And So It Happened And Not By Chance - Ssmo

AND SO IT HAPPENED AND NOT BY CHANCEdebating on theories to the neglect of the bill for rights of thepeople. Thus time was given to the con servative party toregain its hold and strongly entrench itself politically oncemore, leaving the social and religious problems quieted bypromises but as unsolved as before. The hopes of the patriotswere shattered, and the people subm issively settled down toten years more of social and religious injustice for the profitof their selfish princes. Rebellion rumbled ominously fromtime to time.Chapter IA Historical Background (l820-l890)This violently conflicting po litical, social, and religiousproblems which disturbed the peace of the mainland of Europebetween the Congress of Vienna and the downfall of PrinceOtto Edward Leopold von Bismarck sent many a C atholicsettler to seek a new home in the fertile valleys of theMississippi Basin. These G erma ns came to the N ew W orld tofind a home which was not weighed dow n by the despotism ofavaricious princes who had made them fine promises duringthe brilliant days of the Congress of V ienna . Befo re theirimmigration, these simple peop le had, in a spirit of loyalpatriotism, received back from exile an d reinstated the irlawful sovereigns and had expected in recompense to receivesome real social reforms and a meed of political liberty. Theirbrief joy soon gave way to bitter disappointment and agrowing discontent. T hey bega n to realize that in the Germanstates no political justice or religious freedom was to be wonby peaceful m eans. The royal families of Europe had notlearned in the hard school of exile and defeat, which had beenforced on them by Napoleon, that every human being wasgiven by God inalienable rights which would not berelinqu ished witho ut a bloody struggle.Blood and IronIn l862 the Iron Chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck, cameinto power, and he set out to unite the GermanConfederation into an empire. He saw that it could be doneonly by "blood and iron". His first care was to reorganise thePrussian army into the m ost perfect military bod y in Europe.His second step was taken when he, by three master strokes ofunscrupulous diplom acy, involve d Prussia in three successfulwars, which in l870 united Germany politically and assignedto his Protestant state of Prussia the lion's share of politicalpow er.To the German ruling classes, religious and social tolerationwas not a feasible course of action. They believed that thepeople should accept the dictates of their princes w ho w ererespo nsible to no one but God. To Bismarck a unification ofGermany meant more than a political union; to be permanentthere must be also a close cultural oneness. Such a unionshould include language, scien ce, and philosophy; thisnecessitated that the state control education. The Church hasfor time immem orial maintained that it is her inalienable rightto educate her children, not for the good of the state, but for aneternal life with God.The Cath olic Church in most of the German states had lost itsproperty; and the governments, which had enrichedthemselves at the expense of the Church, had agreed in returnto maintain buildings for divine worship and to pay thesalaries of the ecclesiastics, the appo intments of w hom w ereto be subject to the approval of the princes, many of whomwere Protestant. These arrangements did not forecast apeaceful future. The Church was to be the hum ble handm aidof the state who se chief purpose was to teach the people ablind obedience to their princes in all matters - religious aswell as political and social. T his left the Church with littlefreedom in the internal administration of its governm ent or inthe exercise o f its spiritual m inistry.Infallibility of the PopeSimu ltaneously with the military victories of Germany, PopePius IX published the decision of the EcumenicalCouncil, held in the V atican Palace, l868-l870, of theInfallibility Of the Po pe. This do ctrine stirred a great outcryamong the German Protestants. They saw in it papalaggression. This gave Bismarck an opportunity and he seizedit. He pretended to believe that the C atholic Church was to behis most astute enemy in the unification of Germany and thatit should be shorn of its pow er and slow ly destroyed .The spirit of revolution flared again in western Europe in 1830and spread eastward. It gave rise to numerous savageuprisings in the loosely united German Confederation; butthese riots achieved little or nothing towards a lastingbetterment for the Chu rch and the social life of her ch ildren.Although the revolts were put down by armed force, the seedsof discontent were destined to germinate and develop oncemore within two decades of time.The Iron Chancellor, who now w ielded the greatest pow er inthe Empire, started a systematic persecution of the Church.The methods that he made use of against Catholicsrecomm end them selves only to tho se wh o, like himself,believed that their actions were not restrained by the morallaw. He determined that the Germ an Em pire shouldthrow offthe fetters of positive religious teaching and, with the help ofstate schools, secure complete control of theintellectual life of the people.Sangu inary rebellions again distu rbed the G erma n states in1848, and the peoples' righteous demands for social justiceforced a recognition which might have resulted in a unitedGermany with reasonable liberty for her subjects. Manhoodsuffrage was granted and a representative parliament of thepeople was elected. It was commissioned to draw up anacceptable constitution but a reaction set in while thesealtruistic representatives frittered away a valuable yearThe May Laws6

The Church first felt his grip when the Cath olic section of theMinistry of Worship was suppressed, and the preaching of theclergy was placed und er the surveillance of the police; thenthe religious orders of men were expelled, and the clergy wasdeprived of all influence in the schools. These unlawfuldecrees brought forth a determine d protest from Cath olicstatesmen, and Bismarck replied with the notorious "MayLaws". These acts suppressed the exercise of papalJurisdiction in Germany, interfered with the education of theclergy by closing the seminaries, and deprived the bishops ofa free appointment of clergy to ecclesiastical offices and theright to excommunicate the u nfaithfu l mem bers of theirflocks. They disbanded the teaching Sisterhoods andconfiscated their convents and academics, and then banishedthose congregations who did not cheerfully yield. Theywithdrew the salaries of the clergy which was due them incompensation for Ch urch property taken by the state in thepast, and lastly imposed fines, imprisonment, and exile onbishops and priests who refused to comply with these brutallaws. At this tim e the jubilant Liberal Party boa sted tha t thiswo uld prove to be the last battle of the gloriou s ProtestantReformation which the enlightened Martin Luther hadlaunched in Wittenberg in October, 1517. Bismarck's avowedpurpose became the extermination of the Catholic faith and areplacement of it by a state controlled religion.military service in the harsh Prussian Army.Bishop Purcell, looking for help in his frontier diocese, askedReverend Francis de Sales Brunner, Provincial of theMissionary Congregation of the Precious Blood, to com e toOhio and help care for the spiritual needs of the GermanCatholic population rapidly taking up the government land inhis diocese. Father Brunner with seven priests answered thecall and reached Cincinnati for New D ear's day, 1844. Sevenmonths later, three Sisters of the Precious Blood joined themin the mission field - to assist the priests, to do catecheticalwork among the children, and, eventually, to open schools.The work that lay before these missiona ries was the h ardest.The priests took up their position on the Ohio front w ithcourage, on the feast of the Epiphany of that year. Out in thebackwoods they found man y a hu mble cong regation in littlelog churches awaiting their priestly ministrations. Within afew years these German Catholics were organized intothriving parishes by these unselfish, devoted missionaries.Chapter IISt. Joseph's Pa rish, Himmelgarten, OhioSt. Josep h's Parish was one of the early missions of thePrecious Blood Fathers in western Ohio. It was less thanfifteen miles from the Indiana border and holds a particularinterest for the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon because of theinfluence that some of its parishioners had upon the history oftheir foundation in the far west. The facts here related arebased upon the well authen ticated history of the Sisters of thePrecious Blood, Ohio, entitled Not With Silver Or Gold,published in 1945; and upon the Memoirs of M other M aryW ilhelmina Bleily. Mother recounted the incidents w hichmake up her memoirs to the novices and Junior Sisters againand again ove r the many years that she was an active memberof the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon. Much of this oraltradition was put into writing by Sister Mary AquinasReverman, S.S.M .O., in 1930, as M other W ilhelmina retoldfor a last time the happenings, many of which had taken placeseventy years before.Off to AmericaIt was the en forcem ent of, these iniq uitou s "M ay Laws" thatsent tens of thousands of Catholics to the United States. Manyof them took up land in Ohio and Wisconsin. Soon scores ofrude log churches were built by the determined hands of thesevoluntary exiles. T hey loved the Faith better than theFatherland. America was kind and gave them a chance tosecure new homes, better than the old ones. A fter a few yearsof arduous labor, comfortable houses surrounded by wideacres of productive land repaid their patient toil with richreturns. In due time, graceful cross-crowned spires ofchurches rose, whose shadows sheltered little parochialschools, and loudly proclaimed the active faith of theimmigrants. Here no autocratic prince or unprincipledBismarck would disturb the free practice their religion preventing a rightly ordained priest from o ffering the HolySacrifice of the M ass or a dmin istering the Sac rame nts. Th eirchildren could be taught undiluted Catholic doctrine in theschools.Ghosts of HimmelgartenThere is an unauthenticated but un usua l story co nnected w iththe acquisition of the property upon which Ma ry, Mo ther ofMercy Convent was built in Him melgarten in 1852. At thattime Father Brunner was looking for a suitable site uponwhich to open a convent and school between two parishes inwestern Ohio. There lay within the borders of the flourishingparish of St. Joseph a cleared tract of 525 acres, owned by aman named H immelgarn, It was all un der cu ltivation w ithgardens and orchards planted, and upon it stood a com fortablelittle log house and barn. It was a fine farm. But in spite of themany blessings that the family might have enjoy ed, there wasno peace upon the land after darkne ss. The H immelgarns we redisturbed night after night by "ghosts" that performed all theweird tricks that superstitious persons attribute to thoserestless things. At last the nocturnal gyrations of these unquietInto the Ohio ValleyA great trek from Germany to Am erica began in 1830. Firstthe immigrants came into the diocese of Cincinnati, whichwas under Right Reverend John Baptist Purcell, later into thenew diocese of Cleveland, governed by Most ReverendAmandus Rappe. Each year brought a new quota of harassedCatholics fleeing persecution in the homeland. Often a priestwould accompa ny his flock o n the great adventure to assist inthe laying of a foundation for a free Cath olic life in the OhioValley. Many a young man or a family with several growingboys would com e seeking to avoid long years of forced7

spirits became unbearab le, and the man of the family withfrayed nerves, determined to sell out everything connectedwith the phantoms. Father Brunner happened upon the sceneat this time and, having no fear of ghosts, bought the farm ata ridiculously low price. Th e bargain proved a blessing. It wasvery satisfactory to the Sisters, who took possession of the loghouse the follow ing spring, and also to the H immelgarn familyand the spirits, who/promptly departed. A great peacedescended upon the place when nocturnal adoration of theBlessed Sacrament began. Such is considered to be the causefor the departure of the spirits, according to those who passedthe tale down to the next generation in the community.seventeen-year-old daughter, Rosalie, who was to die oftuberc ulosis three years later. In 1847 Mother Mary Ann hadreturne d to Europe to sec ure recruits for the Congregation inAmerica. At this time, Josep h Albrech t, having ma de up hismind to Join his old friend Father Brunner in the missions onthe Am erican frontier, retu rned with h er to Ohio. Tw o yearslater he was ordain ed to the priesthood at ths house of trainingfor the young members of the Precious Blood Congregation atW olfcreek, when he was forty-nine years of age. For severalyears he worked in the ministry as assistant to the missionpastors. During these years he presented a problem to hisimmediate superiors and his fellow priests in the community.In 1854 Father Brunner appointed him pastor of the newparish of St. Joseph, and the superior of Mary, Mother ofMercy Convent, Himmelgarten. This convent had beendestroyed by fire on March 29, 1854, and Father Joseph, fromhis own private wealth, had helped to replace the small logbuilding with a substantial brick convent. From the first heexercised a strong psych ological influen ce ov er hisparishioners of St. Joseph and the religiou s in the convent.Many of them came to venerate him as a saint. He w as apersuasive preacher and knew how to appeal to the religiousmind of the laity, both secular and religious. Father Brunnerhad a great regard for Father Joseph and, as his highestsuperior, placed implicit confidence in him. He believedFather Joseph to be a model of the poverty, meekness,patience, and humility of Jesus Christ. Father Brunner wasunable to und erstand why the other priests could not workpeacefully with his model missionary. However, records showthat there is no doubt but that it was very difficult to workwith Father Joseph.Education versus M issionary W orkAt the time of the Protestan t Rev olution, a we ll educatedclergy was the most needed defen se that the Ch urch lacked inits struggle to save the faith of the laity of Europe. When theCongregation of the Precious Blood came to Ohio, FatherBrunner believed that the greatest need of the Church w as adevoted priestho od to seek souls in the confessional, in thepulpit, and in all human relationships among the people.Vocations for the Congregation had come to him from thefamilies of the immigrants, most of whom had crossed theocean from Europe to work in the missions. But he waslacking a we ll-staffed clerical semina ry in w hich to educ atethe young Precious Blood seminarians. In addition, FatherBrunner was not always a w ise judg e of character inevaluating the fitness of vocations to the priesthood orreligious life. In the beginnings of the Ohio Mission, he hadtoo hastily arranged for the ordination of young men who hadreceived only a minimum of priestly training. It was not thathe deliberately put aside the ruling of the Council of Trent fora carefully educated priesthood, but the enforcement of theseregulations would have required a trained staff of teachers aswell as buildings and books and years of time. In h isenthusiasm, he saw only an immediate need - that ofunwearying missionaries for the frontier. His mistake was thathe believed that sanctity would replace academic degrees, asit had in the ease of the Cu re d'Ars; but his men were not allof John Vianney's caliber. That saint's singular success was anexception that God willed for His own glory, not to be the rulefor Precious Blood missionaries in America. Events provedthat piety, zeal, and charity could not take the place of solidformal education in the exercise of the spiritual powers of thepriesthood. Father Brunner's most glaring error was madewhen, in l849, he presented Joseph Albrecht to Bishop Rappeof the diocese of Cleveland for ordination.It was while Father Bru nner was abse nt from Ohio and FatherJohn W ittmar, his representative, was left to act as anintermediary between Father Brunner in Europe and themem bers of the Congregation in America that the cleavagebetween Father Joseph and certain members of the PreciousBlood foundation began to take a definite form. FatherBrunner died in Schellenberg, Liechtenstein, at the close of1859; and, in the following year, Father Andrew Kunkler wasappointed provincial of the A merican pro vince . In 186 6 itbecame the new superior's most serious duty to counteract theschism brought ab out by Fathe r Josep h Albrech t, a schismwhich had far-reaching results in human souls, both in timeand in place.Hoop SkirtsAfter many instances of disagreement and much friction, thefinal break came in this way. Father Albrecht was affected bya severity whic h m igh t ha ve stemm ed from John C alv in'sheresy. He publicly denounced the vanity of hoop skirts which fashion had reached the frontier of Ohio - and forbadeany woman to wear one in St. Joseph's Church. Somedetermined young women appeared in hoo ps, and theirenraged pastor, seizing a hickory stick and waving itthreateningly, actually pushed the girls out the door. Thematter was taken to Archbishop Purcell, whose decision wasthat the wearing of hoop skirts was not in itself immodest, norJoseph AlbrechtJoseph Albrecht was born in Kirchengarten, Germany, andlater becam e mayor of the town . He married Anna M arieAlbrecht; and in 1835. She separated from h im, w ith hisconsent, and entered Loewenberg Convent and became SisterMary Ann. In l844 she left for America and was one of thefirst three Sisters to join the Ohio mission band and was laterappointed the first superior of the American community ofPrecious Blood Sisters. With her had cone to Ohio their,8

was it an indecent dress for church wear. The pastor stoodcorrected before the parish for an impulsive pub lic act.doubt but that it was a clear case of kidnapping which washushed up as a com mun ity quarrel that w ould rig ht itself indue time with no lasting evil consequences. But theCongregation of the Precious Blood had not reckoned with thestrength of Father Joseph Albrecht's stubborn ness nor theblindness of his self-deception. T he oth er four girls in thecompany were traveling with their families. There wassix-year-old Aurelia Boedigheimer; with Anton Bender andhis wife Matilda was little two-year-old Anna; and Catherine,seven, and baby Martha, not yet one, accompa nied theirparen ts, Victor and Matilda Eifert, westwa rd.W estward Ho!Since Father Joseph refused to accep t the decision, hisArchbishop suspended him. As local Superior, Father Josephgathered his followers, among whom w ere fifteen Sisters andeight Brothers of the Precious Blood Congregation, and leftSt. Josep h's parish in indignation . The party stopped at theBoedigheimer farm several miles away. Father Josephdispatched some of the Brothers to M innesota to locatesuitable government hom esteads in that new state for theformation of a Catholic colony. His wra th cooled somewhatwhile he waited, and he realized that he, as a priest, neededepiscopal permission to transfer from the jurisdiction of onebishop to that of another. He then w rote a letter of apo logy toArchbishop Purcell asking for a transfer and the ne cessarypapers for leaving the diocese. But before clearing the matterwith his sup eriors, he left with his followers (the religious aswell as the parishioners), who did not fully understand theseriousness of their action. They boarded the train in Ohio andheaded for the west. On the shore of L ake M ichigan the partystopped at St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. Here was a Cath oliccolony of immigrants from Baden with their pastor FatherAmb rose Osc hwald, w hom Fathe r Josep h had known inGermany. The women stayed in St. Nazianz for the wintermonths, and most of the men went forward to build homes fortheir families, who were to follow the next spring.Stop at St. Nazianz, W isconsinAccording to their rules in 1866, the Sisters of the PreciousBlood did not take three religious vows of poverty, chastity,and obed ience, but just one vo w of fidelity which wasintended to include the ideals of all three. Of the fifteenPrecious Blood Sisters who left Mary, Mother of MercyConvent to follow Father Joseph to Minnesota only six hadtaken that vow; the others were but novices and w ere free toleave the congregation if they wished. When the time fordeparture from St. Nazianz came, three of these Sisters, RoseW ahl, Ma ry Graff, and Josephine Thoeing, decided to remainin St. Nazianz. Under the direction of Father Joseph Fessler,pastor of a neighboring parish in Clark Mills, these threeyoung teachers eventually became the nucleus of theFranciscan Sisters of Alverno, a teaching congregation whichopened its first schools in Father Fessler's missions in GreenBay Diocese. How ever. Ma ry Graff, Sister Mary Mansuetta,was later reinstated in her congregation in Ohio, and for threeterms (1903-19 11) served aa treasurer ge neral. She died in1913, well thought of in the Community.Emma is KidnappedAmong the travelers to S t. Nazianz were five little girls who,twenty years later, would be counted among the tenfoundresses of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon. Th e eldestof the five was eight-year-old Emmerentiana Bleily whotraveled with the Sisters. Three years earlier, her grandfatherhad placed her in Mary, Mother of Mercy Convent to beeducated. Her uncle, Father Andrew Bleily, C.PP.S., was amember of the Precious Blood Monastery at Himmelgarten,Ohio. Emma, as she was called, was deeply devoted to heryoung teacher, Novice Rose Wahl, and to her bosom friendand classmate, Julia Boedigheimer. At the time of herSuperior, Father Joseph's, defection, Rose W ahl joined thefugitive Sisters at the Boedigheimer farm, and Emmaaccompanied her teacher and joined her friend Julia there. Forsome strange reason the child was permitted to remain at theOhio farm. It mi

Hoop Skirts 8 Westward Ho! 9 Emma is Kidnapped 9 . Reception and Profession Plans for the Bright Future 25 Reception and Profession 25 First Election Day 25 PART II . Sister Mary Aloysius Bender 39 A Rat Tale 40 Sister Mary Gertrude and Sister Mary Johanna Silbernagel 40