St Francis Minor Seminary - Via Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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DIAMOND vouh'sfalhnu for Americafhk Bishop Henni correctly concluded that since they had been unable, on account of their poverty, to do anything towards the furtherance of this noble project, the Sisters would add their acres to the newly purchased property, and, when needed, contribute their services also. Thus we have the Sister- hood connected with the very inception of the Semi- nary. The Brothers joined the workmen making brick, carpentering, hauling lumber, and doing anything else they were able to do. The Sisters cooked for all hands, and there are stories of them even carrying brick. Upon the completion of the Seminary the Sisters entered upon their new duties as housekeepers. Bed-making, cooking, baking, washing, ironing, and mending filled the days late into the night. Housekeeping in the 185015 was not done with the aid of labor-saving devices: the cooking was done on two wood stoves after heat had been coaxed from sizzling green logs; water had to be carried in from a pump as far away as the present infirmary; on every baking day the dough for a hundred loaves of bread had to be kneaded by hand; wash day lasted from shortly after midnight to nearly midnight again; cows had to be milked and the milk carried coolie-fashion from the barn to the kitchen. Toil-worn, tired hands were the only means by which all this labor was performed. 15 it to be wondered at that the staunchest courage would give way under such pressure? The little community, besides, was compelled to remain little, being permitted by Dr. Salzmann to receive only so many postulants as would complete the num- ber absolutely necessary for the work at the Seminary and Orphanage. The Sisters had taken charge of the latter institution in 1854. The remuneration which the community was to receive for all this was to consist of board, shelter, and clothing. However, the Seminary was often out of funds, hence the money given for the last-namecl and other wants of the Sisters fitted easily into a slim pocketbook. tThe Motherhouse records show a small amount of money for the years when the Semi- nary had a surplus and nothing when it was poorj Finding the obstacles to living a real religious life apparently insurmountable, the very women who had brought the young community into being decided, in 1860, to withdraw. They had a firm though futile hope of being received into a well established commu- nity in their mother coun . After that bitter dis- appointment they settled Km and remained the test of their lives in Milwaukee under the care of Father Vicar-General Batz, at the time a Seminary professor and the chaplain of the community. :1: Letter of Bishop Henni to King Louis of Bavaria, February 28, 1850. 111101 JUBILEE aEsE A few years later, the Mother-General, Sister Antonia, changed the rule of receiving only as many postulants as were necessary for the work at hand. By the admission of as many new subjects with a religious vocation as she could obtain, the community entered upon what seemed a new lease on life. But once again, in fact as soon as 1873, the Seminary became the occasion of another defection. To understand how this was brought about we shall have to review briefly the situation during the pre- ceding ten years, from the time Mother Antonia as- sumed charge of the community. Father Heiss was still the spiritual director of the Sisters. When Mother Antonia approached him with a plan for removing the motherhouse from the environs of St. Francis, he consented to it and prevailed upon Dr. Salzmann to do so too. Both he and Dr. Salzmann helped the Sisters establish themselves in September, 1864. Father Heiss, however, retained the office of spiritual director until, in 1868, he became Bishop of La Crosse. How to retain him in this capacity became the absorbing question. Although Bishop Henni, personally, was willing that the new Bishop continue his ministrations to the community it was against the law of the Church for one Bishop to exercise juris- diction in the diocese of another. The Sisters, how- ever, nothing daunted, decided like Mohammed of old. If the Bishop could not come to them they could go to the Bishop. In July, 1871, the mother- house was again moved, this time to La Crosse. Mother Antonia, from her entrance into the com- munity had been averse to working in the Seminary. There is not the slightest doubt that more and heavier work was required at that time in the Seminary than women of ordinary physical strength were able to perform. Consequently, the strain tended to incapaci- tate the Sisters for active duty sooner than if they had been engaged in a less onerous occupation. So with a view to the physical well-being of her commu- nity she intended withdrawing the Sisters to La Crosse, or if they would not go, to leave them to their own devices. When this became clear to the Sisters they were troubled and anxious as to where their duty lay. Bishop Henni then commissioned Dr. Salzmann to offer the Sisters their choice of obedi- encesethey were to feel perfectly free to remain in the Seminary or to go to La Crosse. Strange as it may seem, by reason of the toilsome lives they led, only a few chose to go. The others were no more anxious to give up their present work than was Dr. Salzmann to let them go; they elected to stay and continue the activity of the community for the time being, in the very place in which it had been born. One can easily see Gocfs providence ruling in this

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. 0 ACCOUNT of the establishment .. and growth of the Seminary can 1 be considered adequate which i would omit a summary, however brief, of the assistance given to the institution by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. i - The founders of that community i deeded to the Seminary the land . which they had purchased jointly . 9 with the Tertian Brothers. Msgr. T Rainer, in A NOBLE PRIEST, t i t ' has this to say, llBishop Henni, who held the deed to the thirty-eight acres of the community, now turned it over with the consent of the community to the Seminary. On this land they had hoped to plant and develop another community to aid the then struggling Church in Wisconsin. In the simplicity of Jesus Christ they made themselves dependent upon the providence of God by giving all their goods to the poor and accepting as alms only what was necessary to sustain life. A very brief survey of the origin of the commu- nity and its loyal adherence throughout the years to one of its earliest aimsellto lay the foundation for a German-boysl Seminary for the education of German priests for Americalle will help show the relation that has always existed between the Sisters and the Seminary. In May of 1849, a little band of six women and four men, all tertiaries of St. Francis, led by Fathers Keppeler and Steiger arrived in Milwaukee from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria, and offered themselves to Bishop Henni for work in his diocese. He advised them to settle at Nojoshing, now St. Francis, where they bought thirty-eight acres of land. During the summer the whole company put up a small convent for the Sisters at the northwest end of the road leading to the orphanage. The building faced north. One may still see two stumps of trees that flanked the front entrance. Un 1916, the Sisters built a summerhouse south of the present convent which is a miniature of the original conventJ Shortly after the first convent was finished ,the Brothers built another dwelling nearby known as the llBrothersl House? After a few years, when the remaining llBrothersll worked exclusively for the Seminary they moved to a new house which had been built for them and the other workmen on the present site of the Salzmann Libraryt Their former home was moved just west of the convent kitchen where it became the laundry and bakery for the Seminary. Fathers Keppeler and Steiger invested the six original Sisters with the religious habit during the summer of 1850. There was no training in religious life possible, for only one had had any previous re- ligious training, and that amounted to only one year in a novitiate in Europe preparatory to embarking for America; much work there was and needs were greate the land had to be cleared, crops had to be sown, so they gave themselves over to a long, hard days labor broken only by stated periods for common prayer. But, however arduous the labor and long the day, it was not possible to force a bare living from the amount of land they were able to cultivate. Fortunately, however, both Father Keppeler and Father Steiger were performing parish duties a few miles distant and so were able to lend assistance in a small way by both employing a Sister as teacher in his parish school. But appalling disasteruboth these priests were snatched away by cholera within a few days of each other in September, 1851edeprived of spiritual and material aid at one fell blow! No priest to minister to them, and the tiny income of teaching lost through the death of their priest ...... but they struggled on heroically, hoping against hope that God would provide for them. Occasionally a priest came who read Mass and administered the Sacraments, but the Sisters had to walk to St. Marys Church in Milwau- kee for Sunday Mass until November, 1852, when Father Heiss took charge of their spiritual needs. Father Heiss realized the immediate need of some employment which would furnish the poor little com- . munity with a livelihood. When he, with Father Salz- mann, was authorized by Bishop Henni to purchase land for a Seminary he decided upon the present site because it was contiguous to the property held by the Sisters, and the proximity would make for the convenience of both institutions. Besides, Bishop Henni was aware that the Sisters had intended, as soon as they could insure llsul'licient funds for their existence by cultivation of their land, to instruct German-speaking boys, who had the necessary talent, gratis or with a meager contribution, and then, grad- ually progressing, to lay the foundation for a German Boys, Seminary for the education of German priests 1:109;

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crisis. The present activity and growth of the commu- nity is proof that 11He hath made a decree and it shall not pass away? During all these years the com- munity has been known as the i1Seminary Sisters, and a large number of vocations have been lost to it on that account, but the word of God will not fail; and once again, as in the founding of His Church on simple, ignorant men, He uses the weak and simple to confound the wise and prudent. A priest who is conversant with the work of the Sisters in the Seminary was one day talking about the trials of the institution. He said: iiThe Seminary and Convent lived like brother and sister; the one could not exist without the other; and the community was at a standstill for over forty years on account of such conditions? The Sisters of St. Francis were loyal to the Seminary for seventy-five long years, although they were often counselled to act differently. For seventy-two years the Sisters did the mending for the students. Cassocks and trousers were repaired ' and pressed for a mere, nominal charge. Sister Ra- phael, deceased sister of the late Father Reinhart, began making cassocks when the convent did not have a table large enough to hold the opened bolts of cloth, so she had to lay them on the floor and kneel while she did the cutting. The original idea or agreement about furnishing their livelihood to the Sisters in return for their services in the Seminary prevailed until 1896. The needs of the community had been growing with the constantly increasing number of members. Owing to the lack of sufficient means, the Sisters were often compelled to practice an economy in food, heat, and light that bordered on want, until Mother Antonine succeeded, not without difficulty, in obtaining a modest salary for each Sister employed in the Semi- nary. Only then was the community perfectly free to follow the altogether satisfactory arrangement of independently doing its own buying. SAINT FRANCIS SEMINARY Nothwithstanding this, the Seminary was in truth appreciative of the Sisters efforts, and a good friend to the community. When Father Zeininger was Pro- curator his difficulties were mountain high. He used to eat his meals in the kitchen and lock himself in his room to keep out of reach of his creditors. He told Mother Antonine, who was studentsi cook at the time, that only because she and the other cooks were so economical was he able to keep the Seminary open. Furthermore, when the first wing of the main convent was being built, 1887-1888, Father Reinhart zealously watched the operations, and whenever he saw anything detrimental to the Sistersi interests he informed Mother Antonine so that she could rebuke in person, for, as he said to her, nIf I speak to the men, they will do what is right only while I am looking on, while if you speak to them they will think you know all about it and it will be more effective? Both workin and living conditions have been greatly improvedg during the last twenty years. The equipment of kitchen and laundry with its modern machinery has done much to improve the situation. One can scarcel realize upon entering the kitchen while dinner is being prepared with a great deal of dispatch that in the same place much simpler meals used to be prepared so laboriously. The Sisters continue quietly and efhciently to perform their duties, content to remain in the back- ground, and, like the Brother whose prayer made fruitful the priestis sermon, pray rich blessings upon the future labors of the young men whom they serve. They are content that their departed associates in religion receive the spiritual suHrages of the seminar- ians past and present, and that they themselves are remembered gratefully where remembrances are most sacred. tRsvh GEORGE REGENFUSS, M. A. Chaplain.