Mission to North America, 1847-1859

Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger Volume 1 Sowing the Seed, 1822-1840 Volume 2 Nurturing the Seedling, 1841-1848 Volume 3 Jolted and Joggled, 1849-1852 Volume 4 Vigorous Growth, 1853-1858 Volume 5 Living Branches, 1859-1867 Volume 6 Mission to North America, 1847-1859 Volume 7 Mission to North America, 1860-1879 Volume 8 Mission to Prussia: Brede Volume 9 Mission to Prussia: Breslau Volume 10 Mission to Upper Austria Volume 11 Mission to Baden Mission to Gorizia Volume 12 Mission to Hungary Volume 13 Mission to Austria Mission to England Volume 14 Mission to Tyrol Volume 15 Abundant Fruit, 1868-1879 Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger Foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Volume 6 Mission to North America, 1847-1859 Translated, Edited, and Annotated by Mary Ann Kuttner, SSND School Sisters of Notre Dame Printing Department Elm Grove, Wisconsin 2008 Copyright © 2008 by School Sisters of Notre Dame Via della Stazione Aurelia 95 00165 Rome, Italy All rights reserved. Cover Design by Mary Caroline Jakubowski, SSND “All the works of God proceed slowly and in pain; but then, their roots are the sturdier and their flowering the lovelier.” Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger No. 2277 Contents Preface to Volume 6 ix Introduction xi Chapter 1 April—June 1847 1 Chapter 2 July—August 1847 45 Chapter 3 September—December 1847 95 Chapter 4 1848—1849 141 Chapter 5 1850—1859 177 List of Illustrations 197 List of Documents 199 Index 201 ix Preface to Volume 6 Volume 6 of Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Ger- hardinger includes documents from the years 1847 through 1859 that speak of the origins and early development of the mission of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in North Amer- ica. Volume 7 continues with documents from the years 1860 through 1879. As part of the process leading toward the beatification of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger in 1985, 5,337 documents, which she either wrote or signed, were gathered and copied by hand. These copies were notarized, numbered, packed in a large trunk, and taken to Rome. On December 17, 1929, they were presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites for further examination. This material is referred to here as the beatification collection. Since it was beyond the scope of this work to locate original letters still extant in numerous archives, translations were done from the notarized copies in the beatification collection. Some of the material in this collection was copied from archival copies of the original documents and these copies did not always include a signature. This does not imply that the original document was unsigned. A few documents in the beatification collection were either undated or misdated. Further study of these documents and their context helped determine probable dates, which are indicated in brackets. Since the documents in this volume are arranged chronologically, they are not always in numerical sequence. Documents 732, 733, and 734 appear to be collections of dated and undated fragments of letters. Numbers such as 732 (1) help the reader to identify indi- vidual sections of these letters. A numerical list of documents can be found at the end of the book. x Words in the texts of the letters that appear in brackets were added in order to help identify persons or places mentioned in the letters. Italics are used to indicate underlined text found in the documents of the beatification collection. Mother Theresa’s use of the name, Poor School Sisters (Arme Schulschwestern), as well as the word order, has been retained in this translation. The official name, St. Marys, is used for the German- Catholic settlement that was commonly known as Marien- stadt in 1847. Other place names found in the text are those commonly used in Mother Theresa’s time. If the same place is known by a different name today, a footnote supplies this information. Efforts have been made to identify the recipients of each letter. Titles are used in the headings and salutations, but the nineteenth-century practice of repeating titles through- out the text and closing of a letter has been dropped for the most part in this translation. Formal closings have been simplified and are usually given as “Respectfully yours.” After the beatification collection was delivered to Rome in 1929, additional documents were found that can be at- tributed to Mother Theresa or that were commissioned by her. Five of these documents are included in this volume and identified with a number followed by a letter, e.g., 717 a. In this volume, documents not included in the beatification collection are classified as (1) an autograph, (2) a transcript, or (3) a typescript. An autograph is a manuscript in the author’s handwriting. A transcript is an early, handwritten copy of an original document. A typescript is a typewritten copy of a document. xi Introduction “United and content with little, we go out into the whole world, into the tiniest villages, into the poorest dwellings, wherever God calls us, to bring poor children the good news of God’s reign.”1 Mother Theresa could have easily written these words to the archbishop, to the king, to the royal gov- ernment, or to her sisters before setting out on the first mis- sionary journey to North America in 1847. What a prophetic description of the small band of missionaries, of the long ocean voyage, and of the scattered settlement in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, this would have been! Taking a closer look, however, we find that these words were written on July 14, 1839, when the congregation was made up of thirteen professed sisters and eight novices living in three houses—all in the diocese of Regensburg in Bavaria. It is no surprise, then, that God’s call to North America several years later found a willing response and that Mother Theresa could write, “Although this mission was presented to the sisters as one of great suffering, their longing to take part grows from day to day.”2 The words of Bishop George Michael Wittmann had become their own, “All the works of God are accomplished by suffering.”3 Preparations of every kind were made for the journey. A notice went to all the sisters asking for anything in their houses that could be spared such as kitchen utensils, school supplies and teaching materials, church goods, linens of every kind, even yarn and little ribbons. The sisters and the 1. Quoted from Document 144, found in Volume 1 of Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger 2 . Document 701, p. 2 3. Document 725, p. 117 xii poor children in North America could use everything “since we expect nothing more than a poor, wooden house that is completely empty.”4 In this set of letters, Mother Theresa shares with us some of “the deep experiences that God allowed [her] during this singular journey.”5 Before she left Bavaria, she confi- dently told her sisters, “Do not lose courage. Jesus will be at your side and help you overcome all difficulties.”6 This is what gave her the strength to begin the North American mission in the nineteenth century. Mother Theresa’s mes- sage continues to speak to our hearts today. ______________________________________________ 4. See M. Traugott Schindlbeck, Vom Orden der Armen Schul- schwestern von Unserer Lieben Frau (Typescript, Munich) 196. 5. Document 724, p. 52 6. Document 714, p. 17-43 1 April—June 1847 701: To Archbishop Carl August von Reisach Munich Munich April 8, 1847 J!M! Most Reverend Archbishop! Your Excellency!1 A Mission of the Poor School Sisters in America For approximately four years, bishops and missionaries have been coming from America and pleading for Poor School Sisters to come there and provide a Christian educa- tion for the girls who, to their great sorrow, are completely deprived of this benefit. They believe that if Catholic Chris- tianity is to fasten deeper roots in families, flourish, and en- dure, it is just as necessary to send them teaching sisters as it is to send them priests. Last year, the general superior of the Redemptorists from Belgium2 personally asked His Majesty, our king,3 for 1. Carl August von Reisach (1800-69), Bishop of Eichstätt (1836-46), Archbishop of Munich and Freising (1846-56), Curia Cardinal (1856-69) 2. Frederick De Held (1799-1881) was the provincial (sometimes referred to as the general superior) of the Belgian Redemptorist Province. In this capacity, he was also in charge of the American missions, which he visited in 1845. During this visit, he saw the establishment of Ger- man-Catholic schools as the most urgent need. 3. Louis I (1786-1868), King of Bavaria (1825-48) 2 Mission to North America, 1847—1859 teaching sisters who would come to St. Marys, Pennsylva- nia,4 in North America. His Majesty graciously received the request and immediately had the royal cabinet ask the respectfully undersigned to state whether she could and would establish a mission there. She answered in the affirmative for the reasons mentioned above. Agreement was reached on all sides and a promise was made. The School Sisters have been preparing ever since for this mission, which was to have begun last autumn but was postponed until May of this year. Although this mission was presented to the sisters as one of great suffering, their longing to take part grows from day to day. So many sisters with a great willingness to do penance expressed their longing that the respectfully undersigned considers this call as coming from God.

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