Pauline's Life Before the Founding of the Congregation Pauline von Mallinckrodt was born in Minden, Germany, on June 3, 1817. She was followed by three other children: her brothers Georg and Hermann, and her sister Bertha. In 1824, her father, at the time the senior administrative official of the government, was transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle as vice-president of the district. Here Pauline spent her childhood and youth. Very soon the character traits that were to distinguish her more and more began to appear: cheerfulness and ingenuity , responsiveness to all that is beautiful, tender sympathy for every suffering creature, a resolute, enterprising spirit. 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.5
Even today her letters to her grandmother bear eloquent testimony to the love she showed her in childlike simplicity and reverence:
In another letter we read: 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.7
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 she declared:
On another occasion she wrote to her mother in Borchen: 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 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 the 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." 10 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 Encounter with Luise Hensel
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:
Pauline loved her teacher. Some time before this, she had told her:
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. Here is just
one example: Truttberg the Hermit
This is how it goes:
The style of this composition is good. Luise Hensel used such compositions to form and stabilize Pauline's character. Her comments reveal fine insight into human nature as well as pedagogical skill:
Your choice and handling of the theme are good. Too bad your poor
handwriting has made it impossible for me to correct your composition.
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:
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 Schluter's sister described to her blind brother: In Pauline, friendliness and gravity blended with each other and characterized her very being more and more. People used to say, "You would recognize her immediately in a large group even if you had never seen her before." She would gladly join in any kind of fun, but if someone's reputation were at stake, she would do her utmost to protect that person. "Pauline is no killjoy ," one of her classmates said when the whole class took a stand against a certain teacher, and Pauline would not join them. "C'est la Mallinckrodt!" - "That's the Mallinckrodt girl! That's the way she is," the directress of the school declared.18 Death of Her Mother
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 for delegating to Pauline the responsibilities of homemaker and mother: Pauline fought against her tears, 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 what was happening here was no separation, no parting; in God her mother would always remain close to them. It was Pauline's first direct experience of death; after that, death had lost all its terrors for her. "The loss of my mother," Pauline wrote after the death of her mother, "awakened in me an intense desire for heaven, whither she had gone. 20 Pauline was to cherish that desire until her own death. Serving the Poor and the Sick in Aix-la-Chapelle
From this time on Pauline, despite her youth, held the position of mother in 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 a monthly account of what she had done with her money: Pauline's personal expenditures were always limited to a few pfennigs hardly worth mentioning. And when her father would urge her to get something 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 women are crazy," they commented. Very soon, however, when they saw the results of such unselfish service, they changed their tune. 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
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: 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. The Move to Boeddeken In 1839 Pauline's father retired from office. This meant saying good-bye to Aix-Ia-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 at the
university, 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: 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 . Activity in Paderborn During the winter months, when Pauline and her father lived in Paderborn, she could pursue her charitable works 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 herself 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: 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, (or 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 But the scope of Pauline's mission to the poor had by no means reached its limits. She became aware of the need of undertaking a further task: the care of blind children. At first there were two; shortly after, there were five, among them the Margretchen mentioned in the introduction. Relieved of the responsibility of caring for her father, who had died on Apri14, 1842, 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, 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 round about. One summer evening the children came home singing happily, as always. Running up to a teacher who had stayed at home, a blind child threw its arms about 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? Pauline found her fulfillment in her works of charity .But her desire to carry on this ministry as a religious grew stronger and stronger. In that case, however, 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: "My only desire is that God's will be fulfilled in me." 25 The Founding of the Congregation At this time matters came to an unexpected turning point. Pauline
took her difficulties to the auxiliary bishop of Cologne, 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: Such a thought had never entered Pauline's mind. A number of
years later she wrote: During the ensuing 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. 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 Franz Drepper, who personally celebrated the solemn Mass and presided at 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. 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: |