Most of us know something about the former St. Aloysius Academy in New Lexington, Ohio, but few if any may remember that the original sisters who went to southeastern Ohio in 1876 were from the displaced community in what was then known as Konitz, West Prussia (today Chojnice, Poland). Bishop Rosecrans of Columbus was aware of the situation in Germany in 1874 where under the Kulturkampf of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck church-run institutions, clergy and religious all came under attack. Knowing that there were many sisters who had been forced to leave their ministries in Germany, the bishop asked Mother Aloysia Lenders to accept an academy in New Lexington. She, in turn, assigned seven sisters from Konitz to the new project in America. Over the next few posts, From the Archives will share a bit of their story, most of which is taken from the “diary” of Mother Gonzaga Brexel which served as the community chronicle.
The foundation in Konitz/Chojnice dated from 1867 with the establishment of a resident and day school with kindergarten, and according to Sister Angelita Cools in her work, Mother Magdalen and Her Congregation, “with the exception of the Bismarck years, 1875-1888, the sisters have continued to work in that area.” A recent congregation directory lists two small communities located in Chojnice, although the larger institution (St. Charles Borromeo Institution) was placed under state control in 1949 and the sisters were gradually let go.
In November of the year 1864 Monsignor Dr. Masse of Pelplin and Vicar General of Culm, accompanied by the auxiliary Bishop Yeschhe, also of Culm, called on Reverend Mother Aloysia Lenders, superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of Heythuisen, Holland. Their purpose was to request sisters for work in their diocese—they hoped that the sisters might open a boarding school to educate the young women in Konitz, conduct an orphanage and even perhaps establish a hospital there. Some efforts toward these proposed projects had already been made. A simple farmer from the town of Schlagentin, a suburb of Konitz, had purchased a house for $5200 . . .
M. Aloysia listened but was not in favor of the venture as it was “inconceivable” that the sisters would be so far away from the motherhouse. Nonetheless, she ultimately acquiesced, and by early summer 1865 five sisters were prepared to leave for Konitz. Then, a series of circumstances arose, including the outbreak of war between Prussia and Austria. M. Aloysia took 15 sisters and traveled to Bohmen, the chief city in the war zone to nurse the soldiers and give them comfort and alleviate their sufferings in every way they could. Here, kindly M. Aloysia was forced to see two of her sisters, Ida and Adriana, suffer and die from the terrible disease of cholera, and witness their burial in a country far, far from home. At the same time the epidemic was spreading rapidly and severely through Trier on the Mosel. . . . Due to these strenuous sacrifices made by the sisters, the epidemic claimed two other victims—Mother Gregoria, superior of the house, and Sister Remegia. All these unforeseen and very serious events caused terrific set backs in the establishment of the sisters in Konitz. Negotiations were postponed for a long time.
It was not until October 1867 that the sisters, “drawn from different houses in the novitiate territory at Capellen in Geldern,” were appointed. The first sisters were S. Wilhelmine (teacher), SS. Bibiana and Ludmilla (nurses), and S. Stanislaus.
--TO BE CONTINUED