Sisters to desist from anything like writing a biography of the deceased. ‘Let her rest in peace,’ he said to the sisters who asked for data.”4
In 1903, two sisters from Mt. Angel, Gregoria Amrhein and Anselma Feierabend,5 returned to their native Europe (both were Engelbergers), and visited Mother Bernardine’s childhood home at Isny in southern Wuertemberg in present day Germany, where she was born on August 25, 1846. The sisters noted that the town contained monastery buildings dating from the eleventh century. The property had been confiscated and the monks dispersed during the sixteenth century, but the monastery’s church had been renovated and served as the parish church for the Catholics of the area. Apparently the sisters were impressed with the beauty of the church and its evidence of Benedictine tradition. “There are still the old marble altars, the carved pillars, the frescoes representing scenes from the life of St. Benedict and other great saints of the Order. In this beautiful old Benedictine church, hallowed by many traditions, Mother M. Bernardine was baptized and received her first holy Communion.”6
Although no members of the Wachter family were still living in Isny in 1903, the sisters wrote, “It was no small satisfaction . . . to hear the expressions of respect, veneration and gratitude which were on the lips of everyone that had known the family Wachter.” The father, Franz X., had taught for forty years in the public schools of Isny, and was Mayor (Schultheiss) for some time. He was described as a just and upright man. He died in 1863, leaving his widow, Clara Fink Wachter, with a seventeen-year-old daughter, Josepha7 (the future Mother Bernardine), and a younger son who would later become Father Anselm. The account tells nothing of the means of livelihood for this family, but merely notes that “Mrs. Wachter devoted herself more than ever to the education of her two children.” The mother was described as “a woman of strong mind and noble character, noted for her benevolence toward the poor and unfortunate.”8
Adelhelm Odermatt, a native Swiss, born on December 10, 1844, near Stans, Canton Unterwalden,9 was to play a crucial role in the life of Mother Bernardine and to be the founder of Mt. Angel Abbey. He was educated at the nearby Benedictine Abbey of Engelberg. There he made his solemn profession as a monk on September 29, 1866, and was ordained a priest on May 3, 1869. He began his career as a missionary on April 27, 1873, when he departed for America with Father Frowin Conrad. Their purpose was to select a site to establish a new Engelberg in a new land. Their Abbot, Anselm Villiger, noted in his diary for that day, “The American venture is meeting with general approval.”10 By October, Father Adelhelm was established as parish priest in Maryville, Missouri. Within a year he would be asking for help, and particularly for sisters from Maria Rickenbach.11 This circumstance was to lead eventually to the meeting of Father Adelhelm and Mother Bernardine.
Meanwhile, the young Josepha Wachter had, in 1866, joined the recently founded community of Benedictine Sisters at Maria Rickenbach. No evidence remains to indicate what prompted this choice of vocation, whether she had thought about it for some time, or whether it was a spur-of-the-moment inspiration. The circumstances surrounding her final decision have been described in some detail.12
Two sisters from Maria Rickenbach were sent to Germany in 1865 to collect money to support their struggling young community. “In the village Church at Beuern, Wuertemberg, where just at the time a mission was held, the Sisters noticed near them a young lady who, by her modesty and devotion attracted their attention.” When the sisters arrived at Isny a few days later, they asked the parish priest for someone to guide them to homes of Catholics within the town. The young lady brought forth for that purpose was none other than the girl they had seen in the church at Beuren. Not only did she agree to assist them, but also, “as it was near dinner time she invited them first to come home with her where she introduced them to her mother who was only too pleased to prepare a substantial repast for the wayworn and hungry Sisters.” Apparently the sisters remained in the town for several days, for the account states that Josepha “soon grew confident and told them of her longing to devote herself to God in the religious life, and of her desire to go with them to their poor, newly founded Convent.”13
Mrs. Wachter was less than enthusiastic about her daughter leaving home for a foreign country, describing this as “a sacrifice beyond her power.” The charming narrative then recounts that Josepha had recourse to prayer. Since the time was shortly before Christmas, she made a novena to the Child Jesus, and gained her mother’s consent to return to Switzerland with the sisters, who were still traveling and presumably collecting money in Germany. What other means of persuasion Josepha used cannot be determined. The pious account says simply, “Josepha did not urge her point. She loved her mother tenderly, but she felt the call of God and sought refuge in prayer.”14
In any case, Josepha prevailed. She left Isny with the two Benedictines and arrived at Maria Rickenbach on January 24, 1866.15 “After an exemplary novitiate she was admitted by unanimous vote of the Chapter to holy Profession which she made August 20, 1867. She received the name of Mary Bernardine, in honor of the great St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose feast the Church celebrates on that day.”16
In this account, Josepha Wachter is described as the perfect novice. “There was no wavering or fickleness in her conduct, such as is not unfrequently noticed in beginners. Firmness, humility, and obedience were from the start the principal traits of her character.”17 She is described as a docile subject, willing to do any menial task, or any that required self-denial or exertion. No mention is made of the hysteria or hypochondria which are noted later as detriments to her fitness for missionary life in America.
Immediately after her profession, Sister Bernardine’s teaching career began in the boarding school connected with the convent.18 Mention is made also of the fact that she was sent to Sarnen, a town about twenty kilometers from Maria Rickenbach, in which there was another community of Benedictine sisters. Her task was to teach in their school and to “impart to the younger members of that Community her methods of teaching.” Apparently this assignment came from Anselm Villiger, who was abbot of the community of men in Engelberg and designated as ecclesiastical superior of the women at Maria Rickenbach. “Thus Mother Bernardine spent nearly ten very happy years in our convent. There grew within her the desire and determination to lead the life of a missionary in distant Africa. She expressed this desire to her superiors and, although they were not happy to lose Sister Bernardine, still acting in faith they did not resist the will of God, and reluctantly gave their permission.”19
How Sister Bernardine’s desire to go to the mission fields of distant Africa took her to North America raises new questions. Certainly the activities of the monks at Engelberg had something to do with her eventual destination. On January 7, 1873, the monastic chapter there had made the decision to found an abbey in America.20 Political unrest in Europe, combined with the passage of anti-clerical legislation in France and in Bismarck’s newly united German Empire, had sparked off new church-state controversies in Switzerland. The details need not detain us here, except to note that “the ever-solicitous Abbot Anselm, fearing for the safety of his Alpine monastery, wished to establish a foundation in America as a new home in any eventuality.”21 This was to be a new Engelberg (preferably in a mountain setting) to which the monks could emigrate should their monastery be closed by order of the government.
As the founding of a monastery refuge in another land was being considered, Bishop Hogan of St. Joseph, Missouri had urgently requested missionaries for his diocese. Thus the first two monks from Engelberg went to Missouri to take over small parishes at Conception and at Maryville. Within a year, they were begging for help from their own monastery and from the convent. By the end of 1874, five sisters (later nicknamed the Five Wounds) had arrived in Missouri.22
In 1876, a second and smaller group was sent to America, consisting of Sister Scholastica Von Matt, Miss Anna Jann (who traveled in a sister’s habit because it was easier that way and she would “receive more consideration”),23 and Sister Bernardine. The inclusion of the latter incited some controversy which reveals another facet of her character. The recorder of this episode in the annals of Maria Rickenbach considered it necessary to add a few words of explanation. “Sister (Bernardine) was specially
