A Tree Rooted in Faith. Alberta Dieker

to Sister Sophie, “Our congregation in church thought that heaven had come down to earth. The music and singing were such as they had never heard before.” She mentioned the angelic voices of Medard Fuerst (Father Placidus) and Edmund Snyder (Father Maurus), accompanied on the organ by Father Barnabas. “At the altar was the splendor of a High Mass with a deacon. The whole experience was a rapture.”12

      That same day, Sister Bernardine accompanied Sisters Brigitta, Agatha, and Magdalene as they left for their first mission at Grand Ronde. A residential school for Native American children was located there on the reservation. It had been staffed originally, in 1874, by the Sisters of the Holy Names. They decided to withdraw in 1880, since they were required to teach and take care of young men and boys, which was contrary to their constitutions. Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph, Minnesota, took over the work in April of 1881 and stayed only until January of 1882, when Abbot Alexis of St. John’s in Collegeville ordered them home, noting that he would not even allow a dog to live there.13

      There was some justification for the abbot’s assessment of the Grand Ronde Mission. The school had, at its peak, thirty-five students, ranging in age from five to twenty years. The buildings were in swampy land, and getting to the barn to milk the cows required heavy boots. Since the government stipend for each child was small, much of the food had to be raised at the school, requiring work for the sisters far beyond classroom teaching.