CHAPTER XXXV.
RECENT EVENTS.
The confessor of the monastery of Baltimore, Rev. Robert Kleineidam, C. SS. R., died March 31st, 1883.
Rev. F. Eberhardt, C. SS. R., was appointed his successor. Father Eberhardt, who had already filled this position, was at this period superior of the Church of the Sacred Heart at Highlandtown, near Baltimore.
On May 15th a beautiful statue of St. Teresa, which had been presented to the Community by a benefactor, was solemnly blessed in the Carmelite chapel by the Most Rev. Archbishop, assisted by Rev. P. Fitzpatrick, S. J., and Rev. F. Kuhmann, C. SS. R.
On November 21st, 1883, Sister Teresa of Jesus, Helen Pauline McMaster, was professed.
On June 3rd of the following year, Rev. Father Majerus, C. SS. R., was appointed ordinary confessor, and on September 8th, Rev. F. Smith, S. J., became extraordinary confessor.
Towards the close of the year 1884 one of the most memorable events recorded in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States took place in Baltimore. It was the meeting of the Third Plenary Council. It began on November 9th, and continued its sessions until December 7th. It was presided over by Archbishop Gibbons, as Apostolic Delegate.
On November 26th, Mother Beatrix of the Holy Spirit was elected prioress.
On April 16th, 1885, another death occurred in the Community. Sister Catharine of St. Elias, Eliza Flanigan, died
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in the 46th year of her age and the 17th of her religious profession. She had been confined to the infirmary but a few days. Her complaint had not been thought serious; so that even the day before her death the physician considered her convalescent. Between four and five o'clock on the morning of the 16th of April, she passed away in her sleep so calmly that the Sisters who were watching near her noticed no death struggle, and were unaware of the final moment. She had not the happiness of receiving the last Sacraments, but her life filled the hearts of the Sisters with the sweet conviction that her death had been happy. She was conspicuous as an example of assiduity at the choir, love of labor and kindness to her Sisters. She had also a great devotion to the Passion of Our Lord, and to the Dolors of the Blessed Virgin. Her last community act was to assist at the chanting of the Tenebrae on Good Friday, although she was not well at the time.
Her funeral took place on Saturday, May 17th, from the convent chapel. Rev. Thomas Lee celebrated the Mass of Requiem, and His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, preached the sermon.
The day after the death of Sister Catharine another member of the Community was called away. Sister Aloysius of St. Joseph, Sarah Whelan, died on April 17th, in the 77th year of her age and the 57th of her religious life. She was a lay Sister, and the last one who had lived with the Mother Foundress of the Order in the United States. She had been an invalid for more than forty years and had given a most beautiful example of patience, conformity to the will of God and cheerfulness in suffering. She never complained of her sufferings, for she said that this life, where we have the opportunity of meriting, is after all better than purgatory.
Her infirmities prevented her from performing her ordinary duties, yet she devoted herself assiduously to all work that was in her power. She was very charitable and especially devoted to the sick, and assisted with skill and tenderness in taking care of all who died from the time she entered the
340 Carmel in Amerca.
community. Her last illness, an acute bronchitis, was but of a few days' duration. She received the last Sacraments in perfect consciousness, and peacefully expired about fifteen minutes after eight o'clock in the morning. This good Sister had been characterized by her devotion to the Infant Jesus, to the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Joseph and her Guardian Angel.
Her funeral took place on Monday, April 19th. Rev. Thomas Lee celebrated the Mass of Requiem, and Archbishop Gross, of Oregon City, preached the sermon. Both Sister Aloysia and Sister Catharine were interred at Bonnie Brae Cemetery.
Only a short time after, the death-knell was, again heard in the community. Sister Martha of the Holy Cross, Cecilia Murray, departed this life on July 5th, 1885, in the 91st year of her age, and the 39th of her religious life.
Sister Martha was a native of Ireland, and possessed of that strong active faith which characterizes her race. She was brought up piously by her good parents and several times made the celebrated pilgrimage to Lough Dearg. She remained on the holy island some days and performed all the penitential exercises prescribed. Our Lord gave her great graces at those times, for which she was always deeply grateful. Many years afterwards, when she had grown old in Carmel, a priest, who visited the convent, was speaking to her of her native country, and said to her: “Sister Martha, you will never see Lough Dearg again!” “But,” she quickly replied, “I can have Lough Dearg here every day if I wish,” alluding to the spirit of penance which should characterize a Carmelite.
She had a fund of practical common sense, solid piety and great love for God and her neighbor. She was always particularly kind to the novices, and had a great compassion for them; for, she said, the “poor children had just left their mothers,” and she was so much afraid that they would not get enough to eat that she used to give them an extra piece of
Recent Events. 341
bread or some other trifle that was not prepared for the community. She was devoted to her duty as a lay Sister and even when past eighty years of age continued her regular work in the kitchen, and in her turn would ring the bell to awaken the community in the morning. Until within a few months of her death she went regularly to prayer with the community, promptly answering the bell like a young religious.
Although so advanced in years, she showed no signs of decrepitude, she was erect and walked with a firm step to the last. Her sight failed somewhat, but she occupied herself during the last years of her life in spinning coarse thread, which she afterwards used in making the Alpargates1(covering for the feet) used by the Sisters.
She had a very sincere, cordial and upright nature and a great spirit of detachment and confidence in the goodness of God. The last years of her life were spent in preparation for death. She prayed constantly and her rosary was always in her hands, and when the Sisters would stop to enquire how she was, she would reply that she was “waiting for the mercies of the Lord,” referring to her death, for which she was patiently longing.
During her last sickness she was most patient and as docile as a little child. She received all the consolations of our holy religion and breathed her last whilst the community, assembled around her bed, was reciting the Salve Regina.
There were many vocations to the sanctuary and to religion in her family. Rev. Fathers H. and J. Gallagher, priests who died deeply regretted a few years since in San Francisco, were her cousins, and several of her relatives, priests and religious, are still living.
In the year 1885 Most Rev. James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, was raised by His Holiness, Leo XIII, to the dignity of a Cardinal. It was an extraordinary event in the
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1 A Spanish word.
342 Carmel in America.
annals of the most ancient diocese in the United States. Nearly a century had elapsed since its first Bishop had been consecrated at Lulworth Castle in England, when the eighth successor of Archbishop Carroll was elevated to the rank of a Prince of the Church.
On January 21st, 1886, Miss Gertrude Genevieve McMaster, in religion Sister Gertrude of the Heart of Jesus, made her profession.1
On July 14th, 1886, the community was again visited by death. The sub-prioress, Mother Ignatius of the Greater Glory of God, Amelia Keating Bauduy, died in the 66th year of her age and the 29th of her religious profession. She was endowed with a childlike simplicity and obedience. She had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and to St. Joseph.
In the office of prioress, to which she was twice elected, she showed much thoughtful kindness in providing for the necessities of the house and in procuring every relief and solace for the sick, conformably to the spirit of St. Teresa, who wished that those who were well might want for something needful, rather than that the sick should be deprived of charitable relief.
She had been for years a great sufferer with a chronic affection of the stomach, yet she was able to fulfil her ordinary duties until within a few days of her death. She repaired to the infirmary on July 12th, and although her sufferings were intense, her condition was not considered dangerous. About six o'clock on the morning of the 14th of July, she made her confession, but did not receive Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction, as she was not thought to be in danger of death. A few minutes after eleven o'clock in the morning she suddenly expired without an agony. Her death, however, was not unprovided; for several months she had felt a presentiment of its approach, and in the month of June had made the jubilee retreat as a special preparation for it.
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1 Sister Gertrude and Sister Teresa are daughters of the late James A. McMaster, editor of the New York Freeman's Journal.
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Only a few hours before she was called away she said to one of the Sisters: “ Do you think this is to be my last sickness?” and on hearing the answer: “Your condition is critical, but you are resigned to God's will, are you not?” she replied: “I am in God's hands; I have no wish, at any moment”—words which attested her perfect resignation and conformity to the holy will of God.
Her obsequies were held on Friday, July 16th, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The community Mass for the festival was said by Father Majerus, C. SS. R., at six o'clock. Very Rev. Boniface Krug, O. S. B., prior of the Benedictine Monastery of Monte Casino in Italy, said Mass at seven.
Cardinal Gibbons had interrupted his short vacation, in order to preside at the obsequies. The Requiem, at which His Eminence assisted, was celebrated at nine o'clock by Rev. Thomas Lee, rector of the Cathedral. Monsignor McColgan and Father McManus were deacons of honor to the Cardinal. Among the clergy present were Father Krug, O. S. B., Father Majerus, C. SS. R., Father Clarke S. J., Father Ardia, S. J., and Father Kautz, C. SS. R.
The remains of Mother Ignatius rested in the choir of the convent, dressed in her habit and scapular, in a coffin of common pine, unpainted. Before the Mass the six pall-bearers entered the choir and bore out the coffin into the centre of the church.
His Eminence, the Cardinal, delivered a short address on the happiness of death for one who had led so holy a life. Father Bartlett, of St. Ann's Church, played the organ at the Libera, and sang, with assistants, the Response.
The mortal remains of Mother Ignatius were interred at Bonnie Brae Cemetery. A long notice of her death appeared in the New York Freeman's Journal, from which many of these details have been taken.
The venerable Archbishop of St. Louis, Most Rev. P. R. Kenrick, who had known Mother Ignatius since her girlhood, on hearing of her death, wrote as follows to the community:
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St. Louis, Sept. 25th, 1886.
Rev. Mother,
My absence from the City up to the 17th of this month will, I trust, plead my excuse for not sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter of 19th July last. I need not say how deeply I felt the announcement of the death of M. Ignatius or that I did not neglect to pray for her eternal repose when I first heard it, during my absence from home. Herself, her saintly Mother and Grandfather, are the most cherished remembrances of my ministerial life.
Thanking you for your letter and wishing for yourself and Community every blessing,
I remain, Rev. Mother,
Your obedient servant in Xt.,
+ PETER RICHARD KENRICK, Abp.
In September, Rev. L. Claesseias, C. SS. R., was appointed ordinary confessor. On October 15th, the Feast of St. Teresa, a solemn High Mass was celebrated in the chapel by Rev. Thomas Lee, assisted by Rev. Father Fitzpatrick and Rev. Father Neale, both of the Society of Jesus, as deacon and sub-deacon. His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, presided in the sanctuary. Rev. B. J. McManus and Rev. J. M. Giraud S. J., were deacons of honor to the Cardinal. Rev. P. S. Donohoe delivered the panegyric of the saint. There were present in the sanctuary Rev. F. A. Smith, S. J., Rev. F. Anwander, C. SS. R., Rev. A. Stuhl, C. SS. R., Rev. M. Kuborn, C. SS. R., and Rev. J. D. Mahar. The choir, with orchestral accompaniment, was under the direction of Prof. F. X. Hale.
During the course of this same year a letter was received from the superior of the monastery on Mount Carmel in Palestine. Rev. Thomas Lee, rector of the Cathedral of Baltimore, on a tour through the Old World, had visited Mount Carmel, and on his return to America related that on account of long outrages on the part of German Lutheran colonists, artifice joining hands with violence, the community of Mount Carmel were in instant danger of having their holy
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places destroyed for lack of money to pursue their rights in the courts. Although the German Lutherans had officially been declared in the wrong, still, backed by Prussian money, they were in hopes of winning. The letter from Mount Carmel is an appeal for aid. We here reproduce it in full:
Pax Christi!
J. M. J.
MOUNT CARMEL, April, 1886.
My Rev. Mother:
Though great distances of regions separate us, we are none the less united in one Common Rule, and I am sure your Reverence will take part in the sorrows of our beloved Sanctuary of the Lady of Mount Carmel. It is the cradle of our Holy Order; and it is where, from the days of our Holy Founder the Prophet Elias, till our times,—that is for nearly two thousand seven hundred years, the aspirations for the coming, followed by devotion to her conceived and born, have been rendered to the Ever Blessed Mother of God. This Mountain, so dear to our holy Order, is now threatened by a colony of German Lutherans, who have established themselves at Kaiffa, a small seaport at the foot of Mount Carmel. They have repeatedly, within the past year, assaulted us with force and arms, breaking down the poor walls of our Cloister, and destroying everything they could lay hands on. They wish to dispossess us, and take possession of our Holy Mountain. God be praised, by the protection of Our Lady, we have been enabled to make them cease their assaults; but though declared in the wrong, by chicanery they are making desperate efforts to get the Turkish Government to dispossess us of our rights of so many ages.
Our confidence that Our Lady will confound their evil designs is unshaken. But it is true, all the same, that for eighteen months past these unhappy German Colonists have put us to expenses that we have no means to meet; and the ruin of this Sanctuary must follow, except charity from abroad comes to our aid.
That is what gives me courage to address your Reverence, to succor us, so far as you possibly can, with the assurance that we will make it our duty constantly to recommend you, your Community and all who, through you will help us, to the Virgin of Carmel, who, we are certain, will not rest till she renders to her children their reward a hundredfold.
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Commending myself and my Community to your fervent prayers, I am glad to subscribe myself, Rev. Mother, your very humble and devoted brother in Jesus Christ,
FR. MARIA FRANCIS.
Of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Superior of Mt. Carmel, Syria.
The foregoing letter, and the following comment, appeared in the New York Freeman's Journal :
“We have been cold, and slow, in offering the appeal, to be certain that the case is precisely as represented. The letter from Mount Carmel is dated April 7, 1886. Now, some response should be quick. The poor Community of unshod Carmelites, in Catholic and generous Baltimore, have nothing to give except what is given them to give to others. The oldest Community of Religious women in the United States,—their Cloister in Maryland antedating the consecration of John Carroll as first Bishop of Baltimore,—their Monastery is cramped in its needed proportions, and without the breathing-ground about, the one and the other of which St. Teresa, in her severe Constitutions, required as a Foundation for her daughters in religion. The Carmelites in Baltimore are happier than birds in their cages, but some consideration, some day, may be had by the generous and Catholic people of Baltimore, for the needs,—recognized by their holy founder St. Teresa,—of those Carmelites of their own State, and Regions, who have grown old, decade after decade, praying and doing severest penance, for the City and State to which they belong, for the people and for the clergy in an especial manner, while also offering their holy works and prayers for so many others, constantly asking and getting through them answers from Heaven.
“We transmit, through our columns, the appeal of the Superior of the Carmelites on the Mountain of Holy Elias, to our readers who wear and love the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. If there be those who are rich and wish
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to give of their abundance,—they will honor Our Lady of Mount Carmel and do good to their own souls. But we ask those who are not rich, to give even a little. Those of our readers who are in Europe or other regions, distant from the United States wishing to make personal offerings or aggregate contributions of their friends, can do so by sending them distinctly marked as to their intention, to, Il Reverende P. Girolamo Maria, Commissario Generale di Carmelitani Scalzi, Roma, Italia, in draft, or International Post-office Order, payable to that address. For those in the United States, British America, etc., the Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Baltimore will gladly receive contributions. The sufficient address will be: 'Carmelite Convent, Biddle and Caroline streets, Baltimore, Md.’ For a few weeks,—for what is to be done should be done quickly,—we will in the Freeman's Journal, receive and acknowledge, even small sums, such as twenty-five cents, and transmit these, duly to Rev. Mother Beatrix, Prioress of the Carmel of Baltimore. It will be a good act of faith for those that wear the Scapular of Carmel, and know and love its graces, to unite in offering even little sums, for the honor, and protection, of the place on earth where Our Immaculate Lady was first worshipped.
“And there is something grand for Catholics to honor, the holy Prophet Elias. It is of firm belief that before the last day, ‘the two witnesses’ that are to appear clothed in sack-cloth, preaching a last call to faith and repentance are Enoch and Elias who have not yet died, but are yet to be slain.
“It is also a pious tradition that on the mountain of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elias appeared with Our Lord, Elias asked that there might remain on earth, faithful to the last, some of his children of Carmel, and that Our Lord granted his prayer.
“The Holy Roman Catholic, and Apostolic Church has granted to the Carmelite Order as a Double Feast of the First Class, with an Octave, July 20, lately past, the Feast of St. Elias, the Prophet,—‘Founder of the Carmelites.’ Seven
348 Carmel in America.
Popes, as set forth by the 'Doctor Eximius' (so called by Pope Benedict XIV.), Suarez the Jesuit, have in Bullas, in Decrees, and Constitutions, recognized that the order, or 'Religion,'—Religio Carmelitarum—dates back to the Prophets, and especially to Elias. These Popes,—some of so grand renown,—were Sixtus IV., John XXII., Julius II., (St.) Pius V., Gregory XIII., Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. Pope Clement VIII. in the Bull Dominici Gregis, giving special privileges to the Carmelite Friars of St. Teresa's Reform in sending them again to Persia, calls them “Disciples of your Father, the Holy Prophet Elias, the Founder of Your Institute, SSmi Eliae, vestri Instituti Auctor ."
"These are pleasant thoughts, not only for Carmelites but for all devout wearers of the Scapular. The hymns of the Feast of St. Elias, in the Carmelite Breviary are exultant and very beautiful.
"Take the first two stanzas of the hymn of the first Vespers:
“Help will come to us, this day, if in spirit we fly to the top of the
mountain of lofty Carmel and with full voice recount the honors
of praise due to the Prophet Elias.
“He is the Guide, the Chief, the Glory of the Order, whose offspring
has found its increase in the world from the East to the West
ever blest from on high."
In response to the appeal from Mount Carmel, the community sent, in October, 1886, to the Fathers of their order residing on the holy mountain, a draft for the sum of $1,000, which had been collected through the New York Freeman's Journal by the efforts of its editor, the late James A. McMaster. The pecuniary assistance the friars of Mount Carmel thus obtained enabled them to bring their lawsuit to a successful issue, and thus, for a time at least, to avert the danger that threatened their property.
On October 25th, 1887, Mary Banez, Sister Veronica of the Holy Face, was professed, and on the 29th of November following, Sister Angela of the Presentation, Mary Josephine Dyer, was elected prioress.
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On January 24th, 1888, Sister Augustine of the Mother of God, Eulalia Mary Tuckerman, made her vows. Her profession was followed by that of Sister Alphonsus of the Heart of Jesus, Barbara Braun, on December 6th, 1888.
On May 16th, 1889, Sisters Clare of the Blessed Sacrament, Elizabeth Nagle, and Alberta of the Heart of Jesus, Antoinette Homer, were professed.