It was on January 15, 1920, when in the Primatial Abbey of San Anselmo that the Most Rev. Fedelis de Stotingen, Primate of our holy Order, informed me that the Sacred Consistorial Congregation (headed by His Holiness, the Pope) had resolved that the Benedictine Sisters [of the U.S.A.], so far under the jurisdiction of local Bishops, should be invited to establish themselves into unions or Congregations over which the Holy See will have direct jurisdiction.
(“Memoirs,” Father Ignatius Forster)
St. Scholastica, Atchison, and their Constitution are being examined and, no doubt, approved by the Holy See in a very short time . . . . There are numerous Convents O.S.B. in the U.S.A. which not only have schools but also hospitals and other establishments of Christian charity. IT IS THE WISH OF THE CONSISTORIAL CONGREGATION THAT THOSE CONVENTS BE INVITED TO PASS ALSO UNDER PAPAL POWER. “And you,” the Abbot Primate said to me, “are asked and urged to devote your full cooperation to this problem.”
(“Memoirs,” Father Ignatius Forster)
And so the Federation of St. Gertrude begins...
