The Rosminan Sisters of Providence

by

Sister Maria Bruna Ferretti1

(Edited by J. Anthony Dewhirst)

Introduction

‘The Sisters of Providence, instituted by me, are a branch of the same Institute of Charity’. Antonio Rosmini wrote this statement in a letter to the Marchese G. Anconati, from Stresa, on 6 January 1855, some months before his death. These words of his show clearly how he regarded the Sisters of Providence as his spiritual daughters, since they had come into existence through his spirituality and were nourished by it.

Nevertheless, while speaking about their development, we must mention another generous, young priest, Don G. G. Loewenbruck. As we all know he appeared in Rosmini’s life suddenly, and casually disappeared twelve years later, leaving the Institute which, in spite of his natural generosity, he had not been able to love more than his own independence and way of thinking.

Although his presence in the Institute was short, his creative enterprise and endless zeal were the first immediate origin of the Sisters of Providence. We already know, through Rosmini’s biography, how Loewenbruck met him at Count Mellerio’s house on 8 June 1827. This meeting, certainly guided by divine providence, was the starting point of a period rich in new situations and decisions that certainly changed Rosmini’s life.

Loewenbruck’s desire to bring together and form priests who, through their holiness and zeal could evangelise the people, struck Rosmini, who, at that time, was working out the ideas for the Brothers of Charity, while awaiting enlightenment from above, according to his principle of passivity.

Loewenbruck was to become his first companion in the Institute in the process of its formation, and Providence led them to Calvario in Domodossola. While there, Don Giovan Battista was always busy preaching, hearing confessions and going through the Ossola valleys. He went wherever it was necessary. He also discovered the high Formazza valley whose inhabitants, descended from a Welser colony and speaking a special German dialect, were happy to receive this missionary priest who could understand their language and communicate to them the word of Christ. After some months of preaching, he knew the true nature of those people and in October 1829 he wrote:

‘I spend the whole day and part of the night in the confessional or the pulpit. Their tears of repentance are moving…I am overburdened with work, yet overflowing with consolation…Truly, in the Ossola region there are very many souls who are disposed to become angels on earth, if someone is ready to give them a helping hand…I would never have believed that I should find such treasures and pearls beneath the simple appearance of these mountain people’ (La Nostra Prima Carissima—Madre Suora Giovanna Antonietti, p. 4).

Origins

Loewenbruck speaks of having met hundreds of young women who had a sincere desire to consecrate themselves to God.

‘In these mountain girls there were gifts and qualities that are hardly to be found among the rich and cultured in the cities, the important ones being generosity and complete self-giving’ (Ibid., p. 10). Loewenbruck ‘would not think of such things as canonical grades of probation, formation and profession. Besides, being ignorant of everything, those girls knew just one thing, perpetual and total consecration to God. They were not worried about such matters as the choice of a religious order, or rule, or what programme to follow, what habit to wear, what name to choose, what monastery or convent to live in’ (Ibid. p.10).

Porteiux

However these young women did need some element of stability. Loewenbruck had approached the Visitation Sisters of Arona and also the Canossians, but these contacts came to nothing. Then he remembered that in Lorraine he had known a congregation of sisters, called ‘of Providence’, who were dedicated to the poor and in particular to the education of their children. Wishing to find a place for all these young women as soon as possible, Loewenbruck turned to these French sisters.

Founded by the Abbé Jean Martin Moye in 1762, they had flourished in France, where their houses were numerous both in the country and in the towns. At that time the Congregation numbered more than 1200 sisters. The mother house was at Portieux in Lorraine, and the superior was the Abbé E. Feys, the parish priest of the town. Loewenbruck probably knew him,

Be that as it may, the only certain fact is that in 1830 he started an assiduous correspondence with him about the possibility to have those sisters in Italy, where many aspirants to the religious life could continue their works of charity. In his first reply (19 October 1830), Feys ‘advised that the aspirants should not go to France because the consequences of the Revolution still made life difficult for religious. He suggested that Lowenbruck should think of choosing some place in the diocese of Novara, and should make sure that girls had the means of subsistence. The French congregation would, he said, send three sisters to help establish the Italian aspirants’ (Ibid. p. 11).

This was hardly possible! It was beyond Loewenbruck to deal with the Bishop, find a house, and particularly to make sure that there were means to support the women. And as for finding a place, a house, and postulants, he had no authority to do so. Also obedience kept telling him never to anticipate the will of God, but rather to follow it in a docile way. All the same he was attached to his own ideas. So when, in a letter of 23 November 1830, Abbé Feys proposed that he should begin sending to Portieux three Italian girls to learn French and to teach Italian to the sisters there, he accepted it with enthusiasm. Abbé Feys had changed his mind because he feared that the sisters of Providence might be obliged to leave the country on account of political disturbances. The advent of Italian aspirants therefore appeared to open the way to a foundation in Italy if the dreaded Revolution should force them to depart. Certain unforeseen events prevented them leaving at this time. But when Loewenbruck received a new letter from Feys (16 November 1831) urging him to send the young women to Portieux, he lost no time in doing so. The four young girls sent to France were, Maria Alvazzi from Varzo, Susanna Savio from Crodo, Lucia Manciga and Seconda Allegranza from Vagua. Without more ado the departure was organised. A way was found using the carriage of Manciga’s brother. Loewenbruck accompanied them as far as Iselle and then turned back leaving them to pursue their journey alone.

‘It is an incredible story. They set out on 26 November 1831, and they did not arrive at Portieux until sixteen days later on 11 December. It is hard to imagine how they survived the cold, hunger and fear; in the midst of the snow and wind, totally isolated, enduring the nights in temporary shelter. They went on foot for the most part (even obliged at times to take off their boots and go barefoot), or jolted along on their dreadfully slow means of transport on a road that was steep and frozen, often losing their way, either because of the inexperience of their driver or because the snow and ice completely obliterated all trace of the Napoleonic route’(Ibid., p. 13).

When they had ascended the 2000 metres of the Simplon Pass, they began to descend and finally arrived at Portieux. They felt the cold so badly and they were so exhausted that the effects of that journey remained with them for the rest of their lives. Fortunately at the Convent a warm-hearted welcome awaited these generous and courageous girls, and they entered the novitiate with great fervour. Maria Alvazzi being somewhat more educated than her companions, taught them to read and gave Italian lessons to the two French sisters who were to return with them to Italy. She also made some effort to learn French.

‘Within three months of their arrival Abbé Feys wrote to Loewenbruck giving an account of these four pioneers saying, “Your good daughters gave us great satisfaction by their docility and solid piety. To sum up all we felt about them, there is nothing we could say to their discredit, and we cannot speak highly enough of their goodness. The change of language and country have not altered their constant equable character. In short, we wish all our Sisters here were like your four Italians who so edify this house. They are happy, and they overlook nothing in order to make progress in their formation”’ (Ibid., 23 March 1832).

Was Rosmini well informed about these facts? Certainly he was, as we can see from his Diary of Charity (3 November 1831) and some letters addressed to Loewenbruck. He showed interest in the matter and in a letter written to his companion from Trent on 12 January 1832 he asks for information about the destination of the ‘Sisters of Providence’ and the Institute which had received them. Knowing the character of the Lorraine priest very well, Rosmini did not abandon Loewenbruck to his natural impetuosity but he followed the development of those unclear beginnings very carefully.

Locarno

While the young Ossolan women were at Portieux there still remained the problem of a house and of financial backing. In 1832 Loewenbruck went to preach to some villages in Canton Ticino and one of the parish priests introduced the missionary to some of the Locarno authorities, so a suitable place was easily found—the old hospital of San Carlo which was abandoned and in a delapidated condition. The walls were standing but the doors were in ruins with scraps of old mortar, rats and spiders—complete squalor everywhere. However these were not matters to daunt Loewenbruck, even though the chronicle says, ‘There was not a single bed, no glass in any of the windows, no cooking utensils in the kitchen’ (Ibid.,p. 14).

Anyway Loewenbruck went in search of his daughters and found a group of four: Orsola Ferrari, Elizabeth, a widow, Marianna Curti and Anna Maria Curti. On 15 March 1832 at Pallanza they were ready to take the ferry.

‘The crossing of the lake was against the wind. At the landing place at Locarno a squall made the boat roll so much that none of the passengers could retrieve their luggage. In pelting rain our four travellers, frozen and drenched, were led to the premises allotted to them. They had no clothes to change into, no hot drink to refresh them, and the surroundings offered minimal protection from the cold windy blasts. It was not until the next day that they were able to recover their bundles with some dry clothes, and light a fire with a handful of wood given out of charity. Loewenbruck spoke to them, as only he could, of the renunciation of the things of this world and of the privilege of giving oneself to God.

Gradually the little community sorted out their daily routine. They got up at 4.30 a.m. This was followed by prayer, meditation, and Mass at the Church of the Capuchins. They also went there for their visit to the Blessed Sacrament and their evening prayer with examination of conscience, since their devotions were similar to the Brothers of Charity’ (Ibid., p.15).

There was a lot of work in the house; and instruction in the catechism and elementary spirituality was kindly given to them by a good local priest named Foruora. These fervent beginners endured many privations. They laboured early and late, lived on the poorest food and strove to provide for the others who were soon to join them and form a noviciate. Loewenbruck sent them what alms he could collect during his journeys, but such severe privations were soon to affect their health.

On 3 July Lowenbuck arrived from Domodossola, accompanied this time by thirteen postulants who were welcomed with sisterly warmth by the little community. Then he left for Mount St Gothard to meet the four postulants returning from Portieux with two French sisters, and not four as he had expected—Teodora Collin, who had to be the Superior and Saveria Droim, the Mistress of Novices. These stopped at Locarno only long enough to organise and set up the new Congregation of Providence.

The young Italian women had not worn the religious habit while in France to avoid the possibility of alarming the authorities and so incur consequent delays. But as soon as they had crossed the Italian border, three of them received the religious habit and new names as a sign of a break with the past. For the time being Seconda Allegranza, the fourth postulant, had to return to her family because the harsh conditions of the Simplon crossing seven months earlier had damaged her health. The group arrived at Locarno on 14 July, where many young people were waiting to be educated, instructed, and to receive practical and spiritual formation.

The Novitiate

The novitiate was opened on 31 July 1832. It was a severe training for novices. Even bread was sometimes lacking. Also the French sisters had their own special trials for they had exchanged their neat, well-equipped convent where there was a reason for everything, safeguarded by traditions and rules, for a miserable overcrowded dwelling and absolute penury. The superior, Sister Teodora Collin was at a loss to know how to improve matters because of the inadequacy of the place, the means which she had at her disposal and the persons she had to deal with. The spiritual helps were few and infrequent. There was no priest in the locality that knew their language. The disproportion between the minimum instruction that the postulants were receiving and their very great need of it was highlighted. The situation was all the worse since the Mistress of Formation, Sister Saveria, was not yet able to express herself in Italian.

Rosmini’s Influence

The confusion which reigned at Locarno soon led Sister Collin to apply to Rosmini for advice and help. Up to then Loewenbruck had acted on his own responsibility, regardless of the recommendations of his Superior and had not referred matters to Rosmini even when imprudence had led him into difficulties. Every new possibility had an immediate and irresistible fascination because of his temperament, and he went from one blunder to another as he tried to improvise ways of remedying his previous errors.

Whenever he could, Rosmini would put right the imprudence and mistakes of his companion. He wanted him to go ahead and follow up his initiative of forming the new congregation. Indeed he tried to persuade Sister Collin to regard Loewenbruck as the spiritual father of the work which was his own creation and which he so loved. For this reason Rosmini had sent Don Molinari to Locarno in September 1832 and given Don Luigi Gentili the task of helping Loewenbruck and of meeting the French superior. Also he had asked Don Carlo Rusca to interest himself in the house. This secular priest was to be a real instrument of Providence for the sisters, for after he had entered the Institute of Charity he became their director.2

In this period, since he knew French, he was a reliable help to the two foreign sisters and he gave the postulants regular lessons in Christian doctrine. But Sister Collin sent a letter to Gentili for his superior. She thanked Rosmini but emphatically begged him to take the situation in hand himself.

It was just then that the Bishop of Novara, Cardinal Morozzo, also wrote to Rosmini inviting him to look into a difficult situation created in Turin by the impetuous Lorraine priest. Finally Loewenbruck himself wrote to Rosmini asking his help and confessing that he was full of doubts about himself. He had reached such a depth of discouragement that he left Locarno and immersed himself in his many duties at Calvario. When Rosmini urged him not to forget the ‘daughters’ he threatened to leave the Institute. Rosmini fraternally bade him regain his equanimity, ‘This step would mean losing the Institute of the Sisters of Providence and greatly upsetting the Institute of Charity’. Because of his love for the Institute, Loewenbruck, at one point, gave up all responsibility for the new Congregation and resolved to put it in Rosmini’s hands (Cf. Loewenbruck’s letter, 11 December 1832).

Rosmini, the Founder

Because of these circumstances Rosmini became the real Founder of the Sisters of Providence, who soon came to be known by everyone as the Rosminian Sisters, even if he did not want them to be given this title. He at once turned his attention to the regulation and formation of the members. Gradually he suggested to the French superior how to accept postulants and prepare them spiritually for living their vows and also how to train them professionally so that they would be able to carry out charitable works for their neighbour.

Rosmini examined the rules of the French sisters and found that a considerable change would be required in order to adapt them to the scope of the work in Italy. But he made only some slight changes at the time out of consideration for those two sisters who had dedicated themselves with good will and some sacrifice for the sake of the newly born Congregation. When they had returned to their own country (they left on 15 June 1833, about one year after their arrival), Rosmini asked the Marchesa di Canossa (Santa Maddelena), who had founded the Daughters of Charity, to let him see her rules so that he could take account of what was needed for the direction of a congregation of women. In the manuscript of the Canossian rule additions and modifications can be seen written in his own hand. For instance, from the beginning he showed perfect confidence in Providence, from which the sisters take their name. There was also his recognition of the motherhood of our Lady of Sorrows. The changes, which he felt impelled to make, transformed the spirit of the rule so that it is true to say that he gave the sisters new rules conformable in everyway to the spirit of the Institute of Charity.