Page 39 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 4
TO AMERICA

D nornrn Nrcnor,es r,rrr the Abbey of Maria Stein to
.l-t search for his Superior who was constantly on the
move visiting his flock scattered in the Swiss mountains.
Eventually he found him, and on October 17, 1880, he
received from Dom Peter the testimonial letter that he
had requested. In part it read: "We attest that Nicholas
Rykgn has conducted himself with so much diligence
in his novitiate of almost rluo years that he was about to
be admitted to profession. For this reason, if he
persevere and we obtain a permanent place where we
rn-ay reassemble,-we grant him rightfully the privilege
of returning among us. . . " Dom peter did not com-
pletely grasp the idea thar Brother Nicholas was with-
drawing permanently from the Trappists.
On November 4th, 1830, Brother Nicholas; now plain
Theodore Ryken, crossed the Swiss border at Basle,
declaring to the customs man, as indicated by the visa
on his passport, that he intended to return to'his native
Holland.
Four months later on March 7, 1831, he received a
new passport at The Hague. On it he identified himself
as "Mr. T. Ryken, shoemaker, residing in Switzerland."
A clerk filled in the personal characteristics: age 33, hair
and eyebrows brown, eyes brown, nose ordinary, height
five feet nine and threequarter inches. There is no
mention of "marks of small pox" as there was on the
passport issued to Ryken when he left Mont des Olives
{or Switzerland.
On the following day, W. P. Preble o[ the U. S. Lega-