The Reshaping of a Tradition: American Benedictine Women, 1852-1881 by Ephrem (Rita) Hollermann, O.S.B.

Abstract

300 BOOK REVIEWS The Reshaping ofa Tradition:American Benedictine Women, 1852-1881. By Ephrem (Rita) Hollermann, O.S.B. (Winona, Minnesota: St. Mary's Press. 1994. Pp. xxxvii, 399- $24.95 paperback.) The exhortation ofVatican Council II's Decree on the Religious life to return to the charism of the founder has been at the forefront of much of the historical writing on religious communities in recent years. For Benedictine Sisters in the United States, the challenge to the historian is particularly daunting. The baggage carried by Benedictine women who came to the United States in the nineteenth century included a sixth-century Rule, a tradition of enclosed community life that was transposed into apostolic ministry, a confused canonical status, and an ongoing conflict over the jurisdiction of bishops and their own superiors. Sister Ephrem Hollermann states correctly in her introduction to this work "that study of the nineteenth-century founding inspiration of Benedictine women in North America, and its revivified approach to Benedictine life, has been virtually bypassed" (p. xxi). This book is an important corrective to that omission and in the process provides the reader with a far fuller understanding of the rich charism of American Benedictine women. Using the model of recovery of religious life of Raymond Fitz and Lawrence Cada as the framework for her work, Hollermann concentrates on the foundation and expansion periods of Benedictine life in America (1852-1881). The results ofher study ofthis period constitute an appropriate tool for analysis ofthe stabilization, breakdown, and transition periods that followed in the last century. Perhaps the most valuable contribution of the author is the manner in which she mines the primary sources of the period. Correspondence, personal data files, memoirs, chapter minutes, and community chronicles are all marshaled to provide a more developed understanding of the personalities and events of the period. Two historical works in the last decade, Incarnata Girgen's Behind the Beginnings (1981) and Judith Sutera's True Daughters (1987), were groundbreaking studies that investigated the relationship between the first Benedictine sisters from Eichstätt, Germany, and Boniface Wimmer, and the protracted struggle of the American Benedictine sisters to assert their monastic identity and establish their own Benedictine congregations. Hollermann's study advances the scope and detail of these two works considerably. By turns, she is able to give descriptive portraits of the individual women founders (e.g., Benedicta Riepp, Willibalda Scherbauer, Evangelista Kremmeter, Nepomucene Ludwig ), underline the principal flash points of controversy, and provide both a chronology and interpretive commentary on the major events of the early history of the sisters. In reading through the graphic accounts of spiritual struggle and material survival, one dismisses all notions that American Benedictine women led a monochrome or one-dimensional life. Originally written as a doctoral dissertation at Marquette University, this work has a relevance and readability that make it user-friendly for those in formation programs, without detracting from its high level of historical research. Of particular commendation are the extensive appendices. One can only hope that BOOK REVIEWS 301 this work will be a stimulus for other historians ofreligious life as they continue in their efforts to retrieve the charism and community inspiration of their past. Joel Rippinger, O.S.B. MarmionAbbey Aurora, Illinois Bishop East ofthe Rockies: The Life and Letters ofJohn Baptist Miege, SJ. By Herman J. Müller, SJ. (Chicago: Loyola University Press. 1994. Pp. xvii, 198. $1395 paperback.) John Baptist Miege, SJ. (1815-1884), was a Savoyard priest who became one of the pioneer bishops ofthe American West. Leaving Europe in 1848 during an era of anticlericalism and revolution, Miege dedicated himself to missionary work on the Great Plains, soon being appointedVicarApostolic ofall Indian Territory east of the Rocky Mountains—from the Canadian border on the north to Texas on the south. There he ministered to scattered Indian tribes, and, as white civilization entered the area, witnessed "Bleeding Kansas," the Colorado Gold Rush, and the Civil War. His varied career included attendance at the First Vatican Council, a fund-raising tour of South America (needed to pay offthe debt incurred in the construction of his resplendent Leavenworth cathedral), and service as the first rector-president of Detroit College...