My dear Aunt3,

I am very ashamed for having delayed so long in writing to you, please be assured that it was not through indifference; on the contrary, I always hold for you the same love, the same respect as when I was near to you. Distance does not impede good feelings nor occasionally to write them down on paper, it is a useful matter finally to revive the fire somewhat. You must be sad quite often when thinking that you are so far from your native land. Oh! Yes, under these circumstances, sadness is not out of place; sometimes I myself, when I think of how our family is spread out, I feel like shedding tears, and yet I am at the heart of the locations of my birth, I see people who love me, I see everywhere only known figures, and you, tossed into strange land, how would you not be sad in thinking about your homeland, you who see only unknown figures4, sometimes hostile.

But let us console ourselves together and think that happiness is not of this world, let us always work with ardor and God, [He who is (sic, in French edition - Trans.)] so good, will have pity on us and will receive us in his bosom, only then will we be happy. I will be entering the major seminary of Nancy this year 5, I am very happy about it and I am sure that you share my joy, pray for me, who am about to enter into such a great ministry and be assured that I too will not forget you in front of the altars of Jesus and Mary, my consolers. We are told that the pastor of Lixheim6 is named pastor at Phalsbourg. Here is just about all the news that I have. . . My dear aunts7 are sending you dresses and a collar, they would have sent you even more but the rains prevented them from going out. As for the cakes, they would have been completely spoiled before you even received them, and perhaps the Berga ladies will still remain for a long time in the country and the cakes would be worth nothing. Please try to return to France soon, I would be pleased to see you here. Forgive my scribbling, I am in a great rush, the person who is to deliver the goods is leaving for Sarrebourg and they are waiting for me to get going for Phalsbourg. My dear aunt, I want to tell you that, regarding the dresses, they will later send you the measurements in a letter.Both of them kiss you from the heart, and I too, my dear aunt, kiss you and wish you good health and patience. Goodbye, my dear aunt! Your devoted nephew Schoeffler. . . Later on, I will write you more at length when I am settled at the seminary.

Augustine is not quite twenty years old. This, the first preserved letter, already contains several themes which will recur frequently in the correspondence: sadness far from the native land, the dispersed family, “happiness is not of this world, [. . . ] such an important ministry,” and the mixture of very concrete preoccupations along with spiritual considerations. Already, from this letter, Augustine apologizes for his “scribblings” and it is true that he writes poorly, that he is confused with spelling and punctuation — almost non-existent. The first paragraph is intended to console Élise who has just left to open a boarding house at Wiesbaden. Thesecond paragraph approaches the enrollment at the seminary. The new topic is not expanded or explained. [Ed.]

1 Actual capital of Hesse, Germany.
2 Saint-Louis-lès-Phalsbourg. Augustine’s uncle, Father Charles Schoeffler was pastor there, and two of his sisters were housekeepers. Charles-Louis Schoeffler, fifth of the 11 children of Antoine Schoeffler and of Marie-Claire Baumgarten, was born at Phalsbourg on 11 February 1803. He studied at the major seminary of Nancy, which he entered in 1823. He was ordained a priest on 26 April 1827 by Bishop de Forbin-Janson (bishop of Nancy and later founder of the Work of the Holy Childhood for the Missions).He was named successively: pastor at Arraye-et-Han until 1832, associate at Fénétrange from June 1832 to October 1833, pastor at Bettboirn and Oberstinzel from 1833 to 1841 (the parish registers contain many pages of his personal notations), pastor of Saint Louis until his resignation in December 1842. At thatpoint, he became chaplain of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd at a new community founded in Munich (by a Good Shepherd sister from Nancy) and died there on 2 March 1843. Augustine had lived many happy moments with his uncle who awakened in him a priestly and missionary vocation and prepared him for reception of First Communion. This took place on 13 April 1834 at Bettborn. In his testament, Augustine chose the parish wherein would be celebrated the masses for him and for his family; Phalsbourg and Mittelbronn are not mentioned at all. Augustine was between 11 and 19 years old during these stays at Arraye-et-Han and Bettborn; these were decisive years. The archives of the Foreign Missions in Paris contain a letter from Charles, written a few weeks before his death. The community of the Good Shepherd in Munich once had a letter from Augustine, addressed to his uncle Charles “preserved as a relic”. . . but nonetheless lost.
3 Élise or Élisabeth Schoeffler, daughter of Antoine Schoeffler and Marie-Claire Baumgarten, born on 16 September 1809 at Phalsbourg, was for a time in the service of her brother Charles, priest at Arraye and Bettborn. She then found a place as teacher in a private school at Wiesbaden. It appears that subsequentlyher standing grew. It is no longer a question of Miss Magdebourg but of Miss Sophie Klein to whom she is both friend and associate. Of the 88 letters preserved, 26 of them were addressed to her. In time, the correspondence would show that Élise and Miss Klein wanted to set up a boarding school in France, at first in Paris — this project never succeeded — , then at Nancy. In this latter place, near the seminary, they opened a boarding school for young girls on 1 October 1848. In October 1851, they return to Germany to direct an establishment in Mayence. (See: E. Mangenot, Le bienheureux Augustin Schoeffler, Nancy, 1900, p. 59). Élise died at Lunéville in 1883. She had hoped that her nephew forget the whole idea of the missions; to that end, she intervened with the bishop of Nancy as well as with the superior of the Foreign Missions up to the very eve of Augustine’s departure. His correspondence with her — according to the documents at hand — become rarer over the years (at least one has been lost) and the last one addressed to her in April 1848, is basically an account of his trip, with only a few more personal lines.The Archives of the Foreign Missions holds the testimony of Élisabeth — a document of eight large pages, dated after 1857. Therein she praises her nephew and glosses over all the difficulties. The text was published in the periodical Les Amis de Saint Augustin Schoeffler, n 2 (avril 1994o ).
4 The attachment to the land of his birth, to his friends, “to known persons,” is very important for Augustine. We can understand him better when we learn (Letter 71) of the tears which he spilled on leaving his companions of the long voyage
5 Opening day was 4 November, feast of St. Charles Borromeo, patron of the priests of the Nancy diocese. After the scarcity of priests at the beginning of the XIXth century, the seminary welcomed a number of young people. On this opening day of November 1842, the registry of students (BDN: Bibliothèque Diocésaine de Nancy, MA 67) includes 5 deacons, 8 subdeacons, 22 in minor orders, 17 with tonsure, 39 theological students without tonsure and 34 philosophy students, for a total of 125 seminarians for the diocese of Nancy. From the letters preserved, it is possible to reconstitute the network of Augustine’s friendships: first, the seminarians of his region and his family (Benjamin, Ehalt, Hoffer, Jung, Gugholz, Krick, Maisse, Stricher, Wassereau); the absence of some names is surprising, such as Diviné de Mittelbronn; but Augustine is also close to other young persons from other (French-speaking) areas of the diocese: Balèvre, Boulanger, Cayet, Pardieu, Philbert, Rolle, Simonin and also Félix Chevreux, known as early as the minor seminary years at Pont-à-Mousson. From among the professors, Augustine could have chosen as spiritual director a German-speaker, such as Father Berman; instead he chose Chevallier.
6 Father J. Minque (Minck), born at Mittelbronn in 1798, a priest in 1823, pastor at Phalsbourg from 1832 until his death on 17 February 1842, “after a long and painful agony” (L’Espérance de Nancy, 1842, p. 87 et 91). His successor was Father Jean-Nicolas Heim, born at Bermering in 1800, ordained priest in 1824, pastor at Lixheim in 1825, then at Phalsbourg in 1842; he died on 1/5/1874.
7 Marie-Louise, born in 1811, and Caroline Schoeffler, born in 1815, devoted themselves to the service of their brother Charles, the priest. Augustine could have had as many as ten paternal uncles and aunts. There was also Marie-Claire, born in 1795, died in 1796; Marie-Madeleine born in 1797, died in 1800; Jean-Baptiste, born 1801, died 1829; Christine-Barbe, born 1807, married in 1835 to Jacques Déprez; Constant, born in 1813, died in 1824; André, the miliary man, and Élise. In his letters, there would never be any mention of the last two girls of his grandfather: Madeline (a natural child, recognized), and Célestine-Joséphine, child of a second marriage; perhaps both of them died young. On the maternal side, the Heimroth family is seldom mentioned: Barbe married Bernard (whose mother was a Wassereau); Élisabeth married to Metzger, died in 1840; Marguerite married to Didelot, died in 1868; Françoise married to Schwaller, died in 1867; and Antoine, recipient of Letter 23. (Notes of Father Noblet)