and moral worth. of charity attains its full value when it is inspired by love, without which man is but "as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." (I Cor. 13, 1.) On the contrary, in the balance of God the mite of the poor widow is of greater value than the gold of the wealthy. "He is truly great, who is great in charity." (Imit. of Christ, I. 3, 6.)

Before God the external work

CHAPTER XVIII.

Dangerous Illness of Mother Frances.- Publication of the Constitutions. Encouragement of the German Mission in Havre.--Smallpox and Cholera patients. Service in the War of 1866.

1. In February, 1865, Mother Frances was prostrated by a painful attack of asthma, which stubbornly resisted all the efforts of the physicians. The continual pressure, day and night, and the difficulty with which she took nourishment, made her condition a critical one. On the feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, she expressed a desire of receiving Extreme Unction, if the physician, her cousin, Dr. Schervier, would pronounce her illness serious enough to warrant it. He assented, and as soon as she had been anointed, her health improved. She was able to breathe more freely, and to take the refreshments ordered by the physician; but a very dangerous prostration remained. On the 7th of April, when twenty-one postulants received the habit, the physician permitted her only to see the newly vested in her room for a moment. As soon as she was able the physicians ordered her to quit the mother-house for a time.

First, she went to the branch house in Burtscheid, later to the one in Coblenz. There queen Augusta visited her "dear little mother," as she called her, when she came to that city on the occasion of the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the union of the Rhine provinces with Prussia. It was a great effort for Mother Frances to receive the august Lady at the head of her daughters. For a long time her weakness and nervousness were so great, that the least emotion caused tears to flow. In Coblenz she made a novena to St. Anthony with great confidence, and felt strong enough at its close to return to the mother-house and resume her duties.

2. About this illness, during which she also suffered greatly from interior trials, she writes, on the 11th of May, 1865, to the often mentioned Franciscan Father: "This illness was truly a visitation of God; for from Septuagesima until the close of Lent, when I received Extreme Unction, I was, as it were, in a continual agony on account of the asthma. I cannot express what I suffered mentally; I should never have thought it possible. May Our Dear Lord grant that my sufferings were borne, in a manner, according to His holy will and Heart. As a consequence of this difficulty of breathing, my throat and lungs are still ailing. I was therefore sent to Burtscheid, where I take fresh warm milk twice a day, and Emse water with milk as often as possible. As yet, I am able to sleep but little, on account of coughing and the fever. The physicians ascribe it to the previous great strain on the lungs. During the day the cough

does not trouble me. They tell me that with great care I may yet get over it, and become stronger than before. The Lord's will be done! Great as was my fear of dying during one of my asthmatic spells, I am not afraid of consumption. It gives a person opportunity to prepare for death. Since last week I am permitted to write one letter every day."

3. Mother Frances had used her experiences since the foundation of the Congregation to enlarge the sketch of the Constitutions which had been approved in 1850. In their new form, the Constitutions were submitted to the archbishop, and again received his approbation. Then they were printed and sent to the branch houses, together with a circular letter, dated "within the octave of the feast of Our Lady of Victories." In this letter the venerable Mother exhorted her daughters to strive seriously for that perfection to which they were plighted in virtue of their vows, and to live according to the spirit of St. Francis, that is, in humility and simplicity, in poverty, in exterior and interior mortification, in religious retirement, modesty and recollection. But all these virtues, she adds, must have for their complement the love of Our Dear Saviour, manifested in the exercise of humble and prompt charity, which in its turn should be sweetened and made pleasant by a true sisterly love having its root and centre in the love of Jesus, Our Divine Saviour. Then she points out the danger to fidelity in fulfilling the will of God usually resulting from the imitation of the evil example of imperfect and worldly-minded

religious. "Let us take no scandal," she writes; "let us not judge. It is not sufficient to give no scandal, we must also take none. If we are not Superiors, let us always close our eyes to the disedifying actions of others. . . . . The Lord will not judge us according to the demeanor of others, but according to our own. 'Judge not, that you may not be judged.'"

As the building of the emigrants' church at Havre progressed but slowly, Mother Frances had pious pictures printed, on the back of which she recommended this holy work. They were sold at a nominal price, and a considerable sum was realized for the purpose. When Father Lambert Bethmann came to Aix la Chapelle in September, she encouraged him to undertake a voyage to America to collect among his numerous countrymen there, which he did with notable success.

About this time the Provincial Superioress of the house in America came to Aix la Chapelle. When ready, with seven Sisters and two postulants, to return, it was welcome news to her to hear that Father Lambert would accompany her to America. The voyage was a very stormy one. Not only the passengers, but also the sailors several times gave themselves up for lost. In this extremity Father Lambert proved a true friend not only of the Sisters, but of all on board. He cheered and consoled the hopeless, prayed with them, and not a few were reconciled to God by a good confession, the first in many years. Long after, some of them expressed their gratitude for the services of this good priest, and ascribed the safety of the ship to his prayer.

They landed in the port of New York, after a tedious voyage, on the 1st of January, 1866.

5. During the spring of 1866, smallpox became epidemic in Aix la Chapelle. The city authorities. established a hospital for patients of this kind in the old Dominican building. The Sisters were given charge of the female department, and of the household. Alexian Brothers had charge of the male patients. The epidemic lasted two years, during which time the Sisters remained at their post.

6. In June, 1866, Prussia and her allies declared war against Austria. The Sisters of Mother Frances were again called upon, and began their ministrations at Langensalza, where four hundred wounded. soldiers were in two infirmaries. In the beginning of July, Mother Frances wrote: "Continually, day and night, we are receiving telegrams urging us to send Sisters. Twenty-seven are now engaged in nursing the wounded." On the 6th of July she sent eight more to Hesse Cassel, where five hundred wounded longed for their ministrations. Mother Frances was greatly distressed at this fratricidal war, and its immediate consequence, the spread of cholera. She writes: "It seems that God intends to purify the world all around. Let us strike our breasts and confess that we have sinned, and then humbly submit to the chastening hand of God. If we strive to be very faithful, we may hope that the word of God will be verified in us: "To them that love God all things work together unto good.' (Rom. VIII. 28.) Let us be very faithful to the Lord, as his spiritual militia, in life and death. All for Him!" The same sentiments are expressed in other letters.