Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists, wrote to Mother Maddalena, on July 20, 1876: “Who knows but that after all it may be [the] will of Divine Providence that when you have learned by your present trials the greatest of all lessons in spiritual life,—absolute dependence upon God, utterly regardless of all else whatsoever—you will find [that] the intention and purpose for which you undertook your voyage is the one He has appointed for your first work in this country? May the light to see and the strength to follow at all costs the holy will of God be imparted to our souls!”