10
THE COURIER
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The dancing season may he said to
I I I ' BlniyPBjH have commenced and as previously m
l Kl fluB timated in The Coukiki: there is every
I Bk VV nrosnoct of much nclivitv in store. Tho
cluhs will soon reorganize for the win
ter and then with the private dunces
w- .' that will he (riven will furnish an abun
dance of Terpsichorean revelry. The Pleasant Hour club will effect
an re-organization about October 1.
Ex-Senator VanWyck of Nebraska has driven the society people
in Washington something to talk about by taking up his residence
in the picturesque little church on Massachusetts avenue, just oppo
site the residence of Chief Justice Fuller. It is in the swellest por
tion of the city, and for the past few days Mr. and Mrs. Van Wyek
and their daughter have made their home in the edifice formerly
devoted to divine service. Mrs. Van Wyck owns the property, it
having been bought by her husband and presented to her as an
after-dinner favor the day they were leaving Washington for Neb
raska at the conclusion of the latter's senatorial career. It has been
the scene of high church Episcopal andSwedenborgian services, but
lately had been idle. When Mr. and Mrs. VanWyck came here to
attend the repairs then in progress upon their other property the
former suggested that they camp out iti their empty church. Mr.
VanWyck, since his long illness, has a horror of mounting steps and
thought it would be a great scheme to live on the ground floor. So
they moved to the church and divided off the auditorium by imag
inary lines into parlor, bedrooms, dining room and picture gallery.
Pictures they had in plenty and a shopping expedition quickly pro
vided the necessary furniture. The vestry was turned into a kitchen
and the saining pipes of the organ and the decorations of the chan
cel helped out the art gallery. Rugs, lamps, small tables, easy
chairs and sofas dot the space all around, and papers and books give
evidence of their enjoyment. A big rocker under the trees which
shade the porch made a resting place for the man of millions, as he
sat reading or chatting. Nobody could have more fun over the fact
that within easy reach hung the bell rope, a pull on which would
have caused a familiar sound in that locality. With plenty of ser
vants and every comfort possiole the little household spent the last
few days very pleasantly in their novel quarters and liked it so well
that it is quite probable the church will become their winter home.
They intend to put up partitions and make a good many alterations
to transform it into a proper dwelling and have had plans drawn up
for that purpose.
A matter of sensational interest is the reported defection of Miss
Catherine Drexel, a daughter of the Philadelphia branch of the
wealthy Drexel family, from the ranks of the Catholic sisterhood.
The story is the more interesting, as it is coupled with the rumor
that the lady is shortly to enter into the holy bonds of matrimony.
This has created considerable of a stir in the highest social circles of
New York and Philadelphia. Miss Catherine Drexel's story is a
very romantic one. She is the second of three daughters of the late
Francis Drexel. In very early youth she placed her affections on
Walter George Smith, the son of an intimate friend and near neigh
bor of the Drexel family, at their country home at TorrcsJale, near
Philadelphia. Her successful rival was her oldest sister, Elizabeth,
though the latter had no suspicion that she was such. When all
arrangements for the marriage of Elizabeth Drexel and Walter
George Smith were completed Catherine Drexel announced her in
tention of retiring from the world aud of devoting her great fortune
to the church in missionary work among the Indians. She took her
vows at a convent in Pittsburg,and was thereafter known fn religion
9 Sister Catherine. In a short time Sister Catherine became
Superioress of a new convent that owed its existence to her wealth.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith passed the first year of their married life in
Europe. Mrs. Smith's failing health induced the pair to return to
tho Torresdale homestead, where she died. And it is the brother-in-law
to whom Sister Catherine had so long ago givm hor heart
that she is to marry, according to the story as it comes from Phila
delphia. Now arises tho question: Are nun's vows irrevocable?"
The popular notion is that a women once vowed to the cloister is
under a sort of life sentence. And yet nothing is further from the
truth. The Pope has the power of fully dispensing what with are
called "solemn vows." The bishops havo tho right to release from
"simple vows." Both the Holy Father and the Bishops are called
upon tD exercise their rights in this matter much oftener than peo
ple think, for. as a matter of church policy, tho promoters of a mon
astic life do not furnish such data to the public. To look at this
subject historically, we find from tho very early days of the church
down to the tenth century many decrees of councils and orders of
Popes relating to the breaking of monastic vows, in all of which it is
ordained that the unhappy nun be treated with tenderness. Per
suasion and a change of convent are recommended not one word to
justify the popular belief that the terrible punishment suffered by
Constance, the faithless nun of Scott's "Marmion," was the usual
penalty decreed by the church upon her daughters who broke their
vows, Vet the authority of Scott is cited as sufficient proof that in
the dark ages recreant nunB were buried alive. Tho Vestal Virgin
of antiquity was the prototype, so to speak, of the Christian nun.
And there seems to be no doubt that burial alive was the punish
ment of tho faithless Vestal. Yet even tho Vestal Virgins were not
vowed for life. They were dedicated at a very tender age between
G and 10 years. Tho period for which they were vowed was thirty
years. The first decade was spent by the Vestal in being trained
for her duties, the second in practising them, and the third in
instructing the young Vestals. After that she was free to return to
the world, and even to marry. In these times there doas not seem
to be much encouragement given to tho practrice of perpetual vows.
By the laws of Franco life vows are invalid, but such disapproval by
tho civil power has no weight with the canon law. St. Vincent de
Paul, who established the order of tho Sisters of Charity in 1014, or
dained that then- vows should be taken for one year only. He was
the first founder of a religious order who took tho ground that it
was possible for the members of a religious community to boldly
use their talont and labor with it in the world instead of buryiug it
in the seclusion of tho cloister. He said: "Your convents must be
the house of tho sick; your cell, the chamber of suffering; your
chapel, tho parish church; your cloister, the wards of the hospital;
your rule, the vow of obedience; your grille, the fear of God; your
v.ril to shut out the world, holy modesty." In the many political
upheavals of France, durinj which various religious orders have
suffered abolishment, the Sisters of Charity have always allowed to
exist, even in the days of the Terror and of the Directory. The
"Little Sisters of the Poor" is tho only other order looked upon
with Government favor in France. In looking about us now, with
nineteenth century eyes, one wonders at the power of a tradition,
that, in the popular mind, dooms a nun, who repents of her vows,
to penances and penalties of the most 83vere nature, and cuts her
off from good standing in tho church. This belief exists in spite of
notable examples of women forsaking tho cloister and subsequently
leading exemplary lives in the world. There is tho case of Miss
Rosecrans, daughter of General Rosecrans, of Ohio, who for some
years was an Ursulino nun in an Ohio convent. She secured a re.
lease from her vows and is now the companion of her father in his
declining days. Then one of the daughters of the late General Phil
Kearney, first in tho Sacred Heart Convent, and subsequently with
tho Carmelites, in Paris, found that she was unfitted for the life of
the cloister. A dispensation from the vows was granted by the
Holy Father, and she now makes her home with her mother in
Washington. In this country, as in Europe, tho nunneries have had
inany distinguished inmates, with tho great difference that while
here the cloistered life is an entirely voluntary one, in tho old world
a girl is frequently, from her very birth, destined for a convent.
One of the daughters of Genera! Wintield Siott was a nun of the
Visitation Convent, of Georgetown, D. C, where she died some
yaars before her distinguished father. It is not generally known
that Fannie Allen, the beautiful daughter or rugged old Ethan
Allen, of Ticonderoga fame, forsook all the joys and pleasures of tho
world for a life of prayer and meditation in a Canadian convent of
the strictest rule. Her parents made many efforts to lure her from
her nunnery. But, to the end, she was steadfast and faithful. She
died in her Montreal convent.
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