For the next several issues, From the Archives will be reprinting sections from a work by Sister Elisa Ackermans entitled The Three First Companions of Mother Magdalen. This compilation was originally published as a series of five articles written in 1998 for “het Klokje,” which is the provincial magazine of the Dutch province. The articles were translated into English by S. Virginia Carlier and were presented to the United States provinces at the time of the 125th anniversary of the sisters’ arrival in North America (1874-1999). If you recall, that event was celebrated in the summer of 2000 with a wonderful Chapter of Mats held at Stella Niagara.
For the purposes of length and ease of reading, your archivist has taken the liberty of making some minor adaptations to the original translated article.
In accounts of the foundation of our Congregation the personality of Mother Magdalen is, of course, at the center. Although there are not many exact facts available from that time, we can very clearly conclude from what we do know that she was the leader and guide. Less is known concerning her three companions who also had a part in the congregation’s beginning. Therefore, it seems to me (S. Elisa) to be a good thing to clarify the role of those who were called with piety by their fellow sisters and contemporaries the “fellow foundresses.” Who were they? What was their part in the birth history of our congregation?
Sister Clara
I start with Sister Clara of whom we know little. She was the first who when she was 45 years old, as Johanna Anna Maria Verkoulen, joined Catharine Daemen in 1827. She walked with difficulty and earned her living as a seamstress. As she could neither read or write, they divided the tasks spontaneously: Anna Maria taught the children how to knit and to darn; Catharine taught them catechism and visited the sick. We may suppose that her coming was not only as an assistant in Catharine’s tasks but also as an equivalent help in the search for God’s Will in their life. She died in 1846, still at the very beginning of the as yet young community. It seems that she lived quietly and without asking for attention. In any event she did not leave her companions much material for stories. She was, however, for nearly twenty years the companion of Mother Magdalen.
Future columns will tell of Magdalen’s other companions, Sisters Antonia and Francisca.