Ursulines of the Eastern Province SPRING 2011 BylinesIn March 2010, I spent CARRYING ON: time in the English Province Archives WORLD WAR II AND outside London, reading the later diaries THE URSULINES IN ROME of Mother Magdalen Martha Counihan, OSU who had been born in 1891, an Anglican in India. She converted uring World War II, like many other to Catholicism as a Roman institutions and convents, the young woman, was DUrsuline community at the Generalate a suffragette, then Ilford Archives, Photo courtesy English Province in Rome provided sanctuary to hunted Jews and worked in British Mother Magdalen Bellasis, OSU political dissidents. I spent a fall sabbatical from Intelligence during my ministry as Archivist and Special Collections WWI (for which she Librarian at the College of New Rochelle in received the prestigious award of Member of the British research on this topic. Empire), and entered the Ursulines at the age of 28. My interest had begun when I read the typescript Magdalen was a gifted person. Soon after profession in of the English Ursuline, Mother Magdalen Bellasis, 1922, she was sent to Oxford where she received both a who was the prioress of the community in Rome BA and an MA. She served as a school headmistress and from 1935-1945. The general government was in then novice mistress in England before going to Rome exile in the U.S.; few letters could be sent, and for tertianship in 1934. A year later she was appointed fewer arrived. The nuns were cut off from one prioress of the generalate community. Her diary during another. An inveterate diarist, Mother Magdalen’s the war years documents the daily challenges of the diary of the war years in Rome whetted my interest war: bombing, demands from the police for possible and curiosity. requisition of the huge building, robbers breaking into In 2007, I had attended a presentation by Mrs. the farm land and stealing crops and animals, the phone Jetta Hendlin Gordon, who, as an 18-year- old being tapped, and many requests for refuge. Then the Croatian Jewish girl, had sought and found shelter vagaries of weather, no water for days, no fuel, rationing with her young sister in the Generalate during of bread, less and less food for 50 people, rumors of the months when the Nazis took over the city of Continued on p. 3 Rome in autumn 1943. Jetta’s dramatic story of desperation was a story that needed to be told. IN THIS ISSUE Carrying On: World War II . .p . 1, 3 Bylines has covered the account in 2002 of the and the Ursulines in Rome Award of the Righteous from the State of Israel As I See It . .p . 2 given to one Ursuline, Mother Marie Xavier Celebration of 475th Anniversary . .p . 3, 4 Marteau, who befriended and helped an Italian Serviam Gardens Update . .p . 4 Jewish family to hide in the Generalate. At the time Upper Room . .p . 5 of the award, Mother Colette Lignon stated that the News & Notes . .p . 5, 7 award rightly included the entire community who Obituaries . p. 6, 7 SOLO VOICES . p. 8 participated in concealing a number of “guests” who knocked at their gate seeking refuge. community and among the people. We shared wonderful meals and conversations, visited homes, schools, persons with AIDS, church communities and programs that immersed us in the multifaceted life of the Ursuline community. The beautiful flora that blossomed everywhere, the animals that populated homes, yards, and roadsides, and wiggled under one’s feet, spoke of the people’s loving connection to creation. Though the Ursulines are fewer now, he road in was unremarkable. An oft-traveled the mission continues through Sisters Zora from path opened out on a simple house, chapel, Slovenia and Liz and Frances from Australia, and T and gathering spaces of the Ursuline sisters their lay collaborators. Their compassion and active of Botswana. Just a stone’s throw from the parish involvement in the church, the otherwise dry desert area was resplendent issues affecting the with extraordinary flora, reflective of the beauty of the lives of the people are people and the place. admirable. Only a few days after our wonderful 475th celebra- As I reflected tion at Beckwith Pointe, I was in South Africa and on the time in Botswana for a meeting of Ursuline provincials from Botswana, I was around the world. The theme was “Ursulines in the struck by some of the Service of Reconciliation, Justice, and Peace.” Prior similarities between to the meeting, each of the provincials had a two- this experience week immersion experience in one of seven different and our process countries of Africa. I chose Botswana, a place that of reconfiguration had been for many years home for some of our of four provinces Johnson, OSU Photos: Margaret Eastern Province sisters. into one. The latter We met Ursulines of different Ursuline presence in Botswana began after Vatican immersion will take congregations serving in Af- II. The Province of South Africa wanted to extend much longer and rica: Standing: Pamela (Kenya), its presence into other African countries. At the time calls for a sustained Mkhensani (South Africa), Chris- openness to new tine (Senegal) Seated: Rosella Botswana was one of the poorest of countries and had (Burkina Faso), Edilburga (Tan- just gained political independence. In 1970 the South cultures with a zania), Esperance (Congo), Anna African province opened a community in Serowe, willingness to look (Mozambique) with two sisters from the Eastern Province, Sisters at life from another Gregory Horgan and Patricia Knight. The foundation perspective for the sake of our mission. The big was a new impetus in the Institute and sisters were events that will signal more change for us are the recruited from many provinces around the world. election of our Inaugural Team which will take place More sisters from the East responded: Anne Marie in St. Louis, July 9-14, and the beginning date of the Kelleher, Christina Pratt, Ann Alicia Smith, Theresa one United States Province on October 21, 2011. Falls, and Fran Lyle. The scope of this column does Most of us in the present Eastern Province will not permit a description During our visit in Botswana we were invited to a continue to live, work and of the depth and breadth dinner with this bush family. have our connections here as of the influence of these we strengthen the broader sisters. To this day their connections with places like presence and initiatives Botswana and the rest of the in education have made U.S. Through these efforts to a lasting contribution, come together and to move still remembered by the forward, we continue to hear people who continue to the invitation of Angela to benefit from what they recognize the importance began. of union and concord, to Soon after our arrival in pursue it, embrace it and Serowe we felt very much hold onto it with all our at home in our Ursuline strength. (Last Counsel) www.osueast.org 2 CARRYING ON Continued from p. 1 CELEBRATION OF raids by the fascists, and, later, the Germans, and 475th ANNIVERSARY blackouts. Bridget Puzon, OSU In her diary she mentions the arrival of Jetta Hendlin and her sister and other “guests.” One year of celebration for Ursulines who trace their gets the impression that Magdalen could “carry origins to St. Angela Merici began on November on” calmly as war and worry surrounded her 25, 2009. Ursulines around the world held a special and her companions. A Vespers service on that day, so that within a 24-hour period, The Generalate property was under the as the sun was setting in each place, the evening prayer protection of the Vatican, but when the Germans of the Church was said in many languages. The 475th replaced the fascists in September 1943 (and anniversary of the Founding of the Company of St. Ursula in the manhunt for Jews began in earnest), some the city of Brescia, Italy, had opened. convents and seminaries were raided by the Around the Province Center, Nazis. Although the Villino on the property was banners for the anniversary hung briefly occupied by Nazis, the large convent from the lampposts; they featured fortunately was never raided. Rome was laurel leaves as the logo for the liberated in June of 1944, and the diary describes year, recalling the anagram Ursula the rationing and privations that continued–and Laurus, the tree featured on the the relief that liberation brought. worldwide Ursuline shield. After the war, Magdalen returned to England October 4, 2010, brought together and was named Provincial. In 1949, she visited Ursulines, alumnae and friends for the Eastern Province, accompanying some Photo: Maria Rosa Deiso, OSU a celebration brunch at Beckwith Guyanese Sisters. From 1952 to 1966, she was Laurel banners at the Pointe overlooking Long Island back in Rome where she served in Ursuline Province Center Sound. The ritual that opened the general government and as first Dean of the new event highlighted in song and prayer the international Pontifical Institute for women, Regina Mundi. nature of the Ursulines. Her post-war diaries pick up in 1966 when she The guests proceeded to the dining area, beautifully finally returned to England to live in Westgate; decorated around the laurel theme. Speakers addressed she died there in 1980. How she welcomed all the meaning of the anniversary both historically and in the changes of Vatican II–liturgy and office in the current experience. Dr. Mary Erina Driscoll, alumna of The vernacular, changes in religious and community Ursuline School and currently a professor at New York life, even her first colorful habit! University, in her keynote address, brought insight and In the Generalate Archives in Rome I read affection to her analysis of the Ursuline impact on students correspondence, reports, and the daily Chronicle and countless others to whom they have ministered.