150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS
In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (23)
Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN
Via Sistina
The next apartment that Frances found after her unsuccessful stay in Via della Vite is on the first floor of the still existing building at Via Sistina 138, just a few dozen meters from the house of the Reparation Sisters, with whom Frances lived during her first stay in Rome in 1873. Who knows if it was not the Reparation Sisters who came to the aid of Frances looking for a new apartment “as early as Wednesday” and found one in their neighborhood. Walking to it from Via della Vite, we can take a beautiful path through the Piazza and the Spanish Steps. And on it, every step, is something worth stopping at. We will dedicate some attention to these places in the coming episodes.
Most likely, at the time of Frances’ transfer, she was left alone in Rome with the two Capuchins: Fr. Leander and Br. Stefan. Her mother Cecilia and Ms. Aniela had already returned to Poland. Ms. Karolina had been staying in a nursing home in Rome’s Trastevere since March. However, she had no shortage of friendly people, whom she attracted with her personality. Already in the first weeks, perhaps at the Reparation Sisters’, she met Fr. Piotr Semenenko, the general of the Resurrectionists. Thanks to notes in his diary and Frances’ preserved correspondence, we know two important facts from 1875. Under the date of June 12, he writes: “The purchase of a house for the Loreto Sisters (i.e., the Nazareth Sisters). The building in question is the one in Via Merulana, which in the Foundress’ desires was to become the Congregation’s mother house. Most likely, this was some sort of preliminary agreement, since three months later, on September 19, Frances writes to Fr. Piotr: “Today I completed the matter of buying the house in Via Merulana”.
The second event recorded by Fr. Piotr is found under the date of July 15, 1875: “The long-awaited first companions of Sister Mary of Jesus (Frances Siedliska) to the newly founded Congregation of Loreto Sisters have arrived: Ms. Sophia Konarska, the second Ms. Antonina Babilonska, and the third is Brother Stefan’s sibling sister Eleonora.”
Zofia and Antonina left before the end of 1875. Antonina returned once more on March 7, 1878. After a few months, on October 7 to be exact, she makes the final decision to join the Basilian Sisters. Frances writes about this in her notes, not failing to add that such a resolution of the matter is “a visible miracle of God’s grace.” Sr. Gabriela, the first chronicler of the Congregation, makes no secret that it was not easy with her…
The third candidate, Eleonora Rembiszewska – Sr. M. Józefa, whom Frances had met before coming to Rome – remained in the Congregation until the end of her life. She died in Krakow in 1932. Speaking of the first Nazareth Sisters, we most often spontaneously mention the three Lubowidzki Sisters – the “pillars of the Congregation” as Fr. Ricciardi, the Foundress’ biographer, called them. But it was Sr. Józefa Rembiszewska, “a simple, quiet soul, completely devoted to God and His cause” who was the “very first”. It is worth remembering!
Pictures:
House at Via Sistina – current view – Sr. Anita Jach CSFN
Sr. M. Józefa – Eleonora Rembiszewska
