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 3 Jolted and Joggled 1849—1852 Translated, Edited, and Annotated by Mary Ann Kuttner, SSND School Sisters of Notre Dame Printing Department Elm Grove, Wisconsin 2009 Copyright © 2009 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 3 ix Introduction xi Chapter 1 1849 1 Chapter 2 1850 19 Chapter 3 1851 43 Chapter 4 January—March 1852 83 Chapter 5 April 1852 115 Chapter 6 May—August 1852 145 Chapter 7 September—October 1852 187 Chapter 8 November—December 1852 213 List of Documents 245 Index 249 ix Preface to Volume 3 Volume 3 of Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Ger- hardinger includes documents referring to the life and de- velopment of the congregation between the years 1849 and 1852. Documents from the same time period referring to missions established outside Bavaria can be found in Vol- umes 6, 8, 9, and 10. As part of the process leading toward the beatification of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger in 1985, 5,337 doc- uments, which she either wrote or signed, were gathered and copied by hand. These copies were notarized, num- bered, packed in a large trunk, and taken to Rome. On De- cember 17, 1929, they were presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites for further examination. This mate- rial is referred to here as the beatification collection. Since it was beyond the scope of this work to locate orig- inal letters still extant in numerous archives, translations were done from the notarized copies in the beatification col- lection. 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 ei- ther undated or misdated. Further study of these docu- ments 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. A numerical list of documents can be found at the end of the book. Words in the texts of the letters that appear in brackets were added in order to help identify persons or places men- tioned in the letters. Italics are used to indicate underlined text found in the documents of the beatification collection. x Mother Theresa’s use of the name, Poor School Sisters (Arme Schulschwestern), as well as the word order, has been retained in this translation. 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. Six of these documents are included in this volume and identified with a number followed by a letter, e.g., 796 a. In this volume, documents that were not included in the beatification collection are classified as (1) an autograph, (2) a transcript, or (3) a typescript. An autograph is a manu- script 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 “When something good is to come into being, opposition is never lacking. If a tree is to strike deep roots, it must be jolted and joggled.”1 Mother Theresa wrote these words in 1858, a quarter century after the congregation came to life in Neunburg vorm Wald. Caroline Gerhardinger and her two companions lived according to the old Notre Dame Rule, compiled by St. Peter Fourier (1565-1640), and the Spirit of the Constitutions for the Religious Congregation of the Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame, written for them by Francis Sebastian Job (1767-1834). Although the Notre Dame Rule had been approved by the Church in 1645, it was written for nuns who lived and taught young girls in large independent convents. By 1833, the rule’s detailed seventeenth-century directives regarding the education of girls in convent schools were completely out of date. The Spirit of the Constitutions, on the other hand, described a new structure which made it possible to send sisters in groups of twos and threes to small missions in rural areas. It was necessary to write a new rule for the new congre- gation—a rule that was based on lived experience as well as the Notre Dame Rule and the Spirit of the Constitutions—so that its members, as women religious, could continue to meet the educational needs of girls at that time. Mother Theresa was repeatedly asked for a copy of the congregation’s rule, especially when new missions were about to be established, not only in Bavaria but also in America, Silesia, Westphalia, and Austria. Again and again, she explained that the congregation’s rule needed to be lived before it could be formulated and approved. The sisters’ way of life, together with the quality education they 1. Document 2699, September 2, 1858 xii provided, quickly dispelled any reservations about their rule. More and more young women entered the congrega- tion, new missions were established, and the congregation continued to grow. In response to the royal government’s request for a copy of the rule in 1847, Mother Theresa explained the situation and concluded by saying, “God has arranged and ordained everything in such a way that we are now close to our goal. With the grace of God, we hope to be able to settle the mat- ter completely and in the best possible manner after the School Sisters have established their mission in America.”2 On August 9, 1848, Mother Theresa returned to Europe from America. Requests for sisters soon came from Rotten- burg in Württemberg and Hirschau in Bohemia and mis- sions were opened there. A complex sequence of events sparked a difficult conflict with Archbishop Carl August von Reisach concerning the congregation’s rule. “All the works of God proceed slowly and in pain; but then, their roots are the sturdier and their flowering the lovelier.”3 The congregation’s roots were strong and deep; now the tree was being “jolted and joggled.” The end of the year 1852 did not bring a resolution to the conflict, however, and the account continues in Volume 4, Vigorous Growth, 1853-1858. 2. Document 707, May 10, 1847 3. Document 2277, October 4, 1856 1 1849 780: To Dr. K. Lichtenstein Württemberg Munich April 3, 1849 J!M! 1 Learned Reverend Father! How wonderful and venerable is Divine Providence! After every storm, it repeatedly turns out that Christ’s Church emerges triumphant and glorious. Your esteemed letter is moving evidence of this truth. Now God is giving unmistakable signs of wanting to accomplish the divine cause in your country. Truly, when the need is greatest, then God’s help is al- ways nearest! Should we not willingly offer our hands to help where help is still possible? How I rejoice that Canon [August] Schmid’s desire and last request before his depar- 2 ture for America will be fulfilled soon! Be assured that we will be happy to comply with your wishes and that we will consider ourselves fortunate if we 1. Dr. K. Lichtenstein was the director of a boys’ institute in Upper Swabia. In a letter to Mother Theresa dated March 10, 1849, he wrote that, for many years, Catholics in the kingdom of Württemberg had wanted to entrust the education of girls to the School Sisters. Recent po- litical changes finally made this not only possible, but also a great need “if we do not want to let education be completely torn away from the Church.” See M. Liobgid Ziegler, Mutter Theresia im Kampf um die Regel ihres Ordens (Typescript, Generalate) 49. 2. Canon August Schmid (1815-49) was an assistant at the cathedral in Rottenburg. His three sisters, Sisters M. Aloysia, M. Emmanuela, and M. Salesia Schmid, volunteered for the mission in America. On January 8, 1849, Canon Schmid arrived in America with the third group of mis- sionary sisters. He served in Baltimore as confessor and spiritual advi- sor, teacher of the candidates, and building administrator until his sudden death on December 14, 1849.