Irma Le Fer de la Motte redirects to Sister St. Francis Xavier
Sister St. Francis Xavier | |
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Title | does she have one? |
Personal | |
Born | Irma Le Fer de la Motte April 15, 1816 |
Died | January 31, 1856 | (aged 39)
Resting place | Sisters of Providence Convent Cemetery |
Religion | Catholic |
Nationality | French |
Monastic name | Sister St. Francis Xavier |
Profession | idk yet, need to read more |
Organization | |
Institute | Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods |
Senior posting | |
Profession | idk yet, need to read more |
Sister St. Francis Xavier, born Irma Le Fer de la Motte was a French Catholic nun of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She kept contact with her family in France, and from her correspondence much is known about her life
All sources pre-added here. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Early Life
editIrma La Fer de la Motte was born on 15 April 1816 at a place called Fours-à-Chau(CT JSTOR only) near the town of Saint-Servan in Brittany to Louis Charles Le Fer de La Motte and Eugénie de Guinguené. She was the fourth child, and received much of her early religious education from her maternal grandmother, Jeanne Marie Eugénie de Guinguené (née de Talhouët, who had been widowed since the Quibéron mutinies). Although generally living a normal childhood and having a lively temper, her interest in religion led her to attempt to convert a Protestant girl with whom she attended school, even before her First Communion. At the age of 13, she chosen to be the godmother of her younger sister Clementine, the eleventh child of her parents, an event that she recalled made her so happy she "leaped for joy".(CT life letters chapter 1)
The La Fer de la Motte family (who was of minor nobility) lost much of their income during the French Revolution of 1830, and the elder daughters had to take the places of the maids. Irma, who had little aptitude for household duties, was instead made teacher of her younger brothers (and her goddaughter). She does not seem to have lamented the decrease in affluence much, and reportedly took an almost poetic affection to the natural landscape around her house, praising the nearby Rance river and the ocean especially. During that time, she wrote to a friend living at Rennes who apparently had refused to visit, discarding an alleged "simplicity" as not being negative, and gave descriptions of her family's piety, which she called a "convent".(CT life letters chapter 2)
As a teenager, Irma experienced a difficult period of frequent daydreaming and failing health, and she was sent to one of her aunts, who purposed to "care for both [her] mind and body".(CT life letters chapter 3 p20) A friend of the family, Abbé Cardonnet, continued to teach her Latin there, and tried to help her return to being rooted in reality. However, the death of her closest friend, Angelina Payan, from consumption at the age of 18 shook her deeply, especially since she had been denied from visiting her due to the disease. Irma, who was just one year older, in her grief "saw the nothingness of earthly things"(CT life letters chapter 3 p24). As a result, she returned to her religious devotion, writing to one of Angelina's sisters:
There remains to me still a Friend whom alone I wish to love. He does not die, He will not abandon me. [...] In Him thenceforth I place my happiness and all my hope; my future will be heaven, and death will be to me a gain.[10]
Becoming a nun
editMission in America
editReferences
edit- ^ Sister St. Francis Xavier, Irma le Fer de la Motte. An Apostolic Woman. Internet Archive. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. 25 April 1922.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ De La Corbinière, Clémentine (1917). The life and letters of Sister St. Francis Xavier (Irma Le Fer de la Motte) of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Internet Archive. St. Louis & London: B. Herder Book.
- ^ McCammon, Connie (30 January 2012). "Remembering Sister St. Francis Xavier". Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Archived from the original on 6 January 2021.
- ^ "Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Records. 1839-2013". University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06.
- ^ Colclough, J. E. (March 1918). "Review: The life and letters of Sister St. Francis Xavier (Irma Le Fer de la Motte)". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 29 (1). American Catholic Historical Society: 92–95. JSTOR 44208474. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- ^ Gonner, Lawrence (1933). A History of the First Fifty Years of the Sisters of Providence in the United States (MA). Loyola University Chicago. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- ^ Mug, Mary Theodosia (1904). Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guérin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence at St.-Mary-of-the-Woods, Vigo County, Indiana. Internet Archive. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Benziger Brothers.
- ^ Guérin, Théodore. "1852-10-10 Letter to Sister St. Francis Xavier and Sister Mary Cecilia". Indiana Memory. Hosted Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06.
- ^ Guérin, Théodore. "1852-11-02 Letter to Madame Le Fer de La Motte". Indiana Memory. Hosted Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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