Sister Magdalen Bellasis – a remarkable Ursuline
Sr. Magdalen was born in Dalhousie, Northern India in 1891. The family came to England when she was young to arrange for her education and that of her brother Eric. Her last year of schooling was at the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and soon after that, she became a Catholic.
After leaving school, she obtained a high position in the civil service and in the New Year’s Honours List of 1918, she had the distinction of being one of the first to receive the new award of the M.B.E from King George V, for her services in one of the War Ministries during the First World War.
In 1919 she entered the Ursuline Community of Angers which at the time was living in exile in Cheltenham. When the community returned to France in 1931 and Fulwood was closed, four English sisters remained. Sr Magdalen was among them and became Headmistress at Thornton Heath. In 1932 she became novice mistress at Westgate, until being sent to Rome for her tertianship in 1934. She remained in Rome until 1945 where she was Prioress of the Generalate community. It was during the war years in Rome that she wrote her diary. It is impossible to include all the stories but below are a few extracts which enable us to understand what it was like living in Rome at the time.
Her first entry was made in June 1940
‘The telephone between The Vatican City and Rome has been cut off. But coming and going is freely allowed. No-one asks your business or demands to see your passport. We had a message from the Papal Nuncio here saying that no religious would be interfered with on account of the war. The interests of all nuns of ‘enemy’ nationality have been placed in his hands by the Italian government. During the night the sirens sounded. I thought a practice had been announced and took no notice, but some people got up. I think it is absurd to think the allies will bombard Rome.’
Tuesday, August 27th 1940
`We had occasion to go into the basilica of St Agnes, which is our parish church and found the mosaic of the apse entirely covered in tinfoil. The sacristan told us it was aluminium, a protection against possible damage during air raids. Aeroplanes very busy and fussy, flying low over the houses. A story says that one of our air raid warnings was due to Mussolini looking out of his window one night and seeing a number of lights showing. He immediately rang up anti-aircraft headquarters and said “Have the sirens sounded to give them a fright!”’
Thursday, October 10th 1940
‘Great joy- another letter from home! It seemed an endless time since the last. How glad I am that we took the precaution last year of arranging a code for our letters in case of war. We can say a good deal more than would be allowed in plain language.’
Sunday, October 13th 1940
‘The general opinion pretty well everywhere seems to be that the Germans may as well admit that their plan has failed as regards to England…It is certainly true that London's resistance to air attack has amazed everyone. Mussolini has made a speech with unfriendly allusions to the Holy Father. That is a bad omen.’
Sunday, November 24th 1940- Papal Mass
‘It was to be a penitential function and not a festivity. He had neither Sedia Gestatoria nor trumpets. We heard his homily which was very moving. He recalled how he had done all, absolutely all, in his power to avert war, but no one would listen to him. Now he could but turn to heaven and pray for mercy on his children. Those who were there said it was most beautiful. The crowd so silent, no talking or jostling; they really had gone there to pray.’
Tuesday, March 4th 1941
‘We are trying to buy a cow! Milk, butter and cheese are falling off all at once and with the diminution of meat it makes a problem, not so much for those in good health, but for delicate members of the household and they are fairly numerous.’
April, 1941
‘A visitor told us the latest motto being repeated in Rome: “if the English win the war, we shall lose. If the Germans win, we are lost”.’
Monday, September 15th 1941
‘The Germans in Rome have been buying up everything in the shop to such an extent that an order has gone out that no foreigners may buy in any shop above the value of 20 lire’.
Monday, September 22nd 1941
‘A girl we know told us that in the street where she lives, the news went round that a certain shop had some potatoes. She ran there at once…but there was such pushing and clamouring that the shop woman was desperate and reduced to tears. “You must give me time to weigh them” she protested…discontent is constantly growing.’
Friday, November 28th 1941
‘The telephone man has been here on some pretext and when he had finished pottering about we found that he had fixed a second wire to our receivers…we found a new wire running along the corridor…now the Gestapo can listen not only to what is said on the telephone but to all that is said near it. We shall have to put up notices…Taci!’ (shut up)
There is a gap in the diary between February 1942 and July 1943. The reason given is that Sr Magdalen had sent her diary to England but it never got there, discouraging her to write until 1943 when events started to move closer to her.
Thursday, July 22nd 1943
‘We only have four inches of water left in our reservoir and it is tepid and disagreeable to drink. We have begun sending out for drinking water to a public fountain.’
Monday, July 26th 1943
‘This morning we were greeted with much more unexpected news: a veritable thunderbolt…the gardener came up to me and said “Mother, they've sent away Mussolini because he has ruined the country”. Anti-fascist manifestations were everywhere…the fascist emblems were torn down, fascist badges snatched off people and a bonfire of black shirts was made.’
Saturday, August 14th 1943
‘They say Milan cathedral was hit last night. I am sorry. I simply cannot understand people who say “Well Westminster Abbey was hit”, as if that ended the matter. Because one beautiful thing is damaged another may as well be damaged too. It is not my idea of logic.’
On the 3rd September 1943, an armistice was signed between the Kingdom of Italy and the allies.
Friday, September 17th 1943
‘A young Jewish girl whose parents had been deported to Germany came and asked us to take her in with her little sister of eight. They escaped from somewhere in Croatia and got into Italy as best they could. The child was dressed as a boy and brought by a lady who had a little son mentioned on her passport. Poor things: what a childhood!’
Saturday, September 18th 1943
‘My last Russian Jewish convert came round very agitated, saying that the Germans were beginning to hunt out Jews again and wanted to hide. I said I was afraid that she would not be safe with us, as we are under surveillance...She asked if the lunatic asylum next door would take her in if she paid…I thought they would not take her without a certificate.’
Monday, September 20th 1943
‘We have become accustomed to the rifle shots that we hear every day and every night that we pay no attention to them…However, today one of our Mothers found a hole in one of the windows panes and a piece of wood splintered off the shutter and a bullet in a glass-topped box the other side of the room. We shall put the bullet in our war museum…It shows that it is better not to loiter at the window.’
In September 1943, the Germans were rounding up all the men they could get hold of. Dragging them off buses and out of shops and cars to be sent to fight. Sr Magdalen makes reference to ten ‘hiding’ within the convent. Their gatekeeper, gardener, their sons and several others.
Monday, October 18th 1943
‘In the evening one of our temporary guests came to us in tears, saying her aunt and uncle and all their children (Jews) had been carried off by the Germans. They say they are put into cattle trucks and taken no one knows where. Day after day people come begging to be taken in and hidden from the Germans. If only Rome could be relieved soon, what a lot of misery would be spared.’
Wednesday, December 22nd 1943
‘...A telephone message from some unknown person to our other house told them to expect a visit of inspection. (The Gestapo were searching convents looking for Jews) We told our temporary guests who all decided to spend the day elsewhere. By 10am all had gone and we were busy making their rooms look unoccupied…It proved a false alarm and they drifted back one by one.’
Wednesday, February 10th 1944
‘ I had to go to the Vatican on business and met an escaped British officer. He is a sapper and was taken prisoner in Libya having been left behind to blow up a bridge. He was taken to Italy but escaped…The police have visited our other house to enquire whether it was illegally sheltering Jews or other wanted persons. The Italian was extremely discreet and polite but said “You may very likely have a visit before long from the Germans and they will not be so discreet as we are, so be prudent ''.’
In 1943 there is a sense of the war intensifying around Rome, Sr Magdalen comments that she feels they are a step closer to the end of war as they go from rattling windows to broken windows. There is a constant mention of bombardments, food and water shortages, the death of the fowls from disease and the theft of their cow. Morale increases with the news of the allied advance towards Rome but is crushed within a few days with news of German success. A common phrase is ‘If only the allies could get here quicker”.
Wednesday, March 8th 1944
‘Rations are beginning to diminish perceptibly: though what we have is still enough for most of us, it is not really enough for the Sisters who have done a hard day’s work in the wash house or garden. We have nothing left in the kitchen garden but cabbages.’
Thursday, March 23rd 1944
‘A priest from Brescia called on our Italian Mother to give news of our house there. A part of the Fascist government has gone there and they have begun to arrest the leading Catholics- priests or laymen who are not afraid of saying what they think. Some have already been shot. This one escaped.’
Monday, June 5th 1944
‘The Americans have arrived! The Germans are gone!...The roads were soon full of people coming out of their hiding places. There were great demonstrations of joy, especially in St Peter’s, where they shouted for the Holy Father and applauded him frantically…An extraordinary quiet reigns now.’
Tuesday, June 6th 1944
‘At midday the great news was of the landing in the North of France, but no details.’
The bread rations increased by 50% and food was distributed to British subjects. On showing three British passports, Sr Magdalen and another sister were given three kilos of flour.
There are only a few more entries in the diary and they are spread across four months. There is only one entry in August which speaks about the lack of food but high morale as they hope for a speedy end to the war. The diary ends on Sunday September 10th 1944.
Sr Magdalen returned to England in 1945 where she was Provincial until 1952. In 1955 she was elected Secretary General of the Order and from 1959-1965 she was the Assistant General. From 1954-1962 she was the first Vice Principal of the newly opened Pontifical Institute in Rome, Regina Mundi. For her services she was awarded the pontifical medal ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice’.
On her return to England, Sr Magdalen acted for a short time as Prioress Delegate of the community of Christ’s College, Liverpool. From Liverpool she moved to Westgate-On-Sea where she spent her remaining years. In spite of growing infirmity, she continued to work ceaselessly, translating articles and books, teaching English to foreign students, looking after the community library and keeping up her correspondence all over the world until the day before she died. She was remembered for being a dedicated Ursuline with rare precision, great integrity, selflessness and a beautiful smile.