150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (41)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Piazza Farnese (1878)

“We have already rented a new apartment in Piazza Farnese in the Curti-Lepri palace,” Mother Frances wrote to Father Semenenko of Grottaferrata on July 10. “It has large rooms, fresh air, and space for a chapel. After my arrival in Rome, Canon Folchierri, who celebrated Mass at our house on the day of my departure, will visit the chapel and we will be able to have the Blessed Sacrament. I went to Cardinal Monaco to ask him for this and he promised to grant my request.”

Meanwhile, the Sisters who remained in Rome began the move. We know their first impressions thanks to the reliable Sister Gabriela, from whom we can learn how to keep a chronicle:

“We were sad to leave our first home and move to a strange house, and from small, poor rooms to live in large palace salons. But the hope that the Lord Jesus would allow us to find a home suitable for us gave us courage, and we divided the large rooms and furnished them as modestly and as much as possible in the religious style. We lacked a chapel and the Lord Jesus. In one room, which Mother designated as a chapel, we set up an altar and said our prayers there. We went to Mass at the nearby church of St. Brigid.”

Frances returns to Rome on July 20, but after only 10 days she has to leave on doctor’s orders, as her health is deteriorating. She goes to Assisi, this time with Sister Michaela Lubowidzka. She returns unexpectedly on August 14, but is so ill that she has to be carried into the Sisters’ apartment on the second floor. Sisters experience many moments of anxiety during the following weeks of her illness.

Meanwhile, Brother Stefan took care of furnishing the chapel, which featured a white and gold altar from the house on Via Merulana, a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes on a blue background dotted with stars, and blue curtains and drapes in the windows. “Our little chapel,” writes Sister Gabriela, “though rather dark, had something strangely pleasant and perfect about it. It was so good to pray there.” On the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 1878, the first Holy Mass was celebrated there.

On November 8, Sisters’ new home was visited by Cardinal Monaco la Valetta, Vicar of Rome, who had fond memories of his visit to Nazareth on Via Merulana and showered the new religious family with kindness. Father Peter Semenenko also writes about this visit in his diary: “Cardinal Monaco took me with him to visit Miss Siedliska (…). He liked everything very much there. The chapel was beautifully decorated and illuminated.”

The approaching winter once again took its toll on the fragile health of the Foundress, so that she often had to stay in bed for several days. “As soon as she felt a little stronger,” writes Sister Gabriela, “she would gather us together and speak to us, encouraging us to remain faithful in the Lord’s service and teaching us about religious life. Often, while lying in bed, she would write things that would be necessary for the future of the Congregation.” And this future seemed increasingly certain, as the first candidates from Italy knocked on the doors of Nazareth. But more about that in the next episode…

Pictures – Sr. Anita Jach CSFN:
Curti-Lepri Palace – main façade and unique external staircase used by the Sisters to access their apartment on the second floor.