Above:  Flag of the Kingdom of Bavaria

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED KAROLINA GERHARDINGER (JUNE 20, 1797-MAY 9, 1879)

Founder of the Poor Teachers Sisters of Notre Dame (the School Sisters of Notre Dame)

Also known as Blessed Maria Theresa of Jesus

Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Karolina Gerhardinger, born in Stadtamhof, Electorate of Bavaria, on June 20, 1797, came from a working-class family.  She, a daughter of Willibard and Franziska Gerhardinger, seemed destined to become an educator.  Her education was in the capable hands of Augustininan canonesses until 1809, when the Kingdom of Bavaria abolished religious orders within its frontiers.

Blessed Karolina continued her formal education and became a teacher.  She taught “in the world” until 1833.  In 1828, the Vatican persuaded the Kingdom of Bavaria to restore religious communal life.  Our saint yearned to found an order committed to free Christian education for the poor.  In 1833, she founded the Poor Teachers Sisters of Notre Dame (the School Sisters of Notre Dame).  Our saint became Maria Theresa of Jesus–“of Jesus” because of her devotion to Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament.

The order expanded rapidly after the Vatican approved the Rules and Constitution in 1854.  Blessed Karolina presided over expansion across Europe and in the United States.  The purpose of the American mission was to help German immigrants.

Blessed Karolina fell seriously ill in 1877.  She, aged 81 years, died in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire, on May 9, 1879.

The Roman Catholic Church has formally recognized our saint.  Pope John Paul II declared her a Venerable in 1983 then a beatus in 1985.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 23, 2024 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINTS GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR AND ISAAC THE GREAT, PATRIARCHS OF ARMENIA

THE FEAST OF MEISTER ECKHART, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN AND MYSTIC

THE FEAST OF SAINT METODEJ DOMINIK TRCKA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1959

THE FEAST OF UMPHREY LEE, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER AND PRESIDENT OF SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

THE FEAST OF SAINT VICTORIAN OF HADRUMETUM, MARTYR AT CARTHAGE, 484

THE FEAST OF SAINT WALTER OF PONTOISE, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMER

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O God, by whose grace your servant Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger,

kindled with the flame of your love,

became a burning and a shining light in your Church:

Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or Psalm 34:1-8 or Psalm 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 723

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