work for the honor of God, under the leadership of our dear Sister Clara, who came here for the happiness and welfare of many. As our venerable Mother we obey her in childlike and sincere love. We have overcome many difficulties by the grace of God, for He often answered the tears and burning petition of his beloved daughter and spouse (Sister Clara). Through her pious and saintly life she has won the hearts of the well-disposed for this good cause. Through steadfast confidence in God and in your pastoral support, she founded and furthered a community here in Olpe, without all human support and assistance under all sorts of difficulties and far from that fatherly care bestowed so lovingly upon the community established close to you.
Long have we felt sincerely grateful to God and to Your Excellency for the treasure shared with us and our native town through and in our beloved Sister Clara. She is the instrument of God, the grain of mustard seed. She willingly permitted herself to be trodden on and here under the loving protection of Your Excellency, now blossoms, grows, and renders the fruit of Catholic love and joy for the glory of God and the good of the Church. At the least sign of Your Excellency, we are prepared to leave our native town with our dear Sister Clara and to reside wherever you in your goodness will determine.
With an ever increasing longing, we have waited for Your Excellency’s ecclesiastical approbation of our constitutions and the appointment of the blessed day on which we shall have the happiness of receiving the holy habit from your hands. Not only we, the small group of your least servants, but also our families, after some minor obstacles from their side have been eliminated with the help of God, are now in most favorable frame of mind and ready to support us as much as lies within their power. All Olpe is of the same opinion with the exception of a few to whom the pious life of our dear Sister Clara and our seclusion and contempt of the world are a constant reproach.
Without our suggesting it, there is among all the expressed desire that Your Excellency, after the completion of your confirmation schedule in October, honor our native town with your august presence and officiate at our investiture.
We also have a firm confidence in God that the many prayers, fasts, and mortifications offered daily by us and others will ascend to our good Father in heaven and be received graciously. With your kind cooperation may our work soon be crowned. All preparations have been made. The chapel is furnished, the vestments are on hand, the religious habits are in readiness. The only thing missing is a set day for the investiture and our joy will be complete.
The ending of our trial period is especially important to our dear Sister Clara for the repeated delays are proving detrimental to her health; and we fear lest a longer and painful postponement will undermine it completely.
Also, Your Excellency, the confidence now engendered in this work for the greater glory of God the Father and also its support could be weakened very much and result in impaired development. It could also create a new hardship for my family in regard to succession of property.
Up to this time we have limited our activity to the care of six orphan children and are unwilling to increase this number before our investiture. Strengthened through ecclesiastical consecration and vested with the blessed habit of the order, we shall with the help of God fulfill our obligations with great courage, deep humility, and intense love, and thus bring honor to the diocese and joy to your fatherly heart.
May we humbly ask Your Excellency to honor the feast of St. Theresia or a beautiful feast of the Blessed Virgin in October by granting us the happiness of receiving the long-desired religious garb. We shall be grateful to you throughout our lives and pray for you daily as we have done for a long time.
Please forgive my liberty, Most Reverend Bishop, brought on by the great desire of investiture, and pardon it kindly. Again I plead for it most earnestly with a worthy desire for the development of our work.
With deep respect and confiding reverence
Your ExcellencyYour leastAline BonzelOlpe, September 29, 1860
This letter is informative in more respects than one. Whoever must wait is easily subjected to fears for he endeavors to seek reasons why no reply has come. Was it wise to make the new foundation in Olpe? Olpe is relatively a great distance from Paderborn. Whoever lives in Paderborn can readily clarify a situation through personal contact. Could the bishop even harbor the thought that the new foundation should be made elsewhere? Olpe is not the only place where the foundation could be made.
Noticeably, Aline Bonzel’s letter revolves strongly around the person of Clara Pfaender. Is it the expression of implicit obedience that Aline also at this time offered her superior? That well may be assumed. For somehow all beginnings center in reverence around the personality of the leader. Still the letter gives a very individualistic impression. Written according to the established usage of the times, it naturally went farther in its submissiveness than is customary today. But upon closer scrutiny, many turns of expression appear that stand out as rules. Relative to what has been known of Mother Maria Theresia heretofore, the letter as a whole is rather strange. It is not in her style of writing. She wrote in a more straightforward manner, more naturally. One cannot but surmise that the letter was not written by her alone. Deliberations as to content were most likely considered in common. United action was probably taken regarding the best approach for such an affair. For, since three letter writers sent letters to the bishop of Paderborn on September 29, 1860, it can be readily determined that they were not of a spontaneous character. Only in that light can one understand this letter of Mother Maria Theresia, so different in style and feeling from all her other known letters.
Before the bishop answered the requests, he took the last steps to clear the way for the new foundation. He did not wish to rely solely on the good will of the petitioners. Thus on October 8, 1860, he asked Dean Goerdes in Drolshagen to make a confidential investigation concerning the successful prospects for the community in Olpe. On October 25, 1860, he reported to the bishop. In this report he stressed the necessity of an orphanage. In regard to the prospect of the institute, he continued:
To the question as to whether Olpe can maintain the institute, I can only answer, yes. Two Franciscan communities (Attendorn and Friesenhagen), in this vicinity have had sufficient sustenance, why not this one? If in the beginning, the care of orphans will gain prominence, consideration will need to be given to the financial resources of candidates admitted (other things being equal) at least for the time being. Then the industrial demands will be unable to harm them.
A calm and thinking religious also considers the domestic economy of the whole without which a new foundation cannot be made.
Whoever neglects this phase runs the danger of wrecking the whole idealism of such an undertaking, for not only the livelihood of the Sisters must be maintained but also that of the orphan children. After Dean Goerdes had given the above information, he posed the question of superiorship for the new foundation:
Sister Clara has been described to me as an energetic, talented person, one fully capable of directing a community. Also very capable are Regina Loeser and Aline Bonzel, who besides have significant wealth. Therefore, I cannot oppose the wish of the petitioners for investiture.
The bishop replied on October 30, 1860, as follows:
Upon reading your revered report of October 25, 1860, I am not unwilling to approve that Clara Pfaender and the young women associated with her bind themselves into an ecclesiastical congregation. I also grant further that they may live under the title of Sisters of St. Francis, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, according to the Constitutions submitted to me and which I have reviewed carefully.
I intend to appoint Your Reverence superior of this newly founded congregation and my representative. Therefore I desire that you contact the proposed Clara soon, acquaint yourself with the Constitutions, and examine the young women who wish to join the congregation and be invested with Clara Pfaender, in regard to their vocation, using the questions outlined in the requirements. Report the results to me immediately that I may grant you faculties deemed appropriate and worthy as my representative to officiate at the investiture in the parish church of Olpe.
By the end of November, Dean Goerdes had completed the canonical examination of the candidates required by the bishop. Regina Wurm had joined the group in November; her name