manifested especially in regard to Aline, who during the early years of her religious life, was ever able to rely on the ready help of her mother.
As a child Aline gave evidence of rich intellectual endowment and outstanding strength of character. Because of her natural ability and qualifications, her future way of life could well be developed. The mother placed high hopes on her elder daughter. These hopes were not entirely unselfish. However, one may not blame her for this. The widow clung tenaciously to her children and because of the early death of her husband she looked to them for her future security. It seems that she harbored the thought of having in Aline a support for her declining years. Therefore she believed that somehow Aline must remain with her. As Aline later spoke to her about her call to the religious life, the mother was not enthusiastic about the prospect, and did not give an immediate “yes” to the idea. She put her off by saying that she needed more time to consider it.
In the more affluent families of Olpe, to which the Bonzels belonged, it was customary to send their daughters, after the completion of the elementary school, to a pensionat, that is a girls’ boarding school, for some time. The purpose was not only the acquisition of more knowledge, but above all the formation of character and proficiency in the social graces. Tradition has it that the girls were sent to the Ursulines in Cologne. Thus Aline, with good grades and excellent recommendations from the elementary school, went to Cologne to the Ursulines. Apparently she was there more than a year.
Unfortunately, the reports of the Ursuline-Pensionat were lost during the Prussian Kulturkampf. Thus the time Aline spent in the boarding school cannot be established definitely. The Ursuline convent in Cologne was later able to give only the following: “Without doubt she (Aline) was in our boarding school for the name of Bonzel is still known here and has a good reputation.” If the name Bonzel was still in clear remembrance in 1925 in the Ursuline boarding school, it could also be associated with the fact that at the close of the Kulturkampf a great niece of Mother Theresia, called Adele Maria Theresia Bonzel, was accepted in Cologne in the boarding school.
Inquiries as to Aline’s classmates at that time were not made early enough to obtain particulars of the actions and experiences of the girls in the school. Although there are no extant facts, one can nevertheless state that this period must have had great significance in the development of the young girls. It was the first time Aline was away from the parental home and her native town for a long period of time. She had to adjust to unknown people in new surroundings and prove herself in a firmly organized environment. The tried tradition of the Ursulines laid great stress on cultural and character formation and true cultivation of piety. The constant association with religious women must have had great influence on the girls. It is true in all pensionats that the girls are deeply interested in the life of the religious; as much as possible they try to discover many of the so-called “conventual mysteries.”
Such interest often enough may have been only a romantic curiosity. But in the overall atmosphere of the pensionat many a vocation has been awakened. This seems also to have been the case with Aline. Although we know scarcely anything of her stay in Cologne, it is certain however that before she left the pensionat, she spoke to the superior of the Ursulines of her desire to become a religious. At that time her desire may not have been firm; it needed to mature. At all events the farewell words of the superior influenced and encouraged her to consider earnestly taking such a step. The consent of the mother however, was wanting. Aline also conferred with her confessor on this point. He reacted positively but counseled her not to act hastily, to wait some time in order to test the genuineness of her decision. Concerning this talk with her confessor we know from her friend, Emma Deimel, to whom she had entrusted it. Emma Deimel harbored like thoughts; she later entered the Carmelite Convent in Echt, Holland, and was invested as Sister Maria Walburga. The little information we have today of Aline’s youth came largely from her.
After Aline’s return to the parental home, the mother valued it most highly that her daughter become deeply involved in the social life of Olpe. What mother would not have had a like ambition? Before the critical eyes of relatives and acquaintances, her daughter should give evidence of her grace and charm in the refined manners she acquired at the pensionat. As Aline now had to participate in all the yearly festivals and amusements of Olpe and its surroundings, more than she herself liked, her mother must have had another design in this. She hoped that her daughter’s idea of the convent would pass over and prove to have been but a romantic enthusiasm resulting from the conventional atmosphere of the pensionat. If through experience in social activities, the daughter’s thoughts would be deflected from the convent and in consequence acquire a new interest, this indeed would be a highly prized method.
All this of course was not according to the thinking of Aline. She would have liked to enter a convent immediately. However, her inner nobility of character did not allow her to frown upon those festivities nor to enter them with a dejected countenance. Her cheerful and open disposition made it easy for her to participate with genuine joy. What the mother had hoped in her inmost heart, and here and there contrived, was happening to some degree: Aline had several offers of marriage, in itself an honor for a young girl. In jest, although clear and determined, she withdrew from the young men who persisted in their offers.
At her First Holy Communion, she had prayed: “O Lord, I am your victim; accept me entirely as your victim; do not reject me.” Soon after her return from the pensionat she experienced how our Lord accepted the oblation of herself as a victim. She was afflicted with a heart condition that lasted during her entire life. If a young person not yet twenty years of age be afflicted with a disease and experienced the infirmities of man in suffering and in pain, if he saw boundaries set to his energies, how do you think he would react? Many would complain, bearing the disease with an exhibition of suffering to evoke sympathy. Or, they would rest upon their misfortune unable to develop their capabilities and go through life in bitterness of heart. Again, others despairing would thrust themselves into all possible gratifications to glean something from life. Aline realized that God had accepted her offer. She saw in this, the affirmation that God had accepted her as his victim. It was not enough for her to bear this illness patiently, she also was prepared to follow Christ in an all-embracing surrender. Her cardiac condition was not the end of her endeavors, but in reality only its beginning. According to human estimation, she was scarcely equal to the tasks life set for her. As she bore her infirmity in the right spirit, she was able to accomplish much. Her strength was not an explosive energy, a reckless creative muse, with disquiet scheming. With a heart condition like hers, she would soon have come to the end of her capacity. But she lived and worked over fifty years with this ailment because she possessed the gift of expending her energy with serenity, wisdom, and tenacious regularity.
Throughout her entire life one can observe a display of these characteristics. They are clearly seen in the way she strove amidst all difficulties to enter the religious life. It was true of Aline, and in fact of all girls who attended the pensionat, that the social life experienced there was later preserved in close friendships. Several Olpe daughters had been with Aline in Cologne. They soon formed a unique circle whose objective was certainly not the revitalizing of an exhausted friendship. They united to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, a devotion endeared to them by the Ursulines. They formed a Marian Alliance of which Aline became the leader. The tasks undertaken by this alliance were the yearly decorating of the May altar, the assembling for prayer in honor of Mary, and the engaging in works of Christian charity and beneficence. This Marian Alliance was the initial realization of their later religious life, not only for Aline, but also for two of her friends. One was Emma Deimel referred to previously. The other was Regina Loeser. She was invested with Aline on December 20, 1860, but died prematurely on May 27, 1861.
Aline realized her call to the religious life very definitely at the age of nineteen and one-half. From March 28 to April 8, 1850, she took part in a parish mission in the neighboring town of Drolshagen, conducted by two extraordinary priests. Their names were known far and wide: Missionary Hillebrand and the Franciscan Father Kaspar Heimer. Aline made a general confession of her entire life to the leader, Missionary Hillebrand. She was
