Manhattanville College - Tower Yearbook (Purchase, NY)

Page 16 text:

zJACo th e r 2 rown May 20, 1928, the girls of Manhattanville were very much shocked and grieved to learn that Mother Anna Brown had died very sud¬ denly early that morning. Mother Brown had always meant very much to us and we feel that we were dear to her. Her association with Man¬ hattanville had been very close because she had been treasurer of the Col¬ lege from 1923 to September, 1927, when her health required that she have a complete rest. She seemed to have recovered almost entirely, and thus the shock was all the greater to her friends. These were many, indeed, for Mother Brown had, to an unusual degree, the gift of making and of holding friends. There are several girls in the College now whose mothers and aunts have kept the remem¬ brance of Mother Brown’s kindnesses to them during their own school days. She had been associated with many Sacred Heart Convents, among them Kenwood, Maryville, Clifton, Eden Hall and Elmhurst, at each of which, in turn, she held for several years the position of treasurer. Although Mother Brown’s life was not a very long one, into it she crowded so much of friendship, interest in others, and unselfish devotion to those she loved, that she built for herself, in the memories of all who knew her, a monument more lasting than bronze. ” A solemn Requiem Mass was sung on Monday morning, May 22, after which the funeral procession went to Kenwood, and Mother Brown was buried in the place which had been her home for many years. M. K. McC.

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In (JtfCemoriam Very Reverend Mother Maine de Loe, Superior General TXYOVEMBER 3, 1928, was a day oi mourning in the Convents of the Sacred Heart throughout the world, for it was on this day that the news of the death of Very Reverend Mother Marie de Loe, our beloved Mother General, was received. Reverend Mother de Loe’s life was a most interesting and eventful one. Her mother, the Belgian Countess of Robiano, died when the child was born; her father, Baron von Loe, later married again. When she was seventeen years old her stepmother died, and a year later she asked her father’s permission to enter the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Having obtained the desired permission, and sacrificing a trip to Rome, Marie de Loe entered immediately. As the Convents in Germany had been sup¬ pressed about this time, she entered the novitiate in Brussels. In 1883, at the age of twenty-five, Mother de Loe became Mistress of Novices at Jette-Saint Pierre in Belgium. In 1889 she became Mistress General at the Trinita dei Monti in Rome. Three years later she took up her residence at the Villa Lante, where she was Mistress of Novices and Superior Vicar until 1915. On Lebruary 22, 1915, Reverend Mother de Loe was made Reverend Mother General of the Society, and the Mother House was established permanently at Rome. Thus she was to complete forty years of resi¬ dence in the Eternal City. Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI all showed themselves full of fatherly kindness toward her and guided and comforted her. When Italy entered the World War Mother de Loe’s position became critical. It was only through the personal intervention of Pope Benedict XV that she was allowed to remain at the Villa Lante. During these trying years, although virtually a prisoner at Rome, she guided the Order with skill and delicacy. Among the joys in the life of Very Reverend Mother de Loe was that of assisting at the Canonization of Saint Madeleine Sophie, and of welcoming personally the delegates from the different Convents who had journeyed to Rome for this great occasion. She was very much interested in the foreign missions and established houses in China, Japan and the Congo, as well as making the foundations of Noroton and Washington, with which we are more familiar. She also reopened houses in Prance and Germany, and built a beautiful new Mother House on the Via Nomentana in Rome. Our sorrow at her death is shared by thousands of others, for Reverend Mother de Loe was loved and revered by all those who had heard about her or who knew her personally. B. W. Nine

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Editorial |pHE TOWER OF 1929 is at once a greeting, a farewell, and a pledge of lifelong affection to the Class of ' 29 from the Class of ’30. For three delightful years we have lived together in the shadow of the Copper Tower, sharing the same pleasures, studying books and one another. During these three years we have gleaned a rich harvest of priceless memories—memories to be cherished as fondly as the Copper Tower itself. They are not of big events; for some reason it is the tiny things that we treasure most, the things that come to us so quietly, so casually, that we cannot explain why we value them so highly. Because we have loved Manhattanville, we shall always love the sound of laughter ringing down the long corridors, the solemn tones of the Tower bell striking the hour, the rich chords of the organ at Bene¬ diction. We who have lived at Manhattanville love every inch of it from its very foundations, fixed in the firm rock, to the cross on the Copper Tower, thrust high up into the heavens for all the world to see. We have tried to put as much as possible of all that Manhattanville stands for into this book. It is our gift to the Class of ’29, and we hope that whenever they look at it the memories of the little things we all love” will come back to their minds as swiftly and inevitably as the wind-blown drops of a shattered wave fall back again to the sea. We know that, however imperfectly we have made our gift, it will at least always bring their thoughts back to Manhattanville, rooted in the dim grey city, yet reaching beyond and above it towards ideals that are as high and fixed as the stars. m - 1 M. I. M. Eleven