Читать книгу A Tree Rooted in Faith - Alberta Dieker - Страница 9

The new members of the Conception convent community received a warm but simple welcome that June of 1876. Precious time and energy could not be wasted on elaborate ceremony, even if the precarious finances of the group would have allowed it. A large garden had to be tended carefully because the sisters, as well as the monks and some boarding students, would depend upon its produce for winter survival. There was a fat little pig to care for against the day it would become ham and bacon for the table. Of immediate importance was mastery of English or at least enough knowledge of the language to enable the sisters to manage classrooms when school would begin again in September. Sister Rose Chapelle had come from her convent in Ferdinand, Indiana, to help the sisters learn the American language and ways.1

Furthermore, the small group had to be divided between Maryville and Conception, each of which places was trying to maintain a school, take care of a parish church and sacristy, and cook the meals and do the domestic work for the equally overworked priests. Even the care of stables and horses, not to mention chickens, fell to the sisters.

On July 12, 1876, Mother Anselma wrote from Conception to Mother Gertrude at Maria Rickenbach, “Bernardine helps with the washing and with the garden work. Scholastica does the cooking, which is not quite easy for her and requires all her strength throughout the day. Novice Anna is ready for everything . . . Tomorrow English instructions will start for Bernardine and Novice Anna; both have a will for it.”2 She also mentioned that Sister Rose would return to her convent in Ferdinand in the fall.

In this letter, Mother Anselma revealed inner tensions and difficulties that plagued the community at Conception, and which would be intensified as time went on. Her hope was that, with the help of three new members, and with Sister Rose removed from the scene in the fall, a more peaceful life could be assured. In retrospect, one can sympathize with this harassed woman trying to start a religious community in a completely unfamiliar environment. She had been appointed superior of the group before they left Switzerland with the understanding that Conception would be merely a branch house, with the final authority vested in the superior of Maria Rickenbach. At the same time, Abbot Anselm Villiger of Engelberg, as spiritual director of the women’s community, also played an authoritative role. On the scene in Missouri, Frowin Conrad and Adelhelm Odermatt sometimes acted like little abbots on their own, and took upon themselves the direction of the sisters’ lives. Added to that was the day-to-day necessity of staying alive on the prairie, which required quite different skills from the settled environment the sisters had left behind on the Alpine slopes.

Apparently, Sister Rose Chapelle, since she spoke English and had been imported into the Conception convent to help the sisters adjust to American ways, also believed she should have some authority over the group.3 Mother Anselma found herself in the middle, with the responsibility for the sisters and their well-being, but with little to say about their work load or the arrangement of their lives. She too suffered from homesickness, and from a chronic annoying cough. In a touching paragraph, she thanked Mother Gertrude for sending her a flower and picture. “It reminds me once more of the dear unforgettable mountain where I enjoyed so much good and joy, and that I shall never see again in this world.”4 She mentioned her cough and her conviction that she would not live long. She grieved over her father, recently deceased, and a cousin who had been kind to her and the sisters. Almost apologetically, she asked for prayers and for patience with her inability to get more work done under the circumstances.

Of supreme importance to Mother Anselma was the ideal that Conception should be an extension and continuation of Maria Rickenbach; that the customs, prayer life, and spirit of the new convent should reflect and enhance that of their Old World home. From the beginning, Sister Rose was an outsider. She spoke very little German. Her convent at Ferdinand was already several steps removed from its European origins, St. Walburg Convent in Eichstatt, Bavaria. This ancient German house took great pride in its eighth century beginnings. Sister Rose brought with her to Conception a mix of ancient German tradition and American language and life style which must have been confusing, probably threatening, to the newcomers, whose Swiss motherhouse was scarcely a generation old. At any rate, Mother Anselma found Sister Rose’s presence increasingly annoying and was eager for the day when her services could be dispensed with: “When once Rose is gone, I can act more freely with the Sisters in Maryville.”5

A disagreement had arisen almost immediately upon Sister Rose’s arrival at Conception. The official prayer of the community at Ferdinand was the Office of the Blessed Virgin, recited in Latin. The Maria Rickenbach sisters, on the other hand, recited a modified form of The Exercises of St. Gertrude, in German. Since Sister Rose was not adept at German and believed that she should help Americanize the immigrants, she suggested, with the backing of Abbot Martin Marty of St. Meinrad’s (another authority figure moving in), that the sisters at Conception adopt the Latin prayers. Frowin Conrad became aware of this, and consulted Abbot Anselm of Engelberg. The latter’s reply was unequivocal. The sisters were not to depart from the prayers or customs of Maria Rickenbach. When a second plea came from Frowin, pointing out that the American candidates seeking entrance to the community knew no German and that St. Gertrude herself recited the Latin office, Abbot Anselm was more adamant than ever.6 The distressing fact in all this was that the sisters, who were, after all, the ones to be sanctified through the prayer life of the community, did not have the freedom to make practical applications to their own difficult situation.

Mother Anselma evidently confided in Sister Bernardine almost immediately upon the latter’s arrival at Conception. Sister Bernardine had spent scarcely a month in Missouri before she wrote to Abbot Anselm, telling him frankly of her own temptations and difficulties, and of the atmosphere of the house. “What a difference . . . between the spirit of M. Rickenbach and here. The Sisters told me that the superior became so intimidated by the reproaches of the Sisters (that she was too strict with them and with herself) that she only seldom dares to interfere or give orders. Therefore everyone goes her own way.” She wrote of criticism and lack of seriousness and reverence. She noted that Mother Anselma had talked with her about her difficulties with the sisters:

I spoke my mind frankly. According to the admonition of the Holy Rule that the superior should never keep silent in view of the transgressions of the disciples, I said that I did not have the impression that she was too strict, but rather too indulgent, and that I consider it the duty of the superior with love to interfere, to refuse, to reproach, to order, to command whenever needed. The Sisters accepted the remarks with gratitude and try to live up to them. . . . Our dear Sister Superior stands up for the good and takes motherly care of our needs so that we lack nothing with regard to food.7

Mother Anselma knew that Sister Bernardine was writing to Abbot Anselm, because she mentioned it in her own letter a few days later.8 She expressed concern that the little community was not completely agreed upon the idea of remaining under Maria Rickenbach. She was not sure whether Father Frowin even wanted that, or whether he would prefer that they become an independent house. In that case, she suggested that he might get sisters from Ferdinand to staff his school, and the Maria Rickenbach sisters could get themselves another place in the vicinity.

The situation at Maryville also worried Mother Anselma. Although the distance between the two settlements was only about fourteen miles, it was a day’s journey then, and it was hard to keep in touch with the sisters there. Sister Rose, since she knew English the best, had been teaching in the school at Maryville and, in Mother Anselma’s opinion, fostered there an independence that confused and bewildered the sisters at Conception.

The greatest difficulty at Maryville, however, stemmed from the fact that there was, as yet, no convent for the sisters. Father Adelhelm had made promises, but in his usual sanguine fashion, seemed to dismiss the problem as unimportant. Meanwhile, the sisters had to live in the rectory, along with the priests, with domestic help from time to time, and with girls who had to board there in order to attend school. Apparently the school was thriving, for in 1876, 118 children were listed on the roster. However, they paid altogether only about $200 in fees, not enough, as Mother Anselma pointed out, to support the three sisters stationed in Maryville.9 She proposed to Abbot Anselm, still back in Engelberg, that the sisters rent rooms in a private home. In that case, only two would be needed as teachers.

Again there is a note of sadness, nearly desperation, in Mother Anselma’s letter of July 16: “Would you approve if in the fall I would go with the two Sisters to Maryville to stay with them for a few days? To decide this by myself is very hard on me. I have learned now that it is infinitely easier to obey than to command.”10 Writing to an abbot in Switzerland for permission to travel fourteen miles in Missouri seems almost ludicrous, but it also indicates the problems raised by the divided authority over the sisters. Mother Anselma mentioned at one point that she had hoped to spend her life cooking for the sisters at Maria Rickenbach. It is quite possible that some of the other sisters considered her inadequately educated and unprepared for a position of authority. In any case, she was aware of serious problems, but often could do little about them.

While Mother Anselma was preoccupied with preserving unity among her sisters, along with providing proper shelter and staffing two schools, Sister Bernardine was learning English and preparing for the teachers’ examinations to be taken before September. In addition, as already noted, she worked in the garden and laundry. The sisters had tried to practice their English while they were engaged in these manual tasks, but it was too hard to carry on anything but trivial conversation, so they preferred silence.

Sister Scholastica had an equally difficult adjustment to make, for she wrote:

Oh, the kitchen! The first week, I feared I could not make it; now it is already a little better. I should manage to spare two hours every day for learning—but now I have to feed the chickens and the pig, bake, churn butter, and much more that always comes along. I am expected to be able to do more than appears possible to me. I have never had to do this kind of work before, and therefore it takes so much time, which makes it still harder for me.11

She could not take part in common recreation, and found herself falling asleep at prayer time. The youthful gaiety that pervaded her shipboard letter seemed to be lost in the unfamiliar and unrelenting labor in her new home.

Fortunately, by September Sister Scholastica felt more at home in the kitchen, and was receiving help and guidance, both from Mother Anselma and from a cookbook her father had sent her.12 She was finding time to write letters, and even to learn a little English. She, too, expressed her admiration for Mother Anselma, but pitied her because some of the sisters would go over her head and seek direction from Father Adelhelm or one of the men. Sister Agnes in Maryville had given notice that she had not come to America to be a man’s cook, and apparently neither the priests nor her superior could convince her otherwise.

Meanwhile four candidates had arrived at Conception, and three novices were being trained.13 While the sisters rejoiced in the increase of their flock, they wondered where or how they could squeeze anyone else into already overcrowded quarters.

A different controversy was causing serious division among the monks in Missouri.14 A brief description of their difficulties will enable the reader to better understand the frustration of the sisters, who were expected to look to the monks for spiritual direction and to depend, at least in part, upon them for their temporal welfare as well.

When the first group of monks came to America from Engelberg, Frowin Conrad had been appointed superior and charged with the responsibility of founding a house patterned on the Swiss foundation from which they had come. To Abbot Anselm Villiger this was extremely important, because he looked toward the American community as a refuge, in case the home abbey should be dissolved by the Swiss government. Equally important to him was the maintenance of the prayer schedule, order of the day, and the customs and language of the Swiss homeland.

Frowin Conrad was certainly an Engelberger, but he was also interested in the reforms and renewal taking place throughout the Benedictine world. He had visited Beuron Abbey in Germany, a recent foundation which purported to be a return to the original concept of cenobitic life as conceived by Saint Benedict at Monte Cassino. This ideal included a secluded monastery with a farm worked by lay brothers. The main work of the community was the recitation of the Divine Office in choir and the restoration of the Gregorian Chant. Work in parishes and schools was discouraged as being out of the tradition of early Benedictine life. Frowin maintained a correspondence with Placidus Wolter, co-founder with his brother Maurus of the Beuronese reform, and looked to him for guidance about monastic practices and liturgical music.

In 1875, Ignatius Conrad, a professed monk of Einsedeln in Switzerland, was permitted to join his brother, Frowin, in Missouri. Frowin had urged Ignatius to come to America, and was delighted when the latter’s abbot was willing to release him. It is significant that Frowin encouraged Ignatius to visit Beuron before he set sail for America. This Ignatius did not do. According to instructions from his abbot, he reported first to Abbot Martin Marty at St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana. St. Meinrad’s was, after all, a foundation from Einsedeln. Frowin had hoped that his brother would join the community at Conception, but it soon became apparent that Ignatius had something else in mind.

From the start, Ignatius complained that he found at Conception not a familiar Swiss monastery, but an attempt to copy the new-fangled, frenchified customs of Beuron. What was wrong, for example, with the comfortable German hymns, sung in polyphony? Why did everything have to be in Latin and in Gregorian Chant? Ignatius wrote heated letters to Abbot Anselm, apparently without talking it through with Frowin himself. As a result, Abbot Anselm sent a severe rebuke across the ocean to the well-intentioned and peace-loving Frowin. A painful rift developed between the two brothers, and it was never really healed. Frowin was disappointed that his own brother did not transfer his stability to Conception. Understandably, he could no longer trust Ignatius and, perhaps with some relief, sent him off to Maryville to assist Adelhelm. Since the sisters had to live and work very closely with the monks, both at Conception and at Maryville, the tensions and divisions over the Beuron controversy must have affected them as well.

Aware of these problems, and seeking to learn more about conditions first-hand, Mother Anselma made the trip to Maryville in the summer of 1876, but had to shorten her stay because Sister Beatrix insisted on her early return to Conception.15 However, she had made up her mind to send Sister Bernardine to Maryville to teach the small children and to give lessons in German. Sister Augustina would teach the upper grades.

The visit to Maryville made Mother Anselma more convinced than ever that something had to be done about the living conditions for the sisters. Far too much time was wasted, she believed, in unnecessary talking and consultation with the priests. For this she blamed Father Adelhelm, at least in part. Sister Agnes was unhappy as a cook, and apparently could not please either Adelhelm or Ignatius, both of whom were sick from time to time. Anselma hesitated to return Agnes to Conception: “I don’t know what I will do with her there. You know well how things went already at Maria Rickenbach,” she explained to Abbot Anselm.16 Again she asked the abbot’s advice about allowing the sisters to rent rooms in a private home, for four dollars per month, which seemed expensive and might not be acceptable to the people of the parish. Adelhelm had already had his word: “He said it would bankrupt him, as it were, for he would have to hire strangers to do the work.”17 Undaunted by any suggestion that the sisters’ living conditions were anything but ideal, Adelhelm asked in September of 1877 for another sister to help with the kitchen work and the care of the horses and stable.

Mother Anselma wrote of these conditions to Abbot Anselm, noting that all three of the priests at Maryville were sickly and needed special attention, including a few delicacies now and then. She was embarrassed by the lack of order in the house and wished that Adelhelm would be more firm, especially with Sister Agnes, who seemed to enjoy tending the chickens more than the kitchen. She thought that assigning specific duties to each sister, should they remain in the rectory, might help matters: “Bernardine will take care of Adelhelm’s room and the church; Augustina the house.” Perhaps Abbot Anselm had suggested Sister Bernardine for training the novices, for Mother Anselma told him that she still found Bernardine too strict, and that she needed experience in order to become more gentle.

Adelhelm’s opinion about housing prevailed, and when Sisters Bernardine and Augustina arrived in Maryville to open the school in the fall of 1876, they moved into the already overcrowded rectory. Sister Bernardine was appointed superior of the group of three, indicating that Mother Anselma had confidence in her ability to cope with whatever difficulties were bound to arise. From the first, Bernardine enjoyed the approval and approbation of Adelhelm, and the two became close friends. Even with the best of good will, life was hard in Maryville, as Sister Bernardine described their duties to Mother Gertrude:

One must not imagine the Maryville rectory to be a comfortable little parish house as in Europe; it is more like a common hotel. Two Sisters are appointed for the school with about 100 children who all have a different kind of education. Thirty children might make for ten to twelve groups, all different in ability and knowledge. There are six hours of daily instructions requiring good lungs. The subjects of the upper grades are rather difficult and require much time for preparation. Besides this, the Sisters have to sing three High Masses every week, to keep the church clean, to do the sacristy, take care of two or three horses, two cows, sixty to seventy chickens, to plant a garden about as large as yours. For the time being, there are seven of us for whom there is cooking, washing and mending to be done.18

Before Christmas, Sister Bernardine wrote an affectionate letter to her superior in Maria Rickenbach. She expressed regret that they did not have a proper chapel in Maryville, and could not possibly observe hours of adoration. Yet she took comfort in the fact that the sacristy work enabled her to spend some time before the altar. Indeed, her classroom was a part of the church, so she treasured that opportunity to be close to the house of God. Some building was going on, because Sister Adela, who was sent to replace Agnes as cook, would have a new kitchen and storeroom soon. Sister Augustina was serving as upper-grade teacher, organist, and master of the horses, a challenging combination to say the least.19

Before the school year was over, however, the health of both the teaching sisters in Maryville suffered. Mother Anselma informed Mother Gertrude at Maria Rickenbach that the sisters in Maryville worked so hard that in a few years they would be unfit for any kind of work. In January, Mother Anselma noted that Sister Bernardine had become rather sickly. By February, she was sick half the time, and Father Ignatius and the young Frater Anselm had to substitute for her. They finally hired a girl to help with the house and church work. In March, Sister Beatrix was sent from Conception to replace Sister Bernardine, while the latter returned to Conception to rest and recuperate.20

Sister Augustina suffered from another form of illness, which tension and overwork could well have brought on. According to Father Adelhelm, she was tempted to run away, and even contemplated suicide, both signs of fatigue and depression. He recommended this troubled sister to the prayers of the Swiss community, but seemed totally unaware that overwork and strain might be contributing to her illness.21

For Sister Bernardine, in spite of her inability to carry a full schedule of work, Adelhelm had nothing but praise.

This good soul was sick most of last year, as she did penance for Maryville and so could not do much else. With a tearful heart I let her go (back to Conception) hoping that God would give her back to us. To me it seems she has been made by God as spiritual mother of Maryville. Dear Sister Beatrix helps me more—she is a good Martha—but Sister Bernardine a better Mary.22

The stay at Conception, from March until April 1877, was not a happy time for either Mother Anselma or Sister Bernardine. The latter became absolutely convinced that she did not want to spend the rest of her life as a part of the Conception community. Anselma, for her part, wrote, “Sister Bernardine had no peace here and wanted to return to Maryville. I cannot quite understand her. Our Lord will show what He wants of us. It will require prayer.”23 Personality differences seem to have been present from the start.

Mother Anselma’s letters reveal a sincere religious woman, often overwhelmed by the demands of life in a new country, too much work, and the need to make decisions about schools, buildings, and a variety of practical matters for which her life as a cook at Maria Rickenbach could have offered little or no preparation. She often mentioned her difficulties with the English language, and the constant necessity to study more, even though this was an added task in an already burdened schedule. It must have been discouraging to see other sisters master the language more readily, to pass teachers’ examinations, and to be able to communicate more easily than their superior, who in those days was often required to speak and communicate for the group.

The division of authority has already been mentioned, and it continued to be a severe cross for Mother Anselma to bear. More and more she saw her own authority eroded, while the responsibility for the sisters remained with her. She became convinced that Sister Bernardine wanted to make Maryville a separate community, and that Father Adelhelm supported her in this, indeed probably gave her the idea in the first place. “Father Adelhelm’s opinion and favorite dream that Sister Bernardine was the born Mother of Maryville, and had come to the New World only for this purpose, had perhaps gone to Sister’s head. She felt she had received a special call from God and was destined to found a convent there for herself, she wrote.”24

In fairness to Sister Bernardine, it is necessary to point out that relations between Maryville and Conception were strained before she ever arrived. Father Adelhelm considered himself a missionary, and apparently did not intend to settle in the Missouri prairies forever. Had they not been sent to find a mountainous spot? How could they found a new Engelberg “Angel Mountain” without mountains? Father Ignatius Conrad was even more emphatic about the fact that he had come to America to be a missionary, not to settle down to a semi-cloistered copy of Beuron. The sisters had to be aware of the disparity of thought among the monks, and undoubtedly reflected some of their thinking.

Although Adelhelm had no official authoritative position in relation to the sisters, it is obvious that practical day-to-day decisions had to be made in Maryville. Since church, school, convent, and rectory were all in one spot, each person’s work, anxieties, and decisions affected everyone else. Adelhelm’s light-hearted manner and optimistic attitude must have lightened the spirits of the sisters on more than one occasion. On the other hand, they must have sometimes become frustrated and annoyed, for his lack of practical and financial sense left them in need, even of decent living quarters and of the time to survive as healthy human beings. Thus he could interpret Sister Bernardine’s illness as penance for his congregation’s sins, rather than the almost inevitable result of overwork and tension. Prayer was recommended for Sister Augustina’s depression, but not the time and space which she must have desperately needed.

What other conditions helped to influence Sister Bernardine cannot be known at this time. Whatever they were, she became absolutely convinced that life at Conception was not for her, and that God was calling her to do something else. She wrote frankly of her decision to Mother Gertrude.

When I left Maryville, at the behest of the superior, to go to Conception for a time (or apparently for good) I was encouraged by the thought that by this act the two houses would become more closely united to each other. But it turned out otherwise. Instead of coming closer to Conception, I am now taking steps to remove myself from it entirely, though still bound to the community in sisterly love. . . . It was God Himself who led me to determine not to renew my vows at Conception, through an interior call. Day and night I am haunted by the thought, “You are not in the place God wants you to be.”25

She expressed her loyalty to Maria Rickenbach and Engelberg, and her willingness to accept their authority. She had confided in Father Adelhelm with the hope that he would persuade her otherwise, but she only became more convinced that she should not, and could not, renew her vows at Pentecost, as she was expected to do. She would rather leave her religious habit behind, beg for a living from door to door, than commit herself to Conception. “Since I do not feel called to Conception, I would not want to be there, even dead.”

In the end, Sister Bernardine did renew her vows for Conception on July 11, 1877, in obedience to Abbot Anselm, rather than out of conviction that it was right for her. As her spiritual director, he admonished her that her call to Maryville had to be tested by her willingness to obey. For this reason he asked her to renew her vows to Conception for one year, and she complied, admitting that it was in the name of obedience. She noted, speaking of Abbot Anselm, “Apparently he has influenced the superior because now and then she treats me kindly.”26

Summer vacation brought a slight respite, but did not close the breach between the two houses nor heal the personal suffering of the sisters. Again, the interference of the monks added to the confusion and resentment. Abbot Anselm renewed the appointment of Mother Anselma as superior of the Conception Convent for another three years, with the assurance that he would not remove her as long as he lived. Adelhelm saw clearly the implications of this appointment. He indicated to Mother Gertrude that it would have been better to let the sisters make the selection, or at least not to tell Mother Anselma that she would be their superior for life: “Very probably nobody else would have been elected, and love and confidence would have excluded envy or antipathy that might creep up after some time.”27 He added that it was not really his business and his remarks should be considered confidential. Whether Abbot Anselm believed the sisters to be incapable of selecting their own superior, or whether he thought that Mother Anselma’s authority would be enhanced and her confidence strengthened by his decision is unknown. Ordinarily one would expect that the superior of Maria Rickenbach would make appointments for branch houses, but that did not seem to be the case here.

On July 11, the Feast of St. Benedict was celebrated with a picnic at Conception. The sisters made the tedious journey from Maryville for what turned out to be a puzzling and disconcerting experience. The sisters discovered that all of them were to renew their vows on this day. Apparently, this was in recognition of the reappointment of Mother Anselma, since a renewal ceremony had taken place on Pentecost, just a few weeks earlier. According to Sister Bernardine, “It made a melancholy impression on me, for it seemed as if all the sisters were fulfilling this holy act with a certain constraint and pressure. All day long I saw no true cheerfulness among the Sisters.”28

Even their return to Maryville was viewed with suspicion. Mother Anselma had given the sisters permission to remain at the mission over the summer months, since the cooking and church work still had to be done, and there were children coming for instruction in German. Conception Convent was crowded, and the sisters asked for the additional time at Maryville to prepare for classes, even to get in firewood for the winter. However, when the sisters piled into the wagon with Father Adelhelm at the end of the picnic day, they were reproached for not remaining longer at Conception. Adelhelm noted that he could not understand why they were given permission to return to Maryville, and then made to feel guilty for doing so. Sister Bernardine tried to make amends by offering to stay at Conception as long as Mother Anselma wanted her to, but apparently the harm was done, and the misunderstanding left hard feelings on both sides.

Adelhelm tried to explain the situation to Mother Gertrude in Maria Rickenbach. His analysis was that Mother Anselma feared Bernardine’s independence, and had even remarked that Maryville did not need a superior. She limited the amount of money Bernardine could spend, and attempted to keep her in a dependent position. Adelhelm, as might be expected, was convinced that this would not work. He argued that if Mother Anselma would give Bernardine authority and jurisdiction in Maryville it would solve their problems, and “the Sisters would not have anything against Conception and would stop talking about independence.”29 This was probably an insightful but oversimplified view of what was happening.

Sister Bernardine continued to teach and work in Maryville, and to act as superior of the community there until she departed for Oregon in 1882. The rectory served as convent and classrooms for another four years, and tensions and difficulties persisted. Changes of personnel sometimes relieved the situation, and sometimes aggravated the difficulties. A part of the problem was the conviction on the part of Mother Anselma that Father Adelhelm and Sister Bernardine were determined to establish a separate mother house, and to remove themselves from her authority entirely. This might indeed have been the case. In a letter of January, 1878, to Mother Gertrude Leupi in Maria Rickenbach, Father Adelhelm suggested that she give permission to start a novitiate for English-speaking girls in Maryville, since the sisters in Conception (and especially the superior) had not mastered the language.30 He also urged Mother Gertrude to make the trip to America to see for herself.

The problems of earning a living, learning a new language, and adapting to a different climate were severe enough. Added to that was increasing distrust between Conception and Maryville. Sister Scholastica compared the two houses in a letter of November, 1877. She said the work was easier at Conception, but prayer was better at Maryville. Moreover, the countryside around Maryville was more appealing. She had personal reasons for preferring the branch house because there she was permitted to sing, and even to take lessons so that she could play the harmonium. At that time she appreciated the guidance of Father Adelhelm.31

This rosy picture of Maryville changed somewhat as time went on. Father Ignatius Conrad, having had enough of his brother Frowin’s Beuronese ideas, rejoiced to be sent to Maryville to work with Father Adelhelm. Eventually Sister Scholastica and Father Ignatius appeared to take sides against Father Adelhelm and Sister Bernardine. At times the children under the sisters’ care became a part of the controversy.32 Who was spending too much time with whom, who could take students into their rooms, who was sick and who was malingering, all became topics of conversation and letters to Switzerland. Abbot Anselm, still directing from Engelberg, suggested appointing Adelhelm spiritual director for the Conception convent, thus trying to bring some understanding between the two houses and relieving himself of the burden. Mother Anselma objected in language that, for her, was vigorous.33

In January, 1878, Abbot Anselm officially transferred the direction of the Benedictine Sisters in Missouri to Father Frowin Conrad.34 The same month, Adelhelm wrote to Mother Gertrude Leupi, urging her to come to America to see conditions for herself.35 Sister Bernardine had also invited her “beloved Mother from Maria Rickenbach,” but Sister Anselma had advised her not to accept the invitation, arguing that “Bernardine aims too high.”36 Abbot Anselm judged that “Bernardine sees things too black.”37 That restlessness pervaded the house in Maryville is indicated by the fact that in March, 1878, Sister Scholastica begged Abbot Anselm to allow her to accept Bishop Martin Marty’s invitation to go to the Dakotas to work among the Indians.38 Moreover, during the same year, Adelhelm informed his abbot that he had received an invitation from the Archbishop in Oregon. Meanwhile, Father Ignatius was invited to assist the bishop at the Cathedral in St. Joseph, Missouri. He suspected that this prospect had been deliberately arranged by his former friend, Adelhelm, to get him out of the way in Maryville.39 Nevertheless, he accepted the offer.

Meanwhile, letters continued to crisscross between both Engelberg in Switzerland and the two houses in Missouri. Some of them implied that the relationship between Adelhelm and Bernardine was too close for their own good, and divisive for the community. Mother Gertrude continued to sort out the information she received at Maria Rickenbach (difficult as that must have been) and reaffirmed her confidence in Sister Bernardine and her good judgment. Mother Gertrude noted that God had given Bernardine special gifts which were not always appreciated.

The year 1880 took on special significance for the Missouri Benedictines. The convent building in Maryville (promised by Adelhelm several years before) was finally completed, and apparently was more roomy and attractive than the one in Conception. Mother Gertrude Leupi finally arrived in America to get firsthand knowledge of the work and problems of her sisters. After spending a short time in Conception, she moved to Maryville, taking some of the sisters with her. Maryville was made a separate, independent community, with the right to establish its own novitiate. Thirteen sisters were in residence, with Mother Gertrude as superior. She appointed Sister Bernardine her assistant, describing her as “good and able.” By December, eighteen people lived in the new convent, and worries arose about how they would liquidate the considerable debt with which they found themselves encumbered.40 Father Adelhelm had assured the people of the parish in Maryville that the sisters could easily pay for the convent, since their school was flourishing, and many children were taking music lessons as well.

The debt became a serious burden for the sisters in Maryville. In April of 1881, Sister Bernardine was sent out to collect money to help cover their expenses. Records are lacking to indicate where she went and whom she asked, or even how much she collected. A letter from Sister Gertrude to Maria Rickenbach noted that Bernardine would be in New York by June.41 In the same communication, she begged the motherhouse for more sisters, since there was much work in Maryville, and Bishop Marty was looking for missionaries for the Dakotas. Furthermore, mention was made of another “paradisial place” that had been offered. It would be a shame to leave the pagans there without assistance. Mother Gertrude noted that all was going well at Maryville, all were one heart and one soul. However, rumor had it that strange things were going on in Conception.

A rift had developed between Sister Anselma and her former superior, the nature of which remains obscure. Some of the Conception sisters had asked to transfer to Maryville. The newer, roomier convent there seemed to be more attractive to prospective American candidates. German was still the predominant language at Conception. On the other hand, Maryville had the debt that simply would not go away.42 Vague promises from a Princess Radziwill came to nothing, and even Sister Bernardine’s begging tour was of little avail.

In the spring of 1881, Father Adelhelm left Missouri for the Far West. His trip took him into California, to Jacksonville in Oregon, to Walla Walla, Washington (in the records mistakenly put in Oregon), and eventually to the place of his choice for a monastery: a small community called Fillmore in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The outlying parishes at Gervais and Sublimity needed priests as well. With a firm offer for land and work, Adelhelm took ship for Europe, arriving in Engelberg in November. His descriptions of the land and missionary work waiting to be done in Oregon gained recruits from his own monastery. As might be expected, he wrote to Sister Bernardine, describing the beauty and advantages of Oregon and inviting her to lead a group of sisters to the Far West.

Meanwhile, Mother Gertrude Leupi became more and more intrigued with the Dakota missions and the idea of converting the Indians. Martin Marty had been begging for sisters for some time. She must have talked freely of her desire, because Mother Anselma wrote to Maria Rickenbach in July, expressing the opinion that Mother Gertrude would not remain in Maryville much longer.

Mother Gertrude Leupi left for Dakota in March, 1882, with a small group of sisters who would form the nucleus of what later became Sacred Heart Convent in Yankton, South Dakota. Since someone of the group had to speak English well enough to communicate with the government agents who dealt with Indian affairs, Sister Bernardine was asked to join the group.43 She wrote one letter from Fort Yates in July, in which she mentioned the fervor of the Indian children, who, when they saw a sister with a crucifix or rosary in hand, immediately gathered round to kiss the sacred object. She also rejoiced over the baptism of an old Indian who had been converted away from membership in a diabolical sect.44

Sister Bernardine’s stay in Dakota was short-lived. In October, 1882, she left for Oregon, never to return to the Missouri community.