A Saint in Pigtails
Samson, Erin
35° THE COMMONWEAL February 3, 1926 A SAINT IN PIGTAILS By ERIN SAMSON I {Author s Note:—The following letter was written by the late Mr. John Winter, shortly after the publication of...
...When she left she gave Nurse a little pat but no consolation...
...We heard from Evina very irregularly...
...The purpose of the union did not matter, the all-important thing was to have an organization with a head, and that head, Evina Parkmann...
...Here she held up the jar of offensive custard...
...We were all astonished when Martha announced that her friend was to enter the Society of...
...Had she any premonition that she would work in the heart of Africa for twenty years...
...She was Napoleon, and with characteristic independence altered history to suit her personal taste—-the emperor would not divorce Josephine and he won, though with difficulty, the battle of Waterloo...
...At any rate, Evina did a prodigious amount of looking down and looking behind at them...
...I could no longer be a playmate, only a friend's negligible young brother...
...The old woman was shaking with mirth...
...By the end of the day I had fallen in love with my sweet rosy-faced teacher, and had quite forgotten the disagreeable Evina...
...she seemed such a strong, self-sufficient creature...
...I suppose that such a mundane detail is irrelevant, but it impressed me at the time...
...But, perhaps, the reader will be satisfied with the knowledge that the nurse seemed to like Evina's treatment, and repeated happily as we went out: "Ain't she the worst child...
...Arrived at school, Martha remembered to lead me to the infant class...
...Evina was neither...
...Tears came to my mother's eyes when she learned that Martha was a second Saint Cecilia, and she forthwith February 3, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL bought her a gold cross and two new pieces of music...
...I have said that she was not a neat child...
...Very busy...
...The authoritative, complete, and inspiring life of the saint has been written by a religious of her order...
...Let me state at once that as a layman with a prosaic outlook I can only relate what I saw and heard of the saint, and only in so far as a memory, leaking with age, permits...
...HAVE been asked to write out my recollections of Sister Mary-Evina, the first canonized saint of the state of...
...the author must possess considerable intuitive powers, for she has gained, I do not know how, a quite wonderful knowledge of the inner life of MaryEvina...
...When she commanded, however, she did it with such evident relish and overflow of joyousness that she swept us along and made us forget that we yielded...
...I was afraid of her...
...Her biographer tells us that as a young nun Sister Mary-Evina was very quiet and unassuming...
...she was forever starting clubs, with memberships varying from three to thirty...
...It's as awful as ever...
...I feel, however, that the light it throws upon Saint Mary-Evina is too interesting to be wholly lost...
...We were bewildered by her choice of the most unobtrusive order with its simple mission of nursing and teaching young children...
...My surprise was great when I heard that the cause of Evina Parkmann had been introduced at Rome...
...Once or twice she brushed the toes on the back of her stockings...
...As June brought its procession of warm, flowerscented nights, the two friends would meet on one of their porches...
...She did not see fit to utilize it...
...I was ignored by both, who walked on in front, arm-in-arm...
...I do not mean that she turned to the spiritual...
...I am sorry to say that the future s&int did not win a medal for good conduct or lead the class in Catechism...
...She and my sister began to do their hair in large knobs, called psyches, at the back of their heads, and to go to parties that lasted from eight until eleven...
...Ain't she awful, ain't she terrible," she kept repeating to me in obvious tones of loving admiration...
...Again I consult my library and find that the saints sat down and gently consoled the sick...
...I see that I have wandered far from the realms of hagiography...
...if she could think of wearing it the night before leaving the world, she was not so utterly changed and subdued...
...it was beautifully written...
...I recall one detail which she confided to Martha—the recreations were her great difficulty...
...Mother's sent you some of her famous rum custard...
...You remember how you used to eat it for me when I was ill so mummy wouldn't be hurt—well, I'm sorry but I don't think I can do the same for you...
...Whenever Evina was in a group, she was ruling, or at least inspiring it...
...Had she been educated in the present age, I should have predicted for her a political career...
...Forgive the blurs—not tears, perspiration...
...When she was sixteen her energies changed their course...
...She tried to disapprove...
...I sometimes wondered how Evina could care for her...
...uYou have to get well, or Mother'U send you some more custard...
...I remember holding my sister's hand in a very damp and desperate clutch...
...She left in June...
...I was disgusted, but, I must confess, slightly jealous...
...It was thought that she might become a writer...
...She was such an exemplary child...
...the partnership was comprehensible only by the fact that the one loved to dominate and the other to submit...
...she was nineteen...
...All the while, Evina walked about examining the pictures, poking fun at her own photographs which occupied the place of honor...
...One could trust Martha to come off first in all matters of piety...
...She had a passion for organization...
...The work is most edifying...
...I never saw Evina enter church save at the conventional times...
...I think I was so completely forgotten because of Evina's new shoes, which won their rapt attention...
...Martha seems to be a wonderful mother...
...I was rather forlorn at the thought of her departure—it seemed as though a gay flame of light were going to be snuffed out by a black habit and a high wall...
...Was it because she had found one group where she could not dominate...
...that God did not will obscurity and tranquillity for her, although He formed her to them for ten years, then changed the customs of a community to make use, it seemed, of her unique abilities...
...She beamed when her ulittle pet" bounced in rather noisily...
...Had I surmised the future of my friend, I should have observed her closely in church...
...Evina deigned to notice me, the childish hanger-on, because I elected Hannibal as my hero...
...Her mother sent her with a basket of delicacies to her old nurse who was ill...
...Now I did watch my sister, Martha, who was Evina's bosom friend, because her angelic poses aroused my brotherly ire...
...You understand that I never saw her after she left for Mount...
...I sent one of her letters, which I particularly liked, to the sister biographer...
...Possibly it may also serve as a timid suggestion as to how certain writers of the lives of the saints might amend their methods, so that all the humanity of the saints may not be entirely lost in the picture presented to modern readers.} Washington, D. C, January, i960...
...Did she not, you protest, engage in some charitable activities, she who was to care for hundreds of black savages ? I remember accompanying her on one errand of mercy the year before she entered...
...It was his hope that it might be used in the second edition of the book, but, because of its slightly unconventional nature, it was rejected...
...I find by consulting well known "Lives" that the majority of saints were either very naughty or very pious as children...
...As it is, I must confess that I never remarked her praying attitudes, although our family pew was across the aisle from the Parkmanns...
...Evina was, however, intelligent, and wrote the best compositions...
...It was on the day I began my scholastic career...
...You always had a tender heart...
...she turned, rather, to her mirror and to the opposite sex...
...I've brought you," Evina laughed, "heaps of things...
...Young men of the neighborhood would stroll by, pause, and shyly mount the steps...
...Dear friend, do collect some filthy lucre for me, for my coal babies...
...As she drank lemonade and ate chocolate cake she laughed and joked, and said that she was foolish to enter an order with an American novitiate, for now she had no chance of seeing Europe...
...Nor do I believe that she did...
...In those 400 pages every admirer will find multiple details of her extraordinary career, active and contemplative...
...She lacked the docility and neatness which usually constitute the parental conception of childish virtue...
...We found the old Irish woman propped up in bed with her beads in her hand...
...I am ridiculously incompetent to venture into the specialized realm of the hagiographer...
...It is not perhaps the letter of a saint, but in it I find my youthful friend: Dear Hannibal:—Thanks for your letter...
...When the saint went to Africa she began to write more frequently, asking for money...
...The most popular of these inevitable societies was the Club of the Greats, in which each member impersonated some famous character, and was required to live up to his choice as consistently as was possible...
...As by profession I am an engineer, and as my life is drawing near the sere, I can hardly hope to master suddenly the art of literary exposition, so I beg leniency of my readers...
...that is surely the greatest miracle of her career...
...And it's money we need—not barrels of old evening gowns and badly-cut slips of calico, which seem to be some people's notion of civilization for the heathens...
...Indeed, had you asked me her outstanding quality I should have answered, her "bossiness...
...As we passed the Parkmann home out ran a tall girl of about eleven...
...And now she's on the altars, bless my soul 1 John Winter...
...I feel that you are very dignified now...
...I do not know when or how Evina heard the call...
...Because Napoleon fraternized with an humble Hannibal, my fear of Evina melted and I began to admire her...
...I did not exactly hate the cause of my sister's desertion...
...I recall distinctly two red bows on the ends of long, shiny, dark braids, which spun from front to back and back to front every time she moved a trifle vigorously...
...Martha dropped my hand and rushed to her friend...
...I have often pictured Evina ruling her dusky little world with energy and bonhomie, and I have imagined the natives crying in amazement tempered with affection: "Isn't she queer I" Certainly, until her death under a blazing sun, no one associated suffering with her...
...My first recollection of her is rather insignificant...
...her mother, I fancy, would have said that she inclined to the darker side for she was independent and something of a tomboy...
...her executive powers were so manifest...
...I try to joke away my shame when I hand out the things and say: "Wear it, dear, to please them...
...I have a vague notion that the tops of the boots were of patent leather and were finished with tassels...
...When she came to say good-by to us she wore a cherrycolored sash...
...the wide skirts of their pale muslins would be spread out like open petals...
...To show how little a prophet she was in her own country, I must acknowledge that my mother did not believe that she entered---------------------through an act of complete renunciation, but because the rule was lenient, the food abundant, and the hours of sleep reasonable...
...Somehow, the cherry sash comforted me...
...time has broadened her...
...Had only Martha been the saint, her biography would be an easy task...
...nevertheless, she was fond of dress and a little vain...
...John Winter, shortly after the publication of the official biography of Saint Mary-Evina...
Vol. 3 • February 1926 • No. 13
