THE horsedrawn carriage of Monsignor Borneman on the Morgantown Road past Reading was a familiar sight between the years 1898 and 1905. Anyone acquainted with the Monsignor who watched him on his way would know that he was going to pay his regular visit to the Sisters at Ridgewood. The little orphans, too, knew the sound of the horses’ hoofs as they rhythmically trod the entrance road. They were always first to greet the Monsignor. Gladly they assisted n tying the animal to the post, happy in the prospect of having it to feed for an hour or two. If the weather was fair during the spring or summer or even in the fall the Monsignor betook himself to his favorite spot under the large shading elm and then Mother Veronica would come out and confer with her protector and her friend. On these occasions as on others when she had priest guests, she herself served the visitor in her delicate way.
Among the many topics of the conversations with the Monsignor one always returned for a lengthier discussion. It was the distance from the city, the cause of so much inconvenience to the Sisters and one of the reasons for the delayed progress of the Community. The inconvenience was really great. It was discomforting to make the three mile journey to town on foot, for the carriage was not always available and could not always accommodate all if a larger group had to make the trip. In the rain and sleet and cold of the winter the journey on the long stretch to town proved almost unbearable. Since the Sisters did not always have the services of a regular chaplain, the trip to town had to be made to fulfill the obligation of hearing Mass. On weekdays this was occasionally dispensed with, but on Sundays and holydays of obligation Mass had to be heard. Rain or snow, sleet or hail the group took its place in the pews at St. Anthony’s at Millmont or S. Mary’s in the city long before the morning services began. At one time the pastor cited their example to the people of his parish in a Sunday sermon, for through his parishioners living within a few blocks from the church absented themselves because of inclement weather, the group from Ridgewood was always there. No trick of the elements could deter them from fulfilling their religious obligation of being present at Mass, regardless of the difficulty of getting there.
In many ways the distance from a larger center was hampering the progress of the work of the Community. Mother Veronica agreed that though the seclusion at Ridgewood was highly desirable, she would make the transfer of the convent to a more reasonable location should an opportunity for doing so present itself. Thus it was that Monsignor Borneman suggested the present Mount Alvernia where the convent now stands. He himself gave the first ten acres of land as a site for the proposed building.
One of the Monsignor’s hobbies, it seems, was making the best of a bargain over land whenever he could, and then donating it outright to an institution that would put it to charitable use. He had told Mother Veronica that had the Bernardines not purchased the estate at Ridgewood seven years before, he would have acquired it for a sanatorium, but the fabulous price of $18,000 which was asked of him at the time forced him to abandon the idea. He teasingly asked Mother Veronica who her intercessory saints were in heaven that she managed to acquire it for one third the amount that had been demanded of him hardly a week before she had made the deal.
Out of this interest in landed property Monsignor Borneman formed a friendship with Mr. Benjamin Owen of Reading. Mr. Owen was a printer, historian, genealogist, but what was more important to Monsignor Borneman’s interests, he was a member of the Reading Land Company. Despite the difference of religion, their friendship flourished and aided to a large extent the philanthropy of the Monsignor. With his advice and influence Mr. Owen often gave him help of an appreciable value. In partnership with Mr. Owen the Monsignor made the purchase of a section of farmland in Cumru Township a mile and a half southwest of the center of Reading, the location of Mount Alvernia today. In the document containing the grant of land dated August 24, 1905, the names of Mr. and Mrs. Owen appear for legal reasons as the sellers of the property; what agreement Monsignor Borneman came to with his partner is not known. Most probably he paid them for their share.
In accepting the gift from Monsignor Borneman Mother Veronica expressed her fear that his relatives might question the Sisters’ ownership of the land in the eventual case of his death. His answer at the time reveals the disinterestedness and the priestly qualities of Monsignor Borneman’s soul. “I did not become a priest that my relatives might be materially enriched after my death,” he told Mother Veronica. Nevertheless, Mother Veronica decided not to build on this tract, and thus assure her Community in the future from any demands. On the first of September of the same year she bought five adjoining acres from the owners Monsignor Borneman and Mr. Owen, and insisted on paying the purchase value of $1500 in cash. On this plot she planned to build. To the narrow lanes bordering the Sisters’ property she gave the names of the Franciscan saints: St. Bernardine’s which has remained as the name of the street below the convent, St. Francis to the west and St. Anthony to the east. Those two later became part of the convent grounds as a result of additional purchases of land at later dates.
In September, 1905, the building of the structure began. The convent was planned according to the suggestions of Mother Veronica and Mother Frances, but the supervision of the building was carried out by Monsignor Borneman. Mother Veronica placed her complete trust in his fatherly protection and Monsignor Borneman served her faithfully. Every purchase, every contact with the architect, Mr. Flynn of Philadelphia, and the contractor, Mr. Facht of Reading, was made by the Monsignor. Every steel girder and every wooden beam went into place under his watchful eye. Mother Veronica supplied the funds, part of which she realized from the sale of the property of Ridgewood, part from the little cash which she had on hand, and the rest from a loan that she made. Two years later the building was completed and on the second of January, 1907, the last cent of the $37,000 of the entire cost was paid to Monsignor Borneman who had been settling the bills.
The building was a two story brick structure on a stone foundation built in the shape of the letter E. A slate roof covered the whole and copper topped the spire. The interior has undergone numerous changes since it was first constructed, made necessary by the changing needs of the years. The greatest was that of the chapel, single naved originally, which Mother Veronica had modelled after the cloister chapels of Europe. The choir loft extended farther to the front in a semi-circular effect. Instead of the regular pews there now, tall stalls flanked the side walls. A large statue of the Sacred Heart held the central place on the main altar, and two statues of St. Anthony and St. Francis, now in the hospital of St. Joseph’s in Hazleton, were on both sides. But the exterior of the original building exclusive of the novitiate wing, the front entrance, and the arcade leading to the infirmary is the same.
According to the terms of the contract the building was to have been completed in June, 1906, but the summer followed and work on the construction was still in progress. In September Mother Veronica decided to move in though the interior was far from finished. The Archers to whom the buildings and land at Ridgewood had been sold were promised that these would have been vacated in June, so Mother Veronica was eager to leave the place.
There were no automotive moving vans at the time so all movable parts of the Sisters’ possessions were carried from Ridgewood to Mt. Alvernia in wagons. Many small articles were actually carried by the orphan children and young Sisters and postulants. When all was transported, Mother Veronica arranged for a procession to the new abode. The infirm or frail members and the small children rode by wagon; the rest carried portions of the inventory and walked. One of the Sisters leading the whole group carried a cross, for Mother Veronica wanted to give a symbolic meaning to the act. It was following Christ that Mother Veronica was leading her flock to their new home. In His name she had begun His work – in His name she wanted to continue and this lesson she wanted impressed on the minds of her young Sisters.
Since most of the more important events in Franciscan Communities are planned to concur with the feasts of their Franciscan patrons, Mother Veronica selected the feast of St. Clare, August 12, for the dedication of the new building. It had been in readiness for some time before, but for this reason Mother Veronica had the act delayed. The celebrant of the dedication ceremonies was none other than Monsignor Borneman to whom the Community owed much.
After settling in the new convent it seemed that a new life came for Mother Veronica. She was happy in the thought that she had heeded the advice of God’s representatives and that all her endeavors in carrying out that advice had been blessed by God. The Community began to show more rapid growth, too. Whereas in 1906 after a period of twelve years there were 31 members, of these fifteen professed, ten novices and six postulants, in 1912 at the end of Mother Veronica’s administration there were ninety; fifty-six professed, ten novices and twenty-four postulants. In half the time the number had trebled.
In 1906, because the convent building was not finished and therefore not in order for solemn ceremonies, Mother Veronica had the reception delayed until the following year. She cherished liturgical ceremonies and gave them all her attention to the minutest detail and arranged them according to the means of the Sisters in all their splendor.
With a greater supply of vocations Mother Veronica could answer the appeals of the pastors for Sisters to teach in their parochial schools, which in line with the increasing numbers of immigrants coming into the country were rising in most sizable parishes. In 1907 she accepted a school in Paterson, New Jersey, where the Sisters remained two years, and a school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for one year. In 1908, Father Andrew Smelsz, the pastor of the Nativity B.V.M. parish, Plymouth, was favored with a response from Mother Veronica. In 1909 Mother Veronica opened six schools: St. Hedwig’s, Chester, invited by Father J. Ziolkowski; St. Casimir’s. Mahanoy City, by Father J. Poremba; St. Ladislaus, Natrona, by Father J. Kopera; Maternity of the Blessed Virgin, Wilkes-Barre, by the Reverend Theophil Klonowski; Blessed Virgin, Conshohocken, by the Reverend B. Iwanowski. In 1911 Mother Veronica sent two Sisters to the Hungarian Parish of St. John Capistrano at Bethlehem to teach English on the request of the Reverend Alexander Varlaky. He had two lay teachers in charge of the foreign language. The Sisters did not continue the next year after a new pastor came to the parish in 1912.
Whenever Mother Veronica was able to accompany the Sisters on their first trip to a newly-opened school she usually did so. She escorted them to Bethlehem, and the seemingly insignificant incident attending their arrival there helped to shed light on the spirit that animated her apostolic soul. They were met at the station by a group of little children from the parish who had been anxiously awaiting the Sisters, and one little girl, recognizing Mother Veronica as superior, handed her a small bouquet of garden flowers. With genuine sincerity Mother Veronica took the flowers from the child and carried them all the way. At the church they were met by the pastor who awaited them to give a solemn benediction. He led them down the church aisle which, incidentally, had been carpeted with a plush covering of white prepared for a wedding ceremony held that day. The altars were likewise decked with palms and ferns, expensive calla lilies and beautiful roses for the occasion, beside which the wilting garden flowers clutched in Mother Veronica’s hand looked entirely out of place. “It is for these less cultivated flowers in Jesus’ garden that my Sisters will labor,” Mother Veronica said leaving the church and gathering the little children around her, “that some day they may be transplanted to bloom in the heavenly garden of a glorious eternity.”
One more problem that had given Mother Veronica grave concern during her stay at Ridgewood was eased when she came to Mt. Alvernia. It was having the services of a resident chaplain. Of all the needs of a religious community this is one of the greatest. The very nature of the life adopted by the members of a community such as this demands the regular services of a priest. Without daily Mass and frequent Holy Communion life on a supernatural plane could not long endure.
At Ridgewood the Sisters were served by three different chaplains each remaining for a short time. For two full years they had no priest. In the intervals the Sisters had to go to church to Millmont or to the city. The real reason for the absence of a resident chaplain was that priests were hardly available at the time. It was the time of the great Catholic immigration and the bishops had a hard time getting enough priests to take care of the different language groups flocking to the country in increasing numbers. Mother Veronica’s pleas for a chaplain were answered by Archbishop Ryan with: “If you know of any priest free from parish duties and willing to be your chaplain, kindly notify me and the appointment will be made.” But Mother Veronica knew no priest and therefore continued in her anxiety for the spiritual welfare of her flock. She appealed to Europe for a Franciscan Father but got no positive action there.
This cross was a very heavy one and Mother Veronica never denied that it was not an easy one to bear. The one time the Sisters saw her weep at Ridgewood was when the last of the short-term appointed chaplains said his last Mass in the chapel and left it without the Blessed Sacrament. But the faith that carried her through so many difficulties was always present and commending this particular care to the Sacred Heart she patiently awaited His answer to her prayer.
Early in 1908 she learned from the Reverend A. Warol, S.J., who gave the retreat that year, of a Jesuit in Austria who was anxious for the chaplaincy with the Sisters. Mother Veronica made inquiries and Father Arnold Waszyca verified the statement. Immediately Mother Veronica made arrangements for his transportation to America and after a short time the Father was here, ready to assume the duties of a regular chaplain at Mt. Alvernia.
Through Father Arnold many of Mother Veronica’s fond desires for her dear Community were realized. Deeply spiritual and broadly educated, his help during the six years of his stay was productive. To this help Mother Veronica owed the ease with which the partial transition was made from the stricter life of the cloister to that of the active life which the Community was leading. In him she found a teacher for the postulants and novices and young professed Sisters, not only in spiritual matters but in secular studies as well. To him she owed the giving of a ritualistic form to the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her beloved country was privileged to be the first nation to observe officially the Feast of the Sacred Heart; her convent in Zakliczyn was dedicated the Sacred Heart; she desired that the devotion be given first place in her convent with its chapel of the Sacred Heart. Father Arnold helped her carry out this plan. His conferences on the Sacred Heart redolent with praises of the glories of Christ’s love were long remembered after they were rendered by his most avid listener, Mother Veronica. The First Friday services and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the Motherhouse, out of which the daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament later grew, were a response to her most intimate desires.
The days of Mother Veronica at Mount Alvernia were strewn with trials just as great as during any previous period of her life. They were well calculated by her loving Faith to keep her in the state of continual dependence upon Him, and to impel her to make acts of the most meritorious kind. She firmly held with St. Augustine that God would not allow any evil to happen if He were not sufficiently powerful and good to turn it all to the greater good of His elect. But, nevertheless, the suffering was acute, and would have upset the peace of a weaker soul.
One great cross was the loss of Sister Gabriella who died at the tender age of twenty, June 26, 1908. Mother Veronica had accepted this rare vocation as a gift from God and as she watched her talents unfold she looked upon her as her greatest hope for the future administration of the young Community. Sister Gabriella entered as Marie Palcho from Patton, Pennsylvania, at the age of sixteen. She was a niece of Mother Cunegunda and a cousin of Mother Felicitas and had first made the acquaintance of the Bernardine Sisters when she came to Ridgewood to visit her relatives. She received the habit July 26, 1905, and made her first profession August 29, 1907.
God had lavishly bestowed His grace on young Sister Gabriella. In the natural sphere she was all that made her seem destined for great things as a Bernardine. She was beautiful of feature, charming in manner, gracious in approach, witty and amusing, highly intelligent, greatly successful as a teacher, and at the same time deeply spiritual and appreciative of her vocation. But Mother Veronica’s hopes were cut short when death following a short illness of tuberculosis claimed the young Sister. Her holy and edifying death was Mother Veronica’s only consolation in the grief that followed her loss to the Community. She coupled that, however, with deep confidence that the Sacred Heart on whose feast Sister Gabriella departed from this world, would grant the Community the members needed to carry on her work.
Among the many blessings of God at Mt. Alvernia Mother Veronica also counted the providential appearance of another maintenance man to take the place which Brother Erasmus had at Ridgewood. He was Mr. Venceslaus Wolak, a tertiary from Shenandoah, and though many years the junior of the Brother, was equally industrious and skillful. He took no less care of the buildings and the grounds than if he had acquired them by his own hard toil. He carved the paths on the stubborn land, shaped the gardens, planted the hedges and trees, cultivated and harvested the crops. Besides, by his pious life he was an edification to all who chanced to meet him. He was likewise a man of culture and one of his bequests to the Sisters at the time of his death in 1928 was his library of almost a thousand volumes. Mother Veronica thanked God frequently for the favor He granted her in the person of this conscientious laborer.
The second decade of the Community’s existence was drawing to a close when Mother Veronica received word that the long expected visitation of the religious superiors in Europe would take place. The Reverend Zygmunt Janicki had arrived in the United States and was authorized by the Provincial, the Reverend Joachim Maciejczyk, O.F.M., under whose direction the convent remained, to make the visitation. The notification of the intended visit was sent to Mother Veronica by a letter written by Father Janicki immediately after his arrival in Philadelphia. The Right Reverend Monsignor Masson, Father Heinan’s successor as diocesan protector, also made the announcement to her. All superiors were notified to be present for a general chapter scheduled for Wednesday, April 3.
Mother Veronica did not know Father Janicki personally, but she knew that he was one of the well-known members of the Franciscan Fathers. After his clerical studies he was ordained at a young age, and was soon entrusted with the important position of superior of the Cracow monastery which carried with it the responsibility for the young clerics of the Order. He labored for these students for many years, directing them by word and example; in addition, he served the people of the city with his sermons, hearing confessions, giving retreats, building churches, organizing pilgrimages to miraculous shrines, Rome and the Holy Land. Later he became Provincial of the Cracow branch of the Friars Minor.
The visitation conducted by Father Janicki and the chapter called by him was closed by an event which was the greatest and most unforeseen which the community experienced in the eighteen years of its existence. The Reverend Visitator had called for the election of a new Superior General by vote of the members of the so-called chapter and though most of the votes were cast for Mother Veronica he announced at the close that acting in the capacity given him by the Reverend Provincial he nominated Mother Hedwig Leszczynska, Mother General of the Bernardine Sisters in the United States. Mother Hedwig was twenty-four at the time, and but a few years before was one of Mother Veronica’s novices.
The nomination of a superior general by the new Provincial having jurisdiction over a community or by the bishop of the diocese was common in the early days of many communities. Therefore this nomination was not an isolated event. In fact, the same was done in 1915 and 1918 when Mother Hedwig was again nominated, each time for another period of three years. Father Janicki having made a study of conditions in the country at the time, and motivated by a sincere desire to further the Kingdom of God by a well administered Community felt that a younger Sister with unspent energy, having a better knowledge of the spirit of her country by virtue of being born and reared here, would be a more suitable superior of the growing band. Mother Veronica was no longer young and signs of her failing strength were plainly visible.
Subsequent rapid development of the Community proved the wisdom of his daring act. Mother Hedwig’s administration was marked by progress in many fields. She effected the independence from the European foundation, and had new constitutions drawn up for the active Community of Bernardine Sisters. In the field of education growth was immediate, too. In addition to arranging for courses at the Motherhouse, she sent the Sisters elsewhere for educational training, and the Bernardines were among the first Sisters to register at the Catholic University at Washington.
But the Sisters who had been with Mother Veronica since the beginning were never able to accept the change meekly. For many years, long after the death of Mother Veronica, they still voiced their regret at having lost the mother whom they had so loved. But Mother Veronica, in the true humility that was hers, in the childlike obedience to the authorized superiors of the Church, immediately after the reading of the nomination by the Visitator handed over the keys, the symbol of her position, to the new Reverend Mother, and falling on her knees in genuine Franciscan fashion was first to pay her homage and express her willingness to obey in all things her rightful superior, and to respect her as such in word and deed.
This climactic scene brought to a close Mother Veronica’s active work for the community. For four years more she was still a bodily part of it, but her spirit hovered high above. Most of her time was spent in the chapel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in prayer for the Community and its works, occasionally answering the invitations of the Sisters in the nearby parish schools who were anxious to provide Mother Veronica with the rest they wanted her to have. “Verily, verily, unless the seed dies, there will be no flowering of the plant.” Fashioning His instrument to fit the designs of His Eternal Wisdom, casting it aside when the work was done, the Lord proved the truth of these words in the life of Mother Veronica. She had made no plans for a new community of Bernardine Sisters in America; she had been simply obedient to the promise of her vow; now when the success of that work was evident and her first efforts were fruitful, she was gently removed to make way for other minds and other hands. She had made a sacrifice of all as a holocaust to the love of her Divine Spouse and she would not retreat now. She knew that her end was not far off and she desired it to be a happy one – one that would bring her life-long desire to fulfillment – complete with her Master.
The end came four years later January 13, 1916, the commemorative date of the closing of the beatification process of her patroness, St. Veronica. She had long been ailing, but beyond admitting that her strength was failing, she made no one know the seriousness of her state of health. She bade the Sister in charge of sounding the bell for early Mass who had occasion to meet her on the way to chapel to keep silence about her helplessness. On the morning of the eleventh after she had risen and dressed for Mass she had an attack of apoplexy. The chaplain and the doctor were called immediately, and the latter stated that nothing could be done to save her life. Mother Hedwig summoned the members of the Community to her bedside and in their presence Father Kucharski, the Community chaplain, gave her absolution, Extreme Unction and the last blessing. As though she had a premonition that her end was near, although she had gone to sonfession the day previously with the Community, she had later asked again for the confessor. Her last act of gratitude was the offering of a precious relic of the True Cross to the one she considered her greatest benefactor, her confessor. She still lingered for two more days never regaining consciousness. The bells of the evening Angelus were ringing the glories of her Mother as her soul took flight to join the hosts of the members of the Church Triumphant.
Her funeral took place three days later from the convent chapel at Mt. Alvernia. The Requiem Mass was said by the Right Reverend Monsignor Masson and the eulogy was pronounced by the Reverend Adalbert Malusecki. He called attention to the virtues of Mother Veronica by which her daughters had known her, her great faith, her deep hope, and her warm charity, her humility and her submission in all things to the will of God.
The funeral cortege made its way to St. Mary’s cemetery, for the Sisters had no cemetery of their own in 1916. Ten years later her body was transferred to the grave where it now lies. The day of the funeral was intensely cold, the bitterest within the memory of all present, but that did not hinder her loving Sisters and the friends of her Community from coming from far and wide to pay their last respects to the first superior general of the Bernardine Sisters in America.
