https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalen_Bentivoglio Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio (Italian: Maria Magdalena Bentivoglio, 29 July 1834 – 18 August 1905) was an Italian nun of the Order of St. Clare of the Primitive Observance. She was sent to the United States to found the first monastery of the order in the country and eventually established three monastic communities there before her death.[1] The cause for her possible canonization is now being studied by the Holy See, by which she has been granted the religious title of Servant of God.[2] Life Early life She was born Anna Maria Bentivoglio in Rome, the twelfth child of Count Domenico Bentivoglio of Bologna and of Angela Sandreda, an aristocrat of French descent, who called her Annetta. Her father was an officer in the Grande Armée during the Napoleonic Wars who later became a general in the Papal Army and Governor of Rome. As a young girl, she and her older sister Elena were enrolled at the school in the city run by the Society of the Sacred Heart, where another sister, Agata, was a member of the religious community. When her sister was transferred to teach at the Society's school in Turin in 1842, Bentivoglio was transferred to that school, where she studied for the next six years.[3] Bentivoglio grew up into a beautiful and independent young woman.[2] After the death of her father (1851) and her mother (1860), however, out of regard for the count's service Pope Pius IX took responsibility for her and her two remaining unmarried sisters, Constanza and Matilda, and placed them under the guardianship of Cardinal Edoardo Borromeo, who established the young women in a monastery for the sake of propriety. Drawn to life in an enclosed religious order committed to strict poverty, when her two sisters entered the Monastery of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, the first Poor Clare monastery in the City of Rome, which followed the Rule of St. Clare as modified by Pope Urban IV, Anna Maria also sought admission. She was received on 16 July 1864 and received the religious habit on 4 October 1865, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.[3] Foundress in America In 1875, after the Papal States' seizure by the Kingdom of Italy, like other religious communities, the Monastery of San Lorenzo faced closing by the new government. At that same time, Mother Ignatius Hayes, the English foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Little Falls, Minnesota, in the United States, sought to have a contemplative presence as part of her foundation. To this end, she went to Italy to enlist members of the cloistered Franciscan Second Order and approached the ecclesiastical authorities with this proposal. She visited the monastery in Rome, where several nuns volunteered to embark on this new venture. The Minister General of the Friars Minor, Bernardino da Portoguaro, gave his approval to the proposal and sought the permission of the Holy See to allow some nuns of the Order to leave their cloister to travel to America for this.[3] Bentivoglio, along with her sister, Constanza, was chosen to go to the United States by Pope Pius IX, who appointed Bentivoglio abbess of the new foundation and Constanza her vicaress, who were to be accompanied by a Franciscan friar, Paulino de Castellaro, who had appointed their spiritual director and chaplain. On 12 August 1875, Castellaro and Hayes went to the monastery to accompany the nuns to the Vatican Palace, where they attended the general audience of Pope Pius and received a special blessing by him. They then traveled to Nice in France, where they met the Minister General. At that point, he gave them formal documents of their commission to the endeavor and transferred the nuns from the Urbanist Observance of the Rule of St. Clare followed by the Monastery of San Lorenzo to that of the Primitive Observance, which followed the unmitigated Rule of St. Clare, and forbade corporate ownership of property by the nuns. They then went to the Poor Clare monastery in Marseille, which followed that form of the Rule of St. Clare, to familiarize themselves with its differences.[3]
Omaha Constanza Bentivoglio and her companion set out for the West Coast, while Bentivoglio went back to New York City with her companions. In the course of the journey, Constanza met a wealthy Catholic, the philanthropist John A. Creighton, who made an offer to finance the cost of building a monastery there for the nuns. Constanza immediately wrote to Bentivoglio to advise her of this offer, who immediately contacted James O'Connor, the first Bishop of Omaha, whom she knew from their stay in Philadelphia. He officially welcomed the community, though he advised that he could not offer them any financial support. Her small group then traveled from New York to Omaha, where they arrived on 15 August 1878.[3] The nuns immediately began to organize the fundraising and planning necessary for the building of a monastery. The efforts needed for this were not inconsiderable, as the new building was destroyed by tornadoes twice while still under construction. The struggles succeeded, though, as Pope Pius IX issued a papal bull establishing the Poor Clare monastery of the Primitive Observance in the United States in Rome on 15 November 1881. The monastery then grew to the point where a new foundation was again made in New Orleans in 1885.[3] Later, after Bentivoglio's return to Omaha, one of the nuns made severe accusations against her and her sister of personal and financial impropriety. They were placed under interdict and were forced to leave the monastery to stay in a convent of the Sisters of Mercy, under whose supervision they lived.[3] They had to undergo several legal proceedings, including one by the Vatican which lasted nearly two years, before they were cleared of all charges.[4] Evansville Bentivoglio made her last foundation in Evansville, Indiana, in 1897, due to a bequest from a relative of one of the nuns. Appointing Constanza as abbess of the Omaha monastery, she led seven other nuns there to found the new monastery, which was dedicated on 12 August of that year, then the feast day of St. Clare.[3] The early years of the community were not easy, as they had to live without any furniture at all, having only the crates in which their belongings had been packed. The nuns in the new community often survived on only bread and water. Bentivoglio shared this struggle until her death there in 1905. Her sister Constanza had pre-deceased her in 1902. Legacy and veneration Bentivoglio's remains were exhumed in 1907, at which time they were found to be incorrupt. The same was true when they were again exhumed in 1932.[3] This was done due to the acceptance by the Holy See of her canonization for further study.[2] By the year 2000, over 20 Poor Clare monasteries in the United States and Canada traced their origins to Bentivoglio's labors. They had a combined membership of about 350 nuns.[3]
I am reading short lives of modern saints at the moment and last night I was reading the life of Mother Magdalen and really liked her because she had a wonderful sense of humour and seemed to be very,very down to Earth. When they arrived in the USA they had the most awful time of it. Neither she nor her Sister could speak English. This might not have managed but the priest and nun who were supposed to help them get settled had argued and vanished. Mother Magdalen had not a dime to support herself. Numerous American Bishops were approached but all gave her the thumbs down and did not want to know. Upon settling down in her Convent she was slandered and maligned frequently resulting in no less than four visitations. Monet trouble continued at least once leaving them with nothing to eat and no shoes or socks. But she kept right on smiling and joking about it all, which I love. One of the sisters asked her why she was laughing so much about it at all, that folks would think she was mad and the saint said it was because she had asked God for Crosses and it was funny because he was burying her up to neck in them! She used to leave notes at St Josephs statue begging for help and on one occasion left a potato as a sign they needed some food. On another occasion she left five paper cut outs of five girls and they quickly got five vocations who stayed for life. When they had no footwear she said, 'We are without shoes and stockings ; we shall see if we can stand it. It is certain that on the one hand we do not want to pamper anyone , but on the other hand we do not want to kill anyone'. When she was a very bright light was seen around her bed and a rich aroma of flowers smelt. Her body seems to have been preserved intact. Perhaps a sign of her sense of humour. After her death a lay who longed to have children asked for her interecession. Then she telegrammed to the Convent Chaplain. 'Call Mother Magdalena off. Have given birth to twins!'
After reading about Mother Magdalena I fell asleep. Then woke up about 1:30am wide awake, praying staring at the ceiling. I was disgruntled knowing it was my very own fault having being very tired during the day and deciding to go to bed to take a snooze. The snooze ended up lasting a full two hours. Then I thought of my Guardian angels and thought to myself, 'Why didn't he warn me? What use is he?' But looking towards were he usually floats about I heard him laughing. I said , 'But angels are faultless, no good blaming you!' Even more laughter from the angel. Then I thought of what Fr Ripperger said. That our Guardian angels look very much like us. But really it is hard to imagine. They are so gorgeous and holy. He wore like a heavy golden Chasuble. Heavy gold embroidered stripes on a fabric of lighter gold with a silver under tunic. When I asked him if we were really alike, he appeared full of great joy and agreed we were. Then he looked towards heaven and began to sing. But it was not singing as we know it. From his mouth came the music of heaven as though an entire orchestra were inside him. The music of heaven. Expressing both his joy and solemn agreement. We are brothers. He in heaven, myself on Earth. We are very fond of one another.
https://devotiontoourlady.com/nv-guardian-angels.html Angel Talk St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) confirms that guardian angels console their charges in Purgatory. Having mystically visited Purgatory on a number of occasions, she witnessed souls raising their hands to Heaven and imploring mercy. All the while their guardian angels were at their side consoling and encouraging them. This saint gives us another example of the services rendered by guardian angels in her letter to Mother de Saumaise, dated July, 1688. St. Margaret Mary, who was a member of the Visitation Order and the visionary of the Sacred Heart devotion, wrote about a vision she experienced in which the Sacred Heart, once again, was shown to her and in which the Blessed Virgin gave various counsels. She writes that she was taken during this vision to a very spacious and beautiful place, where she saw a throne of fire, which supported the Sacred Heart. From this throne "shot forth flames so luminous and glowing that the whole place was lighted up and warmed by them." Present, in addition to the Blessed Virgin Mary, were St. Francis de Sales and St. Claude de la Colombiere. "The Daughters of the Visitation were there with their guardian angels beside them, each one holding a heart in his hand." Apparently the hearts were those of their charges. After various thoughts were exchanged ... "all the guardian angels drew near to present Him with what they held in their hands. As soon as these hearts touched the sacred Wound, they became beautiful and shone like stars. Some of them did not shine as brightly as others. The names of several remained written in letters of gold in the Sacred Heart, into which some of those I speak of eagerly disappeared and were buried with mutual pleasure ... These were the hearts of those who had labored the most to make Him known and loved ..." The story is told that St. Gregory of Tours (538-594), while still a child, was much concerned because his father was seriously ill. One night, after fervent prayers, he had a dream in which his guardian angel instructed him to "write the name of Jesus on a small wooden chip and lay it on your father's pillow." The next morning Gregory related the dream to his mother, who instructed him to do exactly as the angel had suggested. Needless to report, the father quickly regained his health. Some years later the father was again bedridden. Once again, Gregory prayed for his father, but this time the cure was different. The angel instructed him in a dream to use the liver of a fish. This, of course, is reminiscent of the miracle worked by the Archangel Raphael, in favor of the father of Tobias. Once again the Saint's father was restored to health and vigor. A very busy guardian angel was that of St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), who remained visible to her most of the time. She tells us that he "would kneel beside her, reciting vocal prayers, such as the Psalms alternately, and ejaculatory prayers or aspirations." But in addition, he "comforted her during her illnesses; he cured her wounds after her first mystical scourging, and above all protected her in the dreadful fights she had to undergo against Satan." One evening, after having been beaten cruelly by the devil, the poor girl could not move. The angel enabled her to get up from the floor and to lie down on her bed, and he then stood watching by her bedside. The Saint's angel even gave some advice that we might also heed. This is perhaps the only time that an angel dictated words of advice. These are the sentences: "Remember, my daughter, that he who really loves Jesus speaks little and endures all. I order you from Jesus, never to say your opinion if you are not asked to; never uphold your opinion, but at once give it up. When you commit a fault, accuse yourself without waiting to be questioned. And finally, remember to watch your eyes and think that the mortified eye will see the beauty of Heaven." That angels are messengers of God is a fact that is not disputed. Angels also act as messengers for some people, as demonstrated in the lives of St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) and St. Padre Pio (1887-1968). As related before, St. Gemma sent letters to her spiritual director, by way of her guardian angel; but in Padre Pio's case, the holy priest communicated, not only with his own guardian angel, but also with the angels of those he had accepted under his spiritual care—his spiritual children. Once when Padre Alessio saw St. Padre Pio reciting the Holy Rosary, he approached him and was asked by St. Padre Pio, "Didn't you see all those guardian angels going backward and forward from my spiritual children, bringing messages from them?" Sometimes at night, while St. Padre Pio was reciting the Rosary, he was heard to say aloud such expressions as, "Tell her I will pray for her," or, "Tell him I will knock at the heart of Jesus for this grace." All who heard him speak this way, were convinced he was speaking with the guardian angels of his spiritual children. Since our guardian angels are always eager to help us, we are advised by St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859) to "Hide behind your good angel when you find it impossible to pray, and charge him to pray in your stead." St. John Bosco (1815-1888) recommends, "When tempted, invoke your angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: he trembles and flees at your guardian angel's sight."
When I was on my journey of returning to the church I “saw” my guardian angel - head down with a hooded robe (the hood covers the angels head) . The robe was so red that it looked black and he exuded an overwhelming feeling of sadness. It made me feel very sad. While I would love to say I now “see” my guardian in whitened gold robes with the glory of God surrounding him, I at least “see” him in off white/ bluish robes unhooded and sometimes I swear I see a shadow of a smile on his face as he watches me struggle through the swamp of mud that is my life. I hope to make him proud.
Our Guardian Angels are our protectors and guides and our light. I love that simple prayer to our Guardian Angel. Think what joy you brought your angel when you returned to the Church! I often think of how my poor angel endured my sinful wayward ways for years. When I "reverted" I begged his forgiveness. And I still do. And I thank him every day for bringing me safely through. And for being willing to take me on as his mission from God when he was first created. how good our angels are!
