Sister Floriana was elected abbess of Seligenthal by her fellow nuns in 1796. Seven years later, the government expropriated the convent and all the land went to the state. Although the sisters were granted the right to live there for life, they were no longer allowed to take in new residents. The convent was to die out. When Abbess Floriana died in 1820, many of her fellow sisters had passed away and the novitiate had been deserted for 17 years. The painting of her that we walk past every day reads: ... the last abbess.
But things turned out differently. 15 years after her death - there were still five sisters left - King Ludwig I allowed the sisters to accept new members. Young women joined the convent again and by the 1960s, the convent had grown to over 130 sisters.
Something that Mother Floriana could hardly have dared to dream of in the last years of her life.
May her story inspire us to dare to dream big. Without being afraid of disappointment.
We might experience: God exceeds our wildest hopes.
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