b. Instructions given her Sisters in preparation for profession. These comprise 192 pages, collectively there are 31 discourses. Discourses 1-9 were first given on April 8-10, 1872; discourses 10-16, July 14-16, 1872; discourses 17-26, December 5-7, 1872; discourses 27-31, February 21-22, 1875. In all probability, Mother Maria Theresia later relied more or less on these written notes as references.
c. The Oldest Statutes of the Congregation which Mother Theresia drafted and compiled up to March 25, 1865. With full authority and justice one can call these statutes the foundation of the spiritual life the foundress pursued in her community.
d. Letters she wrote to the sisters, to the superiors, to the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. The originals are filed in the archives of the archepiscopal general vicariates in Paderborn, in the archives of the town of Olpe, and in the archives of the motherhouse in Olpe. In addition there are a few letters and writings in various places, and some also in private hands. Many official letters are also in the archives in the motherhouse. Attested copies of all these letters have been made. For the sake of clarity these have been divided into seven groups, numbered consecutively.
To prevent bulky documentation of sources in this book, an abbreviated method was chosen that numbered the specific copies of the letters and also the groups under which they fall. the groups are as follows: I) letters to Sister Deogratias; II) letters to the sisters in the United States; III) to the sisters in Germany; IV) feastday letters; V) to superiors; VI) to ecclesiastical authorities; VII) to civil authorities.
Unfortunately, a large group of letters is missing in this collection, namely, those written to Sister Hildegardis Schelle and preserved by her until her death. These would have cast precious light on Mother Maria Theresia’s art of directing souls. The reason given by the local superior for destroying the letters after the death of Sister Hildegardis is that they dealt too intimately with the personal affairs of her soul. Fortunately, some fragments of these letters exist in Sister Hildegardis’ notebook. Rev. Salesius Elsner, OFM, in his work of 1925 had some of these original letters, which no longer can be found.
Besides the various official documents in question, written records of Sisters, collected previously at an earlier time, were examined. These were without evidence and without names. How to question the eye witnesses still living at that time was not properly understood. The collected testimonies of the Sisters since 1961 and later have better content.
Of special value are the records of Sister Hildegardis Schelle, bound into two volumes in 1917. Besides her own remembrances, she was able to record those of Sister Deogratias Schaefer, Sister Martha Vormberg, Sister Paula Thomas, Sister Verena Schulte, Sister Bonaventura Claes, and many others. The knowledge of family connections was also at her disposal: town commissioner, Justus Bonzel (Olpe); merchant, H. Hellinghaus-BÖrsch (Drolshagen); member of the Board of Health, Dr. Joseph Kaufmann (Berlin); mayor, Liese (Olpe); local council member, Ruegenberg (Olpe); and district judge Schelle (Olpe).
As mentioned previously Sister Hildegardis made available personal letters she received from Mother Theresia. All we know of Mother Theresia prior to 1859 goes back to the records of Sister Hildegardis. It is unfortunate that she did not have the same inclination to gather the important happenings of Mother Maria Theresia’s childhood and youth as of her later years. Since Mother Maria Theresia died in her seventy-fifth year, there were certainly a few sisters living at that time who knew her in her youth. But family tradition has provided much since 1917. At that time Sister Hildegardis was too absorbed in extraordinary happenings to pay much attention to the quiet normal day-by-day events of human living. Nevertheless she wrote the records in this area with great exactness. After the first draft, she would rework it for the finishing touches. Thus her records carry great evidence.
Sister Andrea Bussien gives the best information of the last years of Mother Theresia’s life in the Chronicles of the congregation which were written with great exactness. They extend to 1910. From February 19, 1903, it becomes clearly evident that she wrote as an eye witness and often made her entries of the happenings she wished to record on the same day they occurred. It was her desire to write more about past happenings, but Mother Theresia was of the opinion that not too much should be written concerning her, for it was not she who accomplished the work, but God who used her as his instrument.
The citations of all those records were kept in the original as far as possible. However, at times it seemed proper to change the antiquated forms of letters and records to present day forms lest the difference in style cause a deviation in meaning. Special care was taken to preserve the original as a whole. The title of the book, He Leads, I Follow is Mother Maria Theresia’s own expression. It seems that this title best reproduces the meaning of her life.
The literature available and used in this work are: Salesius Elsner, OFM, Mother Maria Theresia and Her Foundation, Werl i. Westfalen, 1926; Bonaventure Hammer, OFM, The Congregation of the Poor Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Lafayette, Indiana, 1910; Rosanna Peters, OSF, The History of the Poor Sisters of St. Francis Seraph of the Perpetual Adoration 1875–1940 (History of the Community), 1944; Brunhilde Siegel, Lebensbild Der Mutter Maria Clara Pfänder, Stifterin Der Franziskanerinnen von Salzkotten, Lippstadt, 1957; August Hirschmann, Geschichte Der Pfarrei Olpe im Rahmen und Landes-Geschichte Olpe in Westfalen, 1930.
Since the Church in the inauguration of the informative process has placed the life of the servant of God under its own jurisdiction, the contents of this book, in accordance with the Decree of Pope Urban VIII, are completely and unreservedly submitted to the judgment of the church.
Rev. Lothar Hardick, O.F.M.The Foundation Day of the Franciscans of OlpeJuly 20, 1964Münster, Westfalen
Chapter I
The Years of Childhood
Whoever sees the life and works of an individual disseminated before him naturally endeavors to discover the guidelines that gave direction to that life and its accomplishments. He searches for events, words, and deeds that stand out as signs revealing the deeper and inner motives of action. Such signs can knowingly be determined by the respective person himself as clear expressions of his will. But it can also be that subsequent reverential reflections reveal the coming together of events, not by chance, but as an indication of God’s management and providence.
Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel’s day of birth can be considered such a sign. She herself never considered it mere chance that she was born in 1830 on September 17, the day on which the church celebrates the Stigmata of St. Francis. Although she often mentioned in jest that she had crawled “from the wounds of St. Francis,” this jest nevertheless expressed her joy that her first day of life bore the sign of St. Francis. Many an occurrence, many a severe struggle, and many a bitter sorrow in her life can be understood, in fact, only if one knows of her desire to attain the Franciscan ideal in its fullness. It is as one of her spiritual daughters said of the Mother foundress: “Her deep love of St. Francis motivated her to follow in the footsteps of the great Franciscan founder.” Thus the very first day of her existence illumined her whole life and work.
She was born in Olpe, a small town in southern Sauerland, Germany. In baptism she received the name of Regina Christine Wilhelmine. Her first or Christian name was Wilhelmine, abbreviated to “Aline.” Up to the time of her religious investiture she signed her name as “Aline.”