MAIDENS OF MARY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 34, 20 December 1873, Page 12

MAIDENS OF MARY.

(From ' Catholic Ireland.') We had left Berlin far behind us, and patiently endured the long hours aa the train slowly dragged its lengih through tracts of sandy wastes, half-cultivated fields, and low stunted brushwood. A more uninteresting, depressiug line of railway could hardly be found ; and groat "was our joy when at last our destination was reached; and we found ourselves in the ancient city of Posen, with a feeling of exultation that we had tt last outstripped the "Biilish tourist," and arrived at a spot where he was not likely to follow. Poaen is a place of considerable political importance, being a largo fortified town on the frontiers of Russia. It was once part of Poland, but since the dismemberment oi that unhappy country, has passed under Prussian dominion. It is a melancholy-looking town, though gay shops, boulevards planted with trees, and large hotels try their best to enliven it ; but it is the capital of a conquered province. The people feel and know that their rulers are alien both to their race and creed, Tho gloom which pervades so many hearts makes it-telf felt. There is a large Jo.vish population in Poseu, keeping together, accordiug to their wont, in one quarter of the town. Their costumes are most plc'uiesque, and would luake us almost think we were transported back to tho days of Abraham. One figure especially struck us—he was dressed in a long robe of snowy whiteness, his turban being the same, and he glided about like a ghost — a shadow of by-gono ages. Ono of our first visits was to the Archbishop's palace, as we had to present our letters of introduction. The palace is a noble building, facing the Cathedal. We passed up tho great staircase into a suite of rooms which seemed interminable, and, the servant having disappeared, we btoo.l on the polished floor, uncertaiu where to go, when we saw a tall majestic figure, in purple, advaucing towards us with a smile of welcome. A more noble faca and form can be rarely eeou than that of this great prelate. His voice also is of silver sweetness, and lie atdreised us in the purest French, and with tho most fatherly kindness, lie was at one time Nuncio in Belgium, and we were told that ho hoWs very high rank in Rome.

We then went to visit the grand old Cathedral of St. Stanislaus, built in the Italian style, and richly decorated. We wandered amidst its beautiful chapels, and gazed on the bronze statues of the Kings of Poland, and on Sunday we attended the High Mass. We were disappointed in the music ; and the sermon being, of course, in Polish, was unintelligible to us ; but the whole scene wai most striking, a^d, to some degree, brought Catholic Ireland to our thoughts. In no other country had we seen such warm devotion in the people. The peasants dress in every imaginable colour, and seemed to vie with eacb other in variety of hues. The kerchief which covers the head was the brightest shade of red, yellow, or blue. The deep and simple devotion of the men in particular, so rare on the Continent, called Ireland vividly to mind. The Cathedral was, of course, not half filled, for it would contain a vast multitude ; and confessions were being heard in the nave. The confessionals are so open, both priest and penitent can be plainly seen ; and we were startled by seeing a penitent suddenly fall prostrate on the ground. We thought he was ill, but the priest, unmoved, gave absolution, and we soon found out that entire' prostration was the customary attitude in which to receive pardon from on high. When the consecration bell rang out, the whole crowd fell prostrate, and lay motionless on the ground in protound silence. God had come down upon earth, and His creatures lay before "him in mute worship. We paid a visit to the Sacred Heart Convent at the other end of the town. Its school is greatly valued by the Poles. We had felt so transported back to the middle ages in the old Cathedral that it seemed strange to be brought back to modern life, when we found the nun who received us had been a companion, in her Paris noviciate, of many fin old friend. We are speaking of August, 1869— for this present month was precisely the month of our pilgrimage— before any rumour of war had disturbed the country. When the -war came, Poland's best blood was freely poured out in Prussia's quarrel. What has her rewaid been ? Insults many and deep have been showered on her religion, her great Archbishop threatened with imprisonment, the Jesuits driven from her midst, and this very Sacred Heart community ordered to be disperse. When the first rumour of .this rash act of tyranny was bruited, the time for the holidays was at hand. The children had formed many a plan, for them, or were lorging for home as children always do when this holiday month of August draws near ; but when they heard this terrible news., they said, " No, we will not go ; you will be more safe if we remain." Alas! even the generous shield of cliild-like hearts availed nothing, and the Convent either is, or soon will be, empty. That same day we had the happiness of being presented to M. Edmund Bojanowski, fouuder of the " Servants of the Mother of God," or, if we translate literally from the German, " Maidens of Mary," If one of the ancient saints sculptured on the walls of our cathedrals were to step from his niche and speak and breathe, he would give a fair idea of this remarkable mac. He was exceedingly tall, but wasted to 'a shadow; and his deep-set, spiritual eyes told of one who lived mote in the world to come than in this present life The Poles are naturally full of life and gesture, but about him there was a profound calm and recollection. We had (ha happiness of receiving Holy Communion at the same time that he did, in the private chapel of a boys' college where he was staying ; and as we looked at him we felt we were in the presence of v saint. Later in the day we went to Bee him, and as he did not speak French vie were joined by an interpreter, a young ecclesiastic, of one of the noblest families of Poland, who had learned English (which he spoke most fluently) at Stoneyhurst College. The day following we set out for the Mother House of the " Maidens of Mary." We had an hour's journey in a traiu still slower than the one which brought m from Berlin, and then a long ten miles' drive through the same sandy, desolate country. It bad the wild desolation of Connemara, without any of its beauty. An indescribable melancholy seems to hang over Poland. Here and there amidst the sandy waste mesa urearj- looking poplar-tree, and then comes a tuft of brushwood, a field which, a few peasant women are cultivating and then a wretched-looking village. c At, last we reacliad a village c{ some size and importance. In the midst rose the churuh, surrounded by a green churchyard and shnded with trees. Exactly opposite was a simple, two-storied cottage, with a little garden before it and a porch over the door. It. was newly-built, and over the porch was a coloured picture of the Virgin ana Child. We knocked at the door, and were soon welcomed with "the teudrrest kindness by the Mtther-General. The foundation of this Congregation was in this wise. Edmund Bojanowski was one of those souls who live for others, and his one thought was, how to benefit Ilia native country. The population of Poland is scattered widely in villages; its towns are few and far between. By the Government regulat ; on every child above seven must attend school, but up to that age it is free. When the peasants fall sick, it is utterly impossible to take them to the few hospitals in the large towns. 31. Bojanowski saw that every village needed a convent, bub how was- it to be done ? It was difficult ©nough to support the Sisters of Charity in the tow D &. He looked around him od the young girls of. U, e village longing to give themselves to God, but too poor to cuter existing convents. They earned their own bread, and led lives of prayer and purity, and he resoled to band such as these together. The Archbishop approved, and he bo»au with three ; he placed them in a cotiage on lus own estate, and *aye them land to cultivate. Their simple wants were soon supplied, °and they found time to teach little children and to nurse the ewk They exercised a strong moral iufluence in the village. God blessed the work, and it grew apace. < In course of time a noviciate house was built ; and at the date of which we are speaking, the congregation, after twenty years of existence, numbered over three hundred subjects (distributed into three provinces), and had bjsn blessed and approved of by tho Holy See. The Mother House bore a close resemblance to our idea of the oottage at Nazareth. Perfect cleanliness and austere poverty reign

throughout, while silence, recollection, and «he. strictest charity charaeterue the sisters. There is a large school-root* 'filled daily with little ones. The parish churoh standing opposite the Convent gates is under .the Sisters' care. They guard the Blessed Sacrament, they tend the altar and keep the church clean, they nurse the sick in the village/ and are the general resort in tuFering iiud trouble of all kinds. They are supported by the work of their own hands— some cultivate the land belonging to them ; some aro busy in the laundry, some mind the cows and poultry. When winter comes, they spin linen and take in needlework from great houses ; they make scapulars and rosaries * and the grateful peasants whose children they have taught, whose sick they have nursed, bring offerings to their door. We rose with the community at four a.m., and never shall we torget those mornings— the sun just, gildiug the sky, the soft clouds of pink fading in the horizon, the perfect stillness of nature, the lorn» !u ai l>? wl »t«>-Teiled Sisters crossing the road to the churuh to adorethe Blessed Sacrament ; then the prayers in the quaint, soft Polish tongue, the long silent meditation, the old grey churoh, the quiet dead around, all made ud a wonderful picture. The Cure" was lately dead, and for the moment there was no resident priest, and so no daily Mass, but when Meditation was over, a vehicle of the roughest description and perfectly guiltless of springs, ™JJ b 7b 7 • Btoufc Pony. cam« to the door. A peasant drove, and we, with Mother-General and n Sister, went to Strein,.a small to*u v few miies off, where the Jesuits had a church. It waa the-smallest ohutch we had ever seen, anrl one of the loveliest, a perfect little gem. Formerly belonging to some monastery, it had fallen^ into' ruins, had been restored by .the excellent Count P and presented to the Society. lhere were frequent Masses, and a devout congregation. After Masa we passed through the sacristy into a parlour where we were received by the Father Minister, and had breakfast. The blackest of cottee was served in small covered cups of dark brown ware, and milk and sugar only brought in, in condescension to English taste. Wehad a letter of introduction to the Father Hector irom un English, ifather wbo knew him, but unfortunately he was absent. The Kector ot another house, who had just given the retreat to the clergy at rosen, came in. He had during his noviuiate made acquaintance with the late .bather Jones, S.J., so much loved andlawntei in the Irish province.

r « 5 » Fathers told us what a blessing tho •« Servants of the Mother of God had proved to the country- what incalculable good had been wrought among the children by them, how", much their influence tended to preserve the faith in a Catholic country ruled by Protestants. We little thought, then, how soon that country would be put upon its 4nal, and have to make the choice between faith and persecution, 1

The noviciate house was under the direction of the Jesuits, and! one of the Fathers from Strem was the ordinary confessor ; their rula has been adapted from that of S. Ignatius. Thus this lowly plant in the garden ot the Church has grown and flourished under the shadow ot that mighty tree whose branches have spread into all land, whosa branches have spread into all landß, whose floweM ha*e been heroio deeds, and whose fruit martyrs and saints. What wonder if it has caught a spark of living zeal for souls ! We returned to the Mother House at sunset that day. Well do we remember when school was over and we went to call hove tho cows, winch were pastured beyond a little river which was on the other sicte of the church. We sat on the bank and Bal d our Rusary • and as the cojvs one by one forded the stream, wo longed for the 'artist • power to retain the scene ; and then we 'yen*, into the o ■urohyard to the spot, sheltered by trees, where rest the bodies of some of the community who had fished their course and entered into their rest .Beneath the altar was the crypt where the tsoffin ofCo-iint P a great benefuetor to the congregation, was lying. Lights were kept constantly burning, and the Sisters went duily to pray by the co ro »c One day, aoeompanie 1 by lister Theodora, we set out in a carnage lent to us by Countess P to vi4t one of tho bra,,eh houses some twelve miles distant. After a lou- drive ihro.ig!» the dreary country the scene changed. We were entering the well cultivated and wooded domains of General . We were brought back to tho middle age* again present, when, after Annas, through pasture lands and woods, we came out i., l.ont of the old chateau. 'As Si«ter Theodora knew there would not. be room for in in tUe tiny convent fllij asked hospitality for us from the General, wh/,, with his brother Count -. was then at home. The General's wife was dead • and us son s wife, who was the mispress of the house, was ab«ent with her husband. A charming housekeeper who spoke French ornno to receive us, and the beautiful spacious rooms, luxuriously furnished, that she gave us, proved a curious contrast to the poor convent we had JUSt l6lt. The chateau was a magnificent ore, with suite after suite of stately room*, richly appointed ; old family portraits looked down from thi wal.s .telling the history of by-gone d«ys. The windows looked out upon the grounds On one floor a door opened on a balcony, when£ steps *d into tho flower carden. Koses in Tvild luxuriance wl climbing around the stone steps - y one could wander into tlie wood* and find shelter beneath tl.e magnificent trees, or down to the Jak* where men or tight swans wore gracefully gliding on the surface • w» might linger by the flower beds or sit iv the var&us summiJSieJt it was a fairyhke place, and in the nri i, t of ail the beauty rose iW little Go bio diapol. We entered, and saw if belonged to a Jamil? who made Goa their first thought. No pains had been ™S Z render this chapel worthy of its-Umne Guest. But the wost * riki. £ and toueWpart of the whole was, to see the way in wLiclwli nSr thronged to that castle door. Thoro was no stern loj^kc en ll^nl g bes divided the grounds from the villa, e> The peasant? wewloJkeA upon as so many children, and when they wanted any thin- they miS fearlessly to ask for ,t. We crossed a bridge over a Ji.tufb/ook IS there, hardly a stone's throw from the castle, wo found the minUtuS convent, General had built it, and placed the Sister t™ thai tho ohUdron of his poor might be taught, and the sick of tlj vilL£