Sister Mary John Coleta testified to the devotion of Mother Maddalena to the Holy Trinity, presenting this favorite prayer of her holy Abbess: “We offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for the Precious Blood which Jesus shed in the garden for us; and by His merits we beseech the Divine Majesty to grant us pardon for all our sins. Pater, Ave, Gloria. “We offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for the most precious death endured on the Cross for us, and by his merits we beseech the Divine Majesty to free us from the punishment due to our sins. Pater, Ave, Gloria. “We offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for His unspeakable charity by which He descended from heaven to earth to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer and die for us on the cross, and by His merits we beseech the Divine Majesty to bring our souls to the Glory of Heaven after our death. Pater, Ave, Gloria.”

– In the middle of June of 1876, Mother Maddalena and Mother Constance received the long-awaited letter from Father Bernardine, the head of the Franciscan Order. He tried to console them in their trials and encourage them to continue to try to found a Poor Clare monastery in the United States: Your generosity in leaving Europe, your patience during the prolonged uncertainty and during the present difficulties, the opinion of worthy persons with whom you have spoken of this affair, the offers made to help you, the several postulants who have presented themselves to you—all this rather induces me to think that God wishes to have this foundation made. I cannot do otherwise than tell you that in spite of my silence, sorrowful to you and to me, I have never ceased blessing you and praying for you, and that often I offered for you the Holy Sacrifice, and that I have for you the same fatherly solicitude that I once had; with all my heart I sympathize with you in all your trials, and I admire your patience and generosity, and I thank Jesus that He gives you these graces.

From the Memoirs of Sister Mary Agnes, the last novice to be invested by Mother Maddalena: One thing I know for certain Reverend Mother did, was to have the Sisters have and show the deepest love and respect for one another. That was her constant exhortation to us at the chapter of faults and whenever she had the occasion to speak to us. “Charity, charity, "she would say, “the lack of it is the main thing that will deprive us of heaven, and the practice of it will bring us close to the Sacred Heart.”

Mother Maddalena wrote to a priest-friend on June 19, 1905, a few months before her death: My dearest Brother in Jesus… I expect the priest to give me Extreme Unction. I confessed in bed Saturday, received Holy Communion in bed two days, and now I will receive it as holy Viaticum. Caro Fratello, do pray for me that, if our Lord thinks it well to call me, I would be entirely in conformity with His holy Will and that the Precious Blood of Jesus, our Redeemer, and also the Sorrows of our Mother, Mary, be between the Supreme Judge and me poor, very great sinner. The doctor said that I am not in an imminent danger, but there is danger. The cause is my heart, which gives me such a prostration that I am good just for nothing… I take it all as coming from God, and if I will be passably well, I hope, with His holy Grace, to be faithful to God. Pray for me and send me your blessing every day.

On June 20, 1905, Mother Maddalena received the Last Sacraments. Father McBarron, the pastor of Assumption Church, who anointed her, afterwards said: I have anointed a saint.

Mother Mary Constance, the sister of Mother Maddalena, was greatly devoted to St. Aloysius. He played a part in her vocation to Religious life: Even as a child, Constance imposed very extraordinary mortifications upon herself in preparation for some special feasts. She possibly owed her religious vocation to one such act of self-denial. It was after her school-girl days at the Trinita’ when once, on the feast of Saint Aloysius, to whom she was deeply devoted, it came to her mind, as she was going to Benediction services, that she had done nothing special in preparation for his feast. Then and there she resolved to make up for her negligence: I will not raise my eyes this afternoon, no, not even to look at anything in church. It so happened that some of her brothers, with a view for the eventual marriage of fair Constance, had for that very afternoon arranged to draw her attention upon a previously advised young nobleman. They, in turn, were greatly mortified when they did not succeed by any artifice whatsoever in inducing her to raise her eyes to her suitor, not even when they introduced him to her. (Kleber)

One Sister who lived with Mother Maddalena in Evansville recounted: I saw this in particular on one occasion, on the feast of Corpus Christi, when our Right Reverend Bishop gave permission to have the procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the enclosure and the garden. As I spoke to her after the procession, she exclaimed several times, said with tears: ‘Oh, how good our Lord is, to deign to walk through the garden with us and bless us!’ After the procession she, filled with supernatural joy, came to the kitchen to provide with her own hands an extra kind of cakes for the Sisters, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. She was so filled with joy that she seemed to become young again.

“It was not until June 23rd, of the following year 1881, that we moved into the new Monastery, though the building was not yet quite complete. A temporary Altar was put up in the community room, for the Chapel was not yet ready. Father Colaneri, accompanied by Mr. Creighton, removed the Blessed Sacrament from our Home on Burt Street to our new abode. With grateful hearts, we gathered around His Divine Presence and entreated Him to bless the dwelling and never permit His Divine Majesty to be offended in this hallowed place, either by us or any others that might come after us. Crosses and trials, of one sort or another, would still be our lot, even within the sacred precincts of a Monastery. But we also knew that He, without Whose will or permission, nothing happens, would give us ample grace to endure them patiently for love of Him.” ………….. – Mother Maddalena

Mother Mary Maddalena wrote in her Custom Book Directory: In the year 1881, two feasts befell on this day: the feast of the Sacred Heart of JESUS, and that of St. John the Baptist. Joy and gratitude must fill our hearts towards our Lord, for having chosen this day of blessing for our entrance into the new monastery of St. Clare (EDEN HILL), the first Mass celebrated in these sacred walls was the Mass of the Sacred Heart of JESUS. On this day, we have the Blessed Sacrament exposed all day, if possible. All of the Sisters should sing, or recite, the TE DEUM, in thanksgiving for the grace granted to our Mothers, and the first Sisters, to enter the new monastery, under the protection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and on a Friday, Salvation Day.

June 25, 1883, Mother Maddalena wrote: Here we are alone. There is no [one] who gives us counsel. Oh, truly, the way is dark and stony - a very bare cross. Oh, Holy Faith! This alone bears me up, in this alone I have confidence. Behold, that is all. But how far away everything is.

– In a letter written on June 26, 1875, Mother Maddalena reveals that she struggled to respond to the call of the Minister General and of the pope for nuns to go to America. She wrote: To tell you the truth, there was a moment of so great a pain, that I hoped the whole affair would come to nothing and that the Holy Father might not will it. But when I saw him satisfied, I judged that it was the will of God!!! My heart was breaking at certain moments; but once resolved, I would not turn back, thinking that God would punish me for not doing His will. … I, then, have not been able to say ‘no,’ on account of what I felt interiorly.

“We should learn the proper manner of spending the consoling Feast of the SACRED HEART: Unlimited gratitude for the Divine Eucharist, profound recollection, intimate union with the Heart of Jesus, are the sentiments which should animate us during this days of favors, and blessings, consecrated by the church to celebrate the Adorable Mysteries. “Members of the Franciscan Family, should consider the feast of the Sacred Heart of JESUS, as one of the principal feasts of the Seraphic Order; children of St. Francis, wounded with love, and so dear to the Heart of JESUS, after his example, we should be penetrated with deep sentiments of humility, gratitude, and love for the Adorable Heart of Jesus. In a particular manner we should on this day make reparation for so many outrages committed against this loving Heart, by his ungrateful children, and by our ingratitude also; and pray that no one of the Children of the Seraphic Father should ever be separated from this Divine Heart for all eternity.” - Mother Mary Maddalena Bentivoglio, 1892 Custom Book

Mother Maddalena’s devotion to the Sacred Heart is shown by a prayer found among her papers: "You will enter in the opened Heart of Jesus, as in a furnace of love, for there to purify all the sins you committed in the past week, and to consume the sinful life, for to live only in that of pure love, which will transform all in itself.

Blessed Lodovico of Casoria helped Mother Maddalena to come to the United States when he financially assisted Mother Ignatius Hayes, who was Mother Maddalena’s travelling companion to America. He observed: Be steady, humble and meek at the feet of the Holy See. Listen to her, as if God would speak to you. Obey her commands, her orders, her ideas and even her thoughts. The Church of Christ is the Supreme Authority over all human authorities. She alone is peace and universal prosperity. All the other authorities, if they do not conform themselves to and depend from her Supreme Authority, are only dead authorities, because they do not cooperate with the last end of our creation which is the salvation of souls redeemed by the Savior Jesus Christ.

Father Albert Kleber, O.S.B., wrote of Annetta Bentivoglio, the future Mother Maddalena: “Who can fathom the working of grace in a strong soul? The story of the many Christians who for their faith had been thrown to the wild beasts in the Coliseum, to feast the eyes of Pagan Rome, had touched a sympathetic chord in Annetta’s soul. Since her home was not far distant from Coliseum, imposing even in its massive ruins, Annetta was wont to retire to this place to give herself to quiet musings. Here her imagination reconstructed the dens of the lions on the level with the arena, rebuilt the amphitheater, tier upon tier, and crowded these with pagan spectators; then she knelt down upon the sand that she knew had been consecrated by the blood of martyrs, flung her profession of faith at the spectators, made a large sign of the cross into the sand, prostrated herself cruciform upon this cross, and invited the lions to come forth and tear her to pieces for her faith—a martyr in desire.”

Pope Pius IX gave a decision on July 1, 1875, and authorized Mother Mary Maddalena and her sister, Mother Mary Constance, to proceed to [the then-destination of] Minnesota to found a monastery of the order of St. Clare. How little this permission of the Holy Father was for him merely routine work, appears from the words that he spoke in August: I hesitated to send to America these two, good religious, never accustomed to leave their enclosure, but vanquished at last by the urgent solicitations of the Americans, I have consented after many months of uncertainty. It has taken so long a time until they desired religious of a contemplative order! Well, I said to them, you Americans, you contemplate dollar bills! Yet now, we hope, all will be well.

It was Mother Maddalena’s custom to pray that the priest celebrate Mass worthily and that he receive from it the full measure of grace destined for the celebrant. (Father Albert Kleber, O.S.B.)

Mother Maddalena had great love for the Faith. Father Kleber, her biographer, wrote of her: She wished her contemplative community to become a spiritual dynamo for the preservation and the spread of the faith. One of her nuns stated: I have heard her exclaim: ‘Oh, how many souls are being lost in spite of the fact that our Blessed Savior shed His blood for them.’ Her grief could be seen in her face.

At her monastery in Omaha, on July 4, 1888, a crisis was reached as the two Commissary [Extern] Sisters, who were the center of the problem, were disrespectful and abusive to Mother Maddalena and left the monastery without her permission. One nun who witnessed the scene commented: I never saw the Mother so quiet and tranquil as she was on that day.

- On July 5, 1888, Bishop O’Connor, who believed the rumors and slanders against Mother Maddalena, placed the whole Poor Clare community under interdict, and they were no long able to receive Holy Communion. The whole Community was punished because they all voted not to receive the two Commissary Sisters back again, since they had witnessed the awful scene, and saw how Mother Maddalena had been treated. The bishop told the chaplain: Since the Sisters of the Poor Clares are now in open rebellion against ecclesiastical authority, I herewith command that you do not admit them to Holy Communion. Say Mass for them as usual, keep the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, but do not give them Holy Communion.

Mother Maddalena wrote in her CHRONICLE: On the fifth we were left without Holy Communion; but we took courage in the midst of our tribulations and we prayed for those who were the cause of our sorrows. We were taking courage from the real presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament. But that consolation soon was ended, because at the end of one week the Most Blessed Sacrament was taken away from us from the chapel, and the tabernacle was left open. In the annals of the Poor Clare monastery in Omaha, Mother Maddalena had the following entry: Today our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was taken from us—Oh!!

Continuation of the CHRONICLE of Mother Maddalena: May the Adorable Will of God be done! In the midst of all we felt an extraordinary quiet; that, no doubt, was not our merit, but only the Divine Grace that assisted us. In the morning when the Most Blessed Sacrament was taken away, we said three “Ave Maria’s” for those who were the cause of such scourging in our community. May God forgive them all, and us also, and have mercy on us, and give repentance to all before their appearing in His Divine Presence! (See also entries of July 4th and 5th and 6th )

One of the customs coming from Mother Maddalena is something called “Blessing the Hour.” During work periods, when the clock strikes the quarter hour, and then again when it chimes the hour, we pause to recite certain prayers. Mother Maddalena wrote to thanks her brother and sister for sending her a clock for her new foundation in America: We have put your clock in place, and the first time it struck the hour—it was seven o’clock— we knelt down and said three Ave Maria's for your intention - for Decio’s too; and when we are working, we bless the hour, and there is always an intention for you. Are you glad, dearie?

– On July 9, 1888, Mother Maddalena wrote to the Poor Clare Abbess of Marseilles, France. The two had spent a few weeks together at the convent in Marseilles as Mother Maddalena prepared to sail to America. A series of sad misunderstandings, miscommunications, and trials had frayed their friendship; but Mother Maddalena continued to write friendly letters: I hope that nothing will happen to break our union and fraternal charity in the Heart of Jesus. We have suffered; may it all be for the greater glory of God.

Mother Maddalena, once prayed: St. Michael, my Holy Guardian Angel, St. Joseph, Holy Father St. Francis and Holy Mother St. Clare bless me and pray to God for me in union with all the Holy Franciscan Martyrs. The Franciscans Peter Baptist and companions were martyred in 1597 in Nagasaki, and Pius IX issued the bull of canonization, “Infinitus” on July 10, 1862 – it is possible that Mother Maddalena was present at their canonization. The feast is celebrated February 5th. One wonders what inspiration Mother Maddalena drew from the history of San Lorenzo itself and the huge mural of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence behind the main altar.

When Mother Maddalena was making the Poor Clare foundation in New Orleans, they were given hospitality by the Benedictine Sisters at Holy Trinity Church, on Dauphine Street. These nuns were very devoted to the Poor Clares and, though themselves poor, for fully three months shared with the latter all they had. When they left their kind hosts, Mother Maddalena wished to compensate them in some measure for their charity to the daughters of St. Francis, but these worthy daughters of the hospitable St. Benedict could not be persuaded to accept any material remuneration; in return they asked only for the alms of prayer. Finally, in order not to slight Mother Maddalena’s desire to express her gratitude in some tangible manner, it was agreed that each year, on Thanksgiving Day, the Poor Clares give the Benedictines a small token of gratitude, in imitation of the gift of a basket of fishes which St. Francis of old gave to the Benedictines out of gratitude for the little chapel of Our Lady of the Angels -- the so-called Portiuncula—which these had given to him. This beautiful custom between these two communities of nuns continues unto the present day: Every year, on Thanksgiving Day, the Poor Clares send a basket of food to the Benedictines. Furthermore, Mother Maddalena obtained for the chapel of those Benedictine Sisters the Indulgence of the Portiuncula.

One of the sisters who lived with Mother Maddalena remembered: During her last illness she showed remarkable patience in suffering and perfect resignation to God’s Will; you would hardly think that she had any pain. I never saw any sign that would indicate a giving way to the feelings of human nature.

Mother Maddalena was always desirous of obtaining good, holy priests to serve her Community. She wrote: We ought to have a confessor who would be interested in our form of life, so that he could give instructions and explain the true spirit of St Francis. If Our Lord would hear me, I would give my life for that.

A nun who knew Annetta (the future Mother Maddalena) recalled Annetta’s prayer as she tried to discern God’s will for her: Her love for silent prayer and seclusion was so great that for hours she would remain kneeling alone in the chapel; also how she prayed and how much she suffered interiorly while endeavoring to decide what religious order to embrace. (See July 16th)

Saint Bonaventure was involved in the drafting of early legislation for the Order of Poor Clares. Mother Maddalena wrote in The Princess of Poverty: The royal Princess Isabelle of France [the sister of King Saint Louis] had founded a Monastery at Longchamp near Paris and wished to introduce the Rule of S. Clare. But considering the observance of absolute Poverty too severe, she begged S. Bonaventure to introduce certain mitigations so as to allow the possession of property in common. This was done, and the new Rule, drawn up by S. Bonaventure, with the assistance of five other Doctors of the Order, obtained the approval of Pope Alexander IV in 1258. In 1260, twenty Ladies commenced their novitiate in the royal Abbey, as the new Monastery was designated, under direction of five Religious from the Monastery at Rheims. B. Isabelle herself entered the Monastery, yet abstained from making her profession, as her constant infirmities prevented her from the perfect observance of the Rule. The Abbey soon became renowned, and other foundations were made from it in different places.

In view of the fact that Annetta (Mother Maddalena) had almost completed the thirtieth year of her age when, on July 16, 1864, she entered into the monastery, one wonders why she did not sooner express her intention of consecrating herself in religious life. It is first of all to be kept in mind that Annetta very rarely spoke of the work of grace within her soul, except in a humble, matter-of-fact manifestation to her confessor or her spiritual director. This used to be her advice to her spiritual daughters in later years. When the Savior’s invitation—Come follow me —began to lure her, she at first prayed that she might not become a religious, because she feared that she was unworthy of such a grace.

One nun from her original monastery of San Lorenzo remembered Mother Maddalena in these words: I can truly say that she was a source of great edification in her work, in her demeanor, and in her various conditions of life. She was always patient and resigned. To me and to all the others she was a model of humility and charity.

July 18, 1865, was the death of Mother Maddalena’s sister, Elena. Maddalena wrote to her sister, Matilda: Let us resign ourselves to His Holy Will and thank Him with all our heart for the crosses (little indeed in comparison with His) that in His goodness He sends us—a sign that he loves us. We pray that He will continue to visit us so and at the same time give us His help, for without this we should not be able to bear anything. Matilda mine, in these days offer everything to God for the relief of the soul of our good and dear Elena. I hope that in heaven she and our beloved parents will pray for poor us who are still on this earth. For the time of life still remaining to us, let us exert ourselves to imitate their virtues.

John Creighton of Omaha, was a great benefactor of the Poor Clares. A grandniece of his, Mrs. Clare C. Daugherty, has stated of Mother Maddalena: Count Creighton, a man of the world, high-spirited and just the opposite in temperament to the character of Mother Maddalena, was one of her most steadfast friends and benefactors. It was only the sanctity and humility of a person like Mother Maddalena that could attract a person such as Count Creighton was. Though the count could not fully understand such humility as evinced by the Servant of God, he admired it, coupled with her great confidence in God. He was wont to say: ‘She stands high with God.’

Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists, wrote to Mother Maddalena, on July 20, 1876: “Who knows but that after all it may be [the] will of Divine Providence that when you have learned by your present trials the greatest of all lessons in spiritual life,—absolute dependence upon God, utterly regardless of all else whatsoever—you will find [that] the intention and purpose for which you undertook your voyage is the one He has appointed for your first work in this country? May the light to see and the strength to follow at all costs the holy will of God be imparted to our souls!”

When Mother Maddalena was fearful that her mission to found the Poor Clare life in the United States would fail, she wrote to the saintly Father Hecker, who replied: Your letter shows clearly that God has taken your affairs in His own hands. He leaves you no human prospect whatever. Every door appears shut against you. O blessed obscurity which forces the soul to look for light and guidance to God alone! A blessed perplexity which throws the soul in entire dependence on God! This is the real contemplative life! Do you not believe that the Holy Spirit could change and would change the minds and hearts of those to whom you have appealed, were it best to do so? That He does not, is not this His not-doing also a sign of His divine action and a mark of His favour?

Mother Mary Maddalena was very devoted to her patron, St. Mary Magdalen. She once said: “O, if I could at least imitate Mary Magdalen! She did not regard the insults or contempt of others; she suffered everything for Jesus and He has rewarded her!”

The monastery of San Lorenzo, from which Mother Maddalena came, was given to the Poor Clares shortly after the death of the Seraphic S. Francis. Mother Maddalena writes in her Memoirs: Here also, in a hospice attached to the monastery, S. Bridget of Sweden, a member of the Third Order of S. Francis, having contracted a fever upon her return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, breathed her last, upon the 23rd day of July, in 1372. Her body was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo. When she was canonized by Pope Boniface IX, her daughter, Queen Catherine of Sweden, reclaimed her body, leaving to the Monastery the relic of her shoulder and right arm with which she had written the famous revelations.

From a letter of Father Bernardino of Portoguaro, the spiritual director of Mother Mary Maddalena: My Venerable and beloved daughter in Jesus Christ, First of all, this morning, I offered the Holy Sacrifice, through the hands of Mary Most Holy (since it was Saturday) and under the auspices of St. M. Magdalen to the Most Holy Trinity for you, my poor daughters, asking that you may be made by Jesus, generous, strong, and an ardent lover of Him as Magdalen was, who mounted the hill of Calvary, and threw herself at the foot of the Cross, during the spasms of agony of the dying Crucified Savior, then looked for Jesus in the sepulcher. O what a grand heart was that of Magdalen’s! and in what a wonderful way she was rewarded by Jesus! If it should seem to you sometimes that He is deaf or that they have stolen Him and brought Him away! Remember this, my daughters, and that we must climb and look if we would wish to be treated thus by Jesus.

Mrs. Lucia Caramello, a poor Italian woman who knew Mother Maddalena, said: Mother Maddalena was very charitable, She gave food and clothing to our family. When my youngest boy made his First Communion, Mother Maddalena bought his clothes for the occasion. She impressed me as being a very holy woman. She was not proud, but very, very humble and simple. She ought to be canonized for all the good she did to our family.

Mother Mary Constance had written to the Minister General in the midst of their great trial of 1888. He responded on July 26th: It is a letter that causes sorrow, yet edifies; it is the spirit of Jesus Christ which breathes from her sorrowful narration, and whoever, free from prejudice, reads it, must say: ‘Reason is on this side.’

Mother Maddalena wrote of their preparations for the trip to America: WHEN THE DAY FOR OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE MONASTERY HAD BEEN DECIDED UPON, WE BEGAN TO MAKE UP OUR BUNDLES; BUT IN ORDER NOT TO GRIEVE OUR GOOD SISTERS, [HER POOR CLARE COMMUNITY IN ROME], WE WERE OBLIGED TO DO IT AT NIGHT, WITH THE HELP OF OUR GOOD SISTER THERESA, WHO, WEEPING, HELPED US; THIS GOOD SISTER ALWAYS WAS VERY ATTENTIVE TO US IN OUR NEEDS. THE REVEREND MOTHER, SISTER MARY CLARE PAPI, ABBESS IN OUR MONASTERY, WAS NOT AT ALL SATISfiED THAT WE SHOULD LEAVE, AND SHE HAD SAID: ‘WHEN THE DAY FOR THEIR DEPARTURE COMES, I WILL LEAVE THE ENCLOSURE KEY ON THE BENCH NEAR THE ENCLOSURE DOOR; THEY THEMSELVES WILL HAVE TO OPEN THE DOOR.’ BUT, FORTUNATELY, JUST ON JULY 28, THERE WAS THE NEW ELECTION, AND GOD PERMITTED THAT SISTER CLARE FRANCIS SIMONETTI WAS ELECTED ABBESS FOR THE THREE COMING YEARS. THIS MOTHER WAS INDEED VERY SORRY TO SEE US LEAVE THE MONASTERY, BUT WE WERE THANKFUL TO GOD THAT WE WERE NOT OBLIGED TO LEAVE WITHOUT THE BLESSING OF OUR VERY REVEREND MOTHER ABBESS.

On July 28, 1888, Mother Maddalena wrote to Mother Mary Francis in New Orleans: Always be united, and with calmness, justice, and love, try to understand each other well… Be humble, and our good God will help you always.

The father of the future Mother Maddalena recorded in the Bentivoglio family album the birth and baptism of his new daughter. He recorded the details with military precision: Three quarters of an hour before midday of July 29, 1834, there was born Anna Maria, Marta, Barbara, Filomena; she was held at the Sacred Font by His Reverend Excellency, Monsignor Piccolomini, and by the daughter Paola, on the 30th of the aforenamed July, in the Church of San Giacomo on the Corso in Rome.

Mother Maddalena wrote to her sister: “I feel like laughing for writing what I have had in mind. You too may laugh at it, but pray that I may put my thought into execution. Exalted Virgin, Mother pure, In charity all vested, Pray, join our hearts with chain secure Of holy love, well tested. Are you pleased with it? It must be the holy kind of love. Hence, let us love one another in a holy manner; let us join ourselves together with that sweet chain, all being united in love with those Most Sacred Hearts which have suffered so much for us.

Mother Maddalena was devoted to the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius. Mother Maddalena’s father and mother are buried at the (Jesuit) Gesu in Rome, a rare privilege. The Jesuits stationed at Creighton University in Omaha came often to bring the Sacraments to the Poor Clares. She recorded some of these incidents in her ANNALS and often recorded that they had received “a basket of fruit from the College.”