A royal son and mother

by freiherrin von Pauline Hügel

In 1806 Princess Amalie Gallitzin died. Bishop Carroll, Mimi Gallitzin, and Count Stolberg all sent letters to Demetrius to tell him the sad tidings. Count Stolberg wrote thus:

"Blessed and praised be Jesus Christ! She is doing this, dearest Mitri! ... She is blessing and praising Him better far than we can ever do. But yet we, too, must, to the best of our powers, praise Him—and not in a general way, for that is a matter of course, and something we ought to do with our every breath, but in a special manner,—for having so unspeakably blessed your saintly mother. She was like Him in suffering, to be the more like Him in glory. I need not tell you ... what an angel your mother was; but in my deep sorrow I feel I must tell you that ever since I have known her I could never think of the bond which God, in His mercy toward me, had created between her soul and mine, without being filled with a sense of intense reverence, heartfelt love, and deep happiness. My soul is very sorrowful, and yet my spirit rejoices at the same time that she has reached the goal; and I know that she continues to help me by her powerful intercession. Rejoice, dearest Mitri, in being the beloved son of a saint; rejoice to have been the cause of so much consolation to her; rejoice to know that she is still blessing you with the unspeakable love of a mother!"

Amalie Gallitzin was buried as she had wished it,—not with any pride or ostentation, in some grand vault, but in the little churchyard of Angelmodde, among the poor she had loved so well. A large crucifix throws its hallowed shade upon her humble grave, and on the base of it are inscribed these words:

"'I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ.' (Phil., iii, 8.) Thus felt and lived the mother of the poor and the oppressed, Princess Amalie Gallitzin, Countess von Schmettau, whose mortal remains rest at the foot of this cross, awaiting a glorious resurrection. She died the 27th of April, 1806, in the fifty-eighth year of her age. Pray for her."

Bishop Carroll, writing to Gallitzin, said: "It is not only because she was your mother that she was dear to me, and that I get others to pray for her, but because she sought ever to promote the welfare of religion with zeal and earnestness in this diocese. I can only offer you my deepest sympathy on being deprived of a mother who was so much to be revered, and who in the hands of God was the means of procuring you so many precious graces."

A kindly French proverb says: "To know all would be to forgive all." We must not, therefore, judge too harshly of the conduct of Gallitzin's sister. She found it far more difficult to get her rents paid, owing to the distracted state of Europe at that time, than her brother could well imagine. When he heard that the Russian government had recognized all her claims, he naturally expected to receive the half of the large fortune that had always been promised him. Instead of this small doles of money occasionally reached him with long excuses; she may, indeed, have been an inexperienced business woman. But after a while, at the age of forty, she married, and then she seems to have felt it quite out of her power to help her brother at all.

Dear old Overberg finally came to the rescue. Amalie had left him a valuable collection of rare gems to be sold if necessary in aid of his many charities. With characteristic disinterestedness he resolved to send all the money thus obtained to Gallitzin, and exerted himself to find a suitable purchaser. The King of Holland bought the collection; and, remembering his friendly relations with the Gallitzins in other days, paid a truly regal sum. It is one of the pathetic sides of life that as age advances, our hopes and wishes grow smaller and smaller. The ardent missionary, who in his generous youth had dreamed such great and noble things that were to be achieved with his large fortune, ended in only longing very wistfully that he might die free of debt; for he felt debt as a kind of stain upon his priestly character. And this wish was granted him.

By the time Father Lemke, Gallitzin's devoted helper and biographer, arrived at Loretto the grand old missionary was showing a few signs of failing health; but he was still upright, active, energetic as ever, in spite of his thinness which amounted almost to emaciation. No longer able to travel on horseback owing to an injury to his leg, he went about in a strange old-fashioned sledge, in which were packed all the requisites for saying Mass at the stations he visited. His clothes were of the poorest and almost threadbare. Father Lemke at once felt he had to deal with a saint, and valued the privilege accordingly. But, it was hard and at times futile work to induce the old Father to rest and to take things a little easier. He was wont to say that as in these days there was little opportunity for a missionary to glorify God by a bloody martyrdom, he was at least allowed to wish that he might drop down dead in the harness like a worn-out old cart-horse.

To his countless other labors Gallitzin added that of writing. He wrote some excellent though simple controversial treatises, always in that remarkably pure English he had so easily mastered.

Of course Father Lemke thought that Gallitzin would keep him at his side to relieve him from the strain of excessive work. But, to his dismay, a few days after his arrival Gallitzin sent him a considerable distance, to a small station badly in need of the ministrations of a priest; giving him permission, however, to return to Loretto once a month to help him over the Saturday and Sunday.