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| illustration by Sister Elisabeth Schlömer |
Text by Antonio Bini
The Association of Our Lady of the Holy Face, together with many others, wished to mark the twenty years since the arrival in Manoppello of Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer - known to all as Sister Blandina - organizing a celebration for her, which began with a Mass concelebrated by Fr. Girolamo De Rosa and Fr. Marian Michniak at the parish church of San Nicola, the same location where about five centuries ago the mysterious pilgrim gave the Holy Face to Dr. Leonelli. A time of affection and friendship towards the German nun, known for her discreet presence, dedicated to prayer, study and contemplation of the Holy Face.
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| courtesy of the Association of Our Lady of the Holy Face https://www.nostrasignoravoltosanto.org/en/ |
The church was packed, despite the fact that it was a weekday. Afterwards the celebration then continued in the plaza in front of the Pilgrim Hotel, where a small reception was organized, preceded by Fr. Marian’s blessing of the icon of Santo Stefano del Lupo, made by Sister Blandina. The saint lived during the Middle Ages in the Benedictine monastery of Vallebona which he himself had founded. The monastery, left in ruins for some time, is found close to the basilica of the Holy Face.
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| courtesy of the Association of Our Lady of the Holy Face |
Both during the celebration of Mass and during the blessing of the icon, the nun also wanted beside her the large poster of Fr. Domenico da Cese, to whom she is very devoted. She said that "the two saints of Manoppello accompany her in faith to the Holy Face." And it matters little if the first, almost forgotten today, was in fact proclaimed a saint, while the second, the prophetic apostle of the Holy Face, is undergoing a troubled path toward beatification.
Sister Blandina arrived in Manoppello on August 3, 2003, and at the end of August found accommodation in a rural house found near the Shrine, in Via Cese, which for her became Via Padre Domenico da Cese, as indicated at the entrance of her hermitage, which in recent years has become a center of meditation and spirituality.
The sister was born on March 6, 1943 in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. At the end of World War II her family found refuge in Germany, like other families of German origin, in her father's hometown of Mülheim an der Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1962 she decided to become a nun, at first with the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and later among the Sisters of the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (OCSO), more commonly known as Trappists.
In 1965 she completed her first study of the Shroud of the Turin and graduated in Pharmacy at the University of Würzburg, joining the religious community of Maria Frieden in Dahlem (Eifel). She knew nothing about the Holy Face until, in early 1979, there arrived at the convent the Swiss Catholic magazine "Das Zeichen Mariens" which included the translation of an article by Renzo Allegri on the Holy Face of Manoppello, which had appeared in Italy in the weekly magazine Gente of September 30, 1978. Ever since then she has experienced a growing interest in that image, though one which she had initially put aside. Yet that face, and especially those eyes, were there and seemed to ask for her attention. For her the comparison with the Shroud was inevitable. Thanks to comparisons and enlargements, down to the details, she arrived, not without surprise, to conclude in favor of the overlapping of the two faces, despite the images seeming to be quite different from each other. The documentation of her research was sent to Frankfurt, to one of the most qualified German sindonologists (experts on the Shroud of Turin), the Jesuit Prof. Werner Bulst. When the packet arrived the Jesuit Heinrich Pfeiffer, professor of Christian art at the Gregorian University in Rome, happened to be present . A fortuitous coincidence that led Fr. Bulst to ask his confrere to take care of the matter, given the proximity of Rome to Manoppello. Fr. Pfeiffer’s involvement led to his confirmation of Sister Blandina's first hypotheses, gradually extending his studies to artistic, historical and scientific fields, achieving extraordinary results. The rest is known to history.
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| Fr. Pfeiffer and Sr. Blandina |
I met Sister Blandina in Rome on October 20, 2001, on the occasion of the conference "The hidden and transfigured Face of Christ", organized by the International Research Institute on the Face of Christ, presided over by Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, of which Fr. Pfeiffer was the scientific consultant. The venue for the conference was the main hall of the Lateran University. I had been invited by Fr. Pfeiffer, and it was he himself who introduced me to Sister Blandina one of the speakers. I already knew who she was, but we didn't go beyond a handshake. In fact, Sister Blandina did not know a word of Italian, and I did not know a word of German.
Sister Blandina’s fervent desire to be close to the Holy Face led her to ask her superiors for permission to move to Manoppello. She had the opportunity for a brief time to experiment with this possibility, with the caveat that she would not have any financial support. Her tenacity led her to accept these conditions and the solitary life, in order to remain in contact with her beloved Holy Face.
While the permitted period was expiring, with the inevitable return to Germany, the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Manoppello on September 1, 2006, proved providential, as her superiors allowed her to extend her stay.
Many people have been close to her in recent years, even more so when she needed help due to health problems. I think I can say that for many people of Manoppello and the surrounding countryside, she represents not so much the scholar, as the constant example of faith and veneration towards the Holy Face. A model of religious life that daily recalls consciences to the extraordinary important presence of the sacred image. It is easy, for that matter, to meet her in prayer in the Basilica. To these people are added journalists and groups from Italy and abroad interested in understanding the Holy Face through her words, her own testimony. Always available to scholars who approach with seriousness the knowledge of the Holy Face: among these I remember above all Andrea Resch, Paul Badde, and Saverio Gaeta whose activities were always conducted in a spirit of collaboration with the Capuchins.
Over the years, her modest rural home has gradually transformed into the Santa Maria Hermitage, an oasis of peace, meditation and spirituality. The small chapel, which is now a place of prayer and meditation, was at the beginning a stable that I still remember was occupied by two pigs. The window of Sister Blandina's study overlooks the Shrine from above.
In the chapel there is an ampule with part of the ashes of Daisy Neves (1938-2019), an American lady of Filipino origins, devoted to the Holy Face and tireless supporter of its dissemination in the world. It was her son Alfred, in agreement with her family, who interpreted her mother's intentions so that traces of her mortal remains would remain forever close to the Holy Face and guarded by the nun she esteemed so much.
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| photo by Antonio Bini |
On the ground floor, there is the workshop where Sister Blandina realizes her much appreciated icons, whose study she had deepened in the past in France.
In recent years, thanks to a devoted benefactor, Mr. Hermann Brunner, a neighboring area was acquired with the subsequent restoration of its rural buildings, today called "The House of Bethlehem", including a larger chapel, which has recently been enriched with a statue of Our Lady from the Abbey "Maria Frieden" in Dahlem, which was closed last year.
Among the most evocative spaces is an outdoor area, surrounded by trees and plants, intended for meetings of study and meditation on the Holy Face, complete with an installation that makes it possible to verify the overlapping of the Holy Face with the Shroud of Turin and also with the Sudarium of Oviedo which is a handkerchief soaked in blood coming from the mouth. In previous years, a similar but larger installation was installed inside the Shrine, designed by Sister Blandina herself.
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| Photo by Antonio Bini |
An intense period that also saw the realization of the permanent exhibition "Way, Truth and Life", in the center of Manoppello, a few meters away from the church of San Nicola, conceived by Sister Blandina on the theme of the mystery of the Holy Face, of its journey through the centuries and therefore on the comparison between the three burial cloths.
To commemorate her twenty years in Manoppello, her sister Elisabeth, also a nun, sent her an evocative graphic elaboration of the photo of her meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, taken on the occasion of the pontiff's visit to the Holy Face on September 1, 2006. When I asked her if I might publicize the photo, at first she told me that it would be more appropriate to wait for her death. Then she thought again, recalling that for her that meeting "was a unique moment, lived as a special gift and as a miracle of God", adding that the image rightly exalts "the centrality of Fr. Pfeiffer."
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| Sr. Blandina with Daisy Neves to her right, surrounded by Daisy's fellow devotees of the Holy Face from the Philippines, America and Canada, Fr. Bonifacio Flores, and Antonio and Francesca Bini (photo courtesy of Antonio Bini) |
For Sister Blandina, faith is accompanied and strengthened by reason, linked to the historical knowledge of the life of Jesus and the search for his witness. Her desire to have others participate in her personal journey is also the basis of her latest book "The Face of the Word Jesus", published in Poland, in Italian, German and Polish, with a preface by Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, former rector of the Shrine of the Holy Face.
Her mission has grown in recent years courageously and with great dedication, even if difficulties have not been lacking, while today concerns seem to appear around the future of her works. But the path has been traced out and among the many people she has involved in her mission over the years those willing to continue her mission will not be lacking.
Her mission has grown in recent years courageously and with great dedication, even if difficulties have not been lacking, while today concerns seem to appear around the future of her works. But the path has been traced out and among the many people she has involved in her mission over the years those willing to continue her mission will not be lacking.
