150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (44)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Piazza Farnese (1879) – groundbreaking retreat

From the very beginning, illness became a daily reality for the new community, not only for the Foundress and the sisters, but also for those who were temporarily staying at the Nazareth house. It was no different in 1879, especially with the onset of summer, when the Sisters cared for Mrs. Burba, who had come to Rome and fallen ill, and then for Janina and Zosia, who had been in the Sisters’ care for a year and had nearly died. “All these trials and tribulations, the anxiety about the children, watching over them, and many other household concerns had the worst effect on our Mother’s health. With each passing day, her strength was waning, and the Roman heat exhausted her completely. The doctors decided that it was necessary for her to leave Rome as soon as possible.” She left for Paris on June 17, seeking the advice of a doctor there. However, seeing her condition, he forbade her to return to Rome. This unexpected, extended stay proved providential for Frances and her community. Feeling a little better, she went to Fourvière near Lyon, where, under the guidance of a Jesuit she knew, Father François-Xavier Gautrelet, she decided to go on a retreat. On September 4, 1879, she wrote to the Sisters in Rome: “This evening I am beginning an 8-day retreat – I am closing myself off with the Lord as if in a desert, to rest in Him, to draw Light and Life from Him – Strength – and to prepare myself for the journey ahead – with you who share everything with me – and this is what I wanted to share with you, asking for your help, that is, for your prayers (…), so that I may emerge from these holy exercises with a renewed soul, so that you may find in my heart the Lord for whom we live…”.

Illnesses were not Frances’ greatest concern. She was more worried about the state of her soul, deprived of good guidance, and the state of the Congregation, which, according to Father Riciardi, the postulator of the cause for beatification of Frances Siedliska, “found itself in a state of inactivity due to the presence of two Capuchins” who were no longer of any help to her. Father Leander Lendzian, elderly and ill, limited himself to the role of confessor, often telling the sisters that his task was over. Brother Stefan Rembiszewski, on the other hand, although he played a key role in telling Frances that she was to become a nun and found a new congregation, his continued presence in the life of the new community must have raised questions in her mind.

Just how groundbreaking these retreats were, especially the confession of her entire life, which concludes the first week of Ignatian exercises, is attested to by this excerpt from the Autobiography, in which Frances describes her first stay with her family in Lyon in 1863:

“In Lyon, we stayed at the Bellecour Hotel opposite Fourvière Hill, where the wonderful Church of Our Lady is located. I cannot express what was going on in my soul at that moment, how moved I was. (…) It must have been Jesus who unknowingly drew me to this place where He Himself was waiting for me to grant me such a great grace in 1879 — to open my blind eyes and break, at least in part, the bonds that bound me.”

Spiritually renewed and physically stronger, Frances returns to Rome to put her decisions into action. But more on that in the next episode…

Pictures:
Notre-Dame de Fourvière Basilica – https://sanktuaria.maps24.eu
Bayard Bellecour Hotel – contemporary view