On Valentine's Day, 1921, a child was born in St. Louis, Missouri to
John Aschmann and his forty-seven-year-old wife,
Anne Maher Aschmann. The blend of German father and Irish mother would provide felicitous personality
traits for their offspring in her future vocation as Mother Abbess. Anne herself baptized the child, due to
dire predictions of the doctor that she would not live beyond a
fortnight, which happily proved false. She was given the name Alberta in honor of
her father's favorite sister. Taught by the
School Sisters of Notre Dame, she knew at the age of sixteen that she had to be a sister, and became a candidate in their motherhouse at Ripa after
high school graduation. She attended
St. Louis University but her time there came to an end just short of attaining
her degree. God's call had sounded in
her heart once again, and she knew she had to leave all that was
dear to her and become a cloistered contemplative nun. Despite the opposition of her family and almost everyone she knew,
Alberta left for Chicago on July 7, 1942 where she entered the Poor Clare
Monastery, A year later on June 26,
she received the holy habit and her new religious name, Sister Mary Francis of
Our Lady, Even as a novice, she
was permitted by the abbess, Mother Immaculata, to develop her gift of writing
poetry, and a first volume, WHOM I HAVE LOVED, was published while she was
still in the novitiate. This work
brought her visits by the famous poet and president of St, Mary's College at
Notre Dame, Sister Madaleva, as well as the well-known poet Sister Maura, S.S.N.D., and the daughter of Hilaire
Belloc, Eleanor Belloc Jebb, who had been sent by her
father to meet this rising literary star.
A year after final Profession on July
26, 1947, Mother Immaculata chose her to be part of the band who would go to unknown Roswell, New Mexico to make a new Poor Clare
foundation on November 7, 1948. Less than a decade later, the young Sister
Francis was commissioned by her abbess to
enter a contest for a book written by an unknown author. When Sister inquired what the book should be about. Mother Immaculata replied.
"I don't care, just win the prize. The roof needs to be fixed." Sister Francis decided to write about the only
thing she knew well, the Poor Clare life, and
told the story of the Roswell foundation in A RIGHT TO BE MERRY. The book
never made it to the contest, because the author's aunt showed the first chapter to her dinner guest, Frank Sheed, who said,
"Get me the rest of that book and I'll publish it." But the roof did get fixed,
since the book became the best seller of
1956. Ignatius Press recently
published a new edition of this enduring classic.
Other books followed,
despite the fact that the author lived a busy Poor Clare life as secretary, portress, librarian, Latin and music teacher, and the
sister in charge of the fruit.
Many of her poems were written on the backs of fruit labels carefully
removed from cans to save on paper since the community was very poor. Sister Francis would go out to mow her lawn (with a push mower), and come up to her cell to write
a few lines of the play she was working on about Our Lady
of Guadalupe, COUNTED AS MINE, ox some other
book. She claimed that her books just
"wrote themselves", but all other Poor Clares are still waiting for this to happen! Mosc demanding of her very limited time was the intense study of manuscripts in medieval French sent to her by
monasteries abroad to research the life of St. Colette for the book WALLED IN
LIGHT, published in 1959. These years also
saw the writing of several delightful plays, plus another volume of poetry.
On May 19, 1964, the community chose her as its
new abbess. The next year Mother Francis was
elected head of the recently formed federation of Colettine Poor Clare monasteries in the United States, and began making triennial visitations
of the eleven communities scattered throughout the country. Mother served as federal abbess for sixteen
years, and as federal councilor for thirteen years. She guided the federation through
the stormy post-conciliar years, writing a new text of Constitutions,
definitively approved in 1981,
which has been taken up by monasteries all over the world. Through numerous articles and a vast correspondence, she encouraged religious
on every continent to stand firm in
preserving the ideals of religious life which were threatened by too sweeping changes after the Council. Her daughters are especially grateful for
her wisdom in retaining the
traditional Poor Clare habit which is a cherished symbol of consecration to this day.
Her book MARGINALS, published in 1967, is a commentary on the Vatican II
document "Perfectae
Caritatis" and gives valuable guidelines for genuine renewal of religious life.
Several other books were published in the 1960s.
In 1972, God's call once again sounded in a
dramatic way, as the community in Roswell was asked to make its first foundation in Newport News,
Virginia. The vocations which had been drawn to Roswell by the
charming little book A RIGHT TO BE MERRY were sent far and wide to spread the ideal of St.
Clare. Foundations followed in Alexandria, Virginia (1977), Los Altos Hills, California (1981),
Belleville, Illinois (1986), The Netherlands (1990), and Chicago, Illinois
(2000). The story of the
foundations is told in
Mother's own inimitable style in FORTH AND ABROAD, published by Ignatius Press in 1997. During these years two more volumes of poetry were published,
plus several more
books Mother also made a new
translation from the Latin of the Rule of St. Clare and her four extant
letters, as well as a translation from the French of the Testament of St.
Colette.
In 2002, Mother was honored with the Pro
Fidelitate et Virtute Award by the Institute on Religious Life for her
contributions to consecrated life by her books, poetry, and her life of contemplative prayer. In 2004 she celebrated her fortieth
anniversary as abbess of
the Roswell community, and the sixtieth anniversary of her religious
Profession. Her sisters
in cloisters throughout the nation and
all over the world rise up and call her blessed, giving thanks for the
inestimable graces they have received through her inspiring life of outpoured love for Christ, her Lord and
Spouse. He came for his faithful bride
at 2:35 p.m. on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of
Lourdes, with her spiritual daughters gathered
around her. Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez. C.S.B., Bishop of Las Cruces, will celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February
14th, her eighty-fifth birthday.
Mother is survived by one niece, Clare Gerlach, and several
cousins. Pallbearers will be Tim Cusack, Dr. Philip Haney,
Dr. Barry Mathison, Peter Kelly, John Gallagher,
Eloy Ortega. Honorary pallbearers: Dr.
Thomas Ramage, Dr. Evan Nelson, Dr. Karen Balkman, Dr. Jane Gilbreth, Dr. Richard
Sidd, Arthur Carroll, John Schaffer. Frank Martinez Manuel Martinez, Ted
Oracion, Joseph Shamas, Gerry Greathouse, Jesus Herrera. Viewing will be from
4:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Monday.
Arrangements are by Ballard
Funeral Home.
Monastery of the Poor Clares
809 East Nineteenth Street
Roswell, New Mexico 88201