A Light to the Blind
Memorial: April 30th
This month this ministry features Bl. Pauline von Mallinckrodt, a little-known German foundress of a Catholic Congregation. She was born on June 3, 1817 in the town of Minden and baptized with the name Maria Bernardine Sophia Pauline. Her family was well-to-do being that her father, Detmar, was a government official. He was a Lutheran but Pauline’s mother Marianna was a highly devout Catholic who raised her children in the Faith.
Given Detmar’s work, Pauline and her three siblings received an excellent education and afforded luxuries reserved only for the privileged: abundant food, fine clothing, social status, servants, extensive travels, etc. Despite her family’s affluent lifestyle, the Beata developed a deep piety from her early youth, which was expressed via a deepening devotion towards the Blessed Sacrament and a compassionate heart for the less fortunate.
Biographies relate how young Maria affectionately cared for her father and siblings after her mother passed away from typhus when she was 17-years-old … and her loving concern extended to the hired help, who Maria treated with solicitude and nursed when they were ill. This kindness she strove to live by extended outside of the Mallinckrodt home reaching out to the poor with whom she shared her monetary allowances and whatever other alms she could provide.
After Maria’s father retired from public service in 1840, the family relocated to Paderborn where she was drawn to a group of pious women who charitably assisted the sick-poor in the community. She joined this association while entertaining the notion of becoming a Vincentian Sister of Charity, even going so far as to visit their motherhouse in Paris (where St. Catherine Laboure received her Miraculous Medal apparitions) to get an idea of what religious life would be like.
It soon became evident that Maria was the immerging leader of the charity she was a member of. Through her initiative, their ministry opened a school to ensure children and orphans were not only educated, but also protected from neglect in the wake of the chaotic Industrial Revolution of the early 1800s. In addition, an opportunity arose to establish a special school for blind children, which Maria also took on. Both projects prospered and the work quickly grew beyond what was easily manageable for her and her companions. Besides that, the Beata was still planning to become a nun.
Bl. Pauline in her youth
In 1846, Maria traveled to France to meet with another religious founder – Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat (now a Saint) – with the intent of turning over the administration of the school for the blind to St. Madeleine’s congregation. Things, however, didn’t turn out the way she hoped as the German/Prussian government was unwilling to have a French organization – even a religious one – operating on German soil. Following this major setback, Maria consulted with the Archbishop of Cologne who encouraged her to start her own congregation to continue and propagate the charisms of charitable service and Christian education that she was already doing. After prayerful consideration, she founded the Sisters of Christian Charity (SCC) in Paderborn in August 1849, along with three companions, and became its first superior under the name of Mother Pauline.
It should be mentioned that in the hustle and bustle of her daily life and work, Pauline had, for some time, been receiving Holy Communion daily with the Church’s permission (it was uncommon in her time to do so). This was the secret to her burning charity and the drive she possessed to serve the Lord in serving others – the Eucharist and deep prayer were the fuel to her fire. After establishing her congregation, she was able to have the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the chapels of her religious houses and made it a rule for her spiritual daughters to attend daily Mass.
Pauline spent her remaining years growing the SCC ministry. Within the span of the next 25 years, they had over 200 members working in 20 establishments in Germany before branching out to other countries beginning in June 1873 when a group of her nuns sailed to New Orleans, USA (the first of over two dozen houses of charity/schools in the US!). Other requests for the SCC also came in from Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay where there was an influx of German immigrants in the second half of the 1800s … so Mother Pauline sent her daughters there, too, to assist her former countrymen and the locals.
Despite chronic illnesses in her later years, the Beata traveled extensively – even going overseas to personally monitor the expansion of her congregation’s work. Upon returning from a grueling trip to South America then up to New York in 1880, she fell ill and progressively worsened. She succumbed to pneumonia on the morning of April 30, 1881; Mother Pauline was 63-years-old.
A bone relic from Mother Pauline gifted to this
ministry by the Sisters of Christian Charity
The founder’s reputation for sanctity earned while she was still alive survived her death, leading to the opening of her Cause for Canonization in Paderborn in 1926. In December 1984 a miraculous cure attributed to her intercession was officially approved by the Vatican and Pauline was Beatified by Pope John Paul II the following April 1985. A second officially recognized miracle is needed to raise her to Sainthood. We pray for her speedy Canonization.
Bl. Pauline von Mallinckrodt,
pray for us!
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