by Phyllis Graham

"No wonder they had now gone after Him, craving to put at His service themselves and all they possessed; no wonder when they came together they formed themselves into a community 'who ministered unto Him of their substance.'

"The spirit which drew them together for His service was the same as that which has drawn women together in millions through the ages; in them, accepting their service along those Galilaean lanes, Jesus accepted and approved the women religious of the world."

(Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.,
The Public Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

 

THE ROAD to St. Michel-en-Brenne seems never to end; from wherever one starts off in France, it runs past endless miles of farmlands and woodlands, small towns and tiny hamlets. After more twists and turns than you can count, along narrow and often unmarked roads, you begin to suspect that you are reaching the very ends of the earth! When at last you do arrive at the place of the Society of St. Pius X Sisters, you know it for sure, for it is quickly noted that the life lived there is grafted onto one that is surely not of this world.

Here, in this remote, rustic region of central France is located the motherhouse and novitiate of a traditional Catholic order of nuns—the female branch of the priestly Society of St. Pius X—established by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to fill yet another crying need left by the ravagements of the Second Vatican Council.

Ever since the women of Palestine, drawn by the magnetism of divine love, went about ministering selflessly to the material needs of Our Lord and His apostles, and the standards of moral perfection were set at new heights by a Virgin Redeemer born of a Virgin Mother, the world has seen the phenomenal consecration of millions of generous, talented, attractive, and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful young women who have sought to follow so closely the footsteps of Jesus and Mary as to live a life of exclusive dedication. St. Bonaventure, agreeing with all other holy writers, saw in virginity a special imitation of Christ. St. Augustine called the virginal life, "the portion of angels," and St. John Chrysostom says: "The state of virginity is good, I agree; indeed, it is better than the married state, I confess. And if you ask how much better, I answer: 'As much as heaven is better than earth, or angels are better than men.' " But the very nature of this kind of life demands a particularly-patterned structure and a finely-tuned code of behavior by which to preserve its integrity, and these protectives have been swept away by the destructive changes wreaked upon unwitting convents in the name of growth by the perpetrators of what they themselves call a new, Conciliar Church; introducing perilous practices and distasteful innovations craftily designed to systematically obliterate all desire for this loftiest aspect of Catholic life, they bullied virtually every religious community in the world into adopting them.

Here though, at St. Michel, young Catholic women who wish to offer their virginity and energies to God, can still consecrate themselves not only in a way tried and proven by centuries of inspired Catholic asceticism, but also within the formulae of the traditional Latin Mass and true sacraments so crucial to the probity of that life. Headed by the Archbishop's sister, French-speaking Mother Marie-Gabriel, started nine years ago with only two postulants (who could not even speak French!), and surrounded by what Mother Marie-Gabriel describes as a "discreet silence," the new community now has over forty professed sisters and novices, some of them French but more than half of whom have been drawn from the far reaches of Australia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, and several other countries of Europe.

These sisters are the auxiliaries of the priests of the Society, devoting themselves both to personal sanctity after the example of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, and to freeing the priests as much as possible from the numerous hours it would take them to do the various material chores attached to a priestly ministry. Wherever they happen to be assigned, the sisters' work includes the more humble works of the house such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc., as well as the more diverse works of the parish such as care of the sacristy, teaching catechism, operating primary schools and dispensaries, visiting the sick and poor, etc. There is a large retreat house in Pointet, France, at which the Society holds spiritual retreats every two weeks all year long; here, in this important field of apostolic work, for instance, the Sisters of the Society are relied upon for the care and upkeep of this spacious house.

Since the nature of this order is contemplative-active, as much time and importance is given to prayer and meditation as is to work; by it, the Sisters provide a powerhouse of prayer for the work of the priests. Besides Holy Mass and meditation, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, recitation of the Rosary and part of the Divine Office, the sisters also spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament beseeching God to bless the priests and in reparation for the outrages committed against the Holy Eucharist, particularly by consecrated souls. (If we wonder sometimes how it is that the full might of God's wrath has been stayed from all of us in this age of open sacrilege, perhaps here we are offered some answer.)

Mother Marie-Gabriel, Superior of the Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X, bearing a striking resemblance to her brother, Archbishop Lefebvre. Her invariable solution to all problems: Prayer! Prayer! Prayer!

Happy, smiling faces in spite of a life of heroic self-denial; they give up earthly pleasures only to gain a "joy which no man can take away."

A TYPICAL DAY in the formation of a sister of the Society of St. Pius X is as follows: (It varies somewhat during vacation time and at the different houses serviced by the sisters, depending on the particular work involved there.)

6:00 a.m. Rise
6:30 Divine Office-Prime
6:45 Adoration—Meditation
7:15 Holy Mass
8:00 Tidy bedroom
8:10 Breakfast (which ends Grand Silence)
8:30 Housework
9:00 Work
10:00 Lecture or work
10:45 Lecture or study
11:40 Adoration
12:15 p.m. Lunch and recreation
1:45 Silence in rooms
2:30 Work
4:15 Afternoon tea
4:30 Chant lesson
5:00 Study (those who cook dinner do so at this time)
6:10 Adoration
6:40 Recitation of the Rosary
7:30 Dinner and recreation
8:40  Divine Office—Compline (beginning of Grand Silence)
9:45 Lights out

Novices train for two years at St. Michel and ample spiritual direction is available from Father Claude Michel, a Society priest in residence. Aspirants with a true vocation have apparently not been intimidated by any lack of knowledge of the French language, in fact more than half of them were not fluent before entering and some of them knew no French at all when they applied. (One of the sisters reminds us that God will surely give a girl the grace to learn a foreign language when He calls her to be His spouse). Once professed, a sister yearly renews her vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience; which means simply that she will own nothing individually but will look to the community for all her material needs; that she will remain virginal physically and morally; and that she will be obedient to her superiors' directives and assignments in utter surrender of mind and heart. The sisters are their own means of support and rely largely, as nuns have always done, on goodwill donations. Their habit is a simple black one and the very sight of them so clothed, probably more than anything, attracts the onlooker to Christ and helps to stabilize troubled Catholics today who long, nostalgically, for those peaceful, more ordered days of the Church when nuns looked like nuns and acted like nuns.

People of all faiths have always been fascinated by nuns in traditional habits, soothed somehow by the ethereal quality which always surrounds consecrated virgins. Before the tragedy of Vatican II divested nuns of their holy habits—which curiously had the immediate effect of removing from them all visible signs of their deep spirituality—the world had deferentially tipped its hat to them, readily opened doors and made way for them, gladly emptied its pockets for their undertakings and submitted to their maternal admonitions. The sight of a nun in her habit was enough to stoke up the embers of a dying conscience. They were the dedicated teachers, nurses, executives, and workers upon whom Holy Mother Church depended to staff Her various institutions, and they did the job with remarkable efficiency and diligence and without pursuit of either prestige or money. Such nuns were placed high on the erected pedestals of man's noblest imaginings; they served as beacons of light along the dimly-lit passageways of life. It was their particular defection from Sacred Tradition that brought forth the first tears which have since flowed like a torrent from Catholic hearts.

Saving souls by following the "Little Way" of St. Therese, doing everything perfectly, joyfully, for love of God.

The sisters are their own means of support and rely on goodwill donations. They keep hens for eggs, sheep for meat, and cultivate an extensive garden.

HOW ENCOURAGED we are then to peek in at the Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X here at St. Michel in France, a country which has provided Catholicism with glorified saintly sons and daughters too numerous to mention, one of the greatest of whom is Our Lord's much-beloved St. Therese, that Nun of nuns! who strove daily to do small, seemingly unimportant things perfectly and joyously, just for the love of God—her "Little Way"—which not only converted untold numbers of souls but which holds a powerful message for vainglorious religious even to this day who may fall into the trap of thinking that their material or intellectual accomplishments could make a mark on Church history before they themselves have mastered the simple science of holiness. It gives us tremendous hope to see, in this obscure spot of Therese's own country, the quiet emergence of a steadily growing community of similarly consecrated virgins, unmistakable harbingers of a once-again gloriously rebuilt Church, whose happy, smiling faces belie a life of heroic self-denial; who own nothing but have Everything, who sacrifice motherhood only to become spiritual mothers to many, who give up earthly pleasures only to gain both a "joy which no man can take away" in this life and an "aureola" or golden crown, in the next. And this, miraculously, in an age dizzy with the narrow, sterile egocentricities of "women's liberation" and in the midst of a people who have forgotten the wide, creative passion and infinite capabilities of Chastity.

When the world regains its equilibrium, poets will again wax strong about Chastity. Meanwhile, yesterday's verses, inspired by the supernatural tensions of a timeless Faith, still sing the praises of an ideal, little understood anymore, but more than ever necessary:

" . . . Let my heart's reddest glow
        be but as sun-flushed snow.

And if they say that snow is cold,
O Chastity, must they be told
        The hand that's chafed with snow
        Takes a redoubled glow?

That extreme cold, like heat, doth sear?
O to this heart of love draw near,
        And feel how scorching rise
        Its white-gold purities! . . . "
                (Francis Thompson, "Ad Castitatem")

Donations gratefully received and inquiries invited at the sisters' American address:

SISTERS OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X
Saint Mary's College, Saint Marys, Kansas 66536

Sister rings the Angelus bell, located at the entry gate. A bell directs the order of the day: when to start something, when to end. The sisters use ways tried-and-proven by centuries of inspired Catholic asceticism; apportioned time for prayer, for work, for recreation and rest.

A traditional black habit—ages-old sign of consecrated virginity, silent testimony to Christ. Catholics long for the days when nuns looked like nuns, acted like nuns.