THE EMPRESS AUGUSTA AND THE NUNS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 244, 4 January 1878, Page 17

THE EMPRESS AUGUSTA AND THE NUNS.

Dubing the visit which t&eir Imperial Majesties paid to'the Rhenish •v province last week; Empress 'Augusta showed a really tender solicitude for the! welfare of the few convents thaff have not yet fallen'vic/tims,to:the iKultur-Kampf. On entering the Catholic Hospital at Kaisserwerth,, she greeted the sisters with the Christian salutation so seldom heard from Protestant .lips :•: • " Praised be Jesus Christ ! " When the Rev. Dauzenberg had finished presenting the sisters of the establishment, her Majesty said : These then are the children of our nerer-to-be-forgolten Mother Pranciska" (the general-superioress of the order who died last year at Aix-la-Chapelle). After a pause she continued ; " I loved her with all my heart ; so much so, that I cannot get over her death yet. ' I rejoiced when I knew that I should soon come to this convent again, and I am very glad to be here now " Then she requested the Rev. Dauzenberg to conduct her to the chapel where she knelt down and prayed for a few minutes, just as a good Catholic would have done. She left the convent with the same salutations she had used when entering it. In Dusseldorf the Empress vistied St Ann s Institution, whore she was received by the protectress of the foundation, Princess Hohenzollern. On leaving the convent she recommended the house in extremely warm terms to the president of the district government and the burgomaster of Dusseldorf who were present. From here she went to see the Sisters of the Holy

Cross, with whom she stopped a full hour conversing, r witli exquisite affability, with every one of the humble sisters, several of whom bad received distinctions from the Emperor for their admirable conduct in the last war. Whilst her Majesty was thus paying visits to poor nuns, her son, the Crown Prince, spent his time in the society of the Dusseldorf Freemasons, the bitter enemies of nuns and priests. Considering how cruelly the Catholic population is treated by the Emperor's Government, the reception of the Imperial family in Rhenish Prussia was a' very cordial one. The Emperor expressed himself highly gratified at it, and sent a Cabinet Order to President von Bernuth to 'thank his loyal city of Cologne for the magnificent reception he and the Empress met with on their visit to that metropolis. Brtihl, Cologne, and other towns through which their Majesties passed were brilliantly illuminated in the evening. After the last grand parade near Euskirchen, the Imperial cortege proceeded by rail to the Nieder,wald, near-Bingen, where the Emperor laid the foundation-stone of the monument which is to be erected in memory, of the gallant deeds ' of the German; army and the political success achieved by the German nation. On the 16th of September the Emperor arrived at Carlsruhe, accompanied by numerous princes and generals, who all assisted at the,grand review which the Emperor held of the 14th Army Corps.— lAiierjpooP Catfiolio Times.