Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/287

Rh Since your time as Superior of our infant house had expired, we had, on the feast-day of our blessed Mother, an election, the first which has taken place in the Community. You have been elected for three years, and until your return, which is expected towards the close of the year, I have myself appointed Sister Basilide to replace you.

The last paragraph was a shock at Ruillé. The Bishop of Mans could not understand it; for, notwithstanding the acknowledged right of a Bishop over matters pertaining to a Community whose Rules have not received the Papal confirmation, the Bishop of Vincennes seemed to forget the conditions on which this Community had been given to him, as well as the statement one of his own letters contained—that he had no intention of founding a Community of his own and wished the Rule followed at Ruillé to be observed at St.-Mary-of-the-Woods. It was true the Rule prescribed the election of a Superior General, but it was not possible under the existing conditions to observe all the Constitutions. The article specifying an election stated also that there be at least twenty electors, including the members of the Council. As yet no Council had been chosen; there were not yet twenty members in the Community, even including the novices. Until such time, then, as the Congregation's membership should admit of everything in due form, a dispensation had been granted by the Bishop of Mans, when Mother Theodore was appointed "Foundress and Superior General for life, or as long as the interests of the new Community require." It seemed to the Bishop of Vincennes that the interests of the Community required a change of authority; yet it was supposed that he would at least