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Nano Nagle, Venerated and Venerable: Part Two, Loss and Struggle for Meaning
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In a take on the “nature or nurture” quandary as to how human character is formed, is the question are saints born or become so through their life experiences. Nano Nagle’s father predicted she would become a saint. As we continue our reflections on our San Francisco 170th Anniversary, we know that Nano Nagle was venerated by the people of her time and continues to be today. The Roman Catholic Church has also declared her Venerable, the second level towards canonization. In four reflections on the stages of Nano Nagle’s life, we will look at how she became both venerated and Venerable through the values, virtues, and vision she developed in response to the times in which she lived.
PART TWOLoss and Struggle for Meaning
The second period of Nano Nagle’s life is short, from circa 1746 to 1748. However, it was a period of great suffering, introspection, and seeking for a life purpose. Sometime in 1746, Nano and her sister, Ann, who had joined her in France for education, were called home to Ireland upon the death of her father. Nano returned not to her childhood haven of Ballygriffin but to Dublin where her mother was living.
During these years, the consequences of the failure of the agricultural system in Ireland were everywhere in Ireland and surrounded Nano’s life. One biographer notes that the “distress of the sick and poor seemed endless.” It was estimated that in some areas, one third of the population died. This natural disaster was compounded by the Penal Laws which continued to severely restrict how the Irish could earn livings.
Nano saw all these conditions as she grieved for her father. Soon, another source of grief occurred. Another famous story of Nano and her sister, Ann, occurs during this time. During these days, Ann was tending to the poor and sick of Dublin by visiting them in their homes and providing them with medicine and food. Nano did not join her and was still focusing on socializing and other activities.
In the famous story of the bolt of silk, Nano confronts Ann about where her bolt of silk that she brought from France could have gone. Nano was ready to have an outfit made for her social life. Ann told Nano that she had sold the bolt of silk to buy food and medicine for the poor.
In a situation that called for the values and virtues Nano had learned in other times of her life, Nano responded instead with anger and refused to interact with Ann. In the midst of this sibling standoff, Ann also died. In all accounts, it is reported that Ann was greatly beloved by Nano and her devastation at Ann’s death without reconciliation can only be imagined.
Nano’s mother died shortly after this in January 1748.
Three significant family deaths in such a short period of time began an intense period of introspection and questioning about her purpose in life.
Nano wrote later in her life that the incident with the bolt of silk became a symbol of life choice. Could this experience turn her to a life of compassion and of service to others? Could this experience be a divine call and point to a reason for living?
Surrounded by poverty, disease, and ignorance, Nano pondered how she could make a difference in the face of the extremes of this social condition. There seemed little hope that conditions would change. She saw poverty as a given and did not have a path to counteract the consequences of that poverty.
Like many other Irish young men and women of her times, Nano decided that the best way to serve God and the Irish people would be to enter a monastery. When she arrived at the monastery, grieving and determined to find a way to serve through the monastic life, the God she believed to be always present was waiting for her with a surprise.
She could not forget the Irish poor especially the children and she found that her spiritual counselors at the monastery were encouraging her to return to take up the instruction of those children. Indeed, later in life, she wrote that her spiritual counselors told her that her salvation depended on her return.
Recalling in later life that she “heard the voice of Ireland calling me home,” Nano returned to Cork in 1748 to begin her response to the divine call she heard so plainly through the actions of Ann and the counsel of others. Ann had asked Nano to see the face of Christ in everyone, especially the poor. Upon her return to Ireland, Nano begins her journey to do this.
Nano Nagle Teaching, Courtesy of Nano Nagle Place
In a short two-year period, Nano’s life had changed in every way imaginable and as she began life in her brother’s house in Cork, more change awaited her. How she lived her new call to the children of Cork will be covered in Part Three.
