The ten women, together with Mother Mary Crucified, were given the Passionist habit and entered the new convent of the Presentation. The bishop and the entire town of Corneto celebrated. Father John Mary Cioni, Paul's confessor, preached the homily.
Some miles away in Rome Paul lay on his sick bed in the hospice of the Crucified. He never got to Corneto to see Mother Mary Crucified and the first Passionists. He himself did not give her the habit. Four years later he would be dead.
he assisted her with letters and with his prayers and sufferings.
Two years after the solemn opening, he wrote: "May you be the model for the Daughters of the Passion. They should mourn perpetually for the love of the Crucified Lord, not only by the habit they wear, but even more so in their hearts, their minds, and their actions. In this way, they shall heal His holy wounds by the continual practice of the virtues, since this is the purpose for the foundation of their Institute"
In the founding of the Passionist Nuns' community Paul's role is clear. The 'charism' was originally the Holy Spirit's gift to Paul. His was the task of arranging for the canonical foundation, by reason of his friendship with Pope Clement XIV. He too had written the rule, which the pope 'welcomed' as God's gift to the Church.
Mother Mary Crucified had her own role to fulfill as the first novice mistress and superior. It was left to her to explain the spirit of the rule to the first nuns. And it was her role to serve as model and example of the Passionist way of life for her small originating community, and for all Passionist Nuns in the centuries to follow. She was interpreter and model of the Passionist charism as shared and lived by these cloistered religious women.
And cloistered the Passionist Nuns were.
St. Paul insisted on this.
For according to the Canon Law of the time - since the Council of Trent - only cloistered women were truly 'religious'. Cloister was very important for Paul. He knew the abuses in so many convents of his times. He knew the requirements of Canon Law. To assure that the female branch of his institute would be recognized as real religious and would perdure in the Church, he even inserted in the rule legislation for the vow of enclosure.
For Paul, however, the enclosure was more than a necessary legality. For he wanted the nuns to be truly contemplative. 'Brides of Christ', he calls them, 'daughters of the Sacred Passion', 'doves mourning over the wounds of Christ'. The cloister would enable them to devote themselves to contemplative prayer.
Paul also realized the needs of his times.
The nuns were to take the vow 'to promote devotion to the Passion of Christ' as did the fathers and brothers. Of course, they could not fulfill this vow by preaching. Paul wanted them to fulfill it by their life of contemplative prayer and penance. Their prayer would continue throughout the day and into the middle of the night. Their penance consisted in perpetual fasting and abstinence, in going barefoot, and in other austerities.
The Second Vatican Council almost seems to be speaking of Mother Mary Crucified's fervent community when it states: "Let no one think, that by their consecration religious have become strangers to their fellow men and women, or useless citizens of this earthly city. In a more profound sense, these same religious are united with them in the heart of Christ, and cooperate with them spiritually"
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Zealous man that he was, Paul also discovered other ways for the nuns to fulfill the Passion vow. He left norms for one of the sisters to teach Christian doctrine to young girls seven years of age or older, to prepare young girls for the reception of their First Communion (then normally received at the age of 12). He provided however, that those to be thus instructed would remain outside the cloister.
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Paul's zeal led him further. He knew that women, as well as men, need the helps of the spiritual exercises. He had already provided for rooms to be set aside in his monasteries for men to make a retreat from time to time. He put this same provision in the nuns' rule, even allowing such women to enter within the enclosure with the permission of the bishop.
All this St. Paul of the Cross did to establish the Passionist Nuns in the Church. Paul is indeed the founder. Mother Mary Crucified as the superior and guide of the first convent has earned the title of foundress of the first convent. Through this role. and precisely because of her profound sharing in Paul's charism, she is also called 'co-foundress' with St. Paul of the Passionist Religious Family.
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Mother Mary Crucified died November 16, 1787.
In 1982 Pope John Paul II approved the document declaring that she had practiced heroic virtue and should be called "Venerable." Passionists everywhere await the day of her beatification.
~bron~
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