| Linking the past, to the present, for the future

October 27, 2025 · 2:39 pm

Sketches of a Soul: Father Bruté’s Spirituality in Art

This is a guest blog post by Leah Kanik, a Junior at Mount St. Mary’s University, class of 2027. She has been an intern with the Daughters of Charity Provincial Archives for Fall 2025 semester.

Sacred art has been a staple in the spirituality of the Catholic Church for centuries for its ability to raise the mind to contemplate the things of God. Humanity needs corporeal reminders of the supernatural to direct the mind and soul to higher truths, and art is a way in which this interiority can be reflected by the exterior. For those who use art to manifest the interior life, it is as if the longings of their soul were so strong that they must spill onto paper. Such could be said of Father Simon Gabriel Bruté, that “Angel of the Mountain” and first bishop of Vincennes whose influence transformed the places he ministered to. His drawings reveal the childlike simplicity of a priest who balanced peace of soul amidst the immense responsibilities of shepherding his people.

All of his extant drawings in the Daughters of Charity Archives predate his appointment as bishop of Vincennes in 1835 and instead cover his time at Saint Mary’s College in Baltimore and Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg. After arriving in Baltimore from France in 1810, Father Bruté taught at St. Mary’s Seminary for two years before being assigned to teach at the Mount. In 1815, he was made president of Saint Mary’s College, but returned to the Mount in 1818 to toil in keeping the school out of debt and administering to the spiritual needs of Emmitsburg and the Sisters of Charity, of which he was chaplain.

His priestly assignment at the Mount provided him with numerous opportunities to engage in his hobby of drawing. For example, his proximity to the Sisters of Charity during his time in Maryland enabled Bruté to become friend and spiritual director to Mother Seton, and thus many of the drawings are addressed to or depict Seton or her children. Other drawings outline the world of Emmitsburg as he knew it, relate his travels to France, or are simply a recreational sketch.

Whatever its context is, Father Bruté’s drawings predominantly include a reference to the divine which is reflective of his deep spirituality even in the most mundane things. This is seen in his more lighthearted sketches that show a kind of playfulness in using pen and paper to uplift the soul. He drew animals, landscapes, buildings, and religious symbols to supplement his letters and add beauty to the quotidian task of writing. Drawings about the reality of death or which are more historically significant also include an element of joy because of his faith in God and eternal life. No situation or created thing was exempt from participating in Father Bruté’s life of faith.

Sketch by Father Bruté called 'Morning Glories' — A leisurely sketch of a morning glory with Bruté’s call for Eternity

It is not the picture alone that manifests his interior life. Bruté uses Scripture or his own poems and prayers to pour out the aspirations of his soul. Even his historical drawings depicting the landscape of Emmitsburg or the sketch of his ship which took him to France have Scripture and prayers dispersed throughout them. They serve as reminders of his love and goal for Heaven. Indeed, a quarter of his drawings include the word “Eternity” as either central to the image or as a minor addition to a leisurely sketch. Even drawings in which the word is not explicitly written, the message of eternal life is implied by the belief in a home that transcends this world. Such was the nature of the drawings Father Bruté sent to Rebecca Seton for consolation in her illness, and this message of eternal life seemed to comfort even himself as he witnessed death within the Seton family.

Sketch of Father Bruté's: Rebecca Seton's Flight to Heaven — The flight of Rebecca Seton to Heaven amidst her mother’s sorrow

Drawing was thus an outlet for Father Bruté during his labors in Maryland, but it was the responsibility of running Saint Mary’s and the Mount, helping the Sisters, and carrying out other priestly duties that were catalysts for his sketches. Perhaps the lack of drawings during his bishopric in Vincennes is due to his advanced age and increasing responsibilities, as well as having to care for a newly established frontier diocese that spanned the entire state of Indiana. Nonetheless, he utilized his ability to draw to link the temporal and spiritual worlds on paper, and so he encapsulates the purpose of sacred art in using the material to point to the divine. Whether one possesses the ability to draw like him or not, Father Bruté’s love of sacred art reminds us of the joy of the spiritual life and the necessity of preserving artistic beauty in the service of God.

Sketch of Father Bruté's: Landscape of St. Joseph's Valley — A sketch of the Emmitsburg landscape with verses of Scripture dispersed throughout

Sister Elaine Wheeler’s Notebooks

This post is in celebration of Archives Month 2025. American Archives Month is celebrated every October and is meant as a time for archivists to advocate for themselves, their profession, and for the importance of historical records and documentation as a mechanism of organization, shared history, and accountability.

When we give special tours to visitors, we will sometimes pull out a few special items from the collections that we think will impress them. When other archivists visit, it becomes harder to impress. We could pull out, say, a Christmas card from Teddy Roosevelt, but they would respond with something like, “So what, we all have something like this.”

Something that we can pull out to impress are Sister Elaine Wheeler’s notebooks.

In 1978, Sister Elaine was temporarily on mission in St. Louis, taking a course on Spirituality and Scripture Study, when she received a call from Sister Mary Basil Roarke, Visitatrix of the former Northeast Province at the time. Sister Mary Basil asked her to “spend six months to a year setting up the archives for the Northeast Province [her home province in Albany, NY]?” As a Daughter of Charity does, Sister Elaine accepted the ministry and then apparently said to herself, “You idiot, you don’t know a thing about archives.”

But, taking Sister Mary Basil’s advice to visit archives and take some workshops, she called upon her oldest sister, Sister Mary Cecelia Wheeler, archivist for the Religious Sisters of the Sacred Heart, conveniently also located in St. Louis. Sister Mary Cecelia gave Sister Elaine her first lesson on archives, a lesson that Sister Elaine would pass on to many others – that there is the theoretical and the perfect in the archives, which is something to attain to, and that there is the practical and the real.

The five Wheeler Sisters: Sisters Elaine, Madeleine, Mary Cecilia (R.C.S.J.), Zoe, and Jean Marie

By Sister Elaine’s tally, she visited 17 repositories, took 16 workshops, and attended the Society of American Archivists conference 21 times over her 26 years as Archivist. Her notebooks document not only her research, but a chapter of archival history in the late 1970s and early 1980s when communities of women religious began to establish formal archives for their communities and for outsiders.

Sister Elaine Wheeler's description of what an archivist is and is not — What an Archivist is and is not, according to Sister Elaine

At the time, there were five provinces of the Daughters of Charity in the United States. Not only did Sister Elaine help establish the archive for her home province, but she also worked with the other four provinces (the Southeast in Emmitsburg, MD; the East Central in Evansville, IN; the West Central in St. Louis, MO; and the West in Los Altos, CA) to help set up their own archives, establishing cataloging guidelines and starting an oral history project for sisters in the Northeast. The archives of the different provinces met routinely for many years. Her work continues to exert influence on us here in Emmitsburg every single day!

Draft of Sister Elaine's acquisition policy — Draft of Sister Elaine’s acquisition guidelines

In addition to the Daughters’ collections, Sister Elaine took what she learned and applied it elsewhere. She traveled to different hospitals under the Daughters’ orbit – usually the ministries that created the largest amounts of records – and provided workshops to ensure that the hospitals themselves were keeping records accurately to better administer patient care.

Sister Elaine's diagram of religious archives — The world of religious archives, according to Sister Elaine

The reason that these notebooks remain a fascination to other archivists is because they reflect the same training that we all went through. Sister Elaine learned about what an archival facility ideally would look like, how to determine what to accession and add to the collections, the importance of weeding collections to preserve space, and the necessity of good policies and procedures to ensure privacy where appropriate and yet still make the materials available. Certainly, Sister Elaine’s training was a little less dependent on computer systems than ours today, but we still see the makings of all of our mentors and mentees in the field, and can see the place of Sisters going forth into the world reflected in the ministry of the Archives!

Sister Elaine Wheeler at her desk in the Archives — Sister Elaine processing in her office in 1990. You can see the steps in the archival process on her board behind her.

The Hurricane Katrina Collection

Hurricane Katrina redefined natural disasters and their effects on humanity. New Orleans has never totally recovered from the effects of the storm and the failure of the levies, which put 80% of the city under water. It has since invested in new inland protections from flooding and has created a current plan that accepts a “living with water” philosophy. August 29, 2005, changed the Gulf Coast on a fundamental level.

The Hurricane Katrina Collection in the Daughters of Charity Archives contains information about the Daughters who were displaced during the storm: messages of goodwill from friends, colleagues, and Sisters around the world; students’ memories of those days in August and September; news articles about the destruction on the Gulf Coast; and scrapbooks and DVDs about the recovery projects that the Daughters of Charity, along with Catholic Charities, undertook to rebuild in Louisiana and Mississippi.

A challenge for many of the Daughters primed to assist in recovery efforts was the fact that several of them were among the displaced. Alongside nearly 400,000 others in the New Orleans area alone, 38 Sisters relocated to other community homes in Texas, Missouri, and inland Louisiana. Four of their homes were among the 60,000 that were total losses beyond repair.

Damage to the Daughters’ residence on Claiborne Street

The collection also documents just a fragment of the recovery in the first two years after the storm. Seven Daughters of Charity returned to areas affected within six weeks to assist in the recovery in whatever capacity they could best be used.

Sisters Mary Satala and Doris Clippard worked with the Society of Vincent de Paul in the Mobile, AL area to perform some of the most immediate work for those affected by the disaster: collecting testimonies, ensuring distribution of food and supplies, and assisting with the preparation of paperwork for FEMA and disaster relief. The collection contains accounts of some of their most impactful experiences. Daughters of Charity served with the community of Sisters, who traveled there to work in short-term ministries during the crisis.

Sr. Doris and Sr. Mary Excerpt — Conclusion of a letter signed jointly by Sister Doris Clippard and Sister Mary Satala to Sister Honora Remes

Sister Catarina Chu (Province of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) outside a home in Bayou La Batre, AL

Nursing Clinic for Vietnamese Residents of New Orleans

Some Sisters assisted refugees outside the city. Sisters Juanita Chenevert and Mary Ellen Seo took positions at St. Aloysius School in Baton Rouge, whose numbers had swelled with those unable to return to New Orleans. At the same time, Sister Juanita, who was principal of St. Stephen Catholic School in the Crescent City, looked for ways to cover expenses to reopen the school for her own students, many of whom would otherwise be unable to afford recovery and tuition. She and Sister Mary Ellen served with Sister Carmela Molini to deliver books to six schools and a branch of the public library system, working with K-12 and community college students.

From a top-down level, the Daughters collaborated with their brothers, the Vincentian priests, on a project rebuilding the parish neighborhood around St. Joseph’s Church, not far from the Superdome. The goal of this project was a long-term one, to ensure that those still residing there could stay and that those residents who left had the opportunity to return. This service continues today, and “It is now a place where the homeless and those in need are treated with respect and dignity, where they can rest by day as they get the services and food they require.” More information about their continuing work can be found at https://stjosephchurch-no.org/st-joseph-rebuild-center/.

Among other Daughters’ works in the region, DePaul Hospital was forced to close completely and permanently due to the damage it sustained. DePaul Community Health Centers also suffered damage. In addition, the Long Beach, MS – St. Vincent de Paul School and the New Orleans, LA – St. Joseph’s School collections contain information related to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. There is one final aspect of Hurricane Katrina that the collection shows and does not shy away from, and that is the disparities. When Sister Marie Therese Sedgwick, the Visitatrix of the Province, reported to her fellow Sisters in May of 2006, she addressed what the Daughters did and had to do for the Sisters under her purview. But she also placed an emphasis on the greater impacts of a natural disaster like this – on the marginalized communities and those living in poverty who bear a far greater brunt of nature’s fury.

Humanity does not have the power to stop hurricanes, but we have the power to rebuild communities afterward and a duty to have concern for those who are in its pathway.

Sketches of a Soul: Father Bruté’s Spirituality in Art

Sister Elaine Wheeler’s Notebooks

The Hurricane Katrina Collection

Archives

Keyword Search

Categories

Like us on Facebook

Follow Blog via Email

Sketches of a Soul: Father Bruté’s Spirituality in Art

Share this:

Sister Elaine Wheeler’s Notebooks

Share this:

The Hurricane Katrina Collection

Share this: