THE RECIPIENT OF THE LETTER

Baroness Therese von Wüllenweber

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Therese von Wüllenweber was born on February 19, 1833 in her family castle of Myllendok. The firstborn of five children of Duke Theodore Wüllenweber and Elisabeth Lefort, she received culture and an excellent education as her status demanded. Therese felt a call to religious life and she experienced two different religious congregations, but in neither of them did she feel “called according to God's will”. Under the direction of the Neuwerk parish priest, Monsignor Ludwig von Essen, she took over the Neuwerk Abbey in 1878 and transformed it into an orphanage. There she met Fr. Jordan—a decisive meeting for her future life. Her apostolic ideals were in line with those of Fr. Jordan. Thus, in 1882, she joined the Catholic Teaching Society, without joining the religious community. In 1888, Therese von Wüllenweber came to Rome to meet the Superior General of the women's branch of the Catholic Teaching Society founded by Fr. Jordan. (The group, led by Mother Frances Streitel, broke away from the Society three years before.) Mary of the Apostles, as she was called in the new Congregation of the 'Sisters of the Divine Savior', died on December 25, 1907, in the Motherhouse in Monte Verde, Rome, at the age of 74. She was buried in the Teutonic Cemetery, near St. Peter's Basilica. In 1952, her mortal remains were moved to the Motherhouse chapel. Pope Paul VI declared her Blessed in 1968.