SERVANT AND INSTRUMENT Chapter ten

CHAPTER X

Founding of the Convent St. Joseph’s Home in Dolnja—Tuzla, the Foundations in Crakow and Hirschtetten, enlargement of various branches of the Congregation.

Besides the three foundations in the year 1885 already mentioned, the way was prepared for a fourth at the same time. Namey, the congregation received, thanks to His Excellency the Imperial Finance Minister von Kallay, a gift from the Bosnian government of a piece of land of outstanding quality, measuring two hundreds yoke, only about 25 minutes distant from Dolnja—Tuzla. Its reclamation, however, cost much money and even more effort because the ground was uneven and partly cut by deep gullies and the brush was only removed with untold difficulty. The sisters commissioned by Mother Franziska to do the clearing had to take their meals in a miserable clap—board hut. Since the cooking was done in the same hut, the heat was nearly unbearable. After the strenuous work of the day they still had to make their way to Tuzla to enjoy there a short night’s rest. When Mother Franziska came to Tuzla on April 17, 1886 she found about seventy yoke cleared and cultivated. She was immensely happy over this industriousness and zeal of the sisters, but more so over the joyful self—sacrifice with which they accepted every strain and difficulty. During this stay Mother Franziska also gave the order to build a house on this property which she intended to call “Joseph’s Home”. She wanted to develop a model farm here as in Slatina near Sarajevo and in Breske, intending it also to help with the upkeep of the house in Tuzla.

April 28 was the day set as the opening of the Doboy—Dolna—Tuzla railroad line, planned with great festivities, because the presence of the Imperial Finance Minister von Kallay and many important persons from Vienna and Budapest were expected. The sisters in Tuzia had to decorate the church, school and convent and Mother Franziska arranged these things with her usual taste. She also went with some sisters to the railroad station for the welcome of the Ministers. Their Excellencies, von Kallay, and the Regional Governor Baron Appel with their wives, greeted Mother Franziska in the most cordial way. The next day these personages visited the sisters in their little residence and also the school where they received a respectful greeting from the children. They also visited the sisters in Joseph’s Home and in Breske in order to see everything and Mother Franziska received unanimous praise for her arrangements. On May 3 she continued her trip to Sarajevo where the visit of the Archduke Albrecht was announced for the 15th. The important guest was most solemnly received by the entire population. The pupils and students of the sisters were also lined up for the greeting. Mother Franziska who was also present, received a greeting from the Archduke as soon as His Highness caught a glimpse of her. On the 25th the Archduke and many important persons made a visit to the festively decorated St. Joseph and Marian Institutes. After the formal greeting and a visit to the house chapel, His Highness, guided by Mother Franziska, visited the school and other places, expressing high praise for the practical arrangement of the institutes and especially over the great number of orphans. As a special sign of graciousness the Archduke Albrecht deigned to take along some samples of the children’s needlework as a souvenir. The day after this visit Mother Franziska returned to Tuzla to make the arrangements for Archduke Albrecht’s visit there which was planned for May 29, and also to inspect the work already begun on the Joseph’s Home Convent. On the 28th she started her return trip to Vienna. The solemn blessing of the Joseph’s Home Convent took place on September 19, 1886 the Feast of Our Sorrowful Mother. Mother Franziska could not be present on that day, but on October 1 she made another trip to Bosnia and found, to her pleasure, that the new convent was very beautifully completed.

His Excellency, the Archbishop and later Cardinal Dunajewski of Crakow had expressed the wish to Mother Franziska that there might be a “Marian Institute” erected also in Crakow. Therefore, on July 17, 1886, she sent the, until then, Superior of the house in Biala, Sister Josefa Kock, with Sister Hedwig Skrobanek to Crakow to prepare the way for such an institute. They first rented a small apartment to take in servant girls, but this proved impractical. On August 30 Mother Franziska arrived in Crakow and made untold trips for five days looking for a suitable dwelling, unfortunately, in vain. Only later they found shelter in the house of Princess Sanguska in the “Franziskanergasse”, which provided space for twenty servant girls. The institute remained there until Mother Franziska, as will be recounted later, could purchase a suitable house for it in the year 1888, because until then, all her efforts during various trips to Crakow, had remained as unsuccessful as the first time.

On October 26, Mother Franziska gave the Imperial Councilor, von Feifalik, secretary to Her Majesty Empress Elizabeth, an album, in which the practiced hand of a sister had beautifully drawn all the institutes and asked this man, very inclined toward the Congregation, to personally give it to her Majesty as the exalted protectress of the same. Thereafter, during the following month, Mother Franziska received from the Councilor von Feifalik a letter containing the following:
uWith regard to the request of the 26th of the month, I received the exalted command to transmit to the revered Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Charity the gracious gratitude of Her Majesty the Empress and Queen for the album with the views of the Congregation placed at her exalted feet and asked me to add that Her Majesty was very pleased with this offering and with true and honest satisfaction was informed of the report about the universally, richly blessed activity and the beautiful success of the Congregation under her exalted protection.

Feifalik
Royal Government Councilor
Gldoll, November 12, 1886.”

February 28, 1887 brought Mother Franziska a great sorrow and the Congregation a great loss. On this day the Reverend Cardinal Protector Jakobini, the fatherly friend of the Congregation, who always took the liveliest interest in its work and flourishing, passed away. Mother Franziska truly mourned the death of the noble Prince of the Church and without delay ordered common prayers and Holy Masses throughout the entire Congregation for the eternal rest of the deceased. At her request the Reverend Apostolic Nuntio, Vannutelli celebrated a Requiem for the departed in the Mother House on March 2, an, on March 5, the Auxiliary Bishop Eduard Angerer in Heart of Mary Convent.

During the course of the year 1887 Mother Franziska was forced to undertake an enlargement and renovation of the house in Troppau because of lack of and the bad roof there. At the same time she wanted to have a chapel built to honor St. Joseph. so many people, even from Prussia, came to the monthly meetings of the St. Joseph’s Association begun in the Troppau House and held separately in the German and Bohemian languages that the little chapel could no longer hold them and many had to take places in the corridor and adjoining courtyard. This condition determined Mother Franziska to make the above mentioned decisions in spite of the poverty of the Congregation, since devotion to her dear St. Joseph was very important to her. In March, 1887 she theref or traveled to Troppau to make the agreements concerning the construction and the cornerstone of the chapel was laid as early as the 24th of the same month. Mother Franziska made the trip to Troppau three times more that year to look after the construction, since this caused her much worry. The walls of the house, though thick, had no real foundation and so caused many difficulties and unforeseen expense. St. Joseph, however, made his help meaningfully evident. It was surely attributable to his intercession that six near accidents were avoided during the dangerous construction and that noble benefactors were found. A sufficient reward for Mother Franziska was the solemn blessing of the chapel on December 11, 1887 and that it was well visited, as she could see from the reports of the sisters and during later trips to Troppau.

At the end of September 1887 Mother Franziska undertook another trip to Prague and from there wanted to go to the sisters in Brunn, but this last could not take place because frequent bouts of illness made it necessary for her to return directly to Vienna from Prague. The doctor called in diagnosed peritonitis. The news of this threw the entire Congregation into the greatest consternation and continual “storm novenas” were held by the sisters and their charges for the recovery of their beloved spiritual mother. During this illness, on October 22, Mother Franziska had the joy of receiving the visit of His Excellency, the then Apostolic Nuntio to Vienna and later Cardinal Luigi Galimberti. He had only that day at noon heard about her serious illness and came immediately to express his sympathy and to inform himself of her condition. On the same day the Reverend Bishop Dunajewski of Crakow, also in Vienna at the time, came to visit, too. These joyful events had a beneficial influence on the patient. God heard the fervent prayers for the preservation of Mother Franziska and she regained her health, of course, only slowly after such a serious illness.

During her illness Mother Franziska again received a request for a foundation from Hirschstetten near Vienna. This township had been asking for two years that sisters of the Congregation would take over the direction of a Kindergarten there, but to Mother Franziska th field of work seemed too small, since she rightly believed that two to three sisters could not build a real community life as the Constitutions prescribed. She had therefor promised to send sisters to Hirschstetten if they could also give the manual arts instruction in the elementary school. After the town came to the point where they were able to do this Mother Franziska sent sisters to Hirschtetten on November 28, 1887. Besides the kindergarten and the manual arts instruction in the school, they conducted also a professional school set up by Mother Franziska. The house set aside for this foundation at first belonged to the civic community, but in 1893 Mother Franziska purchased it for the Congregation.

December 31, 1887 was the day of the 50th Jubilee of the ordination to the priesthood of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII and Mother F’ranziska used this occasion to express the childlike devotion and respectful love of herself and her spiritual daughters for the Hoiy Father in a congratulatory telegram. Also, the Congregation did not neglect to send some home made pieces to add to the gifts for ecclesiastical use that came at that time from everywhere to the Holy Father. On January 2, a telegram of gratitude with the following message arrived:

“Expressing his gratitude to the Congregation for the wishes and the gifts sent to him, the Holy Father cordially sends the desired blessing.”

Mother Franziska was very pleased about this and took it as a great grace to be able to begin the new year with the blessing of the Holy Father. At the beginning of the same she placed her Congregatidn under the protection of the Holy Family to whom she had great devotion, and to promote this devotion she ordered that from then on a Prayer of Offering to the Holy Family chosen by her be recited each Sunday in common in all houses of the Congregation. She also had 20,000 copies of this prayer printed for distribution. The blessing for this devotion was not lacking since the year 1888 would be forever a memorable one for the congregation because of the purchase of a new Mother House. Before this event, however, there are still to be recounted further enlargements of existing houses by Mother Franz iska.

In February, 1888, her greatest wish, to gain her own house for the foundation in Crakow, was fulfilled when she purchased a building in the “Bischofsgasse” from Mr. Von Wisocki. The cost for this was 25,000 guldens. Unfortunately, Mother Franziska did not have this money. On the advice of the Reverend Bishop Dunajewski she turned to Countess Potocka with the request to help her make the purchase with a loan and this noble lady gladly lent her 6,000 guldens for the down payment. So the deal was closed on February 11. Mother Franziska could now pursue her long—held plan of adding a boarding facility and school, especially for the children of the German military and civil personnel, to the section for the servant girls. Because of the lack of German Catholic schools, the children mentioned had to attend a Protestant school if their parents wanted them to receive instruction in their native language, so this decision was welcomed by the Bishop as well as by the German inhabitants of Crakow. On September 9, 1888 the house, which Mother Franziska named “Marieninstitut” was blessed by the Reverend Bishop Dunajewski. After this solemn act he turned to Mother Franziska in a talk which emphasized that he felt a special joy in having sisters from her Congregation in his diocese and what a good fortune it was for the fathers in the military to know, when they were called by the Commander—in—Chief to fight for their country, that their daughters were in such good hands. After the blessing the school was opened with sixty children. The numbers grew so quickly in such a short time that the rooms were overflowing within the first year.

Since the Marian Institute in Prague had also become too small Mother Franziska had to have a third floor built that year. In April, 1888 she made the agreement with the builder and on October 1 the blessing was undertaken by Bishop Count Schonborn with Mother Franziska present at the celebration.

As for the sisters in Crakow, so Mother Franziska was also able to acquire a house for those in Dolna—Tuzia during the year 1888. This had also been a preoccupation of longer duration for her since, for variow reasons, the building assigned by the township could no longer be used a a school and the little building that served as residence for the sisters was not suitable. On the advice of regional Governor Councilman Vukovic she purchased a suitable building site as early as February, 1887 and traveled to Tuzla on April 12, 1888 to make arrangements for the construction. She did this, of course, with a heavy heart since, as usua1 she had no money while at the same time she had the most fervent trust in the kind providence of God. On April 17, the blessing of the cornerstone. took place. The Mass celebrated on this occasion by the Pastor, was attended, besides by the sisters and their students, -by all the wcrkers involved in the building, including even the Turks and Serbs. To the joy of Mother Franziska, in a sermon, the Pastor encouraged the workers to work hard so that the building could soon fulfill its purpose. Of course, Mother Franziska also visited the sisters in Joseph’s Home and in the Emmus Convent in Breske and had the joy of seeing that the neighbors, even the Turks, had already begun to imitate the methods of the sisters in cultivating the land. The Turks said that the presence of the sisters was a blessing for the entire valley. As these had won the love of the inhabitants from the very beginning, so Mother Franziska enjoyed in Bosnia the very special respect of the inhabitants of every confession. When she came to those places where she had foundations, they called to her from all sides “Casna majka!” (Reverend Mother!) and each one wanted to greet her. She knew also, how to communicate lovingly with everyone, regardless of the station or nationality or confession they belonged to, and they were able to read her kindness and love in her face and were attracted to her, even when she could not speak the Bosnian national language and had to use a sister as translator.

In October 1888 the building in Tuzia was completed and, to the joy of Mother Franziska, the sisters and the population, was consecrated to the Divine Heart of Jesus and the Queen of the Holy Rosary on the twenty—fifth of the month. The Convent of Maria Loretto in St. Andr also experienced a valuable enlargement through Mother Franziska. It was not through building, but through the purchase of a neighboring house and 43 yoke of land (called Fuchsenhube). This house and lands were the earlier “Meierhof” of the previous Dominican Monastery, and through this purchase on June 6, 1888, were returned to the monastery, to the great joy of the inhabitants of St. Andra. For them the purchase was a real benefit, since, before there was only a courtyard and now the pupils had a garden with a playground. The farm was intended to help with the support of the convent. Since the building on the Fuchsenhube, which Mother Franziska named “Joseph’s Rest”, was in bad condition, she later, in 1893, had a new farm building erected. she always had a special joy with this property and every time she came to St. Andra she asked penetratingly about the progress on the farm and made a tour of the barns and fields. In this area she had knowledge and experience also and was able to give practical orders. During such tours of the Congregation’s farms she never missed giving a friendly word to the hired workers, encouraging them, praising them for good work and giving them a small financial gift. Such kindness was not without results, and if she here and there had to say a word of reprimand, it was usually well accepted, since the employees were convinced of her maternal kindness.