so delicate in her sentiments, that she was always afraid that she was putting people to too much trouble. She sometimes told me: “Oh, what a burden I am. I sincerely ask your pardon.” She certainly was not a burden, poor little Sister, but devoured by fever as she was, we constantly had to give her something to drink. She was upset by seeing her Sisters caring for her during the night. It was to give them less trouble that she asked Father Desurmont to stop herself spitting blood. When she knew what her illness was later on, she never asked him for a cure, because she said she was quite content to go home to our good God. She was always so desirous of observing her Rule that, in her delirium, it was always the Divine Office to be recited or her job to do that made her speak. She was always very pleasant to look after, as she would take her remedies in perfect obedience. She always remained a child, but a child in whom the practice of virtue had corrected her faults. Besides her simplicity and her candour, she also had a great generosity of soul. She was great in her ideas and her sentiments and always had a great horror of anything which in any way smacked of littleness of spirit.”
The witness of our Reverend Mother Marie-Philomene is more precious still. We reproduce it in its entirely.
“Our dear Sister Marie-Raphael, during her illness, always showed a perfect obedience to the infirmarians and her Superior, and was always very grateful for the blessings and care that they offered her. “I will repay you all in heaven,” she often said. She retained her fervour from the novitiate until her death. If anyone asked her if she wanted this or that thing, she would reply: “I am a religious. It is wrong for me to be so occupied with my body, and I must not say what pleases me or does not please me.”
“She had given herself quite entirely to Our Lord and never regretted it, and also, the last months of her short life were spent in pure love and confidence. After she learnt the full gravity of her illness, she threw herself even more into acts of love and abandonment to the holy will of God. “I love You, I love You, O my God!” she would often say, “and I want whatever you want.” – “Look at me, O my God, here to do Your will.” She desired to die with all her soul to go and see her good God and love Him a great deal, “Yes, a great deal,” she would say, “because He is so good, and He must be so beautiful!”
“And she would say in her childlike simplicity: “He couldn’t put me in Purgatory, because I love Him too much! I asked Him on the day of my profession to let me die in an act of perfect love, and since then, I have asked Him every day at the holy Mass, and surely I shall be heard.”
The Chaplain gave her the sacrament of Extreme Unction on Sunday 15th January. She was radiant with joy and followed the prayers with a great deal of attention and spirit of faith. She asked pardon of the community in terms so humble and touching that we were all quite moved to tears by it. After the Chaplain departed she told me: “My Mother, the Chaplain has not said all the prayers.” – “But, my little one”, I told her, “he has given you Extreme Unction and an Indulgence for a good death, but only the effect of this will not be applied to you until your last breath.” – “Yes, but he has not said “Depart, Christian soul.” – “That is because it is not said until the moment of agony, and you are not there yet.” – “What a shame that I am not leaving right away, as I am so well prepared! I would fly straight away to heaven.”
“The next day she had enough strength to go and see her mother in the parlour. This poor mother was drowning in tears, but our dear invalid had enough strength of soul to remain calm. She told her mother about the happiness of a religious who dies within her community, in the midst of her Sisters praying for her.
“How beautiful it is, mother,” she told her, “our religious vocation, and how much I thank our good God for having given it to me!” She made her farewells in these terms: “Farewell, mother, I shall not see you again on earth, but we shall meet again in heaven, so make a good sacrifice.” At the door, she cast a last look at her good mother whose heart was broken, but resigned. When she got back to the infirmary, she told the infirmarian: “You know it costs a great deal to say good bye to your mother before dying, but it is all for our good God.”
“The thought of having received Extreme Unction filled her with joy. “You would not be able to believe,” she said, “what graces of strength and peace this sacrament gives.”
“The poor child was very ill the following night. At 12:30 we called the Chaplain, who as a measure of prudence was spending the night on the outside. He immediately gave her Holy Communion.
“At about nine o’clock in the morning she seemed to recover some life. Her good mother was told of it and expressed the desire to see her again one last time, but it was impossible for our dear invalid to return to the parlour.
“With the improvement continuing, Mrs. G… had her asked if she could leave.
“Yes,” she replied, “it is preferable if mother goes; tell her that she should abandon herself to the will of God, as it is in this abandonment that she will find the strength and peace that she needs. Let her read “Abandonment to the will of God” by Father de Caussade, as reading it will do her a great deal of good.”
“Let her kiss all the family for me. We shall see each other again in heaven.”
“From the day when she received Extreme Unction, we watched over her every night. She was very grateful to those who devoted themselves to remaining with her. They had to speak to her constantly about our good God.
“She communicated as often as her state permitted. It was such a great consolation to her to receive her Jesus! She said with her childlike naïveté: “He is speaking to me. He is telling me to suffer well and love Him a lot.”
“One evening, suffering more than usual, she held her crucifix in her feverish fingers, kissed it with all her strength and cried out: “My Jesus, I love You, I love You! Not because of the hell that You will deliver me from, nor because of the heaven You will give me, but for Your own sake, for You alone, my Lord, for my Jesus alone! The more I suffer, the more I love You.”
“A few days before her death, when the Infirmarian was doing her thanksgiving after Holy Communion, she interrupted her and made her a sign to stop. When I came to see her, she told me: “Sister Marie-G… was doing my acts for me after Holy Communion, but I told her to stop because our good Jesus wanted to speak to me.”
“I would go every evening to hear the candid and touching account of what the good God had told her during the day, the acts that He had inspired in her, and recite the evening prayer with her, which she heard with a truly surprising attention, given the feebleness to which she had been reduced.”
This is the end of the interesting notes that Reverend Mother was kind enough to communicate to us. We will have very little else to add to them. It remains to us only to say with what sentiments of love and confidence our dear little Sister rendered her soul into the hand of the God whom she loved so much.
Always impatient to go and see her Jesus, she found her last hours upon earth very long ones. Delirium seized her through the strength of a fever that nothing could stop, and on her last night, the Sister who was watching over her could scarcely perceive any lucidity at times, and this was only to address some acts of love to her Jesus.
In the morning, a comatose state, so often deceiving, gave way to the agitations of the fever, and the Sister Infirmarian asked her: “Do you recognize me?” A light pressure of her hand was the reply.
Reverend Mother, forewarned, arrived straight away, happy for this moment of lucidity, or rather without speech as she seemed to be sleeping. Our dear dying Sister was no doubt still formulating a supreme act of love and abandonment in the bottom of her heart.
The Chaplain entered and we recited the recommendation of her soul with him, and our good Mother stood beside our dying Sister. The blessed candle was there in her hand and lit up her pale and calm face. You would have said a child was sleeping…
And so she passed away, without shaking, without contractions, into the arms of the God whom she had always loved so much and whose possession she desired with so much ardour! This was on 31st January 1899.
Her zeal for Gregorian chant had once again been revealed a few days before her death, she had asked on several occasions, if the Office of the Dead had been well enough prepared for the Sisters to sing it for her. “Have you repeated my Office?” she often asked the Sister Infirmarian, and the choir Sisters who came to visit her.
So, thanks to her foresight, the Office of the Dead was performed in its entirely, and with a piety and effect that left a profound impression upon all those who heard it and were to celebrate her soul.
Also, while the remains of our dear little Sister were lying in the lower chapel, by closing the grille, we were able to sing first Vespers from the gallery, and the invitatorium and the second Vespers of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, in such a way that one would have said that divine Providence wished to surround those virginal remains with singing, rather than with tears and regrets. Death never appeared less dismal.
Her funeral was of the same kind. In spite of an intense cold, made worse by persistent rain, seventeen priests considered it an honour to come and pray beside our dear Sister, and enhanced the beauty of our religious ceremonies with their presence, accompanying her to our little cemetery. This cortege of white surplices and blue mantles had something heavenly about it. These gentlemen expressed all their pious emotions when they reached the enclosure.
And we, her Sisters, completed our pilgrimage within this blessed Monastery, embalmed with the memory of her virtues and her affectionate cordiality. Then we asked her to grant us the precious grace of fulfilling like her, with a great heart and a very pure love, the will of God which is the sanctification of life and the food of eternal beatitude.
Amen.
Footnotes
[1] Died in an odour of sanctity on 23rd July 1898..
* * VARIOUS FOUNDATIONS * *
Soignies (Belgium)
1878
Soignies (Belgium)
1878
We are very happy to give you some details about the foundation of our dear Community which has only been in existence for twenty six years, and which has so far sent only three of its members to heaven, our Mother Foundress in 1875, and two Choir Sisters.
It was on 28th September 1878 that a little swarm of Redemptoristines left Malines to come and establish themselves here at Soignies. The beginnings of this new foundation were very modest – a little house and resources of every kind, but even more modest. Our privations were great, but it was with a very real joy that we embraced them, out of love of our divine Redeemer who came down to earth and lived here so poor for love of us. When our first house became far too cramped, we had to dream of building. The money we needed was certainly not in our coffers; but in the heart of our revered Mother Marie Lidwine of the Blessed Sacrament we had an inexhaustible source of confidence in the divine Providence, and Our Lord never failed her. We have some delightful tales to tell on this subject; but they are too private to be revealed to the public. Five years after the arrival of the first Redemptoristines at Soignies, on 25th August 1883, the little Community, already flourishing, took final possession of the convent raised by divine Providence at a place in the town called “La Cafeniere.” As soon as it was possible, the enclosure was established and the Rule followed on all points. Yet the construction was far from being finished. At that time we had only what was indispensable in terms of accommodation, but, in time, everything was completed. However, there was some pain in the depths of all our hearts. The Master of this dwelling, Jesus, had only a little room to Himself temporarily converted into a chapel. Building a church, however modest it might be, cost so much! But has our good God not said: “Ask and you shall receive?” We prayed and we received. The Lord aroused generous hearts, and, on 2nd August 1900, we were able to proceed to the blessing of a pretty little Gothic chapel which was dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and under its patronage we also placed the convent, and under the same patronage we are living a very happy life.
What can we tell you about our three dear deceased? Our worthy Foundress and Mother, Sister Marie-Lidwine, was a soul who was very agreeable to our good God. She was devoured with zeal for the glory of her divine Spouse and for the sanctification of the souls which had been entrusted to her, and whom she wished at all costs to make into living copies of Jesus. She was a soul of prayer, devoted to the point of heroism, strong, courageous and never recoiling from any pain. God alone knows if she was ever lacking in any crosses, contradictions and humiliations in the foundation of our dear Monastery! To crown a life so well filled, our good Jesus made her a present of a number of very painful illnesses, which gave us the occasion more than once to admire her patience and her abandonment to the good pleasure of God.
The two other Sisters who left us to go before God were two good religious, two good Sisters, who lives were very simple, but who in no way sought to be noticed except for an exact observance of our holy Rules, and who desired only to please God.
It was on 28th September 1878 that a little swarm of Redemptoristines left Malines to come and establish themselves here at Soignies. The beginnings of this new foundation were very modest – a little house and resources of every kind, but even more modest. Our privations were great, but it was with a very real joy that we embraced them, out of love of our divine Redeemer who came down to earth and lived here so poor for love of us. When our first house became far too cramped, we had to dream of building. The money we needed was certainly not in our coffers; but in the heart of our revered Mother Marie Lidwine of the Blessed Sacrament we had an inexhaustible source of confidence in the divine Providence, and Our Lord never failed her. We have some delightful tales to tell on this subject; but they are too private to be revealed to the public. Five years after the arrival of the first Redemptoristines at Soignies, on 25th August 1883, the little Community, already flourishing, took final possession of the convent raised by divine Providence at a place in the town called “La Cafeniere.” As soon as it was possible, the enclosure was established and the Rule followed on all points. Yet the construction was far from being finished. At that time we had only what was indispensable in terms of accommodation, but, in time, everything was completed. However, there was some pain in the depths of all our hearts. The Master of this dwelling, Jesus, had only a little room to Himself temporarily converted into a chapel. Building a church, however modest it might be, cost so much! But has our good God not said: “Ask and you shall receive?” We prayed and we received. The Lord aroused generous hearts, and, on 2nd August 1900, we were able to proceed to the blessing of a pretty little Gothic chapel which was dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and under its patronage we also placed the convent, and under the same patronage we are living a very happy life.
What can we tell you about our three dear deceased? Our worthy Foundress and Mother, Sister Marie-Lidwine, was a soul who was very agreeable to our good God. She was devoured with zeal for the glory of her divine Spouse and for the sanctification of the souls which had been entrusted to her, and whom she wished at all costs to make into living copies of Jesus. She was a soul of prayer, devoted to the point of heroism, strong, courageous and never recoiling from any pain. God alone knows if she was ever lacking in any crosses, contradictions and humiliations in the foundation of our dear Monastery! To crown a life so well filled, our good Jesus made her a present of a number of very painful illnesses, which gave us the occasion more than once to admire her patience and her abandonment to the good pleasure of God.
The two other Sisters who left us to go before God were two good religious, two good Sisters, who lives were very simple, but who in no way sought to be noticed except for an exact observance of our holy Rules, and who desired only to please God.
Some favours of Providence.
So we are going to begin by asking your pardon for our silence, and then, with the most entire simplicity, we shall tell you that we are rather disconcerted in how we can satisfy your desire to have some interesting little stories about the goodness of Saint Joseph or Saint Anthony towards us.
Yes, certainly, Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony have helped us a great deal, and God alone knows how many ardent and urgent prayers we have sent up to Him through their intercession, but, to be frank, we cannot affirm that divine Providence has actually anticipated our desires. It has never failed us, but in its plans full of wisdom, it has wanted our prayers to be humble and persevering. Here is an example. During the construction of our Convent, when the work was already far advanced, the builder feared that our funds had run dry, and wanted to have a small advance payment before he would continue. In our coffers, in reality, there was absolutely nothing, but we made sure we did not tell him! We urged him to be patient, telling him that we were waiting for a sum of money which, unfortunately, was slow in coming. We were awaiting a sum, in fact, but it was entirely “from divine Providence!”, and right from the beginning of the enterprise we had been asking Saint Joseph to put in a request for us with our good God’s bank, but it never arrived! One day, tired of waiting, the builder was no longer willing to continue building! With a faith that was more ardent and entreating than ever, we began a new novena of prayers. On the sixth day, without any request on our part, a gentleman sent us a thousand francs, and the next day, a priest of our acquaintance, when he went to visit a family, these people spoke about us and our building, and gave him a small envelope for our Reverend Mother. What did it contain? Two thousand francs! This was Saint Joseph’s reply. A little later on he had more compassion upon us. Poverty, however, remained the greatest master of our Monastery, and our hands never ceased to be stretched out towards Saint Joseph. We lacked everything … except debts. At some distance from our convent, a good Christian, as pious as he was charitable, was spending his leisure time in reading the life of our Father, Saint Alphonsus. He came across the name “Redemptoristines”, and remembered he had heard people speaking about a new foundation of these Sisters at Soignies, and listening only to the inspiration in his heart, he thought that they were perhaps in need and sent them … a thousand francs… All he asked in return was a certain number of prayers for his intentions. For a long time there was great adversity in our little family. How many times did we cry out to our good God: “Lord, save us, we are perishing!” Jesus seemed to be sleeping. Saint Joseph went to gently wake Him up and always, always, we were saved. And also our gratitude towards this charitable Protector has no limits. Every month, the 19th is solemnized by special devotions, and it is rare if Saint Joseph does not show himself satisfied by gratifying us with one or another little temporal or even spiritual favour. Since our glorious Brother Gerard has received the honours of the altars, he also sees us very often at his feet, and our confident simplicity pleases him. Whenever we ask him for one or another useful thing, which is necessary for our maintenance or the nourishment of the Community, he quickly hurries to grant it to us. Sometimes he makes us wait a little to test our faith. Some time ago out in the fields one of us lost the little gold ring that we wear on our finger and which we receive on the day of our profession. Our dear Sister was very distressed about it and ran to tell her pain to Saint Anthony and Saint Gerard. We all searched for it, but in vain! The whole winter, with its snow, rain and frosts passed over the fields. In Spring another Sister was walking on the grass, while still praying to the good saints, and then she felt something a bit hard under her feet. It was the ring, intact! Our good Jesus of Prague is also greatly honoured in our dear Community, which has already felt the sweet effects of His omnipotence in many circumstances; and also, in His honour, and out of gratitude, we are preparing ourselves for a novena of special prayers to be celebrated on the 25th of each month, and His graceful statue occupies a place of honour in our oratory.
Yes, certainly, Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony have helped us a great deal, and God alone knows how many ardent and urgent prayers we have sent up to Him through their intercession, but, to be frank, we cannot affirm that divine Providence has actually anticipated our desires. It has never failed us, but in its plans full of wisdom, it has wanted our prayers to be humble and persevering. Here is an example. During the construction of our Convent, when the work was already far advanced, the builder feared that our funds had run dry, and wanted to have a small advance payment before he would continue. In our coffers, in reality, there was absolutely nothing, but we made sure we did not tell him! We urged him to be patient, telling him that we were waiting for a sum of money which, unfortunately, was slow in coming. We were awaiting a sum, in fact, but it was entirely “from divine Providence!”, and right from the beginning of the enterprise we had been asking Saint Joseph to put in a request for us with our good God’s bank, but it never arrived! One day, tired of waiting, the builder was no longer willing to continue building! With a faith that was more ardent and entreating than ever, we began a new novena of prayers. On the sixth day, without any request on our part, a gentleman sent us a thousand francs, and the next day, a priest of our acquaintance, when he went to visit a family, these people spoke about us and our building, and gave him a small envelope for our Reverend Mother. What did it contain? Two thousand francs! This was Saint Joseph’s reply. A little later on he had more compassion upon us. Poverty, however, remained the greatest master of our Monastery, and our hands never ceased to be stretched out towards Saint Joseph. We lacked everything … except debts. At some distance from our convent, a good Christian, as pious as he was charitable, was spending his leisure time in reading the life of our Father, Saint Alphonsus. He came across the name “Redemptoristines”, and remembered he had heard people speaking about a new foundation of these Sisters at Soignies, and listening only to the inspiration in his heart, he thought that they were perhaps in need and sent them … a thousand francs… All he asked in return was a certain number of prayers for his intentions. For a long time there was great adversity in our little family. How many times did we cry out to our good God: “Lord, save us, we are perishing!” Jesus seemed to be sleeping. Saint Joseph went to gently wake Him up and always, always, we were saved. And also our gratitude towards this charitable Protector has no limits. Every month, the 19th is solemnized by special devotions, and it is rare if Saint Joseph does not show himself satisfied by gratifying us with one or another little temporal or even spiritual favour. Since our glorious Brother Gerard has received the honours of the altars, he also sees us very often at his feet, and our confident simplicity pleases him. Whenever we ask him for one or another useful thing, which is necessary for our maintenance or the nourishment of the Community, he quickly hurries to grant it to us. Sometimes he makes us wait a little to test our faith. Some time ago out in the fields one of us lost the little gold ring that we wear on our finger and which we receive on the day of our profession. Our dear Sister was very distressed about it and ran to tell her pain to Saint Anthony and Saint Gerard. We all searched for it, but in vain! The whole winter, with its snow, rain and frosts passed over the fields. In Spring another Sister was walking on the grass, while still praying to the good saints, and then she felt something a bit hard under her feet. It was the ring, intact! Our good Jesus of Prague is also greatly honoured in our dear Community, which has already felt the sweet effects of His omnipotence in many circumstances; and also, in His honour, and out of gratitude, we are preparing ourselves for a novena of special prayers to be celebrated on the 25th of each month, and His graceful statue occupies a place of honour in our oratory.
Grenoble
1878
1878
God, whose plans are hidden and whose ways to attain them are admirable, wishing to extend our holy Order, for this purpose made use of the mediation of Mons Fava, the Bishop of Grenoble, and Madame the Marquise of Murinais. This last had a sister in the Monastery of Malines (Belgium), whose health was very precarious. As she was little accustomed to the cold climate of the North, Madame the Marquise believed that by bringing her back to where she was born, she could recover her lost health.
She expressed her intentions to Mons Fava, who at first postponed the project. Madame the Marquise did not insist for the moment, but returned prudently to the matter from time to time. A year or two passed in this dilemma, and then Mons the Bishop, on his own initiative, said to Madame de Murinais: “This is now the moment when we can call in the Redemptoristines.”
His Lordship wrote to His Eminence, Cardinal Dechamps, the Archbishop of Malines, to ask him for a small group. The Community of Malines had just made a foundation at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. It was now poor in subjects, and also, most of the Sisters were unwell, indisposed or invalids. So His Eminence sent this reply: “I suggest having Mother Marie-Veronique of Jesus as Superior, but her health is very poor. Her companion, Sister Marie-Rumoldine is scarcely more robust. If only you could give me a subject with solid good health, capable of keeping strict observance and being a model of regularity … I would straight away give my approval.” Mother Marie-Veronique then approached the Monastery of Bruges to obtain some help. Two religious came forward and offered themselves spontaneously for the accomplishment of this work. The foundation was thus decided and five Sisters got ready to leave. They were the Reverend Mother Marie-Veronique, the Superior; Sister Marie-Rose from Malines, Sister Marie-Gonzaga and Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God, from Bruges. And lastly there was Sister Marie-Rumoldine from Malines. The departure took place in the middle of the month of June 1878, and as there was no house prepared for them, they stayed for three weeks with Madame the Marquise de Murinais, who received the travellers with the affection, devotion and respect that she bore for the brides of Jesus-Christ. Having found a furnished villa at La Tronche called Jermoloof, after the Russian general to whom it belonged, the Sisters rented it for a year.
This villa was perfectly situated. They could breathe air that was favourable to feeble lungs, and so they hoped for an improvement in the health of Mother Marie-Veronique. During this time, a pious person, devoted to the community, was looking for a site that would be suitable for the construction of a Monastery. After many unfruitful applications, Miss Dastarac, that was her name, found a modest house near the little seminary at Rondeau. This house was surrounded by two hectares of land. With the approval of Mons the Bishop, they bought it all, and they added a modest construction to it that could at least shelter the Sisters who had already arrived, and the postulants who had joined them. They also built the walls of the enclosure. The Sisters moved there in September 1879. Madame the Marquise de Murinais, wishing to fulfil her role as foundress, provided all the furnishings of the chapel and the house. Thereafter she always continued to devote her self with a perfect disinterest, an incomparable affection and a grandeur of soul equal to her nobility. In addition, she profited from her closeness to the General of the Chartreuses in order to obtain his protection over the nascent Community; and we may say in passing, that it was thanks to her intervention and that of Mons Fava, that the Reverend Fathers never ceased to aid the community. Mons Fava, for his part, showed a quite paternal benevolence towards it. Another very precious auxiliary was Reverend Father Prouvost, who, in all circumstances, showed himself as a devoted friend and good counsellor.
The cross, with which God ordinarily marks His works, did not delay in appearing in the midst of the new foundation. Reverend Mother Marie-Veronique, whose complexion was already so delicate, was attacked by pneumonia, which, in a few days, brought her to the gates of the tomb. This extremity threw the little religious family into a great sadness. Reverend Mother herself, considering the distressing situation in which she was leaving her dear daughters, found it hard to believe that God wanted to call her to Himself at this hour: nonetheless, she accepted His holy will, and made the sacrifice of her life. Two days had scarcely passed away when her soul flew off to her eternal home, on 30th December 1879.
Mother Marie-Veronique of Jesus was born at Maestricht on 2nd July 1821, of a distinguished family. She was only 18 years old when she entered religion. She was an elect soul and God was pleased to fill her with His most intimate favours, and as a friend of contemplation He attached her firmly to Himself. For her part, she gave herself to this call by her flight from exterior faults and her great application to God. She successively filled the most important charges and succeeded Reverend Mother Marie-Alphonse, who had transplanted the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, and the Reverend Father Passerat held her in great esteem. When thoughts were tending towards a foundation in France, she devoted herself to it wholeheartedly and departed generously, in spite of her feeble health, even though she had to expect the privations and cares which are ordinarily the lot of new foundations, but hoping to procure the glory of God and attract new brides to Jesus-Christ, she sailed over all these particular considerations. Madame the Marquise de Murinais, who was in a position to appreciate her first-hand, had a true veneration for her, and her death filled her with a profound sadness and inexpressible regrets.
Forced now to replace the Reverend Mother Foundress, Mons Fava, who knew the community of Saint-Amand, thought it best to address himself to them to this effect. The choice fell on Reverend Sister Marie-Augustine of the Divine Providence, then the Mistress of Educandes, whom God had endowed with the qualities required for the position of Superior. She had already devoted herself to the foundation of Velp (in Holland) and Saint-Amand, and did not recoil from the new burden that was presented to her, having to heart the glory of God and the prosperity of our holy Order. She left Saint-Amand on 1st February, and was presented by Mons Fava himself to the Sisters of Grenoble on 2nd February 1880. The Sisters welcomed her gratefully, and rendered their obedience to her very readily.
They continued to organise the provisional house and the holy Rule was put into vigour. As the community was very poor, Father Demenjon, the housekeeper of the little seminary at Rondeau, had the kindness to come there and say the holy Mass every day. Moreover, he provided them with stores and other food items at the same price as for the seminary. Monsignor had given him a general permission to enter the enclosure to help the Superior in the organisation of the garden, and finally he made him the Chaplain of the convent to the satisfaction of all the Sisters, a function which he fulfilled with zeal, and a devotion that could not be more paternal right up to his death, which happened on 12th November 1905.
In 1880 appeared the decree for the expulsion of religious communities. Several Belgian Sisters, fearing trouble, demanded and obtained permission to go back to their own country, and this was granted to them.
When calm returned to the country, numerous vocations were announced, and the house became too cramped, so they had to think of building a new Monastery and building a wing to it at the same time, because of the need they were now feeling.
The priest of our parish, Canon Berlioux, who was interested in what we were doing, but was busy himself in building a church and some schools, introduced his architect and builder with whom he was very satisfied. They were accepted, and we can only praise their ability and devotion. The architect, in his modesty, asked for a preparatory plan to be drawn up, which he followed, but subordinated it to his art, and this contributed to making a model convent of these constructions. In 1883, they laid the general foundations of the Monastery and the church, and in the Spring of 1884, Mons Fava came to solemnly lay the first stone. Reverend Mother Marie-Augustine was powerfully supported, in the supervision of the works and the choice of material, by her sister, the Mother Vicar, Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God. This dear Sister, who was greatly weakened by the numerous illnesses she had suffered, and by her additional labours, felt her powers exhausted and finally had to go to bed, succumbing to an internal malady that threatened her for a long time. The last sacraments were administered to her, and she received them with faith and resignation. Mons Fava came to visit her on the eve of her death and asked her: “Do you really want to do the will of God?” And she replied: “Yes, Monsignor, on earth as in heaven.” The good Mother Vicar was dying in full consciousness with the sorrow of leaving her dear Sister in the midst of so many different worries, but the encouragement to place all her confidence in the divine Providence and in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour gave her the assurance that she would always receive aid and assistance from her.
Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God was born at Nivelle, Nord, and she was of God from her very first years, and spent her youth in serious piety. She helped her good mother bring up her young brothers and sisters. When she believed she was able to leave the paternal home, she entered the Monastery of the Redemptoristines at Bruges, where later on she had the consolation of seeing her younger sister Philomena (Sister Marie-Augustine) come to join her. Eighteen months later, this last was sent from Bruges to the new foundation at Velp, where she spent thirteen years, and in 1880, God reunited the two sisters at Grenoble until the hour when death separated them again, while they waited for the happy day of eternal beatitude.
After the death of Sister Marie-Veronica, as they needed new cells, they finished building a wing to the Monastery and took possession of it in 1886.
In 1889, they constructed the chapel. Monsignor laid its first stone and let them open a subscription. The Chartreuse Fathers lent their powerful support, and thanks to them and a generous benefactress whose daughter was a religious in the Monastery, the chapel was completed. On Saturday, the 17th of the month of August 1890, His Lordship, Mons Fava, in the company of numerous clergy, made the solemn consecration of it under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, to the joy of all the religious. And so it was with hearts overflowing with gratitude that they chanted the Te Deum laudamus!
She expressed her intentions to Mons Fava, who at first postponed the project. Madame the Marquise did not insist for the moment, but returned prudently to the matter from time to time. A year or two passed in this dilemma, and then Mons the Bishop, on his own initiative, said to Madame de Murinais: “This is now the moment when we can call in the Redemptoristines.”
His Lordship wrote to His Eminence, Cardinal Dechamps, the Archbishop of Malines, to ask him for a small group. The Community of Malines had just made a foundation at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. It was now poor in subjects, and also, most of the Sisters were unwell, indisposed or invalids. So His Eminence sent this reply: “I suggest having Mother Marie-Veronique of Jesus as Superior, but her health is very poor. Her companion, Sister Marie-Rumoldine is scarcely more robust. If only you could give me a subject with solid good health, capable of keeping strict observance and being a model of regularity … I would straight away give my approval.” Mother Marie-Veronique then approached the Monastery of Bruges to obtain some help. Two religious came forward and offered themselves spontaneously for the accomplishment of this work. The foundation was thus decided and five Sisters got ready to leave. They were the Reverend Mother Marie-Veronique, the Superior; Sister Marie-Rose from Malines, Sister Marie-Gonzaga and Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God, from Bruges. And lastly there was Sister Marie-Rumoldine from Malines. The departure took place in the middle of the month of June 1878, and as there was no house prepared for them, they stayed for three weeks with Madame the Marquise de Murinais, who received the travellers with the affection, devotion and respect that she bore for the brides of Jesus-Christ. Having found a furnished villa at La Tronche called Jermoloof, after the Russian general to whom it belonged, the Sisters rented it for a year.
This villa was perfectly situated. They could breathe air that was favourable to feeble lungs, and so they hoped for an improvement in the health of Mother Marie-Veronique. During this time, a pious person, devoted to the community, was looking for a site that would be suitable for the construction of a Monastery. After many unfruitful applications, Miss Dastarac, that was her name, found a modest house near the little seminary at Rondeau. This house was surrounded by two hectares of land. With the approval of Mons the Bishop, they bought it all, and they added a modest construction to it that could at least shelter the Sisters who had already arrived, and the postulants who had joined them. They also built the walls of the enclosure. The Sisters moved there in September 1879. Madame the Marquise de Murinais, wishing to fulfil her role as foundress, provided all the furnishings of the chapel and the house. Thereafter she always continued to devote her self with a perfect disinterest, an incomparable affection and a grandeur of soul equal to her nobility. In addition, she profited from her closeness to the General of the Chartreuses in order to obtain his protection over the nascent Community; and we may say in passing, that it was thanks to her intervention and that of Mons Fava, that the Reverend Fathers never ceased to aid the community. Mons Fava, for his part, showed a quite paternal benevolence towards it. Another very precious auxiliary was Reverend Father Prouvost, who, in all circumstances, showed himself as a devoted friend and good counsellor.
The cross, with which God ordinarily marks His works, did not delay in appearing in the midst of the new foundation. Reverend Mother Marie-Veronique, whose complexion was already so delicate, was attacked by pneumonia, which, in a few days, brought her to the gates of the tomb. This extremity threw the little religious family into a great sadness. Reverend Mother herself, considering the distressing situation in which she was leaving her dear daughters, found it hard to believe that God wanted to call her to Himself at this hour: nonetheless, she accepted His holy will, and made the sacrifice of her life. Two days had scarcely passed away when her soul flew off to her eternal home, on 30th December 1879.
Mother Marie-Veronique of Jesus was born at Maestricht on 2nd July 1821, of a distinguished family. She was only 18 years old when she entered religion. She was an elect soul and God was pleased to fill her with His most intimate favours, and as a friend of contemplation He attached her firmly to Himself. For her part, she gave herself to this call by her flight from exterior faults and her great application to God. She successively filled the most important charges and succeeded Reverend Mother Marie-Alphonse, who had transplanted the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, and the Reverend Father Passerat held her in great esteem. When thoughts were tending towards a foundation in France, she devoted herself to it wholeheartedly and departed generously, in spite of her feeble health, even though she had to expect the privations and cares which are ordinarily the lot of new foundations, but hoping to procure the glory of God and attract new brides to Jesus-Christ, she sailed over all these particular considerations. Madame the Marquise de Murinais, who was in a position to appreciate her first-hand, had a true veneration for her, and her death filled her with a profound sadness and inexpressible regrets.
Forced now to replace the Reverend Mother Foundress, Mons Fava, who knew the community of Saint-Amand, thought it best to address himself to them to this effect. The choice fell on Reverend Sister Marie-Augustine of the Divine Providence, then the Mistress of Educandes, whom God had endowed with the qualities required for the position of Superior. She had already devoted herself to the foundation of Velp (in Holland) and Saint-Amand, and did not recoil from the new burden that was presented to her, having to heart the glory of God and the prosperity of our holy Order. She left Saint-Amand on 1st February, and was presented by Mons Fava himself to the Sisters of Grenoble on 2nd February 1880. The Sisters welcomed her gratefully, and rendered their obedience to her very readily.
They continued to organise the provisional house and the holy Rule was put into vigour. As the community was very poor, Father Demenjon, the housekeeper of the little seminary at Rondeau, had the kindness to come there and say the holy Mass every day. Moreover, he provided them with stores and other food items at the same price as for the seminary. Monsignor had given him a general permission to enter the enclosure to help the Superior in the organisation of the garden, and finally he made him the Chaplain of the convent to the satisfaction of all the Sisters, a function which he fulfilled with zeal, and a devotion that could not be more paternal right up to his death, which happened on 12th November 1905.
In 1880 appeared the decree for the expulsion of religious communities. Several Belgian Sisters, fearing trouble, demanded and obtained permission to go back to their own country, and this was granted to them.
When calm returned to the country, numerous vocations were announced, and the house became too cramped, so they had to think of building a new Monastery and building a wing to it at the same time, because of the need they were now feeling.
The priest of our parish, Canon Berlioux, who was interested in what we were doing, but was busy himself in building a church and some schools, introduced his architect and builder with whom he was very satisfied. They were accepted, and we can only praise their ability and devotion. The architect, in his modesty, asked for a preparatory plan to be drawn up, which he followed, but subordinated it to his art, and this contributed to making a model convent of these constructions. In 1883, they laid the general foundations of the Monastery and the church, and in the Spring of 1884, Mons Fava came to solemnly lay the first stone. Reverend Mother Marie-Augustine was powerfully supported, in the supervision of the works and the choice of material, by her sister, the Mother Vicar, Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God. This dear Sister, who was greatly weakened by the numerous illnesses she had suffered, and by her additional labours, felt her powers exhausted and finally had to go to bed, succumbing to an internal malady that threatened her for a long time. The last sacraments were administered to her, and she received them with faith and resignation. Mons Fava came to visit her on the eve of her death and asked her: “Do you really want to do the will of God?” And she replied: “Yes, Monsignor, on earth as in heaven.” The good Mother Vicar was dying in full consciousness with the sorrow of leaving her dear Sister in the midst of so many different worries, but the encouragement to place all her confidence in the divine Providence and in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour gave her the assurance that she would always receive aid and assistance from her.
Sister Marie-Veronica of the Will of God was born at Nivelle, Nord, and she was of God from her very first years, and spent her youth in serious piety. She helped her good mother bring up her young brothers and sisters. When she believed she was able to leave the paternal home, she entered the Monastery of the Redemptoristines at Bruges, where later on she had the consolation of seeing her younger sister Philomena (Sister Marie-Augustine) come to join her. Eighteen months later, this last was sent from Bruges to the new foundation at Velp, where she spent thirteen years, and in 1880, God reunited the two sisters at Grenoble until the hour when death separated them again, while they waited for the happy day of eternal beatitude.
After the death of Sister Marie-Veronica, as they needed new cells, they finished building a wing to the Monastery and took possession of it in 1886.
In 1889, they constructed the chapel. Monsignor laid its first stone and let them open a subscription. The Chartreuse Fathers lent their powerful support, and thanks to them and a generous benefactress whose daughter was a religious in the Monastery, the chapel was completed. On Saturday, the 17th of the month of August 1890, His Lordship, Mons Fava, in the company of numerous clergy, made the solemn consecration of it under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, to the joy of all the religious. And so it was with hearts overflowing with gratitude that they chanted the Te Deum laudamus!
Gagny-Namur
1893
1893
The Religious of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer came from Austria to Belgium in 1841, but only installed themselves in France in 1875. In 1890, they still only possessed two houses there: one at Saint-Amand in the North, and the other at Grenoble in Central France. However, numerous aspirants to the life of our holy Order urged the Redemptorist Fathers to facilitate the means for them to become daughters of Saint Alphonsus, through the foundation of a new community, at Paris or in its suburbs. In 1890, the Reverend Fathers made frequent requests to the Mother Superior of Grenoble to send forth a swarm of her religious. The parents of several of Sisters from Paris joined with them, and to this effect the Reverend Mother asked the opinion of Mons Fava, the Bishop of Grenoble, the Most Rev. Father Raus, the General of the Redemptorists, and Rev. Father Gavillet, the Provincial. They were all in support of the realisation of the wishes so frequently expressed and the reiterated requests. Divine Providence seemed to encourage the project of foundation by permitting Madame Hello, the mother of our dear Sister Marie-Aloyse, to spontaneously offer a sum large enough to cover the first expenses. Believing they saw in all this a new expression of the divine will, they accepted the foundation. On 16th June 1893, Reverend Mother Marie-Augustine of the divine Providence set off en route for the capital, in order to seek out in the suburbs of Paris a site that could shelter the little colony. After having visited a number of localities, she stopped at Gagny (Seine et Oise), a little town in the Diocese of Versailles. Mons Goux, then the Bishop, accepted the request for admission made by Mons Fava himself, and on 3rd August of the same year, Reverend Mother Marie-Augustine and several religious from the Convent of Grenoble came to take possession of the new nest prepared by divine Providence. First of all they stayed in Gagny itself, and then several months later they were able to transfer the community into a more spacious and better situated house in the suburbs of Gagny.
Many vocations presented themselves, and everything presaged happy beginnings, but following malevolence on the one hand, and imprudence on the other, in less than two years the foundation was about to founder following some exceptional trials. But God, who had willed its existence, brought it out of these unfortunate circumstances. The vocations became numerous and after ten years the community already numbered thirty members. Then came the wicked law of 1901, against religious Congregations. The communities emigrated en masse, and that of the Redemptoristines of Gagny decided to find shelter where they could take refuge during the torment that was coming. Mons Heylen, the Bishop of Namur, agreed to receive them into his episcopal city, so they went there in the month of May 1903. His Lordship ameliorated the sacrifice of the exiles by surrounding them with a truly paternal solicitude, and our good God blessed their fidelity by sending them some new companions. Praise and thanksgiving to J. M. J. A.
Many vocations presented themselves, and everything presaged happy beginnings, but following malevolence on the one hand, and imprudence on the other, in less than two years the foundation was about to founder following some exceptional trials. But God, who had willed its existence, brought it out of these unfortunate circumstances. The vocations became numerous and after ten years the community already numbered thirty members. Then came the wicked law of 1901, against religious Congregations. The communities emigrated en masse, and that of the Redemptoristines of Gagny decided to find shelter where they could take refuge during the torment that was coming. Mons Heylen, the Bishop of Namur, agreed to receive them into his episcopal city, so they went there in the month of May 1903. His Lordship ameliorated the sacrifice of the exiles by surrounding them with a truly paternal solicitude, and our good God blessed their fidelity by sending them some new companions. Praise and thanksgiving to J. M. J. A.
Clapham (London)
1897
1897
Reverend Mother Marie-Gertrude of the Incarnation, who had succeeded Mother Marie-Jeanne de la Croix in the direction of the Monastery of Dublin, was destined by God to bring a project of foundation in England to a good end.
Having submitted her project to the Most Reverend Father Raus, the Rector Major of the Redemptorist Fathers, to the Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, and to Mons Bourne, then the Bishop of Southwark, [1] she had the joy of receiving a favourable response from all of them. Rev. Father Bridgett was enchanted to learn that the Monastery whose foundation he had always ardently desired, was finally to be established.
It was ruled by the Diocesan authority that the foundation would take place at Clapham, in the very parish served by the Redemptorist Fathers. All the necessary permissions were granted, and then Father Stevens, the Rector of the house at Clapham, took possession of the house at Rectory-Grove in the name of Reverend Mother Marie-Gertrude, and placed in it the pictures of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and Saint Alphonsus. This was on 23rd January 1897. On the following 7th May, Reverend Mother was elected Superior of the new foundation by the community of Dublin, assembled in chapter. The same evening, she left for London, accompanied by Sister Marie-Alphonsine. The last arrangements were made to give the house at Rectory Grove a truly conventual appearance, and Rev. Father Vaughan, the Provincial of the Redemptorist Fathers, ruled everything concerning spiritual help.
On 28th May, Mother Marie-Gertrude returned to Dublin for several days and resigned her superiority into the hands of the Archbishop. He greatly praised the charity, prudence and all the virtues which had shone there so brightly during her government, and then the Reverend Mother prepared herself to say farewell to her dear daughters in Dublin and take in hand the new charge that had been confided to her. Her departure then took place on 4th July. That morning the Archbishop was kind enough to celebrate the holy Mass in the Monastery, and once again bless and encourage Reverend Mother and the Sisters who were to accompany her. For everyone the separation was the occasion of a great sacrifice, but every pain faded away before the great thought that the Sisters about to depart for England were soon to commence their work of prayer and reparation in the very place where their divine Spouse had been so outraged, and where the fruits of His abundant Redemption were still being denied to so many souls through heresy and cold indifference.
* * * * *
On 18th July, the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, the holy red and blue habit of the Redemptoristines was brought into the pretty and devout church of iron, which had been blessed the day before by the Very Rev. Father Vaughan. At seven o’clock in the morning, the holy Mass was celebrated there for the first time by the venerable Father Provincial, and Our Lord was placed in His new tabernacle, the gift of the dear community of Bruges. The convent was thus to undergo a complete transformation, sanctified as it was by the presence of the divine Host that was now to be the object of the love of every heart. The ceremony of installation took place at four o’clock in the afternoon. The Most Rev. Father Vaughan preached a fine sermon on the contemplative life, and then Rev. Father Stevens intoned a solemn greeting. The service was well attended by the relatives and friends of the Sisters and a sympathetic crowd who afterwards visited the Monastery.
On Tuesday 20th, at the meeting of the ladies of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Family, Rev. Father Stevens in his turn preached in eloquent terms about the contemplative life, and invited all those attending the meeting to go and see the Sisters. On 21st, the vigil of the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Vespers were chanted in choir, and they began the public recitation of the Divine Office, to the great joy of the religious.
Finally on Sunday, 25th July, the ceremony of the establishment of the enclosure took place. His Lordship Mons Bourne arrived a little before four o’clock. The church was already full. It was the Rev. Father Bridgett who preached his admirable sermon on the contemplative life. We shall quote only the conclusion.
“It is now thirty-eight years since the monastery was established in Dublin of which this house at Clapham is an offshoot. It has been with us a long cherished wish to see a community of these zealous and holy sisters in England, and I thank God that I have lived to see it begun. May He grant this house a long and prosperous life. May it quickly grow in numbers, as well as in fervour and in the abundance of God’s gifts, and may it send out, in God’s good time, its daughters to other parts of the kingdom and of the empire.
“Our hopes for the return of England to the unity of the Church are greatly based on the number of communities of fervent nuns everywhere engaged in prayer and works of mercy. Several houses of nuns devoted to a contemplative life have been long established in England – Bridgettines, Benedictines, Poor Clares, Carmelites, Augustinians, Trappestines, and others, varying in austerity and divers points of religious discipline, but rivalling with each other in the service and love of God. Yet there is room and work for the daughters of St. Alphonsus. They will be welcomed from heaven by the Hildas, the Ediths, Eadburgas, and Ethelredas, who were the glories of the contemplative life in the England of earlier days; and on earth they will also receive a cordial welcome from those who have preceded them, whether in the contemplative or active life.
“May our dear Immaculate Mother, to whom this diocese of Southward is specially dedicated, set firmly this foundation as a gem in her ancient Dowry. [2]
* * * * *
“After the sermon,” says an eye-witness, “Mons the Bishop, followed by the clergy and the crowd, entered the Church by the side entrance, and the procession was formed. His Lordship had manifested the desire for Reverend Mother to go first and indicate the route to be followed. Then the bishop and the priests and the other Sisters proceeded out, singing the Miserere. Next came the ladies.
“After the Bishop had gone through the whole convent, sprinkling each room with holy water, he stopped at the door of the enclosure, waiting for the end of the procession.
“When everyone had come out, His Lordship closed the door and spoke with great goodness to our dear Reverend Mother and the Sisters. He said that he welcomed them very cordially into his diocese, that he would do everything he could to help the community, and that Reverend Mother had only to seek His Lordship whenever she was in need, because he would always want to show the Sisters the same care and attention that Saint Alphonsus himself would have shown them. His Lordship also said that as at this moment they were the only religious contemplatives in this part of London, he would rely on them in a very special manner.”
Having submitted her project to the Most Reverend Father Raus, the Rector Major of the Redemptorist Fathers, to the Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, and to Mons Bourne, then the Bishop of Southwark, [1] she had the joy of receiving a favourable response from all of them. Rev. Father Bridgett was enchanted to learn that the Monastery whose foundation he had always ardently desired, was finally to be established.
It was ruled by the Diocesan authority that the foundation would take place at Clapham, in the very parish served by the Redemptorist Fathers. All the necessary permissions were granted, and then Father Stevens, the Rector of the house at Clapham, took possession of the house at Rectory-Grove in the name of Reverend Mother Marie-Gertrude, and placed in it the pictures of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and Saint Alphonsus. This was on 23rd January 1897. On the following 7th May, Reverend Mother was elected Superior of the new foundation by the community of Dublin, assembled in chapter. The same evening, she left for London, accompanied by Sister Marie-Alphonsine. The last arrangements were made to give the house at Rectory Grove a truly conventual appearance, and Rev. Father Vaughan, the Provincial of the Redemptorist Fathers, ruled everything concerning spiritual help.
On 28th May, Mother Marie-Gertrude returned to Dublin for several days and resigned her superiority into the hands of the Archbishop. He greatly praised the charity, prudence and all the virtues which had shone there so brightly during her government, and then the Reverend Mother prepared herself to say farewell to her dear daughters in Dublin and take in hand the new charge that had been confided to her. Her departure then took place on 4th July. That morning the Archbishop was kind enough to celebrate the holy Mass in the Monastery, and once again bless and encourage Reverend Mother and the Sisters who were to accompany her. For everyone the separation was the occasion of a great sacrifice, but every pain faded away before the great thought that the Sisters about to depart for England were soon to commence their work of prayer and reparation in the very place where their divine Spouse had been so outraged, and where the fruits of His abundant Redemption were still being denied to so many souls through heresy and cold indifference.
* * * * *
On 18th July, the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, the holy red and blue habit of the Redemptoristines was brought into the pretty and devout church of iron, which had been blessed the day before by the Very Rev. Father Vaughan. At seven o’clock in the morning, the holy Mass was celebrated there for the first time by the venerable Father Provincial, and Our Lord was placed in His new tabernacle, the gift of the dear community of Bruges. The convent was thus to undergo a complete transformation, sanctified as it was by the presence of the divine Host that was now to be the object of the love of every heart. The ceremony of installation took place at four o’clock in the afternoon. The Most Rev. Father Vaughan preached a fine sermon on the contemplative life, and then Rev. Father Stevens intoned a solemn greeting. The service was well attended by the relatives and friends of the Sisters and a sympathetic crowd who afterwards visited the Monastery.
On Tuesday 20th, at the meeting of the ladies of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Family, Rev. Father Stevens in his turn preached in eloquent terms about the contemplative life, and invited all those attending the meeting to go and see the Sisters. On 21st, the vigil of the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Vespers were chanted in choir, and they began the public recitation of the Divine Office, to the great joy of the religious.
Finally on Sunday, 25th July, the ceremony of the establishment of the enclosure took place. His Lordship Mons Bourne arrived a little before four o’clock. The church was already full. It was the Rev. Father Bridgett who preached his admirable sermon on the contemplative life. We shall quote only the conclusion.
“It is now thirty-eight years since the monastery was established in Dublin of which this house at Clapham is an offshoot. It has been with us a long cherished wish to see a community of these zealous and holy sisters in England, and I thank God that I have lived to see it begun. May He grant this house a long and prosperous life. May it quickly grow in numbers, as well as in fervour and in the abundance of God’s gifts, and may it send out, in God’s good time, its daughters to other parts of the kingdom and of the empire.
“Our hopes for the return of England to the unity of the Church are greatly based on the number of communities of fervent nuns everywhere engaged in prayer and works of mercy. Several houses of nuns devoted to a contemplative life have been long established in England – Bridgettines, Benedictines, Poor Clares, Carmelites, Augustinians, Trappestines, and others, varying in austerity and divers points of religious discipline, but rivalling with each other in the service and love of God. Yet there is room and work for the daughters of St. Alphonsus. They will be welcomed from heaven by the Hildas, the Ediths, Eadburgas, and Ethelredas, who were the glories of the contemplative life in the England of earlier days; and on earth they will also receive a cordial welcome from those who have preceded them, whether in the contemplative or active life.
“May our dear Immaculate Mother, to whom this diocese of Southward is specially dedicated, set firmly this foundation as a gem in her ancient Dowry. [2]
* * * * *
“After the sermon,” says an eye-witness, “Mons the Bishop, followed by the clergy and the crowd, entered the Church by the side entrance, and the procession was formed. His Lordship had manifested the desire for Reverend Mother to go first and indicate the route to be followed. Then the bishop and the priests and the other Sisters proceeded out, singing the Miserere. Next came the ladies.
“After the Bishop had gone through the whole convent, sprinkling each room with holy water, he stopped at the door of the enclosure, waiting for the end of the procession.
“When everyone had come out, His Lordship closed the door and spoke with great goodness to our dear Reverend Mother and the Sisters. He said that he welcomed them very cordially into his diocese, that he would do everything he could to help the community, and that Reverend Mother had only to seek His Lordship whenever she was in need, because he would always want to show the Sisters the same care and attention that Saint Alphonsus himself would have shown them. His Lordship also said that as at this moment they were the only religious contemplatives in this part of London, he would rely on them in a very special manner.”
Footnotes
[1] Today the Archbishop of Westminster.
[2] Allusion to the beautiful work by Rev. Father Bridgett called: England, the Dowry of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[2] Allusion to the beautiful work by Rev. Father Bridgett called: England, the Dowry of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Lauterach near Bregenz (Austria)
1904
1904
“Our foundation,” Reverend Mother Marie-Rose of the Child Jesus wrote to us on 3rd May 1906, “is under the patronage of Saint Joseph. Of all our houses, this is the only one that bears this blessed name.”
“For several years, our Monastery in Vienna desired to make a foundation, and Salzburg was proposed. The Cardinal Archbishop, Mons Haller, offered the Sisters a little church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, but the buildings were not suitable, and we had to refuse them. In the meantime, the Cardinal died. The Sisters designated for the new foundation left Vienna on 19th April 1900. A remarkable thing – from this time on, it was always a Wednesday or the 19th March or the 19th of another month that Saint Joseph granted our convent some particular grace.
“However, the new foundation was not to be made without difficulties of every kind. Our poverty was great, and to crown it all, there was no chapel where we could put the Blessed Sacrament, because of the small number of the Sisters. From 19th April to the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, we had to go to Mass with the Reverend Fathers Missionary at Liefering, a quarter of an hour away from the convent, and receive the sacrament of penance in the town. Not possessing Our Lord amongst us was a subject of inexpressible grief to us. Finally Mons Kaltner, the Vicar General of Salzburg (today the Bishop) put himself to every possible trouble to obtain for us the grace of having the Sanctissimum in our little house. Several Sisters from Vienna arrived the night preceding the third Sunday of July. It was another Christmas night for us. We worked almost all night to prepare our little chapel, where Jesus, our love and our all, was to descend for the first time. Mons Kaltner blessed the chapel, and before giving us Holy Communion, he gave us a short sermon full of unction and piety. It was a day of graces and also a day of indescribable joy, although we had not yet been permitted to wear the habit of our Order, and all we had were just black vestments and black veils.
* * * * *
“We had to remain like this until the nomination of the new Archbishop, Mons Katschthaler, to the seat of Salzburg. Finally this great grace reached us at the very moment we were to begin our first retreat. An hour beforehand, the hand that had blessed our chapel also blessed our enclosure. What a joy it was for us then, on Christmas night, to renew our holy vows! In our little chapel, a true Bethlehem because of its poverty, a solemn Te Deum burst out in thanksgiving, for the first retreat preached in the little Monastery of Saint Joseph! What a joy it was also for Rev. Father Dilgskron, our confessor in Vienna, who had preached our holy exercises!
“”The cross,” I told him, “is not lacking in this foundation, but divine Providence is watching over its children. When we were at the point of having to leave everything because of our poverty, an unexpected help came to save us, and to great cares, great joy succeeded.
“However, a more serious reason than the lack of resources finally decided us to look elsewhere. The lack of spiritual help was all to evident, and so we prayed to find a new refuge which could provide us with what Saint Jeanne Francoise de Chantal sought before everything else for her foundations – the assurance of spiritual help. After many prayers, vigils and fasts, we learnt that a boarding house formerly run by the Dominican Sisters was vacant at Lauterach. It was the Reverend Father Rector of Dornbirn (Vorarlberg) who gave us this good news. On 19th April 1904, some of the Sisters went there with the counsellor of His Eminence the Cardinal of Salzburg, and at the first Vespers of the feast of the patronage of Saint Joseph, the contract for the purchase of the Dominican convent was signed, on the condition that our Superiors in Vienna gave their consent. On 2nd August, the feast of our Father, Saint Alphonsus, the daughters of this great Saint took possession of the Monastery of the daughters of Saint Dominic, and on 19th November, I arrived at Lauterach with the first group of my dear Sisters to remain there permanently.
“We now had a beautiful little church, some cells, and a cemetery at the bottom of the garden. The Redemptorist Fathers are our confessors. Our Chaplain, an excellent priest, helps us with everything by his advice and his talents. Having been on mission in Africa for the space of a dozen years, there is hardly any subject he does not know something about.
* * * * *
“A few words now about our three dear deceased Sisters.
“Sister Marie-Celestine came from Vienna with Sister Marie-Francoise and Sister Marie-Michel on the vigil of the feast of the Most holy Redeemer, to make up the number of Sisters required by the Archbishop of Salzburg, and to thus ensure us the happiness of possessing the Blessed Sacrament.
“She was a very fervent Sister who observed the Rule to the letter, but her health had been weakened long ago. We noticed one day that her spirit had weakened in its turn. She was suffering a great deal, and she was an enigma for us. Sometimes she felt so feeble that she would go and ask the Superior for some dispensation or some relief. A quarter of an hour afterwards, she wanted to know nothing about it and tried to observe the Rule in all its rigour. She continued thus until 24th October 1902. On that day she made her monthly retreat. On Saturday, the 25th, she could not get out of bed, and as the doctor told me that she could die any day quite unexpectedly, I told her all this. “That’s nothing,” she replied, “We all have to die.” On Sunday, the 26th, I was next to her right up to the moment of Holy Communion, and when I left her, she told me urgently: “My Reverend Mother, I thank you for everything you have done for me.” I did not for a moment think that she would die so soon, and I then went to see our good Sister Marie-Gerard, who had been ill for months and was suffering horribly. At 9 o’clock, I was called in all haste. Sister Marie-Celestine had just died! She had been struck by apoplexy in her heart and brain. On her death-bed, she still had the smiling face she had during her life. She was only thirty two years of age. We remember her as a good and charitable Sister, ardent for her perfection and zealous for observance. She had recommended her death to the Good Thief. – It was a very hard thing for us to leave her body in Salzburg. We have erected a modest monument to her in our little cemetery, and also to our dear Sister Marie-Francoise.
“This Sister died in our Monastery of Vienna on 13th February 1906. She was very young too. She was our companion at Salzburg for more than three years, and edified us greatly by her virtue, her spirit of prayer and her filial obedience. A stomach complaint was what had her recalled to Vienna. They soon discovered that it was a cancer. She suffered a great deal and had to undergo several operations. The doctors were edified by her patience. She suffered like this for more than two years, but we always saw her happy and resigned to the holy will of God and very attached to the Rule. She always had the desire to see her God, and she applied herself greatly to the interior life. And her death was that of a saint.
“Some words too about our dear Sister Marie-Alphonse, who died at the age of twenty six. The poor child had lost her parents, and for fifteen years she was left alone with her little sister. The blow was a terrible one. But divine Providence watched over this pure soul and brought her to our foundation. The weakness of our good Sister’s health soon became evident, and with it her unalterable patience. She had a placid soul of an angelic purity, and indeed she was not made for this world. The cough that wasted her away soon brought her to an extremity, but she was quite happy to die. After having received Extreme Unction, she radiated joy at the thought of going to see Jesus and Mary in heaven, and when I spoke to her about it, she laughed with all her heart, and was not able to contain the happiness that flooded her. Her long sufferings had altered her features, but after her death they took on a quite heavenly serenity.
“In the boarding house, we always called her an angel of peace. Now she rests in our little cemetery as the first Redemptoristine there and is the standard bearer for the Convent of Saint Joseph at Lauterach. An angel of peace and purity during her life, she will always be so in our memories.”
“For several years, our Monastery in Vienna desired to make a foundation, and Salzburg was proposed. The Cardinal Archbishop, Mons Haller, offered the Sisters a little church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, but the buildings were not suitable, and we had to refuse them. In the meantime, the Cardinal died. The Sisters designated for the new foundation left Vienna on 19th April 1900. A remarkable thing – from this time on, it was always a Wednesday or the 19th March or the 19th of another month that Saint Joseph granted our convent some particular grace.
“However, the new foundation was not to be made without difficulties of every kind. Our poverty was great, and to crown it all, there was no chapel where we could put the Blessed Sacrament, because of the small number of the Sisters. From 19th April to the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, we had to go to Mass with the Reverend Fathers Missionary at Liefering, a quarter of an hour away from the convent, and receive the sacrament of penance in the town. Not possessing Our Lord amongst us was a subject of inexpressible grief to us. Finally Mons Kaltner, the Vicar General of Salzburg (today the Bishop) put himself to every possible trouble to obtain for us the grace of having the Sanctissimum in our little house. Several Sisters from Vienna arrived the night preceding the third Sunday of July. It was another Christmas night for us. We worked almost all night to prepare our little chapel, where Jesus, our love and our all, was to descend for the first time. Mons Kaltner blessed the chapel, and before giving us Holy Communion, he gave us a short sermon full of unction and piety. It was a day of graces and also a day of indescribable joy, although we had not yet been permitted to wear the habit of our Order, and all we had were just black vestments and black veils.
* * * * *
“We had to remain like this until the nomination of the new Archbishop, Mons Katschthaler, to the seat of Salzburg. Finally this great grace reached us at the very moment we were to begin our first retreat. An hour beforehand, the hand that had blessed our chapel also blessed our enclosure. What a joy it was for us then, on Christmas night, to renew our holy vows! In our little chapel, a true Bethlehem because of its poverty, a solemn Te Deum burst out in thanksgiving, for the first retreat preached in the little Monastery of Saint Joseph! What a joy it was also for Rev. Father Dilgskron, our confessor in Vienna, who had preached our holy exercises!
“”The cross,” I told him, “is not lacking in this foundation, but divine Providence is watching over its children. When we were at the point of having to leave everything because of our poverty, an unexpected help came to save us, and to great cares, great joy succeeded.
“However, a more serious reason than the lack of resources finally decided us to look elsewhere. The lack of spiritual help was all to evident, and so we prayed to find a new refuge which could provide us with what Saint Jeanne Francoise de Chantal sought before everything else for her foundations – the assurance of spiritual help. After many prayers, vigils and fasts, we learnt that a boarding house formerly run by the Dominican Sisters was vacant at Lauterach. It was the Reverend Father Rector of Dornbirn (Vorarlberg) who gave us this good news. On 19th April 1904, some of the Sisters went there with the counsellor of His Eminence the Cardinal of Salzburg, and at the first Vespers of the feast of the patronage of Saint Joseph, the contract for the purchase of the Dominican convent was signed, on the condition that our Superiors in Vienna gave their consent. On 2nd August, the feast of our Father, Saint Alphonsus, the daughters of this great Saint took possession of the Monastery of the daughters of Saint Dominic, and on 19th November, I arrived at Lauterach with the first group of my dear Sisters to remain there permanently.
“We now had a beautiful little church, some cells, and a cemetery at the bottom of the garden. The Redemptorist Fathers are our confessors. Our Chaplain, an excellent priest, helps us with everything by his advice and his talents. Having been on mission in Africa for the space of a dozen years, there is hardly any subject he does not know something about.
* * * * *
“A few words now about our three dear deceased Sisters.
“Sister Marie-Celestine came from Vienna with Sister Marie-Francoise and Sister Marie-Michel on the vigil of the feast of the Most holy Redeemer, to make up the number of Sisters required by the Archbishop of Salzburg, and to thus ensure us the happiness of possessing the Blessed Sacrament.
“She was a very fervent Sister who observed the Rule to the letter, but her health had been weakened long ago. We noticed one day that her spirit had weakened in its turn. She was suffering a great deal, and she was an enigma for us. Sometimes she felt so feeble that she would go and ask the Superior for some dispensation or some relief. A quarter of an hour afterwards, she wanted to know nothing about it and tried to observe the Rule in all its rigour. She continued thus until 24th October 1902. On that day she made her monthly retreat. On Saturday, the 25th, she could not get out of bed, and as the doctor told me that she could die any day quite unexpectedly, I told her all this. “That’s nothing,” she replied, “We all have to die.” On Sunday, the 26th, I was next to her right up to the moment of Holy Communion, and when I left her, she told me urgently: “My Reverend Mother, I thank you for everything you have done for me.” I did not for a moment think that she would die so soon, and I then went to see our good Sister Marie-Gerard, who had been ill for months and was suffering horribly. At 9 o’clock, I was called in all haste. Sister Marie-Celestine had just died! She had been struck by apoplexy in her heart and brain. On her death-bed, she still had the smiling face she had during her life. She was only thirty two years of age. We remember her as a good and charitable Sister, ardent for her perfection and zealous for observance. She had recommended her death to the Good Thief. – It was a very hard thing for us to leave her body in Salzburg. We have erected a modest monument to her in our little cemetery, and also to our dear Sister Marie-Francoise.
“This Sister died in our Monastery of Vienna on 13th February 1906. She was very young too. She was our companion at Salzburg for more than three years, and edified us greatly by her virtue, her spirit of prayer and her filial obedience. A stomach complaint was what had her recalled to Vienna. They soon discovered that it was a cancer. She suffered a great deal and had to undergo several operations. The doctors were edified by her patience. She suffered like this for more than two years, but we always saw her happy and resigned to the holy will of God and very attached to the Rule. She always had the desire to see her God, and she applied herself greatly to the interior life. And her death was that of a saint.
“Some words too about our dear Sister Marie-Alphonse, who died at the age of twenty six. The poor child had lost her parents, and for fifteen years she was left alone with her little sister. The blow was a terrible one. But divine Providence watched over this pure soul and brought her to our foundation. The weakness of our good Sister’s health soon became evident, and with it her unalterable patience. She had a placid soul of an angelic purity, and indeed she was not made for this world. The cough that wasted her away soon brought her to an extremity, but she was quite happy to die. After having received Extreme Unction, she radiated joy at the thought of going to see Jesus and Mary in heaven, and when I spoke to her about it, she laughed with all her heart, and was not able to contain the happiness that flooded her. Her long sufferings had altered her features, but after her death they took on a quite heavenly serenity.
“In the boarding house, we always called her an angel of peace. Now she rests in our little cemetery as the first Redemptoristine there and is the standard bearer for the Convent of Saint Joseph at Lauterach. An angel of peace and purity during her life, she will always be so in our memories.”
Madrid
1904
1904
For several years the Redemptorist Fathers in Spain desired to establish a Monastery of Redemptoristines in this kingdom, but several requests made to the Monastery of Saint Amand (Nord) were unfruitful and they were forced to wait for the hour of Providence. In 1904, when Spain was in negotiation with Rome for the arrangement of a concordat on the subject of the religious question, the Most Rev. Father Runner, the Provincial, judged the moment propitious, seeing that in this concordat the existing religious Orders were by this very fact approved by the government, and so he made new requests to the Monastery of Grenoble (Isere), but he obtained only a refusal.
After he turned to the Monastery of Kain in Belgium, the community granted the foundation on the condition of obtaining a Superior from the Monastery of Grenoble. After many difficulties it consented, forced, we might say, by our good God, to give the religious requested.
This religious left to see if, following the offer by our Fathers in Grenada, their convent, which they were obliged to leave in order to take up possession of another church, would be suitable for the foundation, but as neither the Monastery nor the location turned out to be suitable for contemplative religious, she went back to Madrid where, against all hope, His Excellency, Mons the Bishop of this city joyfully gave his authorisation for an establishment in his diocese, on 15th May, the feast of Saint Isidore, the patron of the city of Madrid. The will of God having thus been manifested, it was there that we were called to establish ourselves, and it was there that the religious of Kain came to join their Superior, who had received a hospitality as cordial as it was fraternal, among the nuns of the Sacred Heart.
They began by renting a villa at the edge of the city, but the location was not a suitable one, and Rev. Father Runner, after much deliberation, advised them to say a novena to Saint Alphonsus, in order to find a suitable house and land. On the eighth day of this novena, a lady came to offer them a house and garden situated at Carabanchel Alto, near Madrid. His Reverence went out to the place and was able to say that it was truly the reply of their good Father. Full of gratitude, he announced the good news to the Mothers who joined with him in thanking their holy founder.
A remarkable thing – with a magnificent site, complete solitude, a superb view and very pure air, this house possessed a lovely little chapel. On the frontispiece of the door there was a medallion of the Sacred Heart similar to the one the nuns wear on their breast, and on the roof there was a great iron cross.
Being thus directed there by Providence, the little community took possession of this house on 1st September. The following 27th April, after dedicating the Monastery to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, they established the enclosure, into which six Spanish postulants entered.
With the aid and the constant and disinterested devotion of our Fathers and Brothers, we began the construction of the Monastery on 16th September of this year 1905.
May divine Providence permit its prompt completion, so that we, like our first Mothers at Scala, shall be allowed to enjoy the inappreciable advantages of solemn vows authorised in Spain.
Sister Marie-Philomene, Redemptoristine.
After he turned to the Monastery of Kain in Belgium, the community granted the foundation on the condition of obtaining a Superior from the Monastery of Grenoble. After many difficulties it consented, forced, we might say, by our good God, to give the religious requested.
This religious left to see if, following the offer by our Fathers in Grenada, their convent, which they were obliged to leave in order to take up possession of another church, would be suitable for the foundation, but as neither the Monastery nor the location turned out to be suitable for contemplative religious, she went back to Madrid where, against all hope, His Excellency, Mons the Bishop of this city joyfully gave his authorisation for an establishment in his diocese, on 15th May, the feast of Saint Isidore, the patron of the city of Madrid. The will of God having thus been manifested, it was there that we were called to establish ourselves, and it was there that the religious of Kain came to join their Superior, who had received a hospitality as cordial as it was fraternal, among the nuns of the Sacred Heart.
They began by renting a villa at the edge of the city, but the location was not a suitable one, and Rev. Father Runner, after much deliberation, advised them to say a novena to Saint Alphonsus, in order to find a suitable house and land. On the eighth day of this novena, a lady came to offer them a house and garden situated at Carabanchel Alto, near Madrid. His Reverence went out to the place and was able to say that it was truly the reply of their good Father. Full of gratitude, he announced the good news to the Mothers who joined with him in thanking their holy founder.
A remarkable thing – with a magnificent site, complete solitude, a superb view and very pure air, this house possessed a lovely little chapel. On the frontispiece of the door there was a medallion of the Sacred Heart similar to the one the nuns wear on their breast, and on the roof there was a great iron cross.
Being thus directed there by Providence, the little community took possession of this house on 1st September. The following 27th April, after dedicating the Monastery to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, they established the enclosure, into which six Spanish postulants entered.
With the aid and the constant and disinterested devotion of our Fathers and Brothers, we began the construction of the Monastery on 16th September of this year 1905.
May divine Providence permit its prompt completion, so that we, like our first Mothers at Scala, shall be allowed to enjoy the inappreciable advantages of solemn vows authorised in Spain.
Sister Marie-Philomene, Redemptoristine.
Armentieres – Maffles
1899
1899
The Monastery of the Sacred Heart at Maffles draws its origin from Saint-Amand. On 18th September 1899, two religious, one of whom was Reverend Mother Marie-Alphonse, left the convent of the Holy Family to come and found a new house of the Order at Maffles. They were soon joined by a third Sister, and they saw vocations flood into the provisional house that they occupied at 122, rue Seche. Their numbers increased rapidly when persecution chased them from their home. After 28th September 1901, to avoid any trouble to their proprietors, they left Armentieres and installed themselves at Maffles, a little village in Hainault, a few kilometres from Ath. Reverend Mother Marie-Alphonse, three religious, a novice and eight postulants then formed the community, whose number has increased now to twenty four. Through the manifest protection of the Sacred Heart, exile has not hindered the rapid extension of this nascent house, but obtained for it the blessing of complete destitution. Living from day today, entirely abandoned to a Providence which has never failed them, these daughters of Saint Alphonsus are making every effort to attract the divine mercy upon their country, by imitating the hidden virtues of the Most Holy Redeemer. May their prayers hasten the conversion of France, and obtain the return of the numerous religious that it has chased from its territory!
Saint-Anne de Beaupré (Canada)
1905
1905
The Venerable Father Passerat had just introduced the Redemptoristine Sisters into Austria (1831). When the sons of Saint Alphonsus had reached as far as America in 1832, the Servant of God resolved to have the nuns follow in their footsteps. It seemed to him to be absolutely in conformity with the views of divine Providence to thus give the daughters of the holy Doctor a part in the immense field that the New Word offered apostolic zeal. And so attempts were made for this purpose, and some time before 1840, some land was purchased for the establishment of a convent of Redemptoristines.
For reasons that have remained unknown to us, this attempt produced no effect. Later on the famous Father Bernard, the first Dutch Redemptorist and the first Provincial of North America (1848-1853), who personally knew the Redemptoristines of Marienthal, took up the project again, but without being able to put it into effect. [1] The Most Rev. Father Oomen, Provincial of Holland (1874-1887) in his turn took some steps to bring it about. An American bishop, His Lordship Mons Gross, Redemptorist, first of all Bishop of Savannah and then Archbishop of Oregon, keenly encouraged this project. On the two visits he made to the Convent of Marienthal in 1876 and 1889, he expressed the desire to possess a monastery of Redemptoristines in his diocese. As a special reason for a foundation in the United States, he alleged, on his second visit, that his priests desired to see established in America an Order less austere than that of the Carmelites, and promised to find them vocations, for besides, this country was already sufficiently provided with active Orders.
The nuns of Marienthal did not let themselves be easily influenced by these reasons. The number of Sisters they had did not seem to them to be very considerable, and the idea of founding a convent in Germany was much more attractive to them, and then, North America seemed far away to them, and the enterprise a very difficult one! The reply was put to them that if their fervour had already permitted them to found the Convent of Ried in Austria (1852), that of Sambeek in Holland, to which they had given thirteen religious, and to furnish Superiors many times to other monasteries of the Order, the colonising genius of Holland was to reach a pinnacle this time by making them cross the Ocean. But their hopes for a foundation in Germany (many of their Sisters were from this country) suddenly came to life more urgently than ever, thanks to the encouragement and promises of the Coadjutor Bishop of Cologne, Mons A. Fischer. When he became the Cardinal-Archbishop of this seat, this prelate gave them reason to hope for the accomplishment of their desires in 1904, the jubilee year of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and which the canonisation of Saint Gerard Majella (11th December) was to make dear to them forever.
However, this year passed without the Cardinal being able to realise his plans. His great influence at court was sometimes blotted out by the clamour of the German Protestants, for the progress of Catholicism had made inroads against the heretical and impious movement of the Loss von Rom (Far from Rome)! He made the Sisters of Marienthal aware of his powerlessness and asked them for the meantime to look for a more suitable site.
These successive delays or set-backs were permitted by Providence so that they could realise a more grandiose plan, or rather, so that the original plan could finally be put into effect. It was indeed to America that God wished the Redemptoristines to go. The graces spread into the hearts of the Sisters by the Jubilee of Mary Immaculate and the canonisation of Saint Gerard, the disciple of the founder of their Order and in the past so devoted to their first Mothers, - these graces, we may say, prepared them unknowingly to bring it about after a period of waiting that lasted thirty years.
* * * * *
On Wednesday, 18th January in the year 1905, the Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen, the Provincial of the Redemptorist Fathers of Holland, was visiting his confreres in the Convent of Wittem. On this occasion he went to celebrate the holy Mass in the chapel of the Sisters of Marienthal, not far distant from the Fathers’ Convent. After his thanksgiving, the Sisters came to greet him at the grille of the parlour, and the Superior, Mother Marie-Hyacinthe, asked his advice on the subject of a new foundation. Their hearts were still turned towards the frontiers of Germany.
The Very Rev. Father Provincial replied immediately and without any premeditation: “Ah well, my Mother, go to America. I promise you I will accompany you there in person.”
Great was the stupefaction of the Sisters in hearing such an unexpected reply, but it had been made in such an assured tone, and it seemed to indicate the will of God so clearly that their hearts soon recovered from their surprise, and soon the voice of the Most Reverend Father General Raus put an end to the few hesitations that had been produced. A foundation in the United States for the meantime seemed to be exposed to too many difficulties, but the Most Reverend Father Rau cut through the difficulties. In the month of February he wrote the following lines to the Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen: “A land that I think will be more favourable to religious contemplatives would be Canada. A Bishop from this country spoke to me about it not long ago. I am sure that our Visitor, Father Lemieux, if you ask him to examine the project, will be able to give you some good information and help you to find a suitable place for it.” This advice was decisive in the history of the foundation. The divine Redeemer wanted the successor of Saint Alphonsus to decide on the execution of the project, and himself determine the choice of the country in the New World in which the daughters of Saint Alphonsus were to be established. Thus obedience itself presided at this great act.
The Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen wrote in consequence to Rev. Father Lemieux, the Visitor and Vice-Provincial of Canada. He replied with entire devotion to this advance and referred him on to Mons Begin, the Archbishop of Quebec, who placed no other condition on the establishment of the Sisters than the obligation not to go begging, of which there was of course no question. This goodness of the Archbishop merits even more gratitude, because the Province of Quebec already included a good number of contemplative communities. Father Lemieux proposed to establish the new monastery in proximity to the famous shrine of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, served by the Redemptorists of the Belgian Province, and at the same time he invited the Father Provincial of Holland to come in person to Sainte-Anne with some Sisters from Marienthal, to arrange everything and be sure that it was all right. Two months later, on 19th August, the foundation of the first Monastery of the Redemptoristines in America was a fait accompli. Thus were realised the words of Rev. Father Lemieux: “Our glorious Father, Saint Alphonsus wishes his work in Canada to be complete; and it is without doubt a token of blessing for our Vice-Province.” Thus the wishes of the Most Rev. Father Raus were accomplished.
* * * * *
The Sisters chosen for the attempt at this great enterprise were: Sister Marie-Stanislas of the Blessed Sacrament in the position of Superior. She was from Aix-la-Chapelle and aged about fifty five. Then there was Sister Marie-Gabrielle of the Incarnation, from Amsterdam, aged thirty five. The Most Rev. Father Provincial was of the opinion that the Superior of Marienthal, Mother Marie-Hyacinthe of the Precious Blood, should join them in spite of being sixty three years old, in order to put her experience of affairs to the service of the new foundation. When the foundation was begun, she would return. Mons Drehmans, the Bishop of Roermond, and as such, the canonical Superior of Marienthal, willingly gave the necessary permissions. Finally, the Sovereign Pontiff, at the request of Very Rev. Father Oomen, the Procurator General of the Congregation, sent the Sisters his apostolic blessing.
* * * * *
Finally the 21st July arrived, the day of departure. It was the feast of Saint Alexis. The Introit to the Mass invited the founding Sisters to go forth from their native country and come into the place that God would show them: Egredere de terra tua et de domo patris tui, et veni in terram quam monstrabo tibi. Obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui, et concupiscent Rex decorem tuum. [Depart from thy land and from the house of thy father, and come into the land which I shall show you. Forget thy people and the house of thy father, and the King shall desire thy beauty]. All the rest of the Mass, the translation of which they took pains to give the travellers, applied in a very special and very touching manner to the departure of the Superior and the two other Sisters, and to the whole enterprise, and also the Epistle: Est quaestus magnus pietas cum sufficientia [But godliness with contentment is great gain] (1 Tim 6:6) – and the Gospel: Ecce nos reliquimus omnia [Behold we have left all things] (Matt. 19:27). Even the future return of Mother Marie-Hyacinthe found a mention in the Offertory: Revertere in terram tuam … et benefaciam tibi [Return to thy land … and I shall bless thee]. The Itinerarium was recited by the whole community before the open tabernacle, and then the Sisters took their travelling costume (brown habit with scapular and black mantles), and after farewells full of deep feelings, they left for Rotterdam, accompanied by Rev. Father Jansen, the confessor to the community. The train had to pass near Nijmegen, at Sambeek, the Monastery founded by Marienthal. The religious of Sambeek, the oldest ones of which had been the companions of the travellers, waved a great white sheet from the windows from afar off as a sign of joy, and sent some even more clear evidence of their feelings to the station. At Rotterdam, they went to the Convent of the Redemptorist Fathers, where the Very Rev. Provincial and the community received the foundresses with a very fraternal charity. In the evening, at about nine o’clock, two carriages conveyed them to the Potsdam, the greatest of the ships of the Holland-America Line. The following day, the anchor was weighed. It was on the Saturday in the octave of the Most Holy Redeemer, 22nd July, the fest of Saint Mary Magdalen, one of the patronesses of the Order, and the contemplative par excellence.
The crossing was a most happy one. The Most Rev. Father Provincial and the Sisters arrived at New York on Tuesday, 1st August, the vigil of the feast of the Founder and Father of the Order, Saint Alphonsus. The Redemptorist Fathers of New York received the travellers with all the refinements of charity. After the feast of Saint Alphonsus they continued their journey to Montreal, and after that, Rev. Father Lemieux accompanied them the following day to Quebec, to present them to Mons Begin. The worthy Archbishop received them with great kindness, and after he had received from the hands of Mother Marie-Hyacinthe a copy of the Rules and Constitutions in French, he favourably received the request they made, that the spiritual direction of the Sisters would be entrusted to the Redemptorist Fathers.
On 5th August, between the feast of Saint Dominic, one of the protectors of the Order, and the feast of the Transfiguration, the date on which the first Sisters had put on their holy habit in 1731, they arrived at the shrine of good Saint Anne, in the shadow of which they hoped to found their first home in which they would exercise their apostolate of love, prayer and suffering. It was still the time of the great pilgrimages. Thousands of strangers, brought there by their bishops and priests, crowded the feet of the miraculous statue. The new religious Order thus made itself known right away, and without wishing to do so, to great multitudes. The Bishop of Trois-Rivieres said, on this occasion, to the Dutch Provincial: “You have done a great work in bringing the Sisters here. It is prayer joined to action. It is a blessing for the missions. They will be the lightning conductors of America.”
The Sisters found a veritable father in the Rector of the Convent of Saint-Anne, Rev. Father Honore de Nys, and from the very beginning he put all his devotion and that of his confreres to the service of the new foundation. “Mother Marie-Hyacinthe,” says an account, “set herself at once to the work with her usual energy, diligence and experience. Aided by the good Fathers of Sainte-Anne, she soon had a charming little house which would serve as a Bethlehem for the first Sisters. A temporary chapel was arranged, what was strictly necessary was bought, and then the first Redemptoristines were established in Canada.”
On 19th August, the Most Rev. Father Provincial of Holland celebrated the holy Mass for the first time in the Sisters’ house. In a short homily he remarked on the points of resemblance of this house with the first Monastery of the Order at Scala, and exhorted the Sisters to the imitation of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit and essence of their holy Rules. Holy Communion, which the Sisters received, was like the divine seal on this very touching inauguration. A few days afterwards, on 21st August, the Archbishop of Quebec wrote the following letter to the future Superior, Reverend Mother Marie-Stanislas:
“My Reverend Mother,
“In these few last days I have received your letter of 14th of this month, in which you ask me for the authorisation to found a Monastery of the Redemptoristines at Sainte-Anne, in the Archdiocese of Quebec.
“The excellent Vice Provincial and Visitor of the Redemptorists, Rev. Father Lemieux, prepared the way for you by communicating your project of foundation to me before your arrival in America. He approved your plan and desired its realisation. The good Fathers of Sainte-Anne, who have worked with so much zeal and so much success in my diocese for many years, share his views. All that remains is for me to decide to accept your request, in spite of the great number of religious communities which I have had to welcome since the persecution broke out in France.
“Your admission has been rendered easier by the engagement you have undertaken of never being a charge to the diocese, and not going begging no matter for what, but to live solely on the dowries of your nuns.
“The life of prayer, contemplation and penance that you will live in your Monastery, in conformity with the Rules that your illustrious founder, Saint Alphonsus, drew up for you, will edify our people. It will turn the anger of God away from our heads, and it will attract the graces and blessings of heaven to the Archdiocese of Quebec.
“Be therefore welcome amongst us. Here you will enjoy the liberty of the children of God. You will not be strangers, but members of my great diocesan family, the flocks that will be ever more dear to me the more you distinguish yourselves by the holiness of your lives. I pray to God to extend His most precious blessings upon you, upon your Sisters and upon the wonderful work that you are about to undertake.
“Please receive, my Reverend Mother, this expression of my most devoted sentiments in Our Lord.
“† Louis Nazaire, Archbishop of Quebec.”
The plans for the new Monastery were approved by Mons Begin, and the work began right away. The land had been handed over by the Fathers of Sainte-Anne. It was a fairly extensive site, on the slopes of the hill that the Basilica of Sainte-Anne dominates, and it has a magnificent view over the St. Lawrence River, which is so majestic in its course. Even before their departure, it had been decided that the new convent, like that of Scala, would be dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin, and the church to Saint Gerard Majella.
* * * * *
Once the foundation was assured, they arranged everything at Marienthal for the departure of the six other Sisters who, with the first two, were to form the nucleus of the first community of the Order in the New World. The Sisters chosen were: Sister Marie-Therese of the Holy Spirit (50 yrs old); Sister Marie-Jeanne-Evangeliste of the Divine Love (40 yrs old); Sister Marie-Dominique of the Holy Rosary (44 yrs old); Sister Marie-Raphael of the Divine Providence (23 yrs old); Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Crucifix (25 yrs old), and lastly, Sister Felicia of Jesus and Mary, a converse (30 yrs old).
Friday, 29th September 1905, the feast of the Archangel Saint Michael, one of the Patrons of the Order, was fixed for the departure. They celebrated the holy Mass very early. Rev. Father Jansen, the ordinary confessor, who was to accompany the Sisters to America in accordance with the wishes of the Most Rev. Father General, gave the Sisters a special homily for the occasion, and then, once the Itinerarium was recited, the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was given. A very special benediction from our Holy Father the Pope, Pius X, written in his own hand, came to give the travellers the last pledge of heavenly favours, and the Sisters said farewell to their dear companions at Wittem.
Like the first journey, they were received at Rotterdam with the most cordial charity. At nine o’clock in the evening, they embarked on the same steamship that had taken those before them, and had it not been for their black mantles, we would have seen them, on this little moving town of the Potsdam, in their complete Redemptoristine costume that they brought from the convent. It was thus a curious spectacle for the 2500 passengers to see a whole religious community, attended by their Chaplain, applying themselves to their exercises. Respect towards them was general. Sympathies were numerous and many prejudices fell before their frank and sincere piety, their great degree of cordiality and the charitable courtesy that distinguished these travellers.
Moreover, they observed the Rule of the convent as far as possible. Every morning, the Father who accompanied them celebrated the holy Mass in a cabin. The nuns took Communion, and many persons, including the missionary nuns from the Convent of Steyl in Holland, profited from the same happiness. On the Sundays of 1st and 8th October, the holy Mass was celebrated at ten o’clock in the great hall of the second class, which included a good number of Catholics. Sometimes too, in their cabins, Father addressed to them a short instruction appropriate to the feast of the day, or the circumstances of the times.
After a fairly calm crossing, the Sisters arrived at New York on Monday, 9th October, towards evening. Rev. Father Speydel, Rector of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, and Rev. Father Englet, received them with the greatest cordiality and brought them by carriage to the Franciscan Sisters, with whom they stayed and rested all the following day. On the Wednesday they left for Montreal, where the Most Rev. Father Lemieux received them, and the next day at about four o’clock, they were brought into the venerable sanctuary of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré. There they kneeled down and prayed fervently to the divine Redeemer, the Immaculate Virgin and good Saint Anne. Some moments later, Reverend Mother Marie-Hyacinthe and the two Sisters Marie-Stanislas and Marie-Gabriel entered by a side door, and while the organ made the place reverberate with its sweetest harmonies, the church was suddenly lit up with electricity as on the great feast days, and the two groups of religious embraced each other silently under the eyes of Saint Anne.
It is useless to tell of the joy and gratitude which flowed from the hearts of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. Soon they were seated at the table of hospitality to which the Rev. Father Rector of the Convent had invited them. The Fathers and Brothers made it their duty to give their best welcome to their Sisters in religion. Finally, when they were brought to their little provisional convent, the nuns found all the lamps lit up in the modest sanctuary, the greeting of the Blessed Sacrament was sung, and Rev. Father Allard, in a touching homily, gave his welcome to the Sisters whom the Most Holy Redeemer had just brought together to work for the salvation of souls.
The mission of the Reverend Mother Marie-Hyacinthe had now been achieved. When she had left Marienthal, the worthy Bishop of Roermond, Mons Drehmans, told her: “And you, my Mother, when you have accomplished your task, you will return to us, as you are necessary for this house.” On 16th October, the feast of Saint Gerard and the first day of the solemn Triduum of the canonisation of the great miracle-worker, she took the road to Quebec, after attending the first solemnities. On 18th October she left New York on the same Potsdam that had brought her. On Saturday evening, 28th October, she arrived back at Marienthal. We can well imagine that she was received with open arms. “We were proud of our Mother,” wrote one of the Sisters in the convent, “because she had let herself be led like a child through obedience and the divine Providence, and God blessed her devotion. She took her rest only very late that night, and the following day at four o’clock, she was in choir with us to recite Matins.” [2]
On the third day of the Triduum of Saint Gerard, Mons the Archbishop of Quebec officiated pontifically at Sainte-Anne. He then visited the provisional convent of the Sisters and conversed paternally with them, and confirmed the election of Reverend Mother Marie-Stanislas as Superior for three years.
The building of the new Monastery advanced rapidly. On 8th December 1906, the Sisters took solemn possession of their permanent home. On the same day, through a delicate attention of Providence, the first American postulant presented herself to the Monastery. Thus the favours of heaven were united to the favours of the first Pastor of the diocese, the unanimous voices of the faithful, and the apostolic desires of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. May the holy Doctor extend his greatest blessings over a Monastery that will be, we do not doubt, the faithful heiress of his spirit and his apostolic zeal.
For reasons that have remained unknown to us, this attempt produced no effect. Later on the famous Father Bernard, the first Dutch Redemptorist and the first Provincial of North America (1848-1853), who personally knew the Redemptoristines of Marienthal, took up the project again, but without being able to put it into effect. [1] The Most Rev. Father Oomen, Provincial of Holland (1874-1887) in his turn took some steps to bring it about. An American bishop, His Lordship Mons Gross, Redemptorist, first of all Bishop of Savannah and then Archbishop of Oregon, keenly encouraged this project. On the two visits he made to the Convent of Marienthal in 1876 and 1889, he expressed the desire to possess a monastery of Redemptoristines in his diocese. As a special reason for a foundation in the United States, he alleged, on his second visit, that his priests desired to see established in America an Order less austere than that of the Carmelites, and promised to find them vocations, for besides, this country was already sufficiently provided with active Orders.
The nuns of Marienthal did not let themselves be easily influenced by these reasons. The number of Sisters they had did not seem to them to be very considerable, and the idea of founding a convent in Germany was much more attractive to them, and then, North America seemed far away to them, and the enterprise a very difficult one! The reply was put to them that if their fervour had already permitted them to found the Convent of Ried in Austria (1852), that of Sambeek in Holland, to which they had given thirteen religious, and to furnish Superiors many times to other monasteries of the Order, the colonising genius of Holland was to reach a pinnacle this time by making them cross the Ocean. But their hopes for a foundation in Germany (many of their Sisters were from this country) suddenly came to life more urgently than ever, thanks to the encouragement and promises of the Coadjutor Bishop of Cologne, Mons A. Fischer. When he became the Cardinal-Archbishop of this seat, this prelate gave them reason to hope for the accomplishment of their desires in 1904, the jubilee year of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and which the canonisation of Saint Gerard Majella (11th December) was to make dear to them forever.
However, this year passed without the Cardinal being able to realise his plans. His great influence at court was sometimes blotted out by the clamour of the German Protestants, for the progress of Catholicism had made inroads against the heretical and impious movement of the Loss von Rom (Far from Rome)! He made the Sisters of Marienthal aware of his powerlessness and asked them for the meantime to look for a more suitable site.
These successive delays or set-backs were permitted by Providence so that they could realise a more grandiose plan, or rather, so that the original plan could finally be put into effect. It was indeed to America that God wished the Redemptoristines to go. The graces spread into the hearts of the Sisters by the Jubilee of Mary Immaculate and the canonisation of Saint Gerard, the disciple of the founder of their Order and in the past so devoted to their first Mothers, - these graces, we may say, prepared them unknowingly to bring it about after a period of waiting that lasted thirty years.
* * * * *
On Wednesday, 18th January in the year 1905, the Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen, the Provincial of the Redemptorist Fathers of Holland, was visiting his confreres in the Convent of Wittem. On this occasion he went to celebrate the holy Mass in the chapel of the Sisters of Marienthal, not far distant from the Fathers’ Convent. After his thanksgiving, the Sisters came to greet him at the grille of the parlour, and the Superior, Mother Marie-Hyacinthe, asked his advice on the subject of a new foundation. Their hearts were still turned towards the frontiers of Germany.
The Very Rev. Father Provincial replied immediately and without any premeditation: “Ah well, my Mother, go to America. I promise you I will accompany you there in person.”
Great was the stupefaction of the Sisters in hearing such an unexpected reply, but it had been made in such an assured tone, and it seemed to indicate the will of God so clearly that their hearts soon recovered from their surprise, and soon the voice of the Most Reverend Father General Raus put an end to the few hesitations that had been produced. A foundation in the United States for the meantime seemed to be exposed to too many difficulties, but the Most Reverend Father Rau cut through the difficulties. In the month of February he wrote the following lines to the Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen: “A land that I think will be more favourable to religious contemplatives would be Canada. A Bishop from this country spoke to me about it not long ago. I am sure that our Visitor, Father Lemieux, if you ask him to examine the project, will be able to give you some good information and help you to find a suitable place for it.” This advice was decisive in the history of the foundation. The divine Redeemer wanted the successor of Saint Alphonsus to decide on the execution of the project, and himself determine the choice of the country in the New World in which the daughters of Saint Alphonsus were to be established. Thus obedience itself presided at this great act.
The Most Rev. Father Meeuwissen wrote in consequence to Rev. Father Lemieux, the Visitor and Vice-Provincial of Canada. He replied with entire devotion to this advance and referred him on to Mons Begin, the Archbishop of Quebec, who placed no other condition on the establishment of the Sisters than the obligation not to go begging, of which there was of course no question. This goodness of the Archbishop merits even more gratitude, because the Province of Quebec already included a good number of contemplative communities. Father Lemieux proposed to establish the new monastery in proximity to the famous shrine of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, served by the Redemptorists of the Belgian Province, and at the same time he invited the Father Provincial of Holland to come in person to Sainte-Anne with some Sisters from Marienthal, to arrange everything and be sure that it was all right. Two months later, on 19th August, the foundation of the first Monastery of the Redemptoristines in America was a fait accompli. Thus were realised the words of Rev. Father Lemieux: “Our glorious Father, Saint Alphonsus wishes his work in Canada to be complete; and it is without doubt a token of blessing for our Vice-Province.” Thus the wishes of the Most Rev. Father Raus were accomplished.
* * * * *
The Sisters chosen for the attempt at this great enterprise were: Sister Marie-Stanislas of the Blessed Sacrament in the position of Superior. She was from Aix-la-Chapelle and aged about fifty five. Then there was Sister Marie-Gabrielle of the Incarnation, from Amsterdam, aged thirty five. The Most Rev. Father Provincial was of the opinion that the Superior of Marienthal, Mother Marie-Hyacinthe of the Precious Blood, should join them in spite of being sixty three years old, in order to put her experience of affairs to the service of the new foundation. When the foundation was begun, she would return. Mons Drehmans, the Bishop of Roermond, and as such, the canonical Superior of Marienthal, willingly gave the necessary permissions. Finally, the Sovereign Pontiff, at the request of Very Rev. Father Oomen, the Procurator General of the Congregation, sent the Sisters his apostolic blessing.
* * * * *
Finally the 21st July arrived, the day of departure. It was the feast of Saint Alexis. The Introit to the Mass invited the founding Sisters to go forth from their native country and come into the place that God would show them: Egredere de terra tua et de domo patris tui, et veni in terram quam monstrabo tibi. Obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui, et concupiscent Rex decorem tuum. [Depart from thy land and from the house of thy father, and come into the land which I shall show you. Forget thy people and the house of thy father, and the King shall desire thy beauty]. All the rest of the Mass, the translation of which they took pains to give the travellers, applied in a very special and very touching manner to the departure of the Superior and the two other Sisters, and to the whole enterprise, and also the Epistle: Est quaestus magnus pietas cum sufficientia [But godliness with contentment is great gain] (1 Tim 6:6) – and the Gospel: Ecce nos reliquimus omnia [Behold we have left all things] (Matt. 19:27). Even the future return of Mother Marie-Hyacinthe found a mention in the Offertory: Revertere in terram tuam … et benefaciam tibi [Return to thy land … and I shall bless thee]. The Itinerarium was recited by the whole community before the open tabernacle, and then the Sisters took their travelling costume (brown habit with scapular and black mantles), and after farewells full of deep feelings, they left for Rotterdam, accompanied by Rev. Father Jansen, the confessor to the community. The train had to pass near Nijmegen, at Sambeek, the Monastery founded by Marienthal. The religious of Sambeek, the oldest ones of which had been the companions of the travellers, waved a great white sheet from the windows from afar off as a sign of joy, and sent some even more clear evidence of their feelings to the station. At Rotterdam, they went to the Convent of the Redemptorist Fathers, where the Very Rev. Provincial and the community received the foundresses with a very fraternal charity. In the evening, at about nine o’clock, two carriages conveyed them to the Potsdam, the greatest of the ships of the Holland-America Line. The following day, the anchor was weighed. It was on the Saturday in the octave of the Most Holy Redeemer, 22nd July, the fest of Saint Mary Magdalen, one of the patronesses of the Order, and the contemplative par excellence.
The crossing was a most happy one. The Most Rev. Father Provincial and the Sisters arrived at New York on Tuesday, 1st August, the vigil of the feast of the Founder and Father of the Order, Saint Alphonsus. The Redemptorist Fathers of New York received the travellers with all the refinements of charity. After the feast of Saint Alphonsus they continued their journey to Montreal, and after that, Rev. Father Lemieux accompanied them the following day to Quebec, to present them to Mons Begin. The worthy Archbishop received them with great kindness, and after he had received from the hands of Mother Marie-Hyacinthe a copy of the Rules and Constitutions in French, he favourably received the request they made, that the spiritual direction of the Sisters would be entrusted to the Redemptorist Fathers.
On 5th August, between the feast of Saint Dominic, one of the protectors of the Order, and the feast of the Transfiguration, the date on which the first Sisters had put on their holy habit in 1731, they arrived at the shrine of good Saint Anne, in the shadow of which they hoped to found their first home in which they would exercise their apostolate of love, prayer and suffering. It was still the time of the great pilgrimages. Thousands of strangers, brought there by their bishops and priests, crowded the feet of the miraculous statue. The new religious Order thus made itself known right away, and without wishing to do so, to great multitudes. The Bishop of Trois-Rivieres said, on this occasion, to the Dutch Provincial: “You have done a great work in bringing the Sisters here. It is prayer joined to action. It is a blessing for the missions. They will be the lightning conductors of America.”
The Sisters found a veritable father in the Rector of the Convent of Saint-Anne, Rev. Father Honore de Nys, and from the very beginning he put all his devotion and that of his confreres to the service of the new foundation. “Mother Marie-Hyacinthe,” says an account, “set herself at once to the work with her usual energy, diligence and experience. Aided by the good Fathers of Sainte-Anne, she soon had a charming little house which would serve as a Bethlehem for the first Sisters. A temporary chapel was arranged, what was strictly necessary was bought, and then the first Redemptoristines were established in Canada.”
On 19th August, the Most Rev. Father Provincial of Holland celebrated the holy Mass for the first time in the Sisters’ house. In a short homily he remarked on the points of resemblance of this house with the first Monastery of the Order at Scala, and exhorted the Sisters to the imitation of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit and essence of their holy Rules. Holy Communion, which the Sisters received, was like the divine seal on this very touching inauguration. A few days afterwards, on 21st August, the Archbishop of Quebec wrote the following letter to the future Superior, Reverend Mother Marie-Stanislas:
“My Reverend Mother,
“In these few last days I have received your letter of 14th of this month, in which you ask me for the authorisation to found a Monastery of the Redemptoristines at Sainte-Anne, in the Archdiocese of Quebec.
“The excellent Vice Provincial and Visitor of the Redemptorists, Rev. Father Lemieux, prepared the way for you by communicating your project of foundation to me before your arrival in America. He approved your plan and desired its realisation. The good Fathers of Sainte-Anne, who have worked with so much zeal and so much success in my diocese for many years, share his views. All that remains is for me to decide to accept your request, in spite of the great number of religious communities which I have had to welcome since the persecution broke out in France.
“Your admission has been rendered easier by the engagement you have undertaken of never being a charge to the diocese, and not going begging no matter for what, but to live solely on the dowries of your nuns.
“The life of prayer, contemplation and penance that you will live in your Monastery, in conformity with the Rules that your illustrious founder, Saint Alphonsus, drew up for you, will edify our people. It will turn the anger of God away from our heads, and it will attract the graces and blessings of heaven to the Archdiocese of Quebec.
“Be therefore welcome amongst us. Here you will enjoy the liberty of the children of God. You will not be strangers, but members of my great diocesan family, the flocks that will be ever more dear to me the more you distinguish yourselves by the holiness of your lives. I pray to God to extend His most precious blessings upon you, upon your Sisters and upon the wonderful work that you are about to undertake.
“Please receive, my Reverend Mother, this expression of my most devoted sentiments in Our Lord.
“† Louis Nazaire, Archbishop of Quebec.”
The plans for the new Monastery were approved by Mons Begin, and the work began right away. The land had been handed over by the Fathers of Sainte-Anne. It was a fairly extensive site, on the slopes of the hill that the Basilica of Sainte-Anne dominates, and it has a magnificent view over the St. Lawrence River, which is so majestic in its course. Even before their departure, it had been decided that the new convent, like that of Scala, would be dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin, and the church to Saint Gerard Majella.
* * * * *
Once the foundation was assured, they arranged everything at Marienthal for the departure of the six other Sisters who, with the first two, were to form the nucleus of the first community of the Order in the New World. The Sisters chosen were: Sister Marie-Therese of the Holy Spirit (50 yrs old); Sister Marie-Jeanne-Evangeliste of the Divine Love (40 yrs old); Sister Marie-Dominique of the Holy Rosary (44 yrs old); Sister Marie-Raphael of the Divine Providence (23 yrs old); Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Crucifix (25 yrs old), and lastly, Sister Felicia of Jesus and Mary, a converse (30 yrs old).
Friday, 29th September 1905, the feast of the Archangel Saint Michael, one of the Patrons of the Order, was fixed for the departure. They celebrated the holy Mass very early. Rev. Father Jansen, the ordinary confessor, who was to accompany the Sisters to America in accordance with the wishes of the Most Rev. Father General, gave the Sisters a special homily for the occasion, and then, once the Itinerarium was recited, the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was given. A very special benediction from our Holy Father the Pope, Pius X, written in his own hand, came to give the travellers the last pledge of heavenly favours, and the Sisters said farewell to their dear companions at Wittem.
Like the first journey, they were received at Rotterdam with the most cordial charity. At nine o’clock in the evening, they embarked on the same steamship that had taken those before them, and had it not been for their black mantles, we would have seen them, on this little moving town of the Potsdam, in their complete Redemptoristine costume that they brought from the convent. It was thus a curious spectacle for the 2500 passengers to see a whole religious community, attended by their Chaplain, applying themselves to their exercises. Respect towards them was general. Sympathies were numerous and many prejudices fell before their frank and sincere piety, their great degree of cordiality and the charitable courtesy that distinguished these travellers.
Moreover, they observed the Rule of the convent as far as possible. Every morning, the Father who accompanied them celebrated the holy Mass in a cabin. The nuns took Communion, and many persons, including the missionary nuns from the Convent of Steyl in Holland, profited from the same happiness. On the Sundays of 1st and 8th October, the holy Mass was celebrated at ten o’clock in the great hall of the second class, which included a good number of Catholics. Sometimes too, in their cabins, Father addressed to them a short instruction appropriate to the feast of the day, or the circumstances of the times.
After a fairly calm crossing, the Sisters arrived at New York on Monday, 9th October, towards evening. Rev. Father Speydel, Rector of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, and Rev. Father Englet, received them with the greatest cordiality and brought them by carriage to the Franciscan Sisters, with whom they stayed and rested all the following day. On the Wednesday they left for Montreal, where the Most Rev. Father Lemieux received them, and the next day at about four o’clock, they were brought into the venerable sanctuary of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré. There they kneeled down and prayed fervently to the divine Redeemer, the Immaculate Virgin and good Saint Anne. Some moments later, Reverend Mother Marie-Hyacinthe and the two Sisters Marie-Stanislas and Marie-Gabriel entered by a side door, and while the organ made the place reverberate with its sweetest harmonies, the church was suddenly lit up with electricity as on the great feast days, and the two groups of religious embraced each other silently under the eyes of Saint Anne.
It is useless to tell of the joy and gratitude which flowed from the hearts of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. Soon they were seated at the table of hospitality to which the Rev. Father Rector of the Convent had invited them. The Fathers and Brothers made it their duty to give their best welcome to their Sisters in religion. Finally, when they were brought to their little provisional convent, the nuns found all the lamps lit up in the modest sanctuary, the greeting of the Blessed Sacrament was sung, and Rev. Father Allard, in a touching homily, gave his welcome to the Sisters whom the Most Holy Redeemer had just brought together to work for the salvation of souls.
The mission of the Reverend Mother Marie-Hyacinthe had now been achieved. When she had left Marienthal, the worthy Bishop of Roermond, Mons Drehmans, told her: “And you, my Mother, when you have accomplished your task, you will return to us, as you are necessary for this house.” On 16th October, the feast of Saint Gerard and the first day of the solemn Triduum of the canonisation of the great miracle-worker, she took the road to Quebec, after attending the first solemnities. On 18th October she left New York on the same Potsdam that had brought her. On Saturday evening, 28th October, she arrived back at Marienthal. We can well imagine that she was received with open arms. “We were proud of our Mother,” wrote one of the Sisters in the convent, “because she had let herself be led like a child through obedience and the divine Providence, and God blessed her devotion. She took her rest only very late that night, and the following day at four o’clock, she was in choir with us to recite Matins.” [2]
On the third day of the Triduum of Saint Gerard, Mons the Archbishop of Quebec officiated pontifically at Sainte-Anne. He then visited the provisional convent of the Sisters and conversed paternally with them, and confirmed the election of Reverend Mother Marie-Stanislas as Superior for three years.
The building of the new Monastery advanced rapidly. On 8th December 1906, the Sisters took solemn possession of their permanent home. On the same day, through a delicate attention of Providence, the first American postulant presented herself to the Monastery. Thus the favours of heaven were united to the favours of the first Pastor of the diocese, the unanimous voices of the faithful, and the apostolic desires of the daughters of Saint Alphonsus. May the holy Doctor extend his greatest blessings over a Monastery that will be, we do not doubt, the faithful heiress of his spirit and his apostolic zeal.
Footnotes
[1] His Life has been translated from Dutch into French: Vie du Rév. P. Bernard, priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and doctor of theology, by Mons M. J. A. Lans (1 vol. in 8o. Casterman, Paris-Tournai).
[2] This venerable religious was soon to go to receive the reward for her numerous works. Struck down by apoplexy on Friday, 10th May 1907, she died later on the Saturday at about 10.30 in the evening. Here is the notice that was communicated to us concerning this worthy daughter of Saint Alphonsus. “Sister Marie-Hyacinthe was born at Montjoie in 1842. Right up to her last days, in recreation she would happily recall the rustic and innocent joys that she had enjoyed in that beautiful countryside. Later on, her father, Mr. Pascal Massion went to live at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was the proprietor of a large factory. He gave his daughters a distinguished education and a very Christian one especially. Adele, his oldest daughter, was soon capable of helping her mother with the cares of the household. Rev. Father Heilig, the Rector of the Convent of Saint Alphonsus at Aix, soon recognized a religious vocation in her, and after testing her out thoroughly, he had her enter Marienthal (1865). Right from her entry, she showed a great fervour and a serious desire for perfection. Her nature pushed her rather towards austerity, and she had to combat a certain impetuosity in order to become meek and good. She had an aptitude for everything, and was named Housekeeper after the fire of 1877, which was no small thing. The heavy burden of Superior was laid upon her on several occasions. Endowed with the most beautiful qualities of heart, spirit and many talents, with an exquisite taste for the arts, as well as being very capable in business matters, she was well able to give good advice to her daughters in all things. She also devoted herself entirely, and was always found ready to render service. All her life she showed herself as zealous for the exact and painstaking observance of the Rule, and when anything was lacking she showed herself inflexible. Her motto in practice was: “Duty before all, duty always.” Her greatest pleasure was to work for the ornamentation of the altar. She had an extraordinary skill, and our sacristy is rich in the works of her hands – so many souvenirs that are so precious to us. Her last trienniat was greatly disturbed by the foundation in Canada and her great journey, but in the greatest difficulties she never lost her courage and confidence in God. Our revered Mother made a good impression everywhere by her dignity and religious simplicity. She said: “In all these events I have let myself be led by Providence like a child.” “When she returned to Marienthal, where she continued her life hidden in Jesus Christ, whom she cherished above everything else, she helped the Sisters in America with all her power. But soon her task was finished, and she fell in the line of duty. Until her short illness she followed the common life in spite of her infirmities, which she bore in silence and with a great deal of courage. She still went on serving every week at table and washed the dishes, observed the fasts and abstinences, and gave herself the discipline with the others, etc. Finally, she was always our valiant Mother, who through her examples and her exhortations excited her daughters to virtue. Struck down by a mild attack on 29th April while coming to recreation that evening, she told Mother Vicar: “If I have to die of this, I shall yet be happy”, but she did not believe, however, that she was as ill as she was, and after a few days she wanted to get up very early for Holy Communion and the holy Mass, which she did until Friday, 10th May, when an attack of apoplexy in her brain threw her upon her bed, and soon made an end of her days. She lay unconscious, without a look of farewell, after Extreme Unction was administered, until Saturday evening about 10.30. Then the Blessed Virgin came to seek her faithful servant to bring her into the arms of her divine Spouse, who, we hope, would have given her the fine crown that she merited so well by a life of abnegation and fidelity to the Rule of Saint Alphonsus. It is the consolation of our community in mourning that she will not forget us in heaven.”
[2] This venerable religious was soon to go to receive the reward for her numerous works. Struck down by apoplexy on Friday, 10th May 1907, she died later on the Saturday at about 10.30 in the evening. Here is the notice that was communicated to us concerning this worthy daughter of Saint Alphonsus. “Sister Marie-Hyacinthe was born at Montjoie in 1842. Right up to her last days, in recreation she would happily recall the rustic and innocent joys that she had enjoyed in that beautiful countryside. Later on, her father, Mr. Pascal Massion went to live at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was the proprietor of a large factory. He gave his daughters a distinguished education and a very Christian one especially. Adele, his oldest daughter, was soon capable of helping her mother with the cares of the household. Rev. Father Heilig, the Rector of the Convent of Saint Alphonsus at Aix, soon recognized a religious vocation in her, and after testing her out thoroughly, he had her enter Marienthal (1865). Right from her entry, she showed a great fervour and a serious desire for perfection. Her nature pushed her rather towards austerity, and she had to combat a certain impetuosity in order to become meek and good. She had an aptitude for everything, and was named Housekeeper after the fire of 1877, which was no small thing. The heavy burden of Superior was laid upon her on several occasions. Endowed with the most beautiful qualities of heart, spirit and many talents, with an exquisite taste for the arts, as well as being very capable in business matters, she was well able to give good advice to her daughters in all things. She also devoted herself entirely, and was always found ready to render service. All her life she showed herself as zealous for the exact and painstaking observance of the Rule, and when anything was lacking she showed herself inflexible. Her motto in practice was: “Duty before all, duty always.” Her greatest pleasure was to work for the ornamentation of the altar. She had an extraordinary skill, and our sacristy is rich in the works of her hands – so many souvenirs that are so precious to us. Her last trienniat was greatly disturbed by the foundation in Canada and her great journey, but in the greatest difficulties she never lost her courage and confidence in God. Our revered Mother made a good impression everywhere by her dignity and religious simplicity. She said: “In all these events I have let myself be led by Providence like a child.” “When she returned to Marienthal, where she continued her life hidden in Jesus Christ, whom she cherished above everything else, she helped the Sisters in America with all her power. But soon her task was finished, and she fell in the line of duty. Until her short illness she followed the common life in spite of her infirmities, which she bore in silence and with a great deal of courage. She still went on serving every week at table and washed the dishes, observed the fasts and abstinences, and gave herself the discipline with the others, etc. Finally, she was always our valiant Mother, who through her examples and her exhortations excited her daughters to virtue. Struck down by a mild attack on 29th April while coming to recreation that evening, she told Mother Vicar: “If I have to die of this, I shall yet be happy”, but she did not believe, however, that she was as ill as she was, and after a few days she wanted to get up very early for Holy Communion and the holy Mass, which she did until Friday, 10th May, when an attack of apoplexy in her brain threw her upon her bed, and soon made an end of her days. She lay unconscious, without a look of farewell, after Extreme Unction was administered, until Saturday evening about 10.30. Then the Blessed Virgin came to seek her faithful servant to bring her into the arms of her divine Spouse, who, we hope, would have given her the fine crown that she merited so well by a life of abnegation and fidelity to the Rule of Saint Alphonsus. It is the consolation of our community in mourning that she will not forget us in heaven.”
This necrology is translated from Fleurs de l'Institut des Rédemptoristines by Mr John R. Bradbury. The copyright of this translation is the property of the Redemptoristine Nuns of Maitland, Australia.
