A Tree Rooted in Faith - Alberta Dieker

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in many ways a Benedictine Europe. New Benedictine monasteries were established with the precise purpose of returning to a pristine form of monastic life. Beuron in Germany was an outstanding example of this effort. The prevailing idea seemed to be that monasteries which had had a continuous existence had become soft and lax, if not corrupt, and therefore could not easily be reformed. Starting anew would guarantee a fresh view. Obviously, contradictions, even rivalries, abounded, and the history of European monasticism in the nineteenth century attests to the uncertainty, even bitterness, fostered by the conviction that there was only one true monastic ideal. The controversy came to America with the early monks and continued well into the twentieth century.

      Religious houses of women were also affected by the tensions and excitement of revival. A new demand for charitable works was fostered by the demand for literacy and education—even for women. Furthermore, the dissolution of convents and religious houses during the French Revolution and Napoleonic period all but destroyed the network of charitable and social work institutions—hospitals, orphanages, and asylums for the mentally disturbed—which had existed in Europe up to that time. In many instances, work was left undone since social services had not yet become the prerogative of struggling and uncertain governments. At the same time, the mystic, pietistic movement called for removal from the world and a life devoted entirely to prayer. The tension created by this apparent contradiction also emigrated to America with the early Benedictines and followed them into the next century.

      Another sign of tension was the awakening awareness among women of the possibility of new roles and demands within the church of the future. The need for education and vocational training for the poor as well as those who were wealthy and protected became more apparent. Industrialization was changing the economic world as drastically as revolution and democracy were changing the political world. Within the church, the hierarchical structure still remained exclusively male. Prelates and parish priests, missionaries and religious superiors, all had ideas about what women religious should be doing, what prayers they should be saying, and whether their lives should be active or contemplative. Obviously, these ideas did not always coincide with what the sisters themselves thought or wanted. In some instances, it apparently did not occur to the men in the church hierarchy to consult the women about their own destiny.

      The Benedictine convent at Maria Rickenbach in Switzerland is a good example of nineteenth century religious revival and popular piety. The story has been told many times of the shrine on the mountain containing a statue of the Blessed Virgin. A shepherd boy had found the image and saved it from destruction by fire during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. By means considered miraculous, the statue had remained in a tree on the mountainside, and eventually had been enshrined. This almost inaccessible place became a pilgrimage spot for the hardy souls who could make their way up the mountainside.1

      Among the people who made this pilgrimage in the spring of 1853 were two young women who were members of the Society of Divine Providence, an almost clandestine religious order, dressed in lay clothes and making vows a year at a time. The women dedicated themselves to the education of country girls and to the care of orphans and the aged. Sister Mary Vincentia Gretener was in poor health and in need of rest. Her doctor recommended fresh Alpine air, so she proceeded to Maria Rickenbach, accompanied by Sister Mary Gertrude Leupi, who was selected by lot to be her companion. As the story goes, the two sisters climbed the mountain to the shrine, whereupon Sister Gertrude was inspired to make the spot her new home—specifically, a convent dedicated to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Again, the contradictions are apparent—two members of an institute founded specifically for external works now believed themselves called to a cloistered and contemplative life. That their convent would also become a Benedictine house was almost an accident, or an act of providence. The confessor appointed for the group was a Benedictine priest from the nearby abbey at Engelberg. Sister Gertrude took him into her confidence, and he encouraged her in her ambition to found a new religious house on the mountain.2

      The contradictions show themselves even here. The desire of Sister Gertrude to found a community of Benedictine women near that of the men at Engelberg was zealous and sincere. So was her overwhelming conviction that the sisterhood should be devoted above all to perpetual adoration. A Benedictine community founded expressly for this purpose was without precedent in the Holy Rule or in the traditional concept of the Order. Apparently, this fact did not deter either the enthusiasm of the women or the approval of the men. There was a question about whether the sisters should be reciting the Divine Office (which apparently they did not even consider at the beginning). The men settled the question for them, pointing out that the sisters were oblates, and not really members of the Benedictine Order.

      Within a generation of its foundation, the convent at Maria Rickenbach would send sisters to the United States, and eventually to Oregon to establish the first Benedictine motherhouse in the Pacific Northwest. The signs of contradiction evident in many of the church leaders of the nineteenth century were noticeable also in Mother Bernardine Wachter, the German girl destined to become the foundress of a Swiss-American community of Benedictine sisters. The pioneer sisters of the convent in Mt. Angel, Oregon remembered Mother Bernardine as a brilliant woman, and revered her as a saint. Her carefully written commentaries on the Holy Rule and her instructions to the novices reveal a serious spirituality. At the same time, other evidence points to a strong-willed, if not stubborn, woman unable to be deterred from a given course once she determined it was right for her. Some of her contemporaries, including Ignatius Conrad, founder of New Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas, considered her impossible to get along with, inconsiderate of others, and totally under the influence of the Benedictine priest Adelhelm Odermatt. According to some accounts, Sister Bernardine was sickly and frequently took to her bed while others did the work. Mention is made of screaming fits when things did not go her way.

      In spite of these acknowledged weaknesses, this same sickly, hysterical woman was selected to be a part of Adelheim Odermatt’s missionary group to America. She was assigned to teach the German-speaking Swiss sisters in Maryville, Missouri how to instruct their American pupils. She was also chosen to be the assistant to Mother Gertrude Leupi, founder of Maria Rickenbach and herself a missionary in Missouri. When this intrepid woman went on to the Dakotas to work among the Indians, she took Sister Bernardine with her. Finally, when Adelhelm Odermatt obtained permission to establish a Benedictine convent in the Far West, he asked for Sister Bernardine. Out of these contradictions and conflicts was born the first motherhouse of Benedictine sisters in Oregon.

      1 • The Call

      The Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel have always considered Mother Mary Bernardine Wachter to be their foundress. They have likewise venerated Father Adelhelm Odermatt, since he was responsible for bringing the first members of their group to make a permanent settlement in Oregon.1 His role, until his death in 1920, was that of advisor and spiritual father.

      Who were these two people, whose lives became intertwined to the point of arousing suspicion and tension within the young religious communities at Conception and Maryville in Missouri?2 Apparently, neither of them kept a diary or journal. Only a few of their letters have been preserved, and they are more concerned with business matters and interesting events than with the thoughts and emotions which might have motivated these two active and enthusiastic people. At the time of Mother Bernardine’s death on June 3, 1901, the sisters at Mt. Angel, “anxious to preserve the memory of this noble religious to coming generations, intended to write a sketch of her life.”3 Her only surviving relative was her brother, the Benedictine monk Father Anselm Wachter. He “declined to give any details of her early life and begged the Sisters to desist from anything like writing a biography of the deceased. ‘Let her rest in peace,’ he said to the sisters who asked for data.”4

      In 1903, two sisters from Mt. Angel, Gregoria Amrhein and Anselma Feierabend,5 returned to their native Europe (both were Engelbergers), and visited Mother Bernardine’s childhood home at Isny in southern Wuertemberg in present day Germany, where she was born on August 25, 1846. The sisters noted that the town contained monastery buildings dating from the eleventh century. The property had been confiscated and the monks dispersed during the sixteenth century, but the monastery’s church had been renovated and served as the parish church for the Catholics of the area. Apparently the sisters were impressed with the beauty of the church and its

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