History Teaches: 
     Effects  of Industrial Revolution

Dare a member of the academic elite opine? Takes a bit of courage these days. However, compelled 

as I am, here are some thoughts. They emerge from what I thought was a sudden flash of brilliant idea.

Further research brought me down a peg by revealing that the idea did not originate with me.

Recently I engaged in very stimulating conversations about the the current state of things with two young

men (freshman and sophomore in high school) and their father. The youngsters were totally engaged 

in the discussion, knowledgeable and very capable of expressing their thought out opinions. In the midst

of extolling the balance of powers in our government, presidential propriety, banning immigrants and 

restoring jobs in coal mines my new idea came as a flash. "We are going through a new industrial revolution

without learning the lessons of the unintended consequences caused by the last one", I blurted out.

Few would doubt that we have entered a period of technological revolution. It seems those in decision making 

positions effecting not only our citizens but also those of the world have failed to comprehend the enormous 

consequences of that revolution. Much less have they considered the unintended negative consequences for 

society which the industrial revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries caused. Highly recommended is an essay 

concerning the social effects of the industrial revolution . I makes abundantly clear the negative effects of 

unbridled free market capitalism.

In 2016 German economist Klaus Schwab published "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" . Reading it brought to 

an end my notion of having a unique idea. After giving historical context and ample evidence for his theory

(and that of others) of this new and equal consequential global revolution he offers a number of chapters on 

the consequences in terms of the economy, nature of work,business, national and global developments,

society at large and the individual. 

Sub-topics in these areas include but are not limited to:

unemployment

nature of work

consumer expectations

collaborative innovation

inequality and the middle class

community

identity, morality and ethics

human connection

managing public and private information

You must be getting the idea. What is facing us cannot be fixed by persuading companies not to move facilities

in order to keep to 1,200 employees on the job; not by assuring coal miners that jobs will come back. 

Coping with what is to come requires major study and planning within an informed and communicating citizenry, 

governance by the constitutionally balanced executive, legislative and judicial branches of government less

interested in re-election or appointment than the best interests of all and influenced by 'the better angels of their

nature, and finally, business within a compassionate capitalist system.

webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/.../industrialrevolution/ireffects.html

Steeped in the Past

Matilda Milazzo Nimke 1924

New sidebar photographs come from a growing collection, now swelling with the addition of my father's carefully preserved collection. What does one do with such a collection? Digitization is enabling me to share all of them with everyone in the family and also to use them in unique ways.

 

But what of the process of discovery, looking, studying, remembering, and re-experiencing the past. Every boomer who has had to sift through, organize and distribute the various treasures of their parents knows the complex current of emotions which can threaten at times to just overwhelm.

 

In the past various collections and specific objects found in my parents' home have been written about here. More is coming.

 

BTW - By the way....If you wish to automatically receive these posts in your e-mailbox scroll down the sidebar of this blog and enter your e-mail address in the space provided. Easy as that.

Our Immaculate Conception Vigil Office - A Love Fest

Last night's celebration of the Vigil Office for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was a lovely and very moving affair. So many of our friends gathered with us to honor our Mother Mary. So many came to express solidarity with us as we walk our current path toward a new location. Before calling us to prayer Sr. Paula, our Prioress shared these words of remembrance and gratitude.

Good evening everyone!  And thank you for joining us.  This evening marks a special anniversary for us—54 years ago six weary young Sisters arrived from Canada to begin this monastery in Esopus. The big bells of Mount Saint Alphonsus rang out as the two cars carrying the foundresses began the long drive in.  We came to call those bells the “happy bells”.  Whenever we heard them over the years we knew something special was happening.  The bells were still sounding as the Sisters climbed the front steps of the Mount to attend solemn Benediction in the Mount’s chapel.  At that time the chapel was filled with handsome young seminarians, eager to welcome their Sisters, the Steens. 

So much has happened since that auspicious day.  So many precious memories for which we are grateful.  Three of those ‘young Sisters’ have gone home to God, after a good long life:  Sr. Mary Bridget who died at our monastery in New South Wales, Australia; Sr. Mary Catherine and Sr. Peg, in our cemetery here—all awaiting the final Resurrection.  Two of those Sisters are still with us, continuing to “age in place”.  We leave it to you to guess who they are!

Tonight we remember too the many women, true God-seekers, who shared life with us for longer or shorter periods in those 54 years. We cherish our alumnae.

And we cherish you, our friends with us tonight, and all those who could not come, who have supported and enriched our lives over the years.  The Redemptorists, the Marists, the Benedictines, monks of Holy Cross, Sisters of St. Ursula, Dominicans, Franciscans, Christian Brothers, Presentation Sisters, Sisters of Christian Charity.  And all our Associates and friends.  This is a time for memories, a time for gratitude.  A very special time too, as it will be the last time we will celebrate this special day in Esopus. 

Tonight as we honor Mary our Mother we celebrate our union in the mystery of the Communion of Saints, and we invoke a special blessing on each one here, and on ourselves as we move into the future.  God bless us all! And thank you!

After prayer we enjoyed the company of our quests and they seemed to relish being with each other, particularly the religious whose ministerial paths have criscrossed through the years. They were also delighted to see a display of photos reflecting the history of the community.

Today we pray to our Mother Mary for the needs of Our Church and our needy world. We ask that her maternal love will be poured out upon the hungry and home, the jobless and the under-employed, the refugees and the undocumented immigrants. May she embrace us all.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception - The First "Good-bye"

The Redemptoristine Nuns of Mother of Perpetual Help Monastery celebrate today the 54th anniversary of their arrival at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, New York.  Six sisters came from Canada (three US citizens) at the invitation of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorist Congregation of priests and brothers to establish the first American monastery of their contemplative order on property surrounding the major seminary of the congregation. It was December 7, 1957, a time when these sisters were still accustomed to complete enclosure and therefore quite overcome by their entrance into the seminary chapel where they were greeted by all the gathered students and faculty and ushered to the front row to participate in Solemn Benediction. Two sisters still speak of the bishop they saw standing behind the students in the entry foyer. Later, in questioning the Redemptorists about this bishop they learned that no bishop was present. Could it have been the spirit of Bishop John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860), Redemptorist Bishop of Philadelphia? They will not know until they reach the other side. On this auspicious note began the long story of close relationship between the Redemptorists and our community of Redemptoristines sharing this park-like environment of 400 acres on the banks of the Hudson River.

Tonight we will celebrate the Vigil Office of Readings for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother in the chapel of our monastery. We have invited the clergy and religious of our area, our lay associates and a few other friends to the first of our efforts to bid farewell to this home and to the people we have come to know so well in this place. Although the location of our new home remains a question we do know that we will be relocating some time in the spring.  

In 2001 we moved into this new building and saw the old monastery go down. We salvaged its cornerstone but made no attempt to open the stone in which, it was said, a box of memorabilia had been placed. A few months ago we thought it about time to do the deed. While quite spoiled by moisture the collection we found reflected the community and the piety of its members. Evidence indicated that individual sisters had placed particular items into the metal box. The collection included a relic of our foundress Maria Celeste Crostarosa, a framed picture of Mother of Perpetual Help, holy cards, scapulars, a crucifix, ten different medals honoring Jesus, Mary and the saints. There were also the remains of a 1958 issue of Perpetual Help Magazine published in Canada and featuring photographs taken inside the enclosure of the Canadian Redemptoristine monastery. Most interesting was a copy of the leaflet given to guests who came to the open-house of the then new monastery from June 19-26, 1960. The sisters say they were exhausted by those days of meeting and greeting and escorting people through the building - a last opportunity for lay people to see the inside of the monastery before the enclosure was officially established.



You will note the strong emphasis on separation and enclosure. Today, as we will do so with joy this evening, we freely mingle with our guests praying with us in chapel, learning our charism as associates, seeking spiritual direction or just entiring into the quite of contemplation in this holy place. 

Tonight we will pray with our friends honoring Mary, a source of strength. We will deepen our collective journey into Advent time. We will enjoy some refreshments afterward in our large gathering space just outside chapel. It will be our pleasure to thank those gathered for their friendship and support. Time marches on and history too with the hand of God beckoning, calling us into the unknown with the promise of divine companionship.

Hildegard of Bingen on the Screen

New Film from Germany  
VISION

A few months ago I received notice from Zeitgeist Films (US distributors of "Into Great Silence") of their coming release of VISION, a German film about the life of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), medieval abbess, mystic, writer, herbalist and composer. I read reviews in the NY Times, Huffington Post, and Commonweal. All give account of this amazing woman's accomplishments, courage, ingenuity and trust in her inspirations - the prophetic visions which she believed came from God alone. They also spoke of the intensity of direction and acting and the visual beauty of the film. This is the kind of movie that will appear only in theaters specializing in foreign films and art cinema so you may have to hunt around for it or wait for the DVD to be issued. It is worth the effort.

History of American Catholic Women Religious

Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America

an exhibit mounted by the Leadership Conference of
Women Religious
currently at Ellis Island Immigration Museum,
New York Harbor
until January 11, 2010

We recently had the privilege to view this exhibit currently housed on the third floor of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. If you have never visited the Museum, plan on spending a day taking the tour and then visiting the LCWR exhibit. To view the memorabilia, read the inspiring accounts of dedication, bravery, compassionate service, courage and great achievement was an inspiration. I was particularly struck by the account of the courageous sisters who went to their death comforting and trying to save the orphans in their care during the hurricane that hit Galvaston, Texas early in the 20th century. I was also enchanted with a slide show that seemed to be coming out of an old film strip projector. The slide show covered the progress of Catholic education via class pictures from different eras, extracurricular club groups and activities, children at recess, devoted teachers bending over their pupils, and on and on. So many classroom scenes looked very familiar.

This exhibit and all of Ellis Island are too good to miss. It can be reached from lower Manhattan or from Liberty State Park in New Jersey (much easier parking there) via a ferry that stops at both Ellis Island and Liberty Island (Statute of Liberty).

Book Review

A LUCKY CHILD
A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz
as a Young Boy

by Thomas Buergenthal

Forward by Elie Wiesel

Children liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1945

Recently had the great good fortune, really a blessing, to just happen upon a radio interview of Thomas Buergenthal, former judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, now serving on the bench of the Central American International Court. He spoke mainly of his work concerning international law, his judicial philosophy and his very impressive case experience. But he also spoke about this book, the expression of his childhood memories of of fleeing Nazi terror, entering the concentration camp of Auschwitz with his parents, being separated from them and how he survived the death camp as a truly "lucky child." I was most impressed with his moderate and compassionate tone, remarkably free of bitterness or hatred and the utter miracle of his survival.

Thomas Buergenthal, born to German-Jewish parents living in Czecchoslovakia, grew up in the Jewish ghetto of Kielce, Poland. He was sent to Auschwitz in August, 1944. As Russian troops approached in 1945, he was among those force-marched for days in freezing weather to the camp of Sachsenhausen from which he was liberated in the spring of 1945. He was eleven years old and did not know whether his parents were dead or alive. Over a year later he was miraculously reunited with his mother. In 1951 he emigrated to the United States where he studied at Bethany College in West Virginia graduating in 1957, received his J.D. at New York University in 1960, and his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in international law from Harvard Law School.

Justice Buergenthal has served as a judge for many years, including lengthy periods on various specialized international organization bodies. Between 1979 and 1991, he served as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, including a stint as that court's president; from 1989 to 1994, he was a judge on the Inter-American Development Bank's Administrative Tribunal; in 1992 and 1993, he served on the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador; and from 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Justice Buergenthal wrote:

...I was drawn to international law and human rights law...because I believed...that these areas of the law, if developed and strengthened, could spare future generations the type of terribly human tragedies that Nazi Germany had visited on the world...Over time I also gradually concluded that I had an obligation to devote my professional activities to the international protection of human rights. This sense of obligation had its source in the belief, which grew stronger as the years passed, that those of us who had survived the Holocaust owe it to those who perished to try to improve, each in our own way, the lives of others.

He concludes:

Today it is...easier that it was in the 1930s to arouse the international community to act. That does not mean that such action will always be forthcoming. But it does mean that we now have better tools that we had in the past to stop massive violations of human rights. The task ahead is to strengthen these tools, not to despair, and to never believe that mankind is incapable of creating a world in which our grandchildren and their descendants can live in peace and enjoy the human right that were denied to so many of my generation.

Hearing Justice Buergenthal speak and reading his memoir were gift and inspiration.

Feast of St. Alphonsus de Liguori

St. Alphonsus: Preacher of the Good News of God's Love and Redemption in Jesus Christ

* Founder
* Missionary
* Author
* Moral Theologian
* Doctor of the Church
* Lover of the Poor

Today Redemptoristines and Redemptorists and many other congregations which trace their roots to him celebrate the feast day of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787). He is the patron saint of moral theologians and those suffering from arthritis. In the history of the Italian language he is given large credit for helping to standardize the language by publishing over one hundred books in the 18th century, many of which have never been out of print like "The Glories of Mary" or "The True Spouse of Christ." He lived well into his ninetieth year but claimed to be dying from about the age of sixty because he suffered from many aliments, mainly due to a severely arthritic spine. In the end he was so bent that his chin created a wound in his chest and he was practically blind and deaf. Perhaps one of his greatest sufferings was to out live all his friends and associates. But, undoubtedly, it was a very great sorrow to find himself technically expelled from his own congregation due to the machinations between the Church and political forces at work as the Redemptorists sought approbation of their Rule. In his failing state he was deceived, tricked into signing a document, and later found that he was not a member of the congregation which had received approval from Rome. All because of what might be called political geography.

For many years, Redemptoristine Nuns considered St. Alphonsus their founder. Our Sister Maria Celeste was inspired by Jesus to create the Order and did so one year before Alphonsus began the Redemptorists (1731). He had been sent by a Bishop to examine Maria Celeste's inspiration. He was totally impressed, supported her and they became friends. She, in turn, encouraged a then very uncertain Alphonsus to follow his inspiration to begin a congregation dedicated to preaching the redeeming love of God to the poorest of the poor and the most abandoned. This effort began in 1732 in the guest house of Maria Celeste's monastery. However, when the Bishop began to edit the rule she had received from Jesus, Celeste protested, the sisters took sides, and she was given an ultimatum: accept the edited rule and accept the Bishop as your spiritual director for life. She agreed to the first provision but could not accept to the second. She and her blood sisters were expelled from the monastery. She served in a couple of other religious institutions at their behest to renew their practice while looking for a place she could begin a new monastic community. Finally she settled in Foggia, a long way from her original home in Naples. The Foggia monastery was not reunited with the Order until the 1930s.

St. Alphonsus was instrumental in getting the edited Rule approved by Rome. When he became bishop of St. Agata di Gotti, he requested that the original monastery in Scala, outside of Naples, make their first new foundation in his diocese. This is the history which dubbed him "founder" in Redemptoristine history.

The Redemptorists were long thought of as missionaries preaching a "hell fire and brimstone" version of salvation. This was probably a great exaggeration and it is not the reputation they enjoy today. But it seems odd that they should have been so labeled becasue their founder Alphonsus was noted and reviled in his time for a skillful theogical balance between two extremes of his time: the elitest, exclusionary and guilt-ridden Jansenist strand (alive in some circles to this day) then known a rigorists and, at the other end of the spectrum, the minimalists who preferred to think of salvation as assured by a minimum of religious effort. I am not capable of explaining his positions as a moral theologian. These position were expressed pastorally in his demand for simple but precise preaching, emphasis on the redeeming salvation of a God so in love with people that Alphonsus called God, "Iddio pazzo" the crazy God, crazy in love with creation. His preaching emphasized the Crib, the Cross and the Eucharist; the mystery of the Incarnation, the Redeeming Passion of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Eucharistic meal and presence.

Alphonsus de Liguori was a very brilliant and accomplished man. He suffered the interior trials of scrupulosity and vacillation all his life. But he persevered, using every God-given gift at his command and clinging to the image of a loving God who made it all possible.

Those interested in learning more could consult an excellent biography of the saint by Fr. Jones, a Redemptorist.

Last of Lenten Contemplative Studies Series

The last of the series was an overview of the history and state of religious life in general and contemplative monastic life in particular announcing that both are alive and well. For us, as a community of contemplative nuns offering such a series for the first time the response to was gratifying - people clearly on the spiritual way seeking community and encouragement.

"To Pray Always" - Monasticism into the

21st Century

After the London Times published his obituary, Mark Twain quipped to a lecture audience, “The report of my death was greatly exaggerated.”

Tonight I would like to assure you that reports of the death of monasticism, indeed the death of religious life, have been greatly exaggerated. Both are alive and well, though diminished in number. Indeed, if the record of history and culture is predictive and if, as a result, artistic imagination keeps bringing monastic images to our cultural radar screen, they will never die.

Before proceeding, I want to say that this talk contains a lot more personal opinion than the others. Therefore please feel free to take what you want and leave the rest. I will also say that my opinions are not necessarily those of the management.

Across the wide spectrum of religious experience, throughout the ages and in our time there is evidence of a universal call to withdrawal – some sort of remove to silence and solitude. Native Americans on the ‘vision quest’, Muslim Sufi mystics we call whirling dervishes, Buddhist monks, Jewish Kabbalists, Hindu sannyasis, Orthodox Jews observing the Sabbath, as well as Christian nuns and monks all express this impulse by going apart. In the terms of Jungian psychology this human propensity is referred to as the monk-archetype, a contemplative dimension that is inborn, in every human being. In response to this innate dimension some seem to instinctively recognize the value of silence and solitude not only for personal well-being but for the well-being of their society. I did not see the recent public television documentary on “The Brain, but my father did. He mentioned that researchers have found that a period of silence has a scientifically demonstrable beneficial effect on the brain. Perhaps this is the measurable physiological effect that some among us merely intuit.

Expressions of the tendency to withdraw in an effort to be more aware of, or commune with, the transcendent or the mysterious other pre-date Christianity by at least 600 years; first in Hinduism and then Buddhism. In Jewish and Christian tradition, Elijah and Elisha are examples of hermits who inspired the Essenes in 1st and 2nd century BC Israel. There has been much speculation concerning the possible influence of this monastic sect on the lives of both John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.

Christian monasticism was born in the deserts of Egypt in the 3rd century AD. Hermits began to attract others gradually forming groups which gradually developed into cenobitic or communal monastic life. By the 4th century there were Celtic hermits who were soon followed in the 5th and 6th centuries by full-fledged monasteries in what we call the British Isles and Ireland. This was also the case in Gaul, which is present-day France.

Although other seminal rules for monastic life preceded it, the Rule of St. Benedict written in the 6th century, was and continues to be most influential in terms of monastic spirituality and practice.

Any one who has studied European History or the History of Western Civilization or read Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization, knows how monasteries are credited with preserving classical knowledge while the Roman Empire collapsed and ravaging hordes invaded Europe during what is called the Dark Ages. Later, the 11th and 12th centuries were the monastic golden age in which an upswing in population and comparative peace allowed for monastic reform movements to thrive. By the 13th century which saw the rise of mendicant orders like the Franciscans, there were already hundreds of Benedictine and Carthusian monasteries in present day France and Germany.

However, if we hop, skip and jump a few hundred years to early modern Europe we come to a time when monasticism in western Europe was dealt an almost lethal blow. The Protestant Reformation of the late 15th and early 16th centuries had made things difficult enough. But during the French Revolution which began in 1789 and in the years that followed ALL but a handful of monasteries in France were closed, occupied or destroyed. At the time, with surviving monks and nuns seeking asylum in foreign countries or simply going home there seemed little hope for the future. Later political upheaval in most of the European countries often made monastic life difficult, if not impossible.

By the turn of the 20th century the pendulum began to swing the other way. And in our country it followed a particularly high arc. The great immigration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had brought millions of Catholics into the United States. Many elements combined to energize the swing. The local church was a natural focus for ethnic Catholic people. Religious and priest from their home countries were imported to minister to them. By the 1930s and 40s these groups, after surviving the Great Depression were treading the path of upward social mobility. Ethnic and religious prejudices still made the path arduous in the general culture but the Church provided a sure and respected avenue in which to move up the social ladder. It was a rare Catholic mother or father who would not support a religious vocation cropping up in their family.

Scholars of the history of women have also touched upon a factor in this mix which may have been, if not a stated motivation, than perhaps at least an unconscious one for many young women entering religious life. Although women had been granted the vote in 1921, generally speaking, their vocational choice remained exceedingly narrow. That narrowness prevailed well into the 1960s, the period of my own college education. The view of what was acceptable was that if a woman had to work or if she exhibited some intellectual ability meriting education beyond high school her choices were limited to teaching, nursing, social work, maybe pharmacy or advanced training in a secretarial school. For the middle class, it was understood that this work would end with marriage and children. Furthermore, it was understood that leadership in these fields would remain in the hands of men.

Considering those societal norms, it is almost startling to see how vowed Catholic religious women, as early as the 19th century, in the name of charity and service to the poor and needy, functioned in positions generally forbidden to lay women in the same time period. Beginning with the sisters whose service as nurses during the civil war was highly coveted by doctors; to those who engineered networks of missions in large congregations across the country; to those to headed hospitals, colleges, and boards of directors; to those who were able to sit down with bankers and negotiate huge loans for building funds in the midst of the Depression; these women found outlet for their natural abilities as leaders and organizers which could not have be exercised outside of Catholic religious life.

With such leadership and example combined with the influence of the burgeoning Catholic school system and the general feeling that to be a priest or sister was a move up both in this world and in your hope for the next, it is no wonder that the numbers of those entering seminaries and novitiates swelled to an unprecedented high.

Some of us look back to that time with a nostalgic longing, a longing for a time of such affirmation and certainty. However, my friends, we have to remember that this was, in reality, just a blip on the radar screen, a brief moment in the history of religious life.

In 1960, our sisters moved into their newly built monastery here at Mt. St. Alphonsus. In its size alone 45,000 square feet, was reflected the expectation of large numbers seeking entrance into the community. It could hold up to forty-three nuns, included a handsome chapel and insured both the enclosure and accommodations for women flocking to the monastery. However, that very period was the cusp of great change in society and the Church. The Second Vatican Council “opened windows” and declared “the universal call to holiness.” The Feminist Movement began to open up for women previously unheard of opportunities. At the same time, the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War Movements raised consciences in matters concerning justice and peace. Many factors contributed to a shrinking of the ranks in all religious communities. Women left religious life because they had to re-examine what they had considered a call in the light of a new societal, cultural and spiritual reality. This community itself remained small, never filling a huge building which could not meet the needs of an aging community and was costly to maintain. Through the generosity of the Redemptorists, the community moved into this new home in 2001.

And where is contemplative monastic life today? What is the status of this life and religious life in general? We are alive and well. The invitation of the Second Vatican Council, (1962 to 1965) to revisit or, in some cases such as ours, to discover for the first time the original inspiration of the founder, was life-giving. The invitation to apply modern educational and psychological principles to the rule of life and the invitation to become more educated in the faith, to become ever more steeped in the Paschal Mystery of the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and his Word, have brought religious to places they had never gone before to serve the poor and most abandoned. They have brought men and women into the silence and solitude of the monastery where the focus is clear, where the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience can be lived faithfully in an atmosphere which honors the dignity, maturity and gifts of the individual. Apostolic active religious are doing wonders everywhere in a manner and with a quality of such generous and sacrificial faithfulness that gives glory to God and honors the inspiration of their founders.

Unfortunately, and perhaps it is the fault of that Catholic nostalgia I referred to earlier, the general culture seems a bit schizophrenic in its attitude toward religious. On one hand, there is the play Nunsense (at which I laugh as raucously as anyone), the movie Sister Act which is and unbeatable mix of nuns and rock and roll tunes, and all manner of nun kitsch – boxing nuns, nuns having fun calendars, nun dolls, nun candles, and knick-knacks of all kinds. Out of genuine regard we want sisters our nuns to be there, to be on duty because of their generosity, their faith, their intelligence and their expertise but, at the same time, we think we have the right to tell them what they should be wearing, where they should live, and who we think they should be serving.

On the other hand, and in a very hopeful development, we admired the block-buster, Academy Award winning, Dead Man Walking. Although she dared to minister to a condemned murderer, although she wore a lay woman’s clothing, we loved how Susan Sarandon portrayed Sr. Helen Prejean. In spite of the distastefulness of it all Sarandon reminded us of the single minded dedication to the teachings of Jesus long admired in American religious women.

Last year a German documentary was shown at the Forum, an art movie theater in Manhattan. Titled Into Great Silence, the 240 minute film was a virtually silent record of day to day life in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartruese in the French Alps. The director, Philip Groning had first asked permission to make the film in 1984. But the Carthusians, the most austere Catholic order, responded that they were not ready. Sixteen years later they contacted Groning with the simple message, “Now we are ready.” The film took a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and won best documentary at the European Film Awards. When it came to the Forum last year the lines went around the block and it was held over repeatedly. A.O. Scott, film critic for the New York Times wrote, “…You surrender to Into Great Silence as you would to a piece of music…but your sense of the world is nonetheless perceptibly altered…I hesitate, given the early date and the project’s modesty, to call “Into Great Silence” on of the best films of the year. I prefer to think of it as the antidote to all of the others.”

So even in the popular culture we find hope. We also find hope in the slowly increasing numbers of applications to communities and in the establishment of new communities of monastic life not only in the Catholic tradition but even among Protestant evangelicals. And in the third world religious life is blooming. While the same factors may be at play there that contributed to the serge here during the 40s and 50s, great work is being done and large congregations have become truly international. The current superior general of the Sisters of Notre Dame, a congregation well known in the United States, is a native of Kerala, India. She is responsible for 2,400 sisters ministering throughout the world.

Recently, in this country, there was a period recently when older women of a certain age predominated among candidates. One sister remarked that these women were about the age that all those who left in the 70s would have reached by this time. Perhaps the Spirit was filling in a vital gap. Unlike the active congregations contemplative orders never stopped accepting older women, an ancient precedent in the life.

To conclude this status report I would like to share some thoughts from the Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister. Her essay, "Old Vision for a New Age", was published in one of the books listed in the bibliography, A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century – Where Do We God from Here? In considering Sr. Joan’s recommendations, we have to bear in mind that Sr. Joan is a monastic but not a contemplative. The difference may not be clear. The Benedictine congregation to which she belongs follows a monastic structure and is very dedicated to the monastic life of prayer. However, they are active religious, many with apostolates outside the monastery. The sisters behind Benedictine hospital are of this type. Yet Sr. Joan’s vision has validity even within the contemplative monastic setting. This is the job description she outlines:

1. Monastic communities must become centers of reflection on the faith, centers of conscience and centers of spiritual development.
2. The monastic community must be a center of public service and a model of interfaith interaction.
3. Monasticism must be a model of equality.

In the same book of essays, Robert Morneau, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, offers a more poetic description. In his view, monastic men and woman are to be models of maturity and holiness as they respond to the call to community, service and generosity.

Just as each part of the human body serves a unique purpose geared to its specific function; just as only skin cells can encapsulate our organs, just as only lung cells can absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide; just as only heart cells can form the muscles necessary to pump blood throughout the body; contemplative monastics fulfill a vital and distinct work in the Body of Christ. All religious, but particularly contemplative monastics, reside at the outskirts. We live at the margin, on the edge. As contemplative monastics we live far away from the center of action, form the center of power. We are like those whose restricted pocketbooks put them in the last row of Yankee Stadium or the Metropolitan Opera. We may not be at the center but we sure do have a great view. That gives us a perspective on things, a view of the total reality that is not distorted by the corruption of influence and power. And we are told this freedom is the source of our prophetic wisdom. It is also said that to the extent that we can persevere in living alone together with charity and with mutual compassion for our wounded-ness, our humanity and our diversity we offer a model for peace in our world.

Trappist Abbot Francis Kline concluded his essay To What Holiness? Monasticism and the Church Today with these words:

“The Church makes no spiritual sense without this hidden gift of total surrender to Christ and constant conversion to him. It is the Church’s wedding garment which it only partially wears when it forgets the monastic way. The Church is not its complete spiritual self without this total abandon to the love of God, this total joy of freedom of the children of God, this total sacrifice which is held us as a single ray of light, made up of all the other rays of light, which is the mystery of the Church.

Thankless, rootless, without a home here, unknown or derided, thought foolish and meaningless, the monks and nuns look out on the eastern horizon for Christ the Bridegroom of the Church, in a world still too busy with itself, still too taken up with its own seriousness. The monks and the nuns keep the Church on its toes in vigilant waiting for the Savior. The monk and nuns hold aloft the light of the mystery of the Church, still in this world, but well on its way to full communion with the mysterious God. The light shines on, but in a fog where only the intently gazing can see it.”

A Bit of History

“I Will Espouse You”

The Origin, History and Meaning

of a Religious Profession Ring
Sr. Hildegard Magdalen Pleva, OSsR

“Receive this ring, for you are betrothed to the Eternal King; keep faith with your bridegroom so that you may come to the wedding feast of eternal joy.” (Foley, 183)
In the Rite of Solemn Religious Profession every Redemptoristine nun receives with these words a visible and lasting sign of her resolve “to live for God alone, in solitude and silence; in persevering prayer and willing penance, in humble work and holiness of life.” (OSsR Profession Formula) The nun responds in song, “My Lord Jesus Christ has betrothed me with this ring; and adorned me as his spouse.”

The presentation of profession rings to be worn as noticeable signs of commitment to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience is not at all unusual among orders and congregations of women religious. The profession ring of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, however, bears a design that is unusual and strikingly meaningful in its symbolism. The top of the ring, what jewelers refer to as the bezel, is molded in the shape of clasped hands. The origin and history of this design was all but lost to most Redemptoristines by the 2006, two hundred and seventy-five years since the beginning of the Order. Those years saw the gradual spread of the Order to six continents and the adaptation of its small monasteries to a variety of times and cultures. Today’s monasteries are a far remove from the Neapolitan beginnings in the hillside town of Scala, Italy in 1731. The nuns in my own monastery could tell me nothing about their ring except that, to the best of their knowledge, it had been used from the earliest days of their founding. The design of the ring was not mentioned in the Rule approved for use in 1935 nor in the Constitutions and Statutes guiding the order since 1985.

A few years ago we were quite amazed to see a ring very similar to our own on the hand of a visitor to the monastery. Upon inquiry, we learned that the ring was a silver museum reproduction of a Roman betrothal ring. This was quite a revelation to us and provided initial direction for research begun months later at the approach of my own solemn profession. While anticipating reception of this powerful symbol of vows, I was motivated to begin a quest to determine the origin of our profession ring by surfing the Internet looking for documentation of the museum reproduction worn by our friend. Google, the powerful Internet search engine, led to most of the information contained here.

Jewelers and historians of artifacts refer to rings which bear the design of clasped hands as ‘fede rings’. The word fede comes from the Italian words mani in fede, meaning hands in trust. An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry offers a very complete description of the fede ring and its origin:

A type of finger ring, often worn as a betrothal or

engagement ring, but sometimes merely as a token

of affection, having as decoration an engraved pair

of clasped right hands or two such hands molded to
form the bezel. They were usually made of silver

(some of gold). On some examples from the 15th

century the hands were at the back of the ring, and

the bezel ornamented sometimes with a gemstone

or a woman’s head or heart. Occasionally the fede

ring was made in the form of a gimmel ring, with the

hands on separate hoops and made to link together;
these were sometimes separated so that each of an

engaged couple could wear half until the marriage.

Fede rings were used in Roman days, and were

popular throughout Europe from the 12th until the

18th century. Some have an inscription (usually

amatory, but sometimes religious or magical)
around the hoops. The term ‘fede’ is said to have

been introduced by 19th century ring collectors

from the Italian mani in fede…
(Newman, 122)

The use of rings, worn on various parts of the body or pierced through them, was common practice in most ancient cultures. In ancient Egypt, Mycenae, and Cyprus, and among the Celts, golden rings were used as a medium of exchange or money. Later, particularly in Egypt, the facing or design of a ring was used as a seal for the authentication of documents. This became common in Israel and Greece and was later adopted by the Romans from whom Christians appropriated the practice. (New Catholic Encyclopedia, XII, 504) A Roman ring of gold, dating from the 1st or 2nd century A.D., is decorated with a pair of clasped hands, known as “Dextarum Iunctio”. The hands represented the legal sanctioning of a contract. The design, which might be described as a signet ring today, was also used as decoration for betrothal or wedding rings symbolizing the marriage contract. It was popular throughout the Roman period and spread into provinces of the empire. By the 3rd century A.D., inscriptions were usually added either below or above the hands. Eventually the Roman design evolved from the signet form to a molded pair of clasped hand constituting the entire bezel of the ring. It is also thought that the Romans began the tradition of wearing these rings on the third finger of the left hand, believed to be the location of the ‘vena amoris’, the ‘vein of love’ first named by the Egyptians as leading directly to the heart.

In the late Middle Ages and particularly during the Renaissance there was an explosion of interest in everything associated with ancient Greece and Rome. The attraction to antiquity was not limited to the fields of philosophy, mathematics and literature but also extended to architecture and the decorative arts including jewelry and costume. The Roman clasped hands ring was reappropriated and achieved great popularity during the Renaissance as a betrothal ring. Its use continued into the 18th century. From the middle of sixteenth to the close of the seventeenth century, it was customary to inscribe inside the ring a motto or ‘posy’, frequently a very simple sentiment in commonplace rhyme such as ‘Our contract was heaven’s act’, or ‘God above increase our love’. These rings are still described as ‘posy rings’.

The findings of modern archaeology and the presence of rings bearing this design in museum collections confirm that their use was widespread geographically and popular for hundreds of years. Fede rings dating to the 12th and 13th centuries have been found in Britain. One example bears the inscription “I H S NAZARENVS” which is read as “Jesus of Nazareth”. The description of this ring in a publication of the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, the oldest museum in England, includes the comment that “the name of Jesus was often invoked as a magical charm against certain ailments, such as muscular spasms.” (Ashmolean, 84) Given the focus here, it is tempting to consider an alternative possibility that the ring may have been worn by a nun. The Danish National Museum of Copenhagen has in its collection a fede ring dug from the ground in Alborg, Jutland which has been dated to the 16th century. The most charming find of the Internet search was record of the fede ring held by the British Maritime Museum in London. It is one of a pair exchanged by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) and Emma, Lady Hamilton (circa 1765-1815). It was worn by Nelson at the time of his death. Lady Hamilton’s ring is in the collection of the Royal Navel Museum, Portsmouth.

Perhaps the most curious reference to fede rings is found in the Canadian Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. Carol Mason’s article describes rings found at archaeological sites of Jesuit missionary activity in North American in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Apparently the Jesuits used rings as part of their strategy to spread Christianity by using them in trade and in giving them as ritual symbols of conversion. A letter written by a missionary to his superior in Paris contains a list of necessary supplies. The list includes “six gross of finger rings.” (Mason, 4) Rings found at known Jesuit sites vary widely in design, including rings bearing royal portraits, crowns, fleur-de-lys or “the clasped hands”. (Mason, 1)

To bring this history well into our present time one must note the connection of the fede design to the traditional Claddagh ring so popular in Ireland and North America today. While a great deal of folklore and interpretation of symbols surround the origin of this design, many Irish historians and scholars of the decorative arts believe that the mani in fede design may be the direct ancestor of the Claddagh ring. The bezel of this ring bears a central heart shape supported by a hand on each side and is surmounted by a crown. It is said to have originated with Robert Joyce who learned the trade of goldsmith in Algiers and upon returning to his native town of Claddagh, Ireland in the late 17th century presented the first ring of this design to his childhood sweetheart.

Having traced the historical use of the fede design and cited evidence of its popularity through the centuries, it is necessary to consider the use of rings in religious profession rites and specifics of their use in the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer. Formalized rituals for the dedication of virgins originated in the early centuries of the Church. “The first of these which survives is a description of the dedication of Marcellina, the sister of Ambrose (d.397)…” (Foley, 14) This rite included the presentation of a ring and since the fourteenth century, most professed nuns and sisters are given rings as a sign of their complete dedication to Christ. (Murphy, 506)

In response to my query, Sr. Anna Maria Ceneri of the Redemptoristine community in Scala, Italy, first monastery of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, provided informative documentation concerning the presentation of a ring at profession and the first use of the fede ring design by the Order.

The first clothing in the Order took place on the

6th of August in 1731. After the departure of the

Crostarosa sisters [expulsion of foundress
Maria Celeste from Scala in 1733], the sisters

professed the new Rule on the 18th of June, 1733.

At that time they began to wear the ring. From the

account book for June 1733, we know that the sisters

bought 19 fedi (rings) of gold (two ounces in weight)

and 5 of silver for the “cost of 42 ducats, three tari
and fifty grana ”. The sisters paid 20 ducats and a

benefactor covered the remainder. [Note: tari and

grana refer to coins in use at the time within the
Kingdom of Two Sicilies.]

The ring has constantly been used since the time

of Mother Celeste, in fact, the blessing of the ring

is found in the Ceremonial of Profession in Scala.

This blessing is also found in the Cava Codex and in
the Foggia Codex I. [Note: These are the earliest

written Rules of the Order.]

Mother Maria Celeste did wear a ring, because

that is indicated in the ceremonials of Cava and

Foggia and is also seen in the first painted portrait

in Foggia.

Regarding the significance of the engraving,

I cannot tell you anything. I have always thought

that it is to signify charity. (Ceneri)

This information anchors the traditional use of a mani in fede ring for presentation at profession in the very earliest days of the Order. The wide use of the fede ring in secular society as a symbol of the bonds of love and trust in marriage seems to have made this design a natural choice. Certainly the Dialogues of Maria Celeste Crostarosa, foundress of the Redemptoristines, are replete with spousal love imagery, imagery echoed in the Profession Rite itself. The traditional inscription in Redemptoristine rings, “Ego te sponsabo” (I will espouse you.), also follows a popular custom of the period, that of the posy ring. Betrothal and promise rings were frequently inscribed with a simple poetic line declaring love, fidelity, or friendship.

When asked about the use of this ring design in the Order, one Italian sister replied, “I always understood that it was the marriage ring of the time of Maria Celeste.” In Italy, even now, the simple word ‘fede’ is commonly used to refer to a wedding ring. This matrimonial symbol, this emblem of mutual trust, promise, commitment and donation of self would have been a most natural choice for Maria Celeste. However, it is clear in her Dialogues, the record of her mystical conversations with Jesus, that the spousal relationship meant in the symbol refers not only to that between the nun and Jesus, her beloved spouse. By the union of Jesus Christ with all of humanity in the Incarnation, the human enfleshment of the third person of the Trinity, anyone committed to and united with him is therefore to also be united to all of humanity. One cannot exist without the other. The consequence of true espousal to Jesus Christ, according to Celeste’s mystical insight, is to become another Christ. Excerpts from the first of her Dialogues written in 1724, seven years before the founding of the Order, clearly explain that to be espoused to the Son of God is to be espoused to all whom he loves.

If anyone should ask you who I am, answer that I am

pure love… I…will bring about in you authentic

reflections of my very self and you will become my own

likeness…For this reason I want you to be espoused
to all souls…And since I am your spouse, you have been

espoused to goodness and love itself…I want you to be

espoused also to the love of all the delights centered in

my goodness, and through these delights, to be
espoused to all those souls who are mine.
(Crostarosa, 2, #3)

Since I have been long awaiting you in my heart…

so that I might espouse you and in you espouse all

the souls of my Church… I want you also to have

the same love for all these people that I have
deep in my heart for you…I extend my right hand

over you and hug you to my heart, so that in

embracing you, I, at the same time, enfold
in my heart all of my creatures. And with a

unitive kiss, you, too, must give these souls, who

are my heart, a kiss of love…The souls of this

community in which you live must be your

dear spouses and you will love them and be

forever dedicated to their special good. I turn
them over to your care, my beloved, for they

are your spouses. From now on, you shall

love them in me and me in them.
(Crostarosa, 9, #14)

By union with Jesus Christ Redemptoristine nuns are to participate so fully in his nature that they become ‘living memories’; become transformed into his likeness in the way long-married couples begin to resemble each other and are able to complete their partner’s sentences in speaking.

For a Redemptoristine, the mani in fede ring she receives at solemn profession, is a sign of God’s promise uttered in Hosea 2:21-22:
I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice;

in love and in mercy.
I will espouse you in fidelity,

and you shall know the Lord.

The clasped hands signify the mutuality of the promise. But the connection of two beings suggested by the design speaks also of the power of that primary relationship to affect all other relationships; that espousal to this ONE naturally means espousal to ALL in “mutual charity and union of hearts.” (Constitution, 7)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashmolean Museum, Department of Antiquities. Treasure Annual Report 2002.
Oxford, England, 2002.

Ceneri, Sister Anna Maria. Response About the Ring. E-mail letter. Scala, Italy: Redemptoristine Monastery of Scala, 3/18/06.

Crostarosa, Maria Celeste. Dialogues. Trans. Rev. Joseph Oppitz. Esopus, NY: Redemptoristine Nuns, 1982.

Foley, Edward. Rites of Religious Profess: Pastoral Introduction and Complete Text.
Chicago, Illinois: Liturgy Training Publications, Inc., 1989.

McNamara, Jo Ann Kay. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millenia.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Mason, Carol. “Jesuit Rings, Jesuits, and Chronology” Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. Fall, 2003.

Murphy, F.X. “Rings” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. XII, p. 504. New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967.

Newman, Harold. An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry. London: Thames and Hudson,
1981.

Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (OssR). Constitution and Statutes. Rome, Italy, 1985.


Shermak, R.M. “Religious Habit” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. XII, p. 286. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967.