150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (29)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Alphonse Ratisbonne

In close proximity to the first apartments rented by Frances, as if at the back of the Spanish Square, stands a church that captivated the Foundress and many of her sisters (including me 😊), not to mention the people of Rome. It is the Basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. Its history begins in the 11th century. In the 16th century, Pope Sixtus V handed it over to the order founded by St. Francis of Paola, the Friars Minor (Minimites), who still minister in the Basilica today.
The event that changed the “peaceful” history of the place is the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne. A banker from Strasbourg, a non-practicing Jew, and additionally hostile to the Catholic religion, which was fostered by the conversion to Catholicism and the priestly ordination of his brother Theodore. While awaiting his wedding to a young relative scheduled for August 1842, he decided to take a long trip abroad. He arrived in Rome “by chance” when his ship was damaged in Naples. Here his childhood friends Gustave and Theodor de Bussieres were waiting for him. The latter, concerned about Alphonse’s hostility to all that was Catholic, persuaded him to wear the Miraculous Medal and say prayers to Mary. After initial indignation, Alphonse accepted the proposal, which he considered irrelevant to his life, and even turned the whole incident into a joke, saying “ Ah! I have become Catholic, apostolic and Roman.”
Also praying for his conversion was a friend of the Bussieres brothers, who soon died of a heart attack. When Theodore Bussiers went to St. Andrew’s Church on January 20, 1842 to arrange his funeral, Alphonse Ratisbonne accompanied him. Bored with waiting in a horse-drawn carriage, he entered the church to watch it. Let us now give the floor to Ratisbonne himself, who described what happened as follows:
“Suddenly I felt a kind of uneasiness, I saw a kind of veil in front of me. The church seemed to me, except for one chapel, quite dark, as if all the light from the church was concentrated there […]. I raised my eyes to the chapel spreading the vastness of the light and saw […] standing on the altar, the living, large, majestic, beautiful and merciful Blessed Virgin Mary, similar in attitude and structure to the image from the Miraculous Medal of the Immaculate […].I fixed my eyes on her hands and saw in them forgiveness and mercy […]. She gave me a sign with her hand to kneel down. She seemed to say: “This is right.” In the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, although she did not utter a word, I understood everything […]. I could not realize for myself all the truths I believed and learned. All I can say is that at the moment of her gesture, a whole lot of veils fell from my eyes. […]. She didn’t say anything to me, and I understood everything […].I felt ready for anything and earnestly desired baptism. They wanted to postpone it. I cried out: “The Jews who heard the prophecies of the Apostles were immediately baptized, and you want to postpone my baptism? After I heard the Queen of the Apostles?”.
After a brief preparation by the Jesuits, he was baptized at the Del Gesù Church as early as January 31. The priest preaching the homilies addressed him in significant words: “You did not love the truth, but the truth loved you… Mary herself accepts and protects you.” During the same Mass, he received First Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation.
In 1843, together with his brother Theodore, he founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion. In 1847, he entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest. Later, however, with the approval of Pope Pius IX, he left the order and traveled with his brother to the Holy Land to work among “his own.” He prayed for knowledge of the Truth for his relatives as well. From his family, 28 people converted to Catholicism! He used his earthly “wealth” to build monasteries, orphanages, schools…
He spent the last years of his life in Ain Karim (En Kerem), where he died on May 6, 1884. He was buried near the Shrine of the Visitation of St. Elizabeth.

Photos: Sr. Beata CSFN
Facade of the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte
Chapel of the apparition
Photos from the exhibition on the life of A. Ratisbonne in the church’s garth:
Alphonse Ratisbonne
Theodore and Alphonse Ratisbonne
A. Ratisbonne in Ain Karim