For Remembrance (ed. Repplier, 1901)/The Church of Eden Convent

Church of Eden Hall (Exterior), 1900.

The Church of Eden Convent.

NE ardent wish inspired the daily prayers of Mother Tucker and her household from 1847 to 1849. The generosity of their friend, Mr. George Edwards, enabled them to accomplish their pious purpose, and on the thirtieth day of October, 1849, Bishop Hughes laid the cornerstone of a little Gothic chapel. Completed and freed from debt, the pretty edifice was, on the 27th of October, 1851, consecrated as a church.

The See of Philadelphia was vacant, Archbishop Kenrick having been promoted to the primacy of Baltimore. The administrator of the diocese suggested that Mother Tucker should invite her kind friend, who had become Archbishop of New York, to complete the work he had begun, and Most Reverend John Hughes, assisted by his guest, Bishop Mers, performed the ceremony with a solemnity of ritual rarely manifested fifty years ago.

The preacher of the day was Father Forbes, a convert of celebrity at a period when converts were rare. Reverend Mother Hardey came from New York to mark the great interest of the order in the possession of a consecrated church, for chapels alone had up to that time been its temples of worship.

Mr. George Edwards and Mr. Robert Ewing had taken the initiative in the line of benefactions, but their example was so promptly followed by other friends of the institution that to their names must be joined those of the Reppliers, Bouviers, Frenayes, Robins, etc. The present exquisite perfection of detail is due to the taste and munificence of Mr. Francis Drexel and of his daughters. Windows, admirable in design and execution, bear witness to the piety of the various benefactors. Nearest the altar, on the Blessed Virgin's side, is a window showing this inscription: "Erected by the Religious of the Sacred Heart in memory of Francis Drexel and Elizabeth Bouvier Drexel, his wife." Following this one is a family memorial window to Elizabeth Edwards Feterman. A third bears the name of Charles McFadden. To the right, the first window asks prayers for the soul of Emily White. After it, is one in memory of Sarah Kennedy Boone. The next is a touching memento of Arabella Smith. The last, in the choir cloister, is placed for Elizabeth Bouvier Dixon and Eustace Bouvier. Without the cloister, in the guest chapel, is a window set in as a token of gratitude: "By the Religious of the Sacred Heart to Louisa Drexel Morrell." On the opposite wall brass tablets commemorate the indebtedness of Eden to the four chief founders of the church, George Edwards and Elizabeth, his wife, and Robert Ewing and Elizabeth Ewing, his daughter. Another brass tablet, close to the high altar, records the names of Michel Bouvier and Louisa Vernon Bouvier, his beloved wife, in whose memory were bestowed the exquisite medallion stations of the cross. In the sacristy are three very striking windows illustrating the three parts of the parable of wheat and cockle, and a fourth, farther in, displays the seal of the society, the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The two statues, the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, and the rich bronze holy water font standing at the chapel door were the offerings of Mrs. Blackburne, of Philadelphia, a lady whose gifts to Eden Hall, and to so many other convents of the Sacred Heart, have taken every shape that love and liberality could suggest.

The exquisite memorial shrine, called the "Lady Chapel," stands over a deep crypt, containing in its vault the remains of Francis Drexel, his wife, Elizabeth Bouvier Drexel, and of his daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Walter George Smith. The statue of Our Lady, the carvings of altar, columns, niches and windows; the representation of the fifteen mysteries of the rosary in stained glass, the mosaic of the tabernacle door, and all the appointments of this chapel have rendered it a subject of art-study to seculars; but to the sisterhood it remains simply a little sanctuary for their devotion and a perpetual claim upon their prayers.

One of the greatest treasures of Eden is a precious relic,

Lady Chapel of the Rosary.

(Drexel Memorial Shrine.)

authenticated by documents and seals from Rome. This is the body of St. Justin, a child martyr of the early pagan persecutions. The gift was bestowed by His Holiness "Pius IX" on the Countess de Boutourlin. The daughter of this lady having become a religious of the Sacred Heart, the mother gave the valued relics to the society; and, when the Eden chapel was consecrated as a church, Reverend Mother Barat, through the hands of Mother Hardey, bestowed it on the American convent. The final depositing of these holy bones in their present shrine was made by Bishop Wood, of Philadelphia, in 1867.

For the old pupils of Eden, the thought of its church is perhaps closest to memory and dearest to heart, among the many close and dear relics that accompany them through life. Its picture has value, and even a word concerning it is not worthless, for its aisles, its altar, its nooks, keep sacred hours of the past safe in those quiet shadows which breathe out incense. TO us, the "old children," who so loved it, its very gain in outward beauty through the last twenty years has brought something like a pang, simply because we could not find it in our hearts to wish it other than it was. Beloved old walls, you have witnessed our schoolgirl woes, triumphs, tragedies and raptures, and you sanctified them. To the same sanctifying influence we have often brought life's real sorrows and deep joys, and we have gone forth with tears and with peace, for our souls had saluted the Saving Host and found rest.

H. M. W.

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