Letter XXXV.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
The Ursulines of America.
Addressed to the Rev. Mother Superiors of Saventhem and Theldonck
.
BRUSSELS, March 21, 1857.
MY DEAR REVEREND MOTHER:
On the point of quitting Belgium, I repass in my memory the benefits which I have received there, and in particular the reception given me in the various religious communities.
Among these asylums of piety and virtue, your academy holds a very high rank. As in America, so in my own land, I have been able to see genuine proofs of the religious spirit which animates the Ursulines, and the great good which they do, and which they are yet called upon to perform, by the fervor of their prayers and by the education of youth.
I congratulate all your community, Reverend Mother, because this spirit proves that God has founded this house and designs to sustain it. I felicitate myself, because I found there consoling subjects of edification, and beautiful examples to narrate to my poor Indians. I congratulate Belgium, where the new Ursulines continue so generously the work of their pious predecessors, to whom so many mothers are inhabted for the sentiments of piety which animate them. I rejoice with the Church, whose afflicted heart the daughters of St. Angela console, by rendering themselves so worthy of the religious state-one of the most sparkling gems which adorn the brow of the spouse of Christ. Continue then, pious souls, to walk in the footsteps of your Saviour. It is the sole way in which real happiness is found.
I just alluded, Rev. Mother, to the Ursulines of America. I spoke of them to your beloved pupils in my visit with Father Terwecoren. Nevertheless, it may prove agreeable to you to have some more precise information. I need scarcely say that I have no pretension to a complete notice. I must content myself with giving a summary idea of their actual condition and prospects.
The Ursulines were the first religions Who established themselves in the northern parts of North America. Before the close of the 17th century, there were in Canada six communities of worsen, among whom two were of the Ursuline order: the House of Quebec, founded in 1639, and that of Three Rivers, founded in 1697. -
In the States of the American Union, New Orleans, capital of Louisiana, was the first of all the cities of the confederacy which obtained a community of Ursulines. This convent was founded in 1727. . At the period of this foundation Louisiana belonged to France. It is in this sense that Mr. De Courcy, in his remarkable sketches of the Catholic Church in the United States, observes that till 1790 the United States did not know what a nun is.
In 1730, the community of New Orleans numbered seven Ursulines. Devoted to education and charitable works, they directed a school, an hospital, and an orphanage. The number of their orphans increased greatly at the time of the massacre by the Natchez, which occurred that year. The French expedition delivered from slavery many fatherless children, and transported them to New Orleans.* "These little girls," writes Father Le Petit on the 12th July, 1730, "that none of the citizens would adopt, have only augmented the charity and attention of the Ursulines. They have given them a separate hall, and two private mistresses. There is not one of this holy community who is not delighted at having braved the clangers of the sea, were she to do naught else than preserve these children in innocence, and bestow a polite and Christian education oil the young French girls, who are in dagger of being not much better
educated than their slaves. We trust that these holy nuns will shortly occupy the new house destined to their use, and after which they so long sigh. Once settled in it, to the instruction of boarders, orphans, day-scholars, and negresses, they will also add the care of the sick in the hospital, and that of a house of refuge for women of doubtful virtue. Perhaps even, in time, they may be able to receive regularly every year, a number of ladies to make a spiritual retreat, according to the inclination with which we have inspired them.
"In France, so many works of charity and zeal would occupy several communities and several different institutes. But what cannot faith accomplish ? These different labors do not astonish seven Ursulines, and they intend to accomplish them, with God's grace, and not permit the religious rule to suffer. Those who, before being acquainted with them, thought that they came too soon, and in too great number, have greatly changed their sentiments and language. Once they witnessed their edifying conduct and the
(" The reader will find some account of this in Bishop Spaulding's Life of Bishop Flaget.
"Lettres Edifiantes.")
great services that they render to the colony, they found that they came too late, and that too many could not come if they possessed equal piety and merit."
The following will show what took place at the conclusion of a peace that terminated a melancholy war.* "The Illinois had no other house but ours, during the three weeks
that they remained in this city. They charmed its by their piety and by their edifying life. Every evening they recital the rosary in alternate choirs, and heard mass every morning, during which, particularly on Sundays and festivals, they sung different hymns of the Church conformably to the various offices of the day. At the end of the mass they never failed to sing, with all their heart, the prayer for the king. The nuns sang the first Latin couplet in the usual Gregorian notes, and the Illinois continued the rest in the same tone. This spectacle, which was new, attracted many to the church, and inspired a tender devotion. In the course of the day, and after supper, they often sang alone or all together different prayers of the Church, such as the Dies irae, the Vexilla Regis, the Stabat Mater. It was easy to perceive that they relished singing these devout hymns more than the generality of Indians, and even more than many French their frivolous and often dissolute songs.
"You would be astonished, as I was myself, on arriving at this mission, to see that numbers of our French people are not nearly as well instructed as are these neophytes. They are not ignorant of any of the narratives of the Old and New Testament. They have excellent methods of hearing holy mass, and of receiving the sacraments. Their catechism, with its literal translation by Father Le Boulanger, is a perfect model for those who have need of one in new missions.
("Lettres Edifiantes." (Amérique.) Paris; 1781. Tom. vii., p. 61.)
These good Indians have been left in ignorance of no mystery or duty. What is fundamental and essential in religion, has been explained in a way equally instructive and solid.
"The first day that the Illinois saw the Ursulines, Mamantouensa (chief of the Kaskaskias) perceiving around them a troop of little girls, said: ' I see that you are not religious without an object'
"He meant that they were not solitaries who labored solely for their own perfection. `You are,' added he, 'like the Black-gowns, our fathers; you labor for the good of
others. Ah ! if we had up there two or three of you, our wives and daughters would have more sense, and be better Christians.' `Well,' said the Mother Superior, 'select those you would like.' ' It is not for me to choose,' answered 'Mamantouensa, `but for you who are acquainted with them; the choice should fall on those who are most generous, and who love God the most!' Imagine how delighted those good nuns were, to hear from savage lips sentiments so reasonable and Christian."*
Such were the commencements of the pious Ursuline Community of New Orleans. To these details, I will add a few others, concerning the state of the convents of your
order in 1855. In that year the house in New Orleans numbered fifty-two professed religious, three novices, and three postulants. The academy had one hundred and thirty boarders, and twelve half-boarders. In the vicariate of Upper Michigan, at Sault St. Marie, the Ursulines have a school for girls, and they were making preparations to establish a boarding-school destined to the education of girls whose
("Lettres Edifiantes." (Mémoires d'Amérique.) Paris Edition, 1781. Tom. vii. p. 61.)
social position exacts a more finished and a higher course of studies.
In the diocese of Cincinnati, at St. Martin, near Fayetteville, in Ohio, the community of Ursulines consisted of thirtythree professed nuns, nine novices, and four postulants. The boarding-school which they direct, numbers sixty pupils.
In the same State, at Cleveland, the community at the same epoch was composed of fourteen professed religious, ten novices, and four postulants. They direct a boarding-school. This establishment is situated in the most agreeable and healthy portion of the city. Young ladies are there taught the common branches, and the most elevated of a select course of tuition. Boarders, day-boarders, and day-scholars, are admitted. Near Cleveland, four sisters direct an elementary select school and two parish schools.
At Toledo, two of the religious are charged with three elementary select schools and two free schools. At Morrisania, near New York, they have a convent and a boarding
school. In the diocese of Galveston, in Texas, the Ursulines numbered, in 1855, fifteen professed religious; their boarding-school counted from eighty to one hundred pupils. At San Antonio, there were fourteen professed, three novices, and four postulants. The number of pupils varied from one hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty. In the diocese and city of St. Louis, where I have most generally resided since my departure from Europe, the convent of Ursulines is composed of from twenty to twenty-five religious, who direct a school of forty or fifty young ladies. In separate buildings they have a day-school, numbering from one to two hundred.
When reflecting upon all these benefits of our holy religion, spread with a liberal hand over America, we owe a testimony of gratitude to the venerable Bishop Carroll, who
contributed to establish, or prepare, the pious institutions to which is intimately connected the well-being and happiness of these countries.
"At the moment when the Society of Jesus was suppressed by Clement XIV., some Jesuits forsook Great Britain, to withdraw into North America, their country. John Carroll conducted them. Bound to the institute by the profession of four cows, Carroll was not long in winning the esteem of that immortal generation which was silently preparing the enfranchisement of the country. He was the friend of Washington and Franklin, the counsellor of that Carroll, his relation, who contributed in so efficacious a manner to the Constitution of the 'United States. The forethought and the knowledge of the Jesuit were appreciated by the founders of American liberty. Attached to the Protestant worship, they were about to consecrate its triumph by law; but Catholicity appeared to them, in the Fathers of the Society, so tolerant, and so proper for the civilization of the savages, that they could not to John Carroll refuse to secure the principle of religious independence. Carroll was admitted to discuss the bases with them : he laid there so well, that the liberty of worship has never been violated in the United States. The Americans had pledged themselves to sustain them they never believed themselves authorized to betray their solemn promise even by the progress that the missionaries elicited in the Roman Faith. When the Union was consolidated, Pope Pius VI., in 1789, gave a guide to all those faithful dispersed in the cities and forests. John Carroll received first the title of Bishop of Baltimore; later he became archbishop and metropolitan of the other dioceses, and apostolical legate, with another Jesuit, Leonard Neale, as coadjutor:"*
(* "History of the Society of Jesus," by J.Crétineau Joly, t.vi.p.276)
From this epoch dates, for all North America, the opening of a new era. Bishop Carroll took the initiatory step in a general revival of religion. He had had no models; he will have a multitude of imitators.
"After providing, by the foundation of a college and a seminary, for the education of youth and the recruiting of the clergy, the Bishop of Baltimore occupied himself with introducing into Maryland religious communities of females, who would aid in educating the young, in relieving the sick and needy, and adopting orphans. These good works have ever been the patrimony of the Church, and a Christian community must be considered ephemeral, as long as it has not laid the foundation-stones of convents for the practice of prayer and charity-."*
From that time, bow many works of salvation .have sprung up on the soil of America! how many astonishing traits have betokened the finger of a benign Providence !
Here is one, Reverend Mother, that is very interesting. I told it, I believe, to the Ursuline nuns and pupils of Saven them and Theldonck, but having since read it again in the remarkable work of Mr. Henry de Courcy, "The Catholic Church in the United States," as translated and augmented by Mr. John Gilmary Shea, I can write with more precision.
In 1807, Daniel Barber, a congregational minister of New England, had baptized in his sect Miss Allen, daughter of the celebrated American general, Ethan Allen, so famous in his native State, Vermont. This young lady was then twenty-two.
Soon after she went to Montreal and entered the academy
(* H. de Courcy, "Catholic Church in the United States," p. 76; and in "Ami de la Religion," 1855, n. 5872.)
of the Sisters of the Congregation. bliss Allen spontaneously embraced the Catholic religion, and wishing to make the supernatural sacrifice of her whole being, she consecrated herself to the things of Heaven in the community of Hospital Sisters of the Hotel-Dieu, where she died piously in 1819, after having by the edification of her last moments converted to the Catholic faith the Protestant physician who attended her.
The conversion of Miss Allen produced other fruits of grace among her coreligionists. Her former pastor, Mr. Barber, became an Episcopalian, but did not stop there in his path to truth ; in 1816 he abjured the errors of the pretended Reformation. The son of this converted minister, Virgil Barber, born in 1782, was, like his father, a Protestant minister. He too, convinced of the necessity of being reconciled to the Church of Rome, entered it with his father. Mrs. Virgil Barber followed these examples. These two spouses having become Catholics, did more. With mutual consent they resolved to leave all and separate for the service of God. In this pious view, Mr. Virgil Barber went to Rome in 1817, to obtain of the Supreme Pontiff' the necessary permission. He embraced the ecclesiastical state, and was ordained in the eternal city. After remaining two years in Europe, he returned, bringing the authorization for his wife to enter religion. She joined the Visitation order at Georgetown, and for two years performed the duties of the novitiate.
Mr. and Mrs. Barber had five children, four daughters and one son. The last studied at the Jesuit College at Georgetown ; the daughters at the Academy of the Visitation, but without knowing that their mother was a novice in the same convent.
After her novitiate, the live children were taken to the chapel to witness their mother's profession; and at the same time, their father, on the steps of the altar consecrated himself to God in the Society of Jesus. At this touching and unexpected spectacle, the poor children burst into sobs, believing themselves forsaken on earth; but their Heavenly Father watched over this privileged family. He, called the four daughters to embrace the religious state; three of them became Ursulines; one at Quebec, another at Boston, and the third at Three Rivers; the fourth sister made her profession among the Visitation nuns of Georgetown. Their brother Samuel entered the Society of Jesus.
Father Virgil Barber, after filling with great edification different posts in Pennsylvania and Maryland, became Professor of Hebrew in Georgetown College, and died there March 27, 1847, at the age of 65.
Sister Barber of the Visitation, long resided at Kaskaskia, where she founded a monastery. Sister Mary Barber of St. Benedict, witnessed the destruction of the Ursuline convent at Charlestown, and died at Quebec, May 9th, 1848. Sister Catherine Barber of St. Thomas, followed Bishop Odin to Texas in 1849 ; of the fourth of these pious daughters I find no detail.
The grace of conversion extended to other members of the family. A nephew and pupil of Father Virgil Barber, William Tyler, born in Protestantism in 1804, at Derby, Vermont, became in 1844 the first Catholic bishop of Hartford, and died in his diocese in 1849.
I close, Reverend Mother, by begging you to accept once more the expression of my lively gratitude for all the assistance that you have given to my mission, as well as for the prayers promised me, not only by the religious, but also by the pupils. I thank them all, and I recommend them to the good remembrances of my poor Indians. May
your daughters in Jesus Christ continue to give themselves devotedly to the holy work of educating the young: God, they will find by happy experience, does not wait for eternity in order to give them an ample recompense! May the dear children continue to profit by these salutary lessons and fascinating examples; they will then retain in the world their engaging piety and their gayety of heart, because they will preserve their precious innocence.
I pray you to thank also in my name your worthy directors, M. Lambertz at Theldonck and Mr. Paeps at Saventhem, who received me with that fraternal cordiality which should reign among priests and religious, called to labor together for the salvation and perfection of souls, and to aim at one sale end, in their works and their aspirations, viz., the greater glory of God.
Accept, Reverend Mother, the homage of my gratitude -and believe me your devoted servant in Christ.
P. J. DE SMET, S. J.