Sister Adalberta Mette, SCC

Love Never Counts—

 Love Alone Counts

 Pauline von Mallinckrodt

A Brief Biography

Translated by Sister Julitta Gaul, SCC

and

Sister M. Pierre Koesters, SCC

Click here for the PDF version

Contents

Introduction

“Love never counts – Love alone counts”

From the Life of Pauline von Mallinckrodt up to the Founding of the Congregation

Childhood and Youth

Serving the Poor and the Sick

Beginning of Work for the Blind and the Founding of the Congregation

 

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, a Wise and Courageous Religious in a Difficult Time

 

The Young Religious Community and Its Trials During the Kulturkampf

The Call to the New World

Approaching Fulfillment

 

Epilogue

“… Love Alone Counts”

 

Significant Dates in the Life of Pauline von Mallinckrodt

 

Introduction

 Love never counts – Love only counts!

 

A play on words, this?  A paradoxical saying, at once true and false?  Suppose we ask Margretchen—half blind, mentally retarded Margaretha Feichtler—how we are to understand this saying, which both directed and characterized the life of Pauline von Mallinckrodt.

 

It was the year 1842.  In Paderborn, Pauline von Mallinckrodt was just beginning to take care of, instruct, and formally train hitherto poor and neglected blind children.  Among the first five was Margretchen, the daughter of a woman who sold vegetables at the market.  In a letter of December 19, 1842, to her cousin, Pauline described her:

… the fifth child, one whom he (the teacher) has until now found too stupid, will be the next one to be put into his class.  This poor creature is from Paderborn, [Margaretha Feichtler, born in 18161] and is considered feebleminded—extremely retarded.  For days she would be put to bed and locked into a room while her mother went out to earn a livelihood.  No one bothered about her, and if she went outside in good weather, the street urchins would laugh at her because of her dreadful awkwardness.  And so her condition became worse and worse.  She hasn’t gone to confession yet, nor has she received Holy Communion.  Dr. Schmidt didn’t want to have anything to do with her and thought we should have accepted a normal girl in her place.  Finally he gave in to my repeated petitions and now, after only six weeks, we can furnish evidence that the girl is not so retarded after all.  She can already repeat little stories in high German and also draw correct conclusions.  I’m so happy that we rescued the poor creature from a state of mere vegetation and are able to transform her into a human being.2

At first Margretchen went into violent tantrums; she would thrash her arms from side to side and ward off anyone who tried to get near her.  And yet she had to be cared for like a little child.  Pauline succeeded in winning her confidence.  How?  The poetess Christa Peikert-Flaspöhler expresses that in Mother Pauline’s song to Margaretha Feichtler:

I take you as you are

There is only one of you in the world

I know that your life is worthwhile

 

I seek you behind fear and night

You awake in me love and patience

I hear your life laugh softly

 

God accepts you as you are

There is only one of you in the world

You sense that your life is worthwhile.3

 

Hour after hour, day and night Tante Pauline, as Margaretha called her, personally devoted herself to this “unhappy creature.”4  She cleaned her up and taught her the simplest, most essential habits of daily personal hygiene: washing and dressing herself, eating properly.  And so Pauline’s unfailing patience and kindness accomplished what no one would have thought possible.  Not only did Margretchen carry out these routine actions with eagerness; she also learned to associate with others, to tell a story, to spell, to knit.  Pauline attempted even more: she spared no effort to prepare Margretchen for her first Holy Communion.  People who knew the girl advised Pauline against it, for they thought it would be wasted effort; but Pauline would say:  “Must a person be regarded as an imbecile just because she has never been taught or even been in contact with human kindness?  This child, too, has a soul, and I trust that grace can work powerfully even in the soul of a retarded person.”5  And again Pauline succeeded in doing what even the pastor had deemed impossible; she awakened the girl’s desire to receive her first Holy Communion.  During the time of preparation, Margretchen would kneel in bed at night, praying again and again:  “That I may get there!”  And she really did “get there”: she received Jesus Christ under the form of bread.

Margretchen always remained Pauline’s favorite.  Even when the foundress, whom the bishop had appointed superior of her congregation, could no longer devote herself exclusively to the blind children, Margretchen always had free access to “her mother, who is so good.”

The depths of Margretchen’s love for Mother Pauline manifested itself particularly during the short fatal illness before Mother Pauline’s death.  During these days of alternating fear and hope, Margretchen was almost constantly praying her rosary.  And when she learned that Mother Pauline had died, she was well-nigh inconsolable.  “She whom we loved so much has left us; she who did so much good is no longer with us.  And she was so gentle.”6  Sunday after Sunday, for fifteen years, she would visit Mother Pauline’s grave to pray there and so be close to “her mother.”

Love never counts … Mother Pauline’s unfailing patience and loving devotion brought light into a life that had been spent in the confines of darkness for twenty-six years.  Margretchen learned from experience that love never counts, keeps no record of its gifts; love simply exists for others.  The love that Mother Pauline had lavished on Margretchen remained a living thing all her life.

 

Love never counts—Love alone counts!

 

Let us look more deeply into mother Pauline’s life in order to realize that our motif here is not a mere play on words, not just a paradoxical saying, but that it reduces to a common denominator the many facets of Pauline von Mallinckrodt’s distinguishing trait: “ … an inexpressibly large heart with nothing but love in it.”7

 

From the Life of Pauline von Mallinckrodt

up to the Founding of the Congregation

Childhood and Youth

 

“I, Pauline, daughter of Detmar Mallinckrodt  of Dortmund, a Protestant, and his wife  Bernardine von Hartmann, a Catholic, was born June 3, 1817, in Minden, Westphalia, and by holy Baptism became a member of the Catholic Church.”8 

 

In that way Pauline von Mallinckrodt begins her autobiography, which she wrote in 1857 at the wish of several Sisters.  From the very beginning she speaks of what she considered during her entire life as gift and mission, grace and challenge: to be a member of the Church.  The difference in religion of her parents and its consequent painful chasm

which Pauline felt, in spite of the atmosphere of mutual love and attention, sensitive consideration and prudence, led to the strengthening of her faith and caused  the Catholic, all-embracing attitude that characterized her already before the founding of the Congregation.  Her father, at first regional director and manager of the division of taxes and real estate in Minden, later district vice-president there, was transferred in 1824 to Aix-la-Chapelle as district vice-president.  In her autobiography Pauline speaks of this time:

After spending a happy childhood within the circle of my parents and my younger brothers, George and Hermann in Minden, my father was transferred to the office of president [vice-president is meant] to Aix-la-Chapelle in the Rhine Province.  I was about seven years old at that time.  This change of residence was a blessing sent by God, for Aix-la-Chapelle provided for a thoroughly Catholic education.  My prudent mother ingeniously utilized these fortunate advantages to give her four children the best Catholic training. (God blessed her with another daughter, Bertha, in Aix-la-Chapelle.)9

Her father allowed his wife to rear their children as Catholics.  In so doing, his career was in constant risk, because according to the Prussian law of the time, the boys had to follow the religion of the father; the girls could be raised in the religion of the mother.  “Action to the contrary leads to removal from office,” thus was it stated in the “Declaration” of 1803.10  The father saw this intrusion of the state as a great injustice, but kept for himself the inner freedom to allow the education to his wife.  As a result he had to accept the fact that he was twice passed over for promotion as president.11  When in the year 1834, in recognition of his distinguished political services, the King of Prussia bestowed on Pauline’s father and his descendants the rank and title of nobility, she wrote to her grandmother, “I feel that this elevation in rank is a quite indifferent matter as far as I am concerned, as it is also for father personally.”12  In the same letter she humorously says:

 

 “The best thing of the entire matter is that in virtue of the same, we have the right to make anyone pay a fine of  [highly estimated] 1000 talers* who does not pay us proper respect.  We receive 500 talers of the designated sum. I wish all people would treat us without proper deference, then thanks to our title of nobility, we would have hopes of getting rich.”13

 During his entire life, Pauline’s father maintained his honesty and decisiveness, combined with fine-feeling, and prudent consideration, character traits which also impressed themselves more and more on Pauline.  These were united with cheerfulness and ingenuity, responsiveness to all that is beautiful, as well as tender sympathy for every suffering creature.  Pauline loved to learn but also enjoyed games and recreation.  In later years she often talked about the merry games of war she played with her brothers, how she frequently vanquished the “enemy,” and even captured the flag from her brothers’ stronghold.  She was an enthusiastic horsewoman.  When she made her debut in Aix-la-Chapelle at the age of sixteen, she enjoyed entertainment and dancing.  She loved to attend the theater with her mother.  One very special pleasure of hers was the annual holiday at her grandmother’s estate in Borchen near Paderborn.  Pauline described it as follows:

The trips we used to make to our maternal grandmother in the spring or fall had a truly beneficial effect on me.  This wise, venerable old lady lived on her estate at Borchen near Paderborn, and there  her children and grandchildren often gathered around her.  I was very responsive to the pleasures of happy rural life.  The walks in the woods, through fields and meadows, the gathering of plums, the potato-roasts in the autumn, the harvest festival, the departure of the hunters for the chase and their return in the evening—all these rural pleasures, which I quietly relished, gave me much joy.  And what imperceptibly proved most advantageous for me in all this was the association with so many virtuous, genuinely pious, and at the same time very loving persons, such as I frequently found among my relatives.14

Even today her letters to her grandmother bear eloquent testimony to the love she showed her in childlike simplicity and reverence:

Sunday, November 22, 1834

 

Dear Grandmother,

Right now I should like to travel to Borchen by train, sit down to Sunday dinner with the family, have a hearty laugh, and enjoy your delicious meal to the full—why, I could eat the whole roast rabbit myself.15

In another letter we read:

 

Aix-la-Chapelle, June 14, 1835

 

Dear Grandmother,

 

How much I envy Father in being able to stay with you in Borchen so long!  I only hope that the prolongation of his trip will not deprive us of the joy of seeing you this fall.  I would like to beg you, dear Grandmother, to please put in a good word for us with Father.  True, it is hardly becoming for someone who has just come back from Paris and now has the joy of being with Bertha to be thinking about another trip.  But human nature is so weak.  Even in fortune’s lap we find it hard to renounce pleasure, and so you will have to excuse me, too.

 

I was happy to learn from Father’s letter that you are well, but I wasn’t really surprised, for I am used to hearing from those who see you at brief intervals that you always remain the same, so I would be astonished to hear otherwise.  That is a good sign, dear Grandmother, a sign that we shall have the happiness of having you with us for a long time to come.16

Frau von Mallinckrodt devoted a great deal of time to the training of her children.  She was particularly proud of Pauline, her eldest.  On one occasion Pauline’s mother declared:  “So far as her way of thinking and her temperament are concerned, nothing purer or nobler can be wished for.  Without letting Pauline know it, both of us gratefully recognize the treasure heaven has given us in her.”17 On another occasion Frau von Mallinckrodt wrote to her mother in Borchen: “Pauline is big and healthy; her behavior, too, is excellent in every respect, and so far as her temperament and character are concerned, there is nothing more to be desired.  I have reason to be proud of her.  My deepest gratitude to God for this.”18

 

Frau von Mallinckrodt’s sincerity, goodness, and constant friendliness, as well as her deep faith, were imprinted on all her children; in a special way, however, we find these character traits in Pauline.

 

The mother, herself devoted to the care of the poor and the sick, did not surmise that Pauline was imbibing this same love of selfless service at a very early age.  One little incident, related to a Sister a few years later by a schoolmate of young Pauline, will clarify this statement.

 

Pauline had not been attending school very long.  Every morning she looked forward to her classes and to all interesting new things she would be learning.  And so the teacher could not understand why Pauline was tardy so often.  Since the child, otherwise so candid, never gave the reason, the teacher herself investigated and found all kinds of pieces of glass in her schoolbag.  In answer to her astonished, inquiring glance, seven-year-old Pauline explained, “I found them on the street.  I didn’t want poor children who have no shoes to hurt themselves.”19

One of Frau von Mallinckrodt’s greatest concerns was to bring up her children in the Catholic faith.  Out of deference to the father’s Protestant affiliation, she accomplished this with tactful reserve.  Pauline was very responsive to matters of faith and manifested a deep love for prayer at an early age.

 

One Good Friday Pauline wanted to make the Way of the Cross, with which the pupils were familiar, in the garden of St. Leonard School.  But her mother wanted her to stay at home on this special holy day of her Protestant father.  Pauline complied, but devised a new plan, for she knew the pictures of the stations at St. Leonard’s by heart.  After looking for Pauline for some time, her mother found her climbing the attic stairs on her knees.  Her mother looked at her questioningly.  “I’m praying the stations,” her ten year old daughter whispered.  The mother was taken aback.  She had a presentiment that God would play an important role in Pauline’s life.20

 

The religious training Pauline had received from her mother was decisively deepened by her contact with Luise Hensel. Although Luise taught Pauline only a few years, the two remained on intimate terms all her life.  In a letter to Luise, twenty-three year old Pauline reveals how much she owes to her teacher of long ago:

 

I owe you an immense debt of gratitude.  You laid the foundation of my contentment, of my happiness—for peace, rest, and joy are to be found in God alone.  And it was you who led me to this fountainhead of all temporal and eternal salvation.  You would deserve heaven on my account alone.21

 

Pauline loved her teacher.  Some time before this, she had told her:

 

Do you remember how we used to go up the stairs with you after class at St. Leonard’s and how we would pluck your sleeve or at least ask to carry your books?  At the door of your room most of the girls would say good-bye. But a few of us—for instance, Pauline von Mallinckrodt—would go to into your cell, and then the questions would begin.  When I pass your room now, I feel a bit homesick.  If only I could still talk to you once in a while!  Now I would get much more out of it than I did then.  But this much is certain: if we should not see each other again in this world and should meet later on in heaven, then you will see that I owe many a jewel in my crown to you.22

Pauline’s wealth of ideas and her open-mindedness as well as her joy in things religious are very definitely expressed in her compositions.   Pauline chose to write most of them in letter or dialogue form.  Luise Hensel used such compositions to form and stabilize Pauline’s character.  Her comments reveal fine insights into human nature as well as pedagogical skill.

 

You choice and handling of the theme are good.  Too bad your poor handwriting has made it impossible for me to correct your composition.

 

Satisfactory; but … if only Pauline would finally learn penmanship!

 

Satisfied with your effort, though your work is not altogether successful.  Just keep trying.

 

The idea of your composition is rather good; if only your spelling and penmanship were better!

You really are crazy about letter writing!23

And crazy about letter writing she remained: about 3, 540 of her letters are still in existence today.  Pauline considered letter-writing one of the most effective means of making others happy, giving them advice, consoling them, or simply telling them about her experiences so that others might share them.  At the same time, she was not concerned about a well-written letter, but rather about its sincerity and the love she wished to show to others.  Nor did she look at the handwriting of others.  “So far as I am concerned, you need never excuse your penmanship or feel embarrassed about it.  I look only at the heart that is speaking through the letter, at nothing else. And so I don’t organize my thoughts either when I write to you.”24

 

Luise Hensel’s influence on Pauline was a lasting one.  Pauline’s early maturity, which manifested itself in her clear thinking and judgment, her resolute will, her cheerfulness and serenity, her kindliness and profound union with God, drew many people to her when they came in contact with her in her youth.  If we contemplate her portrait as a young girl (the only one that has been preserved from that period) we find that it confirms what many people felt after their first meeting with her, and what Professor Schlueter’s sister described to her blind brother:  “Her face cannot really be called beautiful, but it creates a highly favorable impression.  Her eyes express friendliness, cheerfulness, a childlike spirit, as well as boundless good will.”25

 

In Pauline, cheerfulness and gravity blended with each other and characterized her very being more and more.  “A highly simple nature, clear and transparent as light, and working in the same manner.26”  People used to say, “You would recognize her immediately in a large group even if you had never seen her before.”

 

In the spring of 1832 the parents sent her to a mixed denominational boarding school in Liege for several months “to speak this language [French] which I like anyway,27 she wrote to her grandmother and then continued, “I am acquainted with boarding school life already from St. Leonard’s, and if it is here in Liege as it was there, then I will not hang my head.”28   “Although there remains much to be desired,”29 she would gladly join in any kind of fun, but if the reputation of another were at stake, she would do all she could to protect that person. “Pauline is no killjoy; but when she believes that the reputation of someone is in danger, she stands at her side, even though she might stand alone against one hundred.”  That was the judgment of a school companion when the entire class maligned one of the teachers and Pauline defended her.  “C’est la Mallinckrodt!” – (That’s the Mallinckrodt girl!  That’s the way she is.)30--the directress of the school declared.

 

That which to Pauline “remained to be desired” was the restriction or even the impediment “in the fulfillment of her religious obligations.”31  Pauline found strength in reading Sacred Scripture and in the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, which was tolerated as long as it did not disturb the order of the house.  Pauline knew that without these two “pillars” her faith could not live.  Nevertheless, having returned to Aix-la-Chapelle, the youthful Pauline was not free from “severe interior trials against the faith.”32  During this time of interior struggles, she did not neglect prayer and she experienced God’s help.  She writes in her autobiography:

 

During a novena he freed me, I might say in a wonderful manner, from the indescribable torment of scrupulosity.  This, so to say, suddenly disappeared without a trace, and after my agonizing struggles against the faith, he in his goodness filled my soul with such a radiant light of faith that I can only describe it with the words “gift of faith.”  A feeling and  light of faith very surely, clearly and firmly filled me with each and every truth of faith so firmly that I would sooner have mistrusted my own eyes as this clear light.33

 

 Looking back, she thanked God for permitting her to suffer these trials not only for her own good, but that she might be able to offer sympathy and guidance to others who would be similarly affected.

 

When Pauline was seventeen, her mother became seriously ill.  She herself realized that she would die soon; the family, however, tried everything to preserve the mother’s life.  The doctor recommended treatment at some mineral baths, and Pauline accompanied her mother to Bad Schwalbach, a newly discovered spa, where conditions were still poor and in no way met the requirements of a health resort, especially not for a seriously ill person.  With anxious care Pauline kept watch at her mother’s side day and night, nursing her tenderly.  Her mother, however, used the time that still remained to her to advise Pauline and to prepare her for her future responsibilities in the family.  “Keep God before your eyes!  Always be united with each other!  You will always live on in my love.  Take good care of your brothers and sister and of your father.  Always try to make him happy!”34

 

Pauline was filled with deep sorrow, but her mother’s courage and fortitude strengthened her, too.  Fully conscious, her mother said her yes to the will of God, and Pauline realized that in God her mother would always remain close to them.  She died on August 17, 1834, at the age of 47 years.  It was Pauline’s first experience with death; after that, death had lost all its terrors for her. After the death of her mother, Pauline wrote, “The loss of my mother awakened in me an intense desire for heaven, whither she had gone.”35  Pauline was to cherish that desire until her own death.

Serving the Poor and the Sick

 

From this time on Pauline, despite her youth, held the position of mother of the family.  She presided in the district president’s residence with its manifold domestic and social obligations.  Above all, she endeavored to comply with her dying mother’s wish by devoting herself lovingly to her two teenage brothers and her eight-year-old sister and by providing them with good training.  She tried to fulfill her father’s every wish, was his devoted companion on his trips and walks, and accompanied him to social functions.  Though she sometimes felt overtaxed, she was always intent on fulfilling the desires of those around her.  In her selflessness, her heart had room for others.  In spite of all the demands made on her, she still found time to help poor and sick persons.  With her friend, Anna von Lommessen and several young women from well-to-do families, she called on needy people and supported them with the means at her disposal.  In the household account book her father often found records of rather large expenditures for the poor.  Even as a thirteen-year-old girl Pauline would give her allowance to poor and sick people.  So, for example, she once gave her mother a monthly account of what she had done with her money:  “Gave 1 taler* to church, 2 talers to a poor child that had no dress, 3 talers to a sick widow who had nothing to eat.”36 Pauline’s personal expenditures were always limited to a few pfennigs hardly worth mentioning.  And when her father would urge her to get something personal for herself, her only answer was, “But I have everything.”

The people of Aix-la-Chapelle were amazed to see young girls of wealthy families dedicating themselves so zealously to the service of the poor and the sick.  “Those young girls are crazy,” they commented.  Very soon, however, when they saw the results of such unselfish service, they changed their opinion.  Now they were only “the holy young ladies.”

 

Pauline’s father placed no hindrance in the way of her charitable work.  He was concerned, however, about her constantly diminishing pleasure in social functions, and he hoped to reawaken her taste for society by means of an extended trip through Belgium and France.  Pauline did indeed drink in all the pleasures of such a trip, but at the same time she made use of it to gain an insight into organizations for the poor and the handicapped.  Her desire to help the underprivileged became stronger and stronger.

 

During this period of struggle with the problem of her vocation in life, Pauline was confirmed.  A few days later she reached a firm decision that had hitherto seemed impossible to her: she broke her friendly relations with a young man who often stayed at the family home and to whom, as she herself declared, she was devoted “with her whole soul, with all her youthful ardor.”  Later on, she described the experience as follows:

 

A new life dawned for me.  With peace in my heart, I kept up my lively interest in affairs around me. Unconcerned about myself, I could the better devote myself to others, and it was my joy to lavish my love and attention on the poor, the members of Christ.  An intense longing to become a Sister of Mercy welled up in my soul.37

This longing of eighteen year old Pauline to dedicate her life wholly to the poor never left her.  But the road to that goal was still a long one.

 

In 1839 Pauline’s father retired from office.  This meant saying good-bye to Aix-la-Chapelle, for her father wanted to spend the last years of his life in Boeddeken, his estate in the vicinity of Paderborn.  Pauline made the journey alone with her father, her two brothers were studying, and Bertha, her younger sister, was to remain in Aix-la-Chapelle at a boarding school.  For Pauline the change from Aix-la-Chapelle to remote Boeddeken meant a complete reorientation of her life.  She had to leave her familiar surroundings, part from her friends, and above all, be separated from her beloved poor and sick people.  Writing about her first year in Boeddeken, she declared:

 

Life here in Boeddeken is not to my liking.  The estate is an out-of-the-way place, a former monastery, about a half-hour’s walk from the church.  Since we have a great deal of company here, I am very little recollected, and must spend the time I would otherwise devote to prayer, spiritual reading, and my beloved poor, in useless conversation.  Granted that everything done out of pure love is service of God, but I am such a poor creature that I am worlds away from such perfection.  I’m glad to be in Boeddeken only inasmuch as we are glad to be where God places us.38

 

But here, too, her untiring zeal and keen observation soon discovered new possibilities of serving the poor and the sick of the area.  Her father did not object to her going to church every morning for Mass.  Frequently her walk home took a long time, for her observant eye and sympathetic heart soon found out where help was needed.  Pauline was grateful to her father for leaving her free in her works of charity even if he did not approve of her desire to become a religious.  Pauline simply waited, praying that God would make his will known to her.

 

During the winter months, when Pauline and her father lived in Paderborn, she could pursue her charitable work more easily.  Here she came in contact with much of the misery resulting from increasing industrialization.  There was no such thing as government support for the unemployed or the sick.  Children were most cruelly affected.  They were forced to either work or run the streets in utter neglect.  Pauline was shocked at the sight of such wretchedness.  During her very first winter in Paderborn she tried to help where she could.  She founded a “Society for the Care of the Sick in Their Homes,” and to it she joined the “Society of Volunteers for Night Nursing.”  She persuaded well-to-do families to prepare meals for poor families.  She did not shrink from the hardest and most menial work.  During the first six months she herself took over more than a hundred night watches—and these in addition to her already numerous duties.  After a night of watching, she often returned home depressed, bringing with her the concerns of a sick mother for her little children.  Older children were taken care of during school hours, but younger ones were completely on their own.

 

In 1840, therefore, she founded and directed a day nursery for little children.  She began with eight children, but within a few weeks the number had increased to such an extent that she was forced to look around for larger quarters.  A year later she wrote to Luise Hensel:

 

Our school for the poor here in Paderborn cannot compare with the one in Aix-la-Chapelle; besides, it is only a day nursery for the poor, neglected children between the ages of two and six.  However, God has helped and blessed us so visibly in this project that I would consider it wrong not to provide for its continued existence.  Fifteen months ago, we began with nothing, taking in only eight poor children at first.  Now we have about eighty little pupils, all of whom receive meals—i.e., at noon and in the afternoon—in the institution.  Their health is improving, and even if they don’t know much about God, the Lord loves them anyway.  We dismiss the girls at the age of six, but they come back for needlework lessons after school, about four o’clock.  In this way we can keep an eye on them and do many things for them later on.39

 

The organization and support of the day nursery involved great difficulties, especially financial ones.  Pauline herself defrayed most of the expenses for food, but she was also very inventive in tapping other sources of help for her welfare work.  So, for example, she succeeded in having the proceeds from concerts and plays donated for the poor children.  Above all, however, it was her personal commitment that overcame all difficulties.  At Christmastime, for example, she would be sewing far into the night in order to have gifts for the children and to let them experience a little joy in their poverty-stricken lives.

 

 

---

 

Beginning of the Work for the Blind and

Founding of the Congregation

But the scope of Pauline’s mission to the poor had by no means reached its limits.  In 1842 she became aware of the need of undertaking a further task: the care of blind children.  The district physician, Dr. Hermann Joseph Schmidt, family doctor and friend of the Mallinckrodt family, urged her to undertake the care of “doubly poor”40 children. At first there were two blind children; shortly after, there were five, among them the Margretchen mentioned in the introduction.  Pauline dedicated herself wholeheartedly to this work.  Day and night she was with the blind.  She not only took care of them but also tried to educate them.  She herself learned the tactile writing then in use for the blind. [That referred to some kind of printed letter, then later of raised characters. The point writing, devised by Louis Braille in 1825, was not yet known.41]   She also learned how to weave straw; she poured letters for the reading slate and made a relief chart for geography in padded embroidery.   She was very fond of the blind children, devoting herself particularly to the poorest and most handicapped ones, as the example of Margaretha Feichtler shows.  Nor did it take the children long to be aware of the fact that here was someone who loved them, who wanted to make them happy, who brought light into their lives.  People could often be heard saying that they had never seen happier children than those in the school for the blind.  On Sundays and holy days Pauline would take them for an outing in the country.  One summer evening the children came home singing happily, as always.  Running up to a teacher who had stayed home, a blind child threw its arms around her and cried out: “Oh, if only you were a blind child, so that you could have enjoyed yourself with us!” The teacher understood.  How could it be otherwise when Pauline was with the children!

 

When Pauline’s father died in 1842, she was relieved of her social obligations.  “We continued to maintain our small household, but the time was approaching when each of us would pursue our own ways.”  In the summer of 1843 Pauline, Bertha and Hermann—George was prevented by his professional work—traveled through Germany, Austria, and Italy.  For Pauline’s future activities this trip proved very useful.  She enjoyed the places of interest in the different cities, such as Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Münich, Prague, Vienna, and Milan.  But more important to her was getting acquainted with countless institutions of all kinds:42 orphanages, institutions for the blind, hospitals, day nurseries, mental institutions.43  The relationships which she was able to initiate were of inestimable significance for the administration of the school for the blind in Paderborn and other charitable institutions.  In order to make the instruction of the blind in Westphalia secure, Pauline strove to have her small private Institute for the Blind raised in 1847 to the Provincial Institute for the Blind.   Pauline would have liked an inter-denominational establishment, but negotiations resulted in two separate institutes: the Protestant division in Soest and the Catholic in Paderborn.  The latter one was opened on December 6, 1847.  Beforehand Pauline had transferred her Private Institute for the Blind together with its funds to the Catholic Division of the von Vincke Provincial Institute for the Blind.  To Pauline was given its administration.

 

Pauline found her fulfillment in works of charity; but her desire to carry on this ministry as a religious grew stronger and stronger.  In that case, what would become of the blind children?  So she looked about for a congregation that would be willing to undertake this work. When she finally found a French congregation, the Prussian government refused to grant the congregation entry into Germany.  Other congregations that Pauline consulted were unable to take over the project because of a lack of personnel.  Pauline waited and prayed:  “It is my heart’s desire, yes, my only desire, that God’s will be fulfilled in me.”44

 

At this time matters came to an unexpected turning point.  Pauline took her difficulties to the auxiliary bishop of Cologne, Gottfried Anton Claessen, a long-standing friend of the Mallinckrodt family.  He had known Pauline from her childhood and had often counseled her during her adolescence.  After considering the matter for a few days, he gave her the answer that was to determine her life and her work:

 

I have arrived at the conclusion that it is God’s will that you yourself remain with the work that God has until now blessed under your direction.  But go hand in hand with the Church.  When you return home, ask the bishop whether he will give his approval for the founding of a small religious congregation.  God will prosper the undertaking.45

Such a thought had never entered Pauline’s mind.  A number of years later she wrote:

 

This answer was totally unexpected; now that it had been made, however, and I had thought about it, I was ready to act upon it, and in the depths of my heart I felt that it was the right thing, that it was good and pleasing to God.  I firmly resolved to follow it and felt that by God’s grace I had the strength to go through with the matter despite all obstacles that I might encounter. – Now that I look back over my life, I cannot but admire God’s wonderful providence enough.  God had wanted this decision from me.  He has guided me toward it along paths that I should never have surmised would lead me to it.  And all these ways in which, with an upright heart toward God, I had been seeking something entirely different from the goal he had in mind, served, according to the designs of his wise, fatherly providence, to qualify me for carrying out what he wanted of me.  Man proposes; God disposes.46

During the following weeks Pauline devoted much thought to the bishop’s advice, especially during prayer.  Three of her closest associates felt called to walk this way with her.  Many things had to be considered and decided upon.  Glancing back, Pauline later wrote in her Brief Autobiography:  

 

“For the founding of a congregation more is required than merely the blessing of Holy Church.  The Most Reverend Bishop also considered the approval of the civil authorities indispensable and wished me to secure the same according to the law of the land prevailing at that time.”47

 

She traveled to Berlin and remained there several months in order to obtain corporation rights.  She had to practice much patience and assume many cares and struggles, before she finally received the state’s approval of the founding of the Congregation, signed on February 24, 1849, by King Frederick William IV.  She took advantage of her stay in Berlin to re-visit the blind institutes there and to become acquainted with various other charitable establishments.

 

Upon returning to Paderborn, she wrote “The First Draft of the Constitutions” for the new congregation of Sisters.  These “Directives,” as Pauline also called them, are an impressive testimony to her knowledge of Sacred Scripture and to her clear vision of the following of Christ in religious life:  “The Sisters of Christian Charity should be so permeated with the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ that all their deeds and actions manifest the presence of this spirit.”48 

She spent the final week before investiture in retreat as far as that was possible.  Finally, everything was ready.  On August 21, 1849, Pauline and her three companions received the religious habit in the Busdorf Church, Paderborn, in the presence of many people.  Bishop Drepper, who personally celebrated the solemn Mass and performed the ceremony, appointed Pauline superior of the little congregation.  Now her official title was “Reverend Mother”; but all those to whom she had always been devoted in motherly love, simply called her “Mother Pauline” from now on.  She herself always remained  “Sister” among the Sisters as we can gather from her letters, which she signed “Sister Pauline.”

 

The blind shared the joy of this day in a special way.  For the congratulations they sang new songs, and they carefully examined the Sisters’ new clothing with their fingers.  Their hearts were full of joy and gratitude, for they knew that, as Sisters, those who were taking care of them were there entirely for them. 

 

The first four Sisters of Christian Charity—this was the name of the little congregation—spent the rest of their festive day in quiet seclusion.  Recalling this momentous day in later years, Mother Pauline wrote: “O blessed day—the goal of so many long years of desire!  A new life began; a life in the Church and for the Church.”49

Pauline von Mallinckrodt

A Wise and Courageous Woman Religious

at a Difficult Time

The Young Community of Sisters and its Trials During the Kulturkampf

After the founding of the congregation, Mother Pauline held the offices of superior, novice directress, and directress of the blind asylum.  She was the soul of the entire undertaking.  The other three Sisters continued their former duties: Sister Maria as teacher of the twenty blind children; Sister Mathilde as supervisor of more than one hundred poor children in the day nursery; Sister Elizabeth as nurse and homemaker in the small motherhouse.  Mother Pauline devoted whatever time she could spare to the blind.  About this period Sister Maria wrote:

 

Despite all her cares and duties, she spent as much time as she could as often as she could in the circle of her beloved blind.  Before the new motherhouse was built, that is, until 1855, she took all her meals with them, gave them singing lessons, and often took them out for a walk.  Our Reverend Mother’s love for the blind was centered not only on their physical and mental needs.  During the various seasons and on special feasts of the year, she devised many ways of giving them pleasure and brightening their lives.  On Sundays she would think of some different diversion for them—now this, now that.  For hours she would read an interesting book to them or talk with them or take them for a walk.  A basket full of sandwiches or fruit or both would always go along.  Every summer she would take the blind children to the country where they could enjoy themselves to their hearts’ content.  Usually they would come home singing.  For the feast of St. Nicholas and for Christmas and Easter, Mother Pauline arranged some special pleasure for the blind children.50

Soon new fields of activity were added.  On December 31, 1850, Sister Mathilde traveled to Dortmund to take charge of the teaching at the elementary school for girls there. The following year, since the number of Sisters had increased, the Congregation took charge of an orphanage in Steele.  As time went on, more schools were accepted.  Now Mother Pauline had scarcely any time left for the blind.  Again and again she visited the Sisters in their sphere of activity and helped as much as she could.  So, for example, we read about her personal way of functioning:

 

At the time we took over the orphanage in Steele, our total membership was only nine Sisters.  Love for the orphaned children, however, made it possible for our dear Reverend Mother to assign five Sisters to this mission.  But since all of us were still novices, we had the great joy of having Reverend Mother with us for a quarter of a year.  She showed us in action what it means to take the place of a mother for the poor orphans.  From early morning until late at night she was wholly occupied with the children.  About twenty of our little ones had a rash all over their heads down to the forehead.  Reverend Mother insisted on personally washing their heads every day in order to get rid of the lice.  Actually, she took upon herself all the household chores: she swept the floors, scrubbed, and ironed.  It was touching to see how concerned she was to make the particular work of each Sister easier.  And when evening came, we were delighted to gather around Reverend Mother without being disturbed.  I shall never forget those delightful recreations; she always seemed cheerful and in good spirits.  If the Sisters had told her about their experience of the day and the difficulties they had encountered, she would lovingly draw all of them into the conversation, so that they would go back to their daily tasks with new courage and vigor.  Everything about Reverend Mother breathed forth love, goodness, and kindness; and so that this love of neighbor might be ever more deeply impressed on our hearts, she would give us a meditation every Saturday on love of neighbor, especially in connection with our duties toward the children.51

Joy reigned wherever she went.  She was interested in everyone—especially the Sisters, the children, the poor, the sick; she listened to everyone, encouraged, advised, and comforted everyone.  When necessary she would correct a Sister, but even then everyone knew that she was acting out of love. The poor always remained her special concern.  The chronicles have much to report about this aspect of her life.  Let us quote a few examples:

 

Reverend Mother had made it a regulation at the motherhouse in Paderborn that no poor person should ever be sent away without an alms of some kind.  If we were unable to give him what he asked for, she said, he must be given something else, even if it were only a piece of bread.   On their part, poor people knew from example that in their concerns they would always receive a favorable hearing from Reverend Mother, and therefore very many needy persons with the most diverse requests appeared at the convent gate.  For several years a number of sick and old people received their noon meal from the convent.  Besides, thirty or forty people were served at the entrance every day, and our Reverend Mother was very much concerned that her beloved poor would always receive a good meal, that they be served courteously, and that in winter they would be taken care of in a warm room.  In her goodness she reminded us again and again that we must see our Lord in the poor.  She would always greet them with a reverent bow. A beggar, who spent the night in a shepherd’s hut, was delighted whenever he met Mother Pauline coming down the road and he received her greeting.  He thought there was no lady like her anywhere, a lady who gave a poor beggar such a friendly greeting.52

 

It was the year 1854, and I was portress at the blind asylum.  That year the people suffered extreme poverty, for the winter was severe and cold.  Reverend Mother told me to give three pfennigs to every poor person who came to the door.  I did this, although the Sister in charge of the money told me that Reverend Mother had almost no cash on hand.  Every day we distributed about two talers in alms at the entrance.  Then, when I had no more money and went to Reverend Mother to get some, she would say:  “Isn’t it good, dear Sister, that we can share something with poor people!”  One evening I went to her room and again asked for money for alms.  Reverend Mother went to her desk, opened every drawer and little box, and gave me two silver groschen and eight pfennigs.  Sighing deeply, she said, “Sister, this is all I have.”  It is easy to imagine how I felt.  I went to the chapel and cried.  A few hours later Reverend Mother sent for me and said, “You see, Sister, we must have confidence.  God has helped us.  Good Sister Josepha from Stelle has sent us sixty talers and six woolen blankets.  Tomorrow we can begin again to help many poor people in their need.”53

 

In 1870 I was a postulant and was assigned to help the portress.  One day Reverend Mother, who had been out on a errand, brought in a poor man whom she had found sitting at the convent gate.  She told me to go to the kitchen to see if I could still find a cup of coffee, for some of the Sisters were in the chapel praying office, and the rest were taking care of some other work.  I brought the coffee she had asked for, but without milk, for I had been unable to find a drop. 

 

“But, dear child, you didn’t put any milk into it.” Reverend Mother declared reproachfully,  “the man can’t drink black coffee!”  I replied that I had not been able to find any milk.  “Besides,” I added rather pertly, for I had noticed that the man was drunk, “the black coffee will be good for him; it will sober him up.”  “Dear Sister,” she replied very seriously, “how can you say such a thing!  Who knows why he is intoxicated?  Perhaps he didn’t have anything to eat all day and then bought some brandy to warm up a bit, and he couldn’t stand the brandy on an empty stomach.  Be careful about making a rash judgment.  Now go and call one of the Sisters so that the man will get something decent to eat.”  Thoroughly ashamed of myself, I went off.54

 

Mother Pauline drew the strength for her untiring service from prayer, above all from the Eucharist.  Already before the founding of the Congregation, the Eucharist was the “innermost life of her soul.”55  It should be the source of life also for the Sisters.  “May the Bread of Life be the vivifying principle of the future congregation.  May its growth proceed from the Eucharist.  Therein may it find its development, its armor, all its life, its joy and its bliss.”56

Mother Pauline could pray for hours before the Blessed Sacrament. Yet that was not a piety remote from the world.  The Sisters relate: 

 

Very often one could find her in chapel kneeling at her place, holding a piece of paper in her hand, on which she had written all kinds of appointments, changes, etc., and holding the paper outward, speaking most confidently with the Lord and making all kinds of gestures with her hand: all with deep respect, devotion and love.57

 

Mother Pauline knew that she needed God’s help.  “What water is to the fish, that prayer is to the religious.”58  Mother Pauline’s life manifested that, far from being mutually exclusive, cheerfulness and love of God really belong together, and that a great deal of work is not synonymous with less prayer.  Wherever she was, she radiated the joy that she drew from nearness to God.  Even the greatest anxieties and reverses could not deprive her of this joy in God.

 

In 1871, under the regime of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Kulturkampf began.  A number of laws were passed that aimed directly at religious orders.  The most disastrous blow was that religious were no longer permitted to teach in schools.  At once Mother Pauline did her utmost to avert this disaster.  She undertook a number of journeys and approached persons of influence.  Everywhere she was received in a friendly and courteous manner.  “This lady is worthy of wearing a crown,” the heir to the throne of one of the leading German states declared after meeting her.59  Yet no one could help her.

 

Meanwhile, the Congregation had attained a membership of 245 Sisters, who were engaged in twenty different spheres of activity.  Mother Pauline had to accept the fact that one school after another was being closed and the Sisters were being dismissed from their field of activity.  They returned to Paderborn.  Mother Pauline received each one with great love, and let no one feel the care that weighed heavily upon her.  Where was she to find new activities for her Sisters?  She placed everything into the hands of God.  Her reliance on his help was unshakable.  In a letter she declared:  “A look into the future might well fill a person with fear and dread if he did not know that there is still a God and that he will direct everything for the best.”60  And in another letter she said:  “May God give us genuine trust in his divine Providence and help us through these adversities.  When human prospects seem utterly blocked, he still always has his ways and means; we simply may not lose heart.”61

The Call from the New World

Then a new way opened up.  Mother Pauline wrote, “While we were losing one field of activity after another in Europe, God was ordaining that the cry for Sisters in America became ever more urgent.”62

 

As early as April 1873 she sent the first Sisters to North America to take charge of a school in New Orleans.  Soon more Sisters followed.  From June to August 1873, mother Pauline herself traveled to North America to become acquainted with circumstances there and to investigate possibilities for new fields of labor for her Sisters.  As time went on, she frequently sent more Sisters to America, where flourishing missions came into being.  She herself accompanied each group of departing Sisters to the port from which their ship was to sail for the new World.  Saying farewell to their home, especially to Mother Pauline, was not easy.  But Mother Pauline’s cheerfulness and love gave the Sisters courage and strength to overcome the pain of parting.  Each one left in the confident joy of being permitted to work for the spread of God’s kingdom.

 

From 1874 on, Mother Pauline also sent several Sisters to Chile to take charge of schools there.  According to God’s law, the ruin brought about by human laws in their native country meant new life and a new beginning overseas.

In Germany the situation came to a head.  Deeply concerned, Mother Pauline used all the strength of her mind and heart to retain the motherhouse in Paderborn.  The endless processes with their ups and downs of hope and hopelessness induced Mother Pauline to remain strong.  Even after the Order of Dissolution, which arrived on November 7, 1876, she did not rest in her endeavors so that at least the elderly and sick Sisters might remain in the motherhouse.  The final decision for the dissolution reached her on January 1, 1877.  The Sisters were permitted to remain until May 1.

 

In the distress of this time, Mother Pauline, wisely looking ahead, purchased property in Belgium.  At the beginning of 1877 she decided to move there.  Quickly she looked upon Belgium as her second home,63 although the separation from the Paderborn Motherhouse remained a painful “blessed root of an ever blossoming plant.”64  From Belgium she undertook everything to win back the motherhouse.  This happiness was not granted her during her lifetime.  Only in 1888 was it again recognized as property of the Congregation.  However, toward the end of 1880, Mother Pauline could return to Paderborn where she remained until her death.

 

It was a joy and a consolation to Mother Pauline that she was able to offer a home in Mont St.Guibert to the exiled Bishop Conrad Martin.  Weakened by months of imprisonment, he had fled to Holland, from where after a short time he was also deported.  Mother Pauline learned of his flight to Belgium and offered him accommodations at the new motherhouse in Mont St. Guibert.  There in utter obscurity he worked as house chaplain and religion instructor, and was known simply as “Abbé Martin.”  Mother Pauline is deeply grateful that she was able to offer this service to “her” bishop.  On July 16, 1879, Bishop Conrad Martin died in exile.  Through the love, resolute energy, and courage of Mother Pauline, she succeeded in taking the bishop’s corpse to Paderborn, where he was quietly buried in St. Conrad’s Chapel in the motherhouse garden.  Only after she notified the cathedral chapter and the dean, was the bishop festively buried in the cathedral on July 25, 1879, amid a huge number of clergy and people.

For years Mother Pauline had entertained the desire to pray in Rome at the grave of the martyred prince of the apostles and to meet the Holy Father, Pius IX.  At the same time she wanted to beg him for the extension of the approval of the Constitutions.

 

On April 27, 1876, she began the trip accompanied by Sister Adalberta Legendre. During her stay in Rome, she lived in Campo Santo Teutonico in the shadow of the Basilica of St. Peter.  She met Pius IX on two occasions; these gave her strength and comfort in the midst of the church-hostile atmosphere that constantly surrounded her in her homeland.  Gratefully she accepted the approval.  Strengthened by prayer at the grave of the apostle and the early Christian witnesses to the faith, she returned to her homeland in June 1876.

 

For a long time Mother Pauline’s intention was to hold a general chapter, but because of the unrest of the Kulturkampf , she was repeatedly advised against it.  Finally she received the permission of the bishop.  In December 1878 she notified all the Sisters of the convening of the first general chapter, which would take place in Mont St. Guibert from July 1-18, 1879.  Full of joy, Mother Pauline wrote to all her Sisters, “It is of grave importance that the election of the superior general of the Congregation and her assistants be held as prescribed by our Constitutions, and the affairs of the Congregation, which has expanded so rapidly in far distant countries, be deliberated in common.” 65 On the day of the election, Mother Pauline “whole-heartedly placed her office as superior into the hands of the Congregation.”66  The results of the election showed that “all the votes, with the exception of one, were united in the name of Pauline.”67  To the great happiness of all the Sisters, she was unanimously re-elected as superior general.

 

By means of letters Mother Pauline kept in close contact with all the Sisters.  But this was not enough for her.  Although her health had suffered considerably from the cares and burdens of the last years, she felt that she must visit all the Sisters in North and South America.  She had a premonition that she would not live much longer; thus she was concerned about encouraging every Sister in her vocation and in her particular aspect of the apostolate by a personal encounter.  In a conference, she informed the Sisters of her decision.  They were deeply concerned and begged her to abandon such an undertaking because they were worried about her health.  However, she replied, “Not without reason have you again elected me as your mother.  I am the mother not only of my children in Europe, but also of my dear children in America.” 68

On October 1, 1879, she set sail with three companions, two of whom were to remain in Chile.  Although she knew that the five-week voyage to Chile would be particularly difficult at this season of the year, we learn practically nothing about the strain and difficulties of this journey from her own writing.  One of her companions, however, kept a diary and recorded the hardships and privations that Mother Pauline in particular endured during the trip.

 

On Saturday morning, October 11, 1879, the sea was very quiet, no longer blue, but greenish.   When the sea was quiet, we had the good fortune to have Mass every morning.  The weather was fresh, even though we had entered the torrid zone at about six o’clock that morning.  In the afternoon, it grew dark, with a rather heavy rain; toward four o’clock a storm arose that continued into the night.  Things slid and flew into each other; probably no one slept.  Above our cabins there was such a rumbling that it seemed as if the whole deck was ready to collapse.  Reverend Mother suffered much; there she lay on a sofa about a foot-and-a half wide; she could no longer hold on by herself, and she felt deathly sick.  The following morning the sea was too rough to have Mass.  At six o’clock, after a sleepless night and despite her extreme nausea, Mother Pauline dragged herself on deck.  There she sat in her usual place amidships, looking the picture of death, too miserable and tired to open her eyes.  All night long she had suffered from dreadful thirst; at ten o’clock she had taken a little piece of ice, but nothing more after that, so that she would be able to receive Holy Communion the next morning.  Indeed, very early every morning she would drag herself on deck, partly so that she would never miss Holy Communion and Mass; partly, too, because she always felt worse below deck than she did in the good fresh air.  Then Reverend Mother stayed on deck until evening.  She ate practically nothing.  Although she suffered unintermittently from thirst, we never heard her complain.  She was always friendly and gracious to everyone, her heart filled with sympathetic love for all, modest and self-forgetful, never demanding—all of this combined with her dignified, noble bearing, soon won reverence and esteem for her from everyone on the ship.  Two days after that restless night, the sea was calm again and had regained its beautiful blue color; we also had a chance to see flying fish.…

 

The next day the captain told us that we had already run into the trade-wind belt; usually they came later, after crossing the equator.  He said we could be glad that they were already blowing because they were very cool and therefore the heat was much more bearable.… The cool temperature continued the day after we had crossed the equator, but the movement of the billows was very strong, so that the ship pitched back and forth and vice versa, usually with unpleasant consequences for the people who were seasick.

The love for the poor that Mother Pauline had practiced on a large scale in Paderborn and recently in Mont St. Guibert, she now practiced as well as she could, at least on a small scale.  Second- and third-class passengers were not allowed to come to the first-class deck.  Reverend Mother, who stayed on deck all day, had struck up a friendship with a little barefoot ragamuffin, the child of Portuguese emigrants, who had come up from steerage and was walking on the first-class deck while the first-class passengers were at dinner.  It was touching to see how Reverend Mother always managed to save something for her little protégé from the meager tray that was brought up to her.69

 

November 3, 1879

Reverend Mother remained on deck as long as possible; she was looking forward to the following day, the anniversary of her first profession.  But about four o’clock the weather became too rough, and we went down to our cabin.  We could tell that the crew expected a bad night.  On deck everything was tied or fastened down, and all windows were screwed shut.  The ship swayed not only from side to side but also from bow to stern and back again; it was really terrible.  At about eleven o’clock poor Reverend Mother fell out of bed against a table and hurt her left side so badly that she continued to feel the effects for a whole year.  She did get up the following morning, but it was impossible for her to reach the deck; she even had to have help to stay on the little sofa.  There was no thought of Holy Mass that day or the next.70

 

Today we can hardly imagine what awaited Mother Pauline after this strenuous voyage.  Despite the poor means of transportation and the long distances in Chile, Mother Pauline visited every single mission.  One Sister recorded her joy in the chronicles:

 

So what no Sister here would have thought possible is really true: that we here at the end of the world, at the tip of South America, the last point where religious are living, should have the good fortune to see our dear Reverend Mother.  But love urged her on, and love overcomes all things.71

 The Sisters of every house tried to keep Mother Pauline in their midst as long as possible.  On February 19, 1880, she bade farewell to Chile, deeply grateful to God for having permitted her to see every Sister once more.  “God bless each and every Sister!  God bless you, Chile, beautiful country, and bless the great missionary work of my dear Sisters!”  These were her last words as the ship moved away from shore and she looked gratefully toward the Sisters who had accompanied her to the harbor.  Once again she raised her hand in blessing and remained on deck until she could no longer see the Sisters.72

 

The trip from Chile to North America was beset with even greater difficulties.  A heavy sea, the bellowing of oxen on board as the violent swaying of the ship threw them back and forth, the noise of the ship’s crane close to her cabin, and in addition a tiny cabin with little air, tropical heat, and icy cold—all these circumstances allowed her scarcely any rest.  Besides, she suffered from seasickness almost constantly, and most of the time she could take nothing but a little tea early in the morning.  Over and above these discomforts, the ship had to traverse the war zone for ten days.

 

In spite of her pains, which she suffered almost without respite, so that she herself thought she would hardly survive the voyage, her heart was still open to the needs and miseries of others.  We read, for example:

 

On one of these days a third-class passenger had committed a theft on the steamer; he was immediately arrested and fastened to the windlass.  The sight of the man was a real suffering for our Reverend Mother.  First her companion had to ask the sailor on guard whether the thief’s hands were fastened too tightly.  When evening came, Reverend Mother offered a handkerchief to be shoved between his wrists and the rope; then she had two glasses of sugar water brought for the man.  She felt the deepest sympathy for him; the poor fellow had been standing in the hot sun all afternoon, and this in the torrid zone.73

 

Reverend Mother had rallied a little when they covered a short distance by train.  But then the journey continued by ship.  The gorgeous sunsets that the travelers now witnessed were misleading.  According to the crew, they were signs of cold, stormy weather.  Only too soon this prediction came true.  In the account of the journey we read:

At about two o’clock Tuesday morning, a dreadful storm arose; it became worse from hour to hour and abated only after two days.  The storm we had experienced at Cape Pillar was nothing compared to this one.  The waves rose mountain-high from trough to crest, whipped so furiously that they struck the great smokestack and put out the fire in the ship’s galley.  The howling and din were so deafening that a person could hardly hear his own words.  Our reverend Mother suffered much during this horrible storm; it hailed and snowed even though we had been in the tropical jungle a few days earlier.  The first night, when the storm began, Reverend Mother got up and began to prepare aloud for death; the second night was, if possible, ever worse.  On Wednesday evening it began to calm down, and by Thursday morning anyone who was pretty steady on his feet could take a little walk on deck.  Our great smokestack was covered with a white crust of salt, evidence of the severe battering it had taken from the furious elements.74

 

On March 26, 1880, Good Friday that year, Mother Pauline and her companion reached New York.  On Holy Saturday she arrived at the first mission of the Sisters.  The joy on both sides was indescribable.  Despite her exhaustion after the dangerous five-week trip, Mother Pauline attended the Resurrection procession that evening and Mass on Easter morning.  A Sister who was deeply impressed by this wrote: “Mother Pauline was wrapped in profound devotion; we, on the contrary, could hardly understand how she was able to kneel and pray so long after such a great strain.”75

As in Chile, so in North America, all the Sisters were delighted to have Mother Pauline in their midst for at least a few days.  There were twenty-six houses to be visited.  Everywhere she manifested the same friendliness, the same warm heart.  She won the hearts of the school children with trifles of some kind, but their greatest joy was that they had seen Mother Pauline.  In one mission she had the Sisters go to the evening devotion in church while she herself took over the supervision of the children.  When the Sisters returned, the children, in high glee, were standing on the benches.  Mother Pauline immediately forestalled a reproof from the Sisters. “Don’t scold the children; it’s my fault.”76

In some places the people received Mother Pauline with solemnity: church bells rang, flags were waving, and children lined the street on both sides.  In her unassuming way she walked down between the lines and into the church to thank God for everything.  In every house, too, just as in Chile, it was hard to say good-bye; every Sister knew that she would not see Mother Pauline again on this earth.

On August 21, exactly thirty-one years after the founding of the Congregation, she bade farewell to North America.  Thirteen days later she landed in Bremerhaven, and from there she returned to the motherhouse.  There the Sisters rejoiced to have Mother Pauline with them again after so long a time.  She herself, however, still wanted to visit all the Sisters in the European foundations, and so she soon set out on her travels again, returning only at the end of December.

 

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Approaching Fulfillment

Very soon exhaustion and weakness set in, but with her usual energy and cheerfulness Mother Pauline succeeded in concealing her condition.  In March 1881 she lost her only living brother.  “Of the four of us brothers and sisters,” she remarked, “I, the eldest, am the only one left.  How soon the hour of my death may be here!” 77

 

She still performed all her duties personally.  Her favorite hours remained those with the blind children.  Two days before she became seriously ill, she was still with them.  It was the First Communion day of several of the blind children.  One Sister recorded the events of the day.

 

On Low Sunday Mother Pauline, in accordance with her old, cherished custom, paid a visit to the blind children to congratulate the first communicants and to give them a fitting remembrance.  After the services in the chapel and the congratulations, the blind children sang Mother Pauline’s favorite songs.  She was so loving, so friendly, but there was an unusual wistfulness on her face.  Her departure from the blind children was earnest and solemn.  Alas, it was the last time our dear Revered Mother was with the blind children.78

 

The following day she gave the Sisters of the motherhouse her last spiritual conference.  To the Sisters her words were a last will and testament; they set forth the ideals she herself had lived, ideals that should live on in every Sister.  That same day, Mother Pauline began to shiver with chill and fever.  Nevertheless, she got up the next day to assist a dying Sister; she also received the Sisters who came to visit her.

 

Soon, however, so great a weakness set in that she had to remain in bed.  Through a small window in her room she could at least follow Holy Mass in the chapel.  Although the fever kept rising and her weakness increased, she dictated one more letter to all the Sisters, bidding farewell to each one and again reverting to her favorite theme: love of God and of neighbor.  Sister Lioba, her secretary, wrote down her words, which the Sisters today yet consider her spiritual testament.

 

Should it please God to call her to himself, she bids you all a loving farewell, and recommends herself to your prayers.  Then she admonishes us to bear in mind that which she so often recommended; namely, that each one endeavor and strive with all her power to contribute thereto that a good spirit of prayer be fostered.   Sincere love should unite all the Sisters, and each one should seek to please God by conscientiously fulfilling her duties.  At the same time, every one should strive to attain a true, sincere humility.  If true humility, sisterly love, and a due fervor in prayer reign, then we might expect God’s blessing.79

 

Visibly her strength waned.  She prayed with the Sisters who were with her and remarked how happy she was that God would soon be calling her home.  Since the death of her mother, she had always looked forward to this last hour.   “It is good that we are traveling to our heavenly fatherland—the goal of us all—and it is much more beautiful in heaven than on this beautiful earth.”80

 

On April 30, 1881, Mother Pauline reached that goal. She was not quite sixty-four years old.

Epilogue

Love alone counts.

 

“She whom we loved so much has left us; she who did so much good is no longer with us.”  In these words Margaretha Feichtler voiced her grief at the death of “her mother,”

whose goodness had helped her to really love.  Everyone who knew Mother Pauline grieved with her, especially the blind, the poor, and the socially disadvantaged.

 

In Mother Pauline they had found understanding and security; they knew they were respected and accepted by her.  She regarded it as self-evident that she should devote herself to others regardless of personal considerations, treat everyone in keeping with circumstances, and give everyone what s/he needed at the moment.  Her way of acting was always dictated by regard for the dignity of the human person and by a fundamental trust in the goodness of others.

 

What was the source of Mother Pauline’s competence and self-assurance in dealing with people?

 

Christ was the center of her life—Christ, “the kindness and love of God” (Titus 3, 4) made visible. In Christ, in the encounter with him in his Word and in the Eucharist, as well as in the “least of his brothers and sisters,” she found love that does not count, that does not calculatingly repay like with like, but gives itself away out of pure mercy, without reservation, without restriction, without intention, and which gives witness of the fidelity, the mercy, the affection of God for us people. It is that love which accepts the risk to let the other free to accept this affection but in the same way knows how to awaken the best in others and may raise them to the light.  She wanted every Sister of her congregation to feel impelled by this love

 

The Most Reverend Bishop has given the members of the Congregation the title, Sisters of Christian Charity.  That is to be no empty title.  An active love of neighbor is to emanate from that fire of God’s love which should burn constantly in their hearts, an inexpressible love.  Let this be the principal characteristic of the Congregation, its rule, its soul, and its life.81

 

It is the love that Paul praises in the “Hymn of Charity” which “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and “never ceases.”82

 

It is Mother Pauline’s “vision” that all her Sisters pattern their lives on the love of God and love of neighbor, and measure the worth of their actions by the yardstick of love alone, for—Love alone counts.

Love never counts—Love alone counts!  Is this saying to remain a mere play on words?  Or will it become a guiding principle, an invitation, a challenge, which touches us, affects us, moves us and takes us on the way—on the way to where “only love counts”?

 

            Love never counts, only love counts

                        as the earth doesn’t count the blades of grass

                        as the sun doesn’t measure its warmth

                        as the air doesn’t ration its breath

 

            Love never counts, only love counts

                        as the tree doesn’t count its blossoms

                        as the ear of corn doesn’t measure its grains

                        as the ocean doesn’t ration its drops

 

            Love never counts, only love counts

                        as heaven doesn’t count its blessings

                        as the mother doesn’t measure the hours

                        as the heart doesn’t ration its rays

 

            Love never counts, only love counts.83

 

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SIGNIFICANT DATES IN THE LIFE OF

PAULINE VON MALLINCKRODT

 

1817                                Born in Minden

1824                                Relocation of family to Aix-la-Chapelle

1839                                Summer home in Borchen, winter in Paderborn

1840                                Founding of first kindergarten in Paderborn, “Day Nursery for Poor Children”

1841                                Beginning of education of the blind in Westphalia

1849                                Founding of the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity

1871                                Beginning of Kulturkampf  in Prussia – the state no longer permits religious teachers

1872                                Sending of first Sisters to New Orleans, LA (USA)

1873                                Trip to USA

1874                Trip to Chile (South America)

1875                Decree of Dissolution of all existing convents

1879-80           Visit to the Sisters in North and South America and in Europe

1881                                Death and burial in Paderborn

1985                Beatification in Rome by Pope John Paul II

 

Sisters of Christian Charity today labor in Germany, Italy, USA, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and the Philippine Islands.

* The taler was a large coin issued by various German states from the 15th to the 19th century.  In 1873 the old German taler became legal tender with a value of three marks—71.4 cents in those days.  What its precise value was in Mother Pauline’s day cannot be determined.

 

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Notes

 

 

1 Index of Names of Children of Von Vincke Provincial Blind Institute in Paderborn in Barkey, pp. 27 ff.

2 CW, Vol. 1 Letter of 12-19-1842

3 Peikert-Flaspöhler, in Lichtblick, Text, p. 11

4 CW, Vol. 2, Letter of 3-20-1848

5  Schmittdiel , p. 115  (English,  p. 59)

6 Hüffer, p. 399

7 First Draft of the Constitutions 1849, par. 1

8 Autobiography, CW Vol. 22, p. 1 

9 Ibid.

10 Cf. Mallinckrodt, Dietrich von, p. 68

11 Ibid., p. 69

12 CW, Vol. 1, p. 23 Letter of 3-25-1835

13 Ibid.

14 Autobiography, Vol. 22, pp. 3-4

15 CW, Vol. 1, Letter of 11-22-1834 

16 Ibid., Letter  of 6-14-1835

17 Mallinckrodt, Bernardine, Letter 5-18-1831

18 Ibid., 3-7-1831

19 Schmittdiel, p. 23 (English, p. 10)

20 Ibid., p. 23  (English, p. 11)

21 CW Vol. 1,Letter of 6-19-1840

22 Ibid., CW Vol. 1, Letter of 11-30-1836

23 CW, Vol. 1 (different places)

24 CW, Vol. 3, Letter of 2-16-1852

25 Meyer, p. 27  (English, p. 4)

26 Ibid., p. 26  (English, p.8)

27 CW, Vol. 1, Letter of 10-25-1832

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.

30 Schmittdiel, p.44 (English, p. 21)

31 Hüffer, p. 8

32 Autobiography, p. 2

33 Ibid.

34 Schmittdiel, p. 49 (English, p. 24)  Sources are Autobiography p. 2 and Letter of  8-8-1834 to Hermann

35 Autobiography, p. 3

36 CW, Vol. 20

37 CW, Vol. 1, Letter of 7-7-1840

38 Ibid., Letter of 6-19-1840

39 Ibid., Letter of 9-4-1841

40 Hüffer, p. 2

41 More in Barkey, pp. 15 ff.

42 Autobiography, p. 7

43 Ibid.

44 CW, Vol. 23, Retreat Notes, September 1847

45 Autobiography, p. 30

46 Ibid., p. 35

47 Ibid., p. 39

48 First Draft, paragraph 1

49 Autobiography, p. 46

50 Chronicles of the Provincial Blind Asylum, Paderborn

51 Hüffer, p. 402

52 Ibid., pp. 404 ff.

53 Ibid., p. 409

54 Ibid., p. 408

55 CW, Vol. 23, Retreat Notes, 11-29-1846

56 Ibid.

57 Virtuous Life, Chapter V

58 CW, Vol. 2, Letter of 1-20-1851

59 Schmittdiel, p. 208  (English, p. 99)

60 CW, Vol. 16, Letter of 1-24-1874

61 CW, Vol. 14, Letter of 9-22-1872

62 Chronicles SCC

63 CW, Vol. 17, Letter of 2-20-1877 (frequently thereafter)

64 Hüffer, p. 171

65 CW, Vol. 17, Letter of 12-2-1878

66 Hüffer, p. 214

67 Ibid., p. 216

68 Ibid., p. 226

69 Hüffer, pp. 233 ff.

70 Ibid. p. 244

71 Chronicles of the Chilean Province

72 Hüffer, op. cit., pp. 282 ff.

73 Ibid., pp. 287 ff.

74 Ibid., p. 287

75 Chronicles of the North American Province

76 Ibid.

77 CW, Vol. 18, Letter of 3-23-1881

78 Chronicles of the Provincial Blind Asylum, Paderborn

79 Hüffer, p. 375

80 CW, Vol. 14, Letter of April 25, 1872

81 First Draft of the Constitutions, VI

82 Cf. New Testament I Cor. 13

83 Peikert-Flaspöhler in Lichtblick, Text p. 17

 

 

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Bibliography

 

• Archives of the German Province, Paderborn
• Barkey, Sr. Theresia, SCC, Damit ihr Leben gelingen kann,  Paderborn, 1984
• Chronicles of the Chilean Province
• Chronicles of the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity
• Chronicles of the North American Province
• Collected Writings of Mother Pauline (= CW) Volumes 1-26, Translation: SCCs
• Deppe, S. Norbertine, SCC and D’Amico, G., Paolina di Mallinckrodt-La Madre dei Ciechi, Rome 1985
• Frenke, Sr. Cyrenäa, Pauline von Mallinckrodt in Her Time; Translation: S. Immaculata La Hive, SCC, Brilon, Germany 1976
• Hüffer, Alfred, Pauline von Mallinckrodt, Münster 1902, 2.Auflage; Translation: S. Celestine Hoedl, SCC
• Mallinckrodt, Bernardine, Briefe an ihre Mutter Bernardine von Hartmann in Nordborchen
• Mallinckrodt, Dietrich von, Die Mallinckrodt zu Steinberg und ihre Nachkommen in Dortmund und Paderborn, Dortmund 1987
• Mallinckrodt, Pauline von, Brief Biographical Sketch, Pauline Tells her Story; Translation:  S. Floriana Cavlowicak, SCC
• Mallinckrodt, Pauline von, First Draft toward the Constitutions of the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity, 1948/1849, Translation: S. Floriana Cavlowicak, SCC
• Meyer, P, Wendelin, O.F.M., Pauline von Mallinckrodt , Münster 1924; Translation: SCC
• Multhaupt, Hermann, Mutter Pauline, München 1985
• Peikert-Flaspöhler, Christa, Lichtblick,  Text, Paderborn 1993
• Sander-Wietfeld, Pauline von Mallinckrodt, Paderborn, 1985, Translation: S. M. Pierre Koesters, SCC
• SCC, Charism of Mother Pauline, 1976
• Schmittdiel, Sr. Agnes, SCC, Pauline von Mallinckrodt, Paderborn, 1949; Translaton:
• S. Mary Angela Blankenburg, SCC
• Schmittdiel, Sr. Philomena, SCC, Virtues of Mother Pauline, Part I and II; Translation: SCC
• Schmittdiel, Sr. Philomena, SCC, Virtues of Mother Pauline, Part III and IV; Translation: S. M. Pierre Koesters, SCC
• Various, The Discovery of the Fullness of her Life, Sermons and Addresses at the Time of the Beatification of Pauline von Mallinckrodt, 1985; Translation: S.Celestine Hoedl, SCC

 

 

 

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Literature About Pauline von Mallinckrodt

 

 

Prayers and Thoughts, Pauline von Mallinckrodt.  This booklet contains brief extracts from letters and notes of Pauline von Mallinckrodt.

 

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, KätheSander-Wietfeld. This is a biography according to the letters and retreat notes of Pauline von Mallinckrodt from 1830-1881.

 

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, in Her Time 1817-1881, Sr. Cyrenäa Frenke, SCC. In this book Pauline’s life is linked with contemporary issues of her time.

 

Pauline von Mallinckrodt, Alfons Bungert, 1980.  This is a short biography depicting the important events of her life.

 

Damit ihr Leben gelingen kann, Sr. Theresia Barkey, SCC.  This book describes the history of work with the blind based on the example of the Sisters of Christian Charity, founded by Pauline von Mallinckrodt.

 

Beatification of the Foundress Pauline von Mallinckrodt.  This book contains documentary text and photos of the beatification and visit of pilgrims in Rome as well as the celebration in Germany

 

The Discovery of the Fullness of Her Life.  This book contains sermons and talks given on the occasion of the beatification of Pauline von Mallinckrodt.

 

Dienstbereit in der Liebe Christi – Pauline von Mallinckrodt,  Johannes Joachim Degenhardt.  Suggestions and material for homilies, instructions and adult education are given.