THE HOT CROSS BUN NUNS!

 

 

Rarely does an order in the Church have so any religious being considered for canonization at the  same time. Three  nuns belonged to a revived order of Bridgettine sisters, an order nicknamed ‘the hot cross bun nuns’ because of the distinctive crosses covering the tops of their veils.

VENERABLE MOTHER M. RICCARDA BEAUCHAMP HAMBROUGH, O.SS.S. was born in London 1887. and was baptized into the Anglican religion, but when she was  four years old, her family, of noble origins, converted to Catholicism.

 She completed her first studies at the Sisters of the Sacred Heart Convent in England, where she also attended courses in singing and music. Knowing she had a vocation to te religious life, her spiritual director referred her to St. Elizabeth Hesselblad (See Blogs 5/27/2016 & 4/17/21), who was reconstituting the Order of the Most Holy Savior founded by St. Bridget of Sweden. St. Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad was proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in 2016.

After coming to know of the experience of  Mother Elizabeth through Fr. Benedict Williamson, in 1914 she transferred herself definitely to Rome to be close to Mother Elizabeth, becoming her disciple and faithful companion in her movements in the city of Rome and abroad.

 In 1918 she made her Final Profession in the House of Via Corsica. She took up various assignments and in 1923 she went to Stockholm for the inauguration of the first Bridgettine Foundation in Sweden since the Protestant Reformation. Returning to Rome in 1924, she moved from Via delle Isole to Piazza Farnese in 1931 where she remained till her death.

From 1931 to 1966, the Venerable, in silence gave constant attention to Mother Elizabeth,  the true protagonist of the life and growth of the new Bridgettine family. Mother Riccarda seems to have been the gentle force in the convent, with the rather stern superior, Mother Elizabeth.

 In 1935 she was back in Sweden for the opening of the House in Vadstena. She also accompanied Mother Elizabeth when the Mother presented the 1940 Constitutions to Pope Pius XII for approval and renewed the petition that the new Foundation be named Order of the Most Holy Savior. 

On the 24th April 1957 Mother Riccarda witnessed the passing away of Mother Elizabeth and a year later, on the 3rd May 1958, she was elected the first Abbess General after the Foundress, a position she held until 1964. She died in the House of Piazza Farnese on the 26th June 1966.

 During World War II, Mother Riccarda protected many Jewish families by hiding them in the convent. 

She was known as a women of prayer, very loving,  spending  many hours of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She willingly accepted pain and suffering. She ruled the Order in difficult times, always with great kindness and attention, standing out as a pious Mistress of the novices, a vigilant Superior and a thoughtful Sister. As Mother General she was able to incorporate the prophecy of  St. Elizabeth with the signs of renewal of Vatican II, which was concluded just a year before her death.

VENERABLE MOTHER M. CATHERINE FLANAGAN, O.SS.S.  (Florence Kate)  was born in London in 1892 to Irish parents, into a rather austere but affectionately warm family. From childhood she was brought up in close contact with the sacraments and the liturgy, which she deeply loved.

In 1911, directed by Fr. Benedict Williamson, pastor of the Parish of St. Gregory in London, she arrived at the house of St. Bridget in Piazza Farnese to follow the call of God and become a member of the first Bridgettine community in Rome. Between 1913 and 1915 she completed the first stage of her spiritual formation and made her temporary Profession. She remained there until 1927 when she was sent to Sweden for a year.

Later she was named Mother Superior in Lugano (1928), England (1931), and Vadstena (1935.

In 1939 she moved to Djursholm where she was felled by cancer.  She was sent to a Catholic nursing home in Stockholm, where she spent the last months of her life in great suffering, praying for Sweden and edifying all by her example.

She died on 19th March 1941 in loving compliance with the will of the Lord. On 22nd March 1941 her body was transferred in the ancient cemetery of Vadstena where it still rests to this day.

Eldest daughter of the St. Elizabeth, her life was characterized by her total availability and sincere fidelity to God's Providence that, in the last period of her life, signed her with the cross.

The third nun of this order is SERVANT OF GOD SISTER M. MADDALENA MOCCIA, O.SS.S. who was born Ermengilda in Naples in 1898 of wealthy parents. Unfortunately they cared very little about the religious education of their daughters. In 1913 she entered the College of the Ursuline Sisters in Rome in Via Nomentana. There she nurtured the idea of embracing the religious life.

What she wrote in November 1915, after the spiritual retreat at the Ursulines’ in Rome, is very significant: "Before entering this Holy House of God in the company of these holy and generous brides of Christ, I had never imagined what a retreat could be. . What a delight, what a joy! Never in the world had I heard and met my friend Jesus as the Ursulines now have made Him known to me. Never had I worshiped and loved Him as I now do spontaneously, without any need of encouragement. I often hear His voice, and He is prompt to take possession of my soul through His grace".

She entered the Bridgettine Community in Via delle Isole 34 in Rome. She was accepted as a postulant on 29th December 1920, taking the name of Sister M. Maddalena of Jesus Crucified.

 On the 23rd July 1921 she took the religious habit, but in September of that same year, there appeared the first symptoms of a disease that would take her life: pulmonary tuberculosis! 

On 20th February 1922 she made her perpetual vows, after only seven months in the novitiate, and on 20th April 1922 she passed away in Rome. She had said to the Blessed Mother Elizabeth: "I will be your Angel in heaven".

 Sister Mary Magdalene of Jesus Crucified died with a reputation for holiness, due to her writings where she recounts her mystical experiences and her way of seeing the presence of divinity in everyday life.  It was the foundress, St. Elizabeth Hesselblad  herself who introduced the informative process for her beatification.