Jewels from Jane, June 7

OBITUARY

Died at Carondelet, Mo., June 7th [1857], MOTHER CELESTINE, Superioress of the Community of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

A native of France, she became a religious at the early age of seventeen, but her zeal and charity would not be confined to her own sunny land. She who had renounced the world could leave her country to join the few sisters of her community who were already doing the work of God in the wilds of the New World.

It was twenty years ago; soon she was selected to be their Superioress, which place she occupied until her death.

The generation has not passed away that witnessed the first struggles of the new Society in Carondelet--the few sisters in the log cabin, with none of the luxuries, scarce half enough of the necessaries of life; with little to sustain or console them save their special grace, and a faith that the world was worth being purchased even at such a sacrifice.

They persevered--God blessed them--they have succeeded.

The venerable and beloved mother is gone. He who remunerates His servants according to their works, called her in his own time. If a reward is promised to the cup of cold water given for the sake of Jesus, will not her's be exceeding great? Full of holiness in life, her death was that of those who are called "blessed."

During the painful lingering illness, as the parting hour drew near, it was edifying as well as consoling to those who had the happiness of beholding the end of the devoted woman, of the saintly religious!--the perfect detachment from the world, the patient fortitude, the entire resignation to the will of God, the firm hope, the charity--without an alloy of earth to deprive it of its merits.

The funeral on the 9th presented a scene that Catholics cannot easily forget. After the solemn High Mass, the Most Rev. Archbishop [Peter Richard Kenrick] performed the service for the dead and preached, addressing himself chiefly to the spiritual children of Mother Celestine, and while he consoled and encouraged them, he paid a most beautiful tribute to the memory of the deceased; and as he spoke so earnestly and so simply eloquent, the tears of the many who were present told how much she was beloved.

As the ceremonies concluded, the procession moved slowly towards the grave--the cross-bearer, the students of the ecclesiastical seminary, the priests, the Archbishop, the coffin borne by the Sisters, the long train of the religious, the young ladies of the Academy, nearly one hundred in number, and finally, crowds of citizens, each one as if some dear friend were dead. The solemn chants were over, the last prayers were said, the clay fell upon the coffin, and the spiritual children poured forth their grief around their Mother's grave--then all retired from the sacred place, each one feeling the truth of what is written, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

Obituary notice from the newspaper