150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (58)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Via Feruccio (1881) – “My life hangs by a thread”

Frances began the year 1881 with another serious illness. In her diary, she wrote in February: “The second month of serious, severe illness, hanging my life by a thread, my soul so heavy, dark, inside and out, stripped bare, completely abandoned (…).”

Due to her health and other difficult experiences, doubts arose again, this time in Frances herself, as to whether it was truly God’s will to establish a congregation in Rome.

“In all this, I have postponed buying a house,” she continues in her notes, “perhaps the Lord will show us His will through circumstances, perhaps He will call us to Krakow. At the end of January, Sister Antonina Zatorska fell ill, and on January 27, she received the Holy Oils. The two newcomers (Sisters of the Second Choir) proved to be unsuitable, so there was some trouble; this life of Nazareth, outwardly ordinary, but inwardly intertwined with consolation, the cross, suffering, but His happiness in God, trust in Him, He is love, to Him without limits, always, in everything, for everything, with everything, we give ourselves here and in eternity.”

Once again, their living conditions were the cause of their difficulties and illnesses: the low, stuffy, and damp rooms did not help Frances or Antonina breathe. At the Sisters’ urgent request, the Foundress decided in March to move to a larger house nearby, which Cardinal Monaco had previously designated for them. Here, it was possible to set up a larger chapel and think about surviving the coming summer. However, this change did not help Sister Nina, who was suffering from tuberculosis and died on April 21. “On the day of the death of our dear sister Nina,” writes Sister Gabriela in the Chronicle, “Mother was in great pain. Through sheer willpower and with God’s grace, she got out of bed and felt a little stronger for a few days. She took care of the funeral herself, prayed with all of us at Nina’s body, and bid her farewell to eternal rest. But this improvement lasted only a few days, after which Mother’s health deteriorated again.” Dr. Pompilli, who was treating Frances, was helpless. The illness had already lasted five months. It was only when another doctor, brought in by him, determined that the cause of the illness was dampness and excessive freshness in the newly constructed building.

At first, Frances did not want another change, but the May rains and the first heat waves made everyone sick, and the move became necessary. They quickly found an apartment in a neighborhood with better air quality on Via Santa Susanna, where they moved in on May 30.

Photo:
Via Susanna – current view