Branching Out When given the task of writing for this edition of the DOME with the theme being “Branching Out,” the scriptural passage that came to mind immediately was: “I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Jn 15:5 This got me to thinking about where I came from, my family “vine” if you will. My mother, an Atcher, grew up in West Point, Kentucky, my father in Kosmosdale, me and my siblings in Valley Station. The common denominator is Dixie Highway. I have been thinking of Dixie Highway as the “vine” and these places as “branches” of the highway. The Wigginton and Atcher vines have produced many branches and borne much fruit. There are more places along this highway, many of them with family connections, as well as connections to Ursuline Sisters. My West Point grandmother, back before they owned a car (their first car was a 1947 black Dodge which my grandmother drove well into the ’70s), would hitch the horses to a buggy and the family of ten would cross the Salt River on a ferry and then ride down Dixie Highway (31W) to St. Helen’s Church for Sunday Mass. Mass in West Point was only once a month. Grandmother would go the distance to receive Eucharist weekly. Her faith was strong. The horse and buggy trips would have been in the ’20s and ’30s. Most of the property along the way would have been farmland. These farmlands gave way to subdivisions and businesses all up and down Dixie Highway as the population boomed after World War II. The branches produced much fruit
along the way. And the Ursuline Sisters became a part of the vine and branches reaching out in service. Starting at St. Helen’s in 1902, Sisters Matthew Nicklas and De Chantal Schlagheck lived at St. Anthony’s Convent and commuted via train every day and later, via streetcar from St. Vincent de Paul Convent. The Ursulines branched out in service in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and into the ’80s at schools all along this vine of Dixie Highway—St. Clement, St. Timothy, Our Lady Help of Christians, and of course, Angela Merici High School. And this was just one part of Louisville! The “branching out” occurred throughout Louisville and beyond, into other states as well as Peru in South America. The Sisters went where there was a need, and they endured the hardships as well as the joys of serving God’s people in the name of Jesus, who is the Vine, as His branches. I certainly was affected, as were many others, by my Ursuline teachers at St. Clement and Angela Merici High School. Then in the ’60s and ’70s, the Sisters did a lot more branching out because of a request from Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. Up until then the Ursulines of Louisville were primarily kindergarten through college classroom teachers. A significant branching out occurred when we sent Sisters to minister in Peru. One of the outcomes of Vatican II was that Catholic Sisters worldwide were asked to go back
in time to study and discover who their founders/foundresses were and what their charism was. When we did that, we found out that St. Angela was not a classroom teacher. She certainly taught, but not in the way we thought. She went wherever there was a need. She taught by how she lived the gospel. So, in the ’70s we responded by branching out into other ministries within the church and beyond, such as social services and various parish ministries like directors of religious education, liturgy coordinators and pastoral associates. And in my case, a ministry with persons who were either deaf or blind or both deaf-blind. Because we have remained in Him and He in us we have borne much fruit and continue to do so! We have been blessed.
Sister Rita Ann Wigginton, OSU Councilor, Ursuline Sisters of Louisville DOME | WINTER 2022
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