25 minute read
From the Leadership Circle
from DOME - Winter 2022
by ursulineslou
Branching Out
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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.
Flooded Shelby Street next to the old Motherhouse chapel during the Ohio River Flood in 1937 Ursuline High band members on the steps of St. Peter’s in Columbia,1940. In 1957, Ursuline High was renamed Catholic High School of Columbia.
The late 1930s were a time of challenges and change. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression (1929-1939) when the Ohio River flooded in January 1937—stretching from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, leaving one million homeless. 250,000 of Louisville’s 350,000 inhabitants were forced to leave their homes and find safety on higher ground. The Ursulines took refugees in and housed them on the Lexington Road campus for two weeks. The Ursulines survived these terrible events while continuing their mission of education. In 1938, the Ursuline Sisters of Columbia, South Carolina, joined the Louisville Ursulines. Having survived General Sherman’s attack on Columbia during the Civil War, whereby he burned their Academy to the ground leaving them homeless, this small group of Ursulines then moved several times, eventually building a new convent in the city.
In 1858, they established Ursuline High School for girls, however, by 1933, due to their small number (13), the lack of vocations, and increasing age of the Columbia Ursulines, the future of the girls’ high
school they had founded, Ursuline High School, was very much in question. According to a historical record of the Louisville Ursulines, in November 1936, Bishop Walsh “appealed to us as the only hope of preserving the Ursuline traditions in South Carolina.”
By joining with Louisville, their founded school remained open, coming under the leadership of the Ursulines of Louisville.
In 1938, Ursuline College was founded by the Ursuline Sisters as a four-year program to expand and continue the programs of Sacred Heart Junior College. Founded in 1921 through the leadership
of Mother Theodore Guethoff, with Sister Dominica Hettinger as the first academic dean, Sacred Heart Junior College provided an avenue for secondary education for the Ursuline Sisters and other young women at a time when the opportunity for a college degree for most women was very limited. Ursuline College became well regarded for its education and science programs.
...in November 1936, Bishop Walsh “appealed to us as the only hope of preserving the Ursuline traditions in South Carolina.” By joining with Louisville, their founded school remained open, coming under the leadership of the Ursulines of Louisville.
Ursuline High School, Columbia, South Carolina, 1941, Craycraft Card Company. Digital Collection: “Postcards” of South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, SC 29208. Also in 1938, the bonds between the Louisville Ursuline Community and their founding motherhouse in Germany were reestablished with the arrival of Sisters Caecilia Staemmer and Seraphina Winkler who, as many religious from Germany did, found it necessary to leave their homeland during WWII. Sister Caecilia taught German at the college, and Sister Seraphina worked at St. Joseph Home and taught German to the other Sisters on Saturdays. The years they spent with the Louisville Ursulines restored the friendship and connection between the two groups.1 Over the next several years, with Mother Roberta Zehe as superior, several new buildings, including Brescia Hall, a science building for the college, were constructed. This expansion was not without financial stress. Many prayers and sacrifices were made to pay off debts and the community entered the 1940s on a hopeful note. In 1944, the Louisville Ursulines extended their mission work to the deep south, in Camden, Mississippi, teaching summer school there. In 1946, Mother Rosalin Schaeffer received a request from Monsignor J.B. Brunini, chancellor of the Diocese of Natchez, for teachers to staff Sacred Heart Mission School, which served the children of poor, Black sharecroppers of the area. Mother Rosalin sent Sisters Angelina Geis, Dolorosa Gough and Margaret Mary Pittmon to Camden to teach at the school, which included grades kindergarten through high school. Additional Ursulines were sent there to teach catechism at various parishes throughout the area during the summer months. A report from June 1946 states: “This mission is for colored [sic] children and the Community is happy to take the Mission as a mission project. It will be taken care of by the Community.”2
In 1946, Sister Raymond Carter wrote in an article in The Record, “Sacred Heart Mission School is not to be just another school for the Negro. It has a specific, unique goal which is in accord with the purpose of the cooperative village. No education is too good for this village, but it must savor of the soil.”3 A total of 41 Louisville Ursulines served at Sacred Heart Mission School from 1946 to 1992, 46 years. Many vocations came from other mission areas, including Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Sister Donata Kokot grew
First graduating class of Ursuline College, 1939
Continued from page 5 up in a coal-mining camp in West Virginia, and attended public school. Mary (her birth name) recalled encountering the Ursuline Sisters in 1932, at age 5, for summer catechism lessons. She recalled, “I had never seen nuns before. I told my mother that’s what I want to be…I thought they were dropped from Heaven.”4 Sister Regina Bevelacqua (1935-2021), born to an Italian immigrant family, credited her younger brother, Anthony, with her parents’ decision to switch from public schools to St. Francis de Sales Catholic School in Morgantown, West Virginia. He said, “I want to go where the ladies wear long dresses.” Her relationships with the Ursuline Sisters led to her later joining the community.5 According to the Community’s Annals for 1947, in addition to teaching 9,705 pupils in grade schools, 1,349 in high schools, and 273 in Ursuline College, the Ursulines were also sponsoring 19 vacation programs, 15 religion programs for public school children, and one orphanage that cared for 140 children.6 The 1950s saw changes made by religious communities in the formation of their novitiates and an enhancement in their professional development as teachers. This decade also saw an increasing number of lay teachers joining the staffs of parish schools and the schools founded by the Ursulines. The unwritten mandate of a Sister in every classroom disappeared, and the Ursulines changed with the times. They also accepted positions at the new schools of St. Raphael and Our Lady of Lourdes parishes in Louisville and St. Aloysius in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. In South
—Sister Donata Kokot
Sister Yvonne Moran with Sacred Heart Mission School students in Camden, Mississippi, circa 1950s.
Dates Served Name 1938-1944 Mother Roberta Zehe 50 1944-1950 Mother Rosalin 1950-1956 Mother Columba Ishanski 50 1956-1962 Mother Cosma Coponi 63 1962-1968 Mother Agnes Marie Long 61
South Carolina Ursulines join with Louisville. 1938
Sacred Heart Junior College expands to a four-year college for women renamed Ursuline College under the leadership of Mother Roberta Zehe. 1938
Sisters begin teaching in Mississippi under the leadership of Mother Roberta Zehe. 1944
Sacred Heart Model School and Marian Hall built on the Ursuline campus. 1955
1938
Straubing Ursulines Caecilia Staemmer and Seraphina Winkler live with the Louisville Ursulines during WWII.
1939
Brescia Hall built on the Ursuline campus.
Sisters begin teaching children with intellectual and physical disabilities.
1951 1956
Ursuline Speech Clinic opens.
Dates Served Name Age 1938-1944 Mother Roberta Zehe 50 1944-1950 Mother Rosalin 1950-1956 Mother Columba Ishanski 50 1956-1962 Mother Cosma Coponi 63 1962-1968 Mother Agnes Marie Long 61 1. St. Raphael School, circa 1950, L to R: Sisters Norberta Rickert, Theodora Breighner, Annunciata Muth and Ruth Ann Campion with Father Leo J. Sheeran 2. Sister Rosaire Miltenberger with students at the Ursuline Speech Clinic 3. Sister Johanna Maier with grades 6 and 7, St. Mary School, Jackson, MS, 1957 Carolina, the Ursulines went to St. Joseph School. Sister Maria Goretti Lovett was the last Ursuline there, where she taught for 41 years. Seeing the need for special classes for those with intellectual disabilities, the Archdiocese of Louisville started a special class in 1949 within the Catholic school system. In 1951, Monsignor Felix N. Pitt asked Mother Columba Ishanski to provide a Sister to teach the “Opportunity Class,” as it was called, at St. Patrick School. The Opportunity Class moved around to various parishes, but from 1951 to 1965, Sister Mary Vincent Strittmatter was a consistent presence. Sister Regina Bevelacqua succeeded Sister Mary Vincent as director in 1967. A March 1958 St. Patrick PTA newsletter article on the program stated, “Recently a fourteen-year-old beamed at his teacher and exclaimed incredulously, ‘Sister, I can read!’ ” There was also a class for children with vision impairments, called the “Sight Saving Class,” that was directed by Sister Mary Lavinia Lesousky from 1951 to 1968. In 1956, the Ursuline Speech Clinic was opened on campus. Later, in 1964, the Ursuline Special Education Learning Center was established as a laboratory school for Ursuline College students majoring in special education. This was the realization of a dream of one of the early deans of Ursuline College, Sister Raymond Carter. Generous donors, including the WHASTV Crusade for Children, made the funding of this department possible.7
Ursuline Sisters of Pittsburgh join Ursuline Sisters of Louisville under the leadership of Mother Cosma Coponi.
Ursuline Academy in Pittsburgh comes under Louisville leadership.
1958
Pope John XXIII opens the Vatican II council in Rome.
1962 1964
Santa Angela Merici School opens in Carmen de la Legua, Peru, founded by the Ursulines 1965
1958 1959
Angela Merici High School for girls opens in southwest Louisville.
Ursuline Special Education Learning Center was established.
1963
Sister Anna Marie (Bernadette) Trance was the first Sister to teach at Bellarmine College.
1964
First Louisville Ursuline missionaries arrive in Peru, South America, sent by Mother Agnes Marie Long.
Continued from page 7 1955 brought about two new buildings on campus: Sacred Heart Model School and Marian Hall. Marian Hall was built as a dormitory, dining facility, library and chapel for students attending Ursuline College. The new buildings were bittersweet sights for some of the Ursuline Sisters as the beloved St. Angela Hall, the original mansion on the property that was over 100 years old, was torn down to make room for the new Marian Hall building.
Founded in 1924, the Model School was named for its innovative approach as a model teaching environment for students majoring in education at Ursuline College. In 1957, the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville were preparing to celebrate their centennial the following year when they received word that the Ursuline Sisters of Pittsburgh wished to explore the option of joining them. The Pittsburgh Ursulines had been founded in 1870 by a group of French and English Ursulines who started Ursuline Academy in Pittsburgh in 1872.
The number of Sisters in the Pittsburgh convent was always small, and in the mid 1950s they were 22 in number. Bishop John F. Dearden informed the Sisters that they could not remain any longer as an independent community, citing the small number of Sisters, decreased enrollment at Ursuline Academy and lack of new vocations.
The Louisville Ursulines considered it providential that they should help the Pittsburgh Ursulines in any way possible as an act of thanksgiving to God for graces they had received in their one hundred years as a community. On July 22, 1958, the Vatican gave permission for the union of the Ursuline Sisters of Pittsburgh and the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville.8
The community’s annals (June 1954 to December 1962) stated, “Twenty-two professed Sisters [from Pittsburgh] have been added to the Community making a total of 596 professed and 21 novices.”
With this merger, another Ursuline Academy came under the leadership of the Louisville Ursulines—Ursuline Academy of Pittsburgh. Louisville Ursulines began to staff other schools in Pittsburgh as well.
Even before the official merger, in September 1957, two Louisville
Sacred Heart Model School, 1955
The Louisville Ursulines considered it providential that they should help the Pittsburgh Ursulines in any way possible as an act of thanksgiving to God for graces they had received in their one hundred years as a community. On July 22, 1958, the Vatican gave permission for the union of the Ursuline Sisters of Pittsburgh and the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville.
Ursulines, Assumpta Devine and Annalita Fox, went to live and minister with the Pittsburgh Ursulines. The two wrote to their Louisville community that, “The distance away may be great, but the spirit is the same. The Sisters are so congenial and eager to make us feel at home. Simplicity and charity are outstanding among these Ursulines.”9 A total of 122 Ursuline Sisters of Louisville served in Pittsburgh from 1957 to 2006.
Although small in number, the Pittsburgh Ursulines brought many gifts to the community’s teaching mission. Sister De Chantal Mulligan, who joined the Pittsburgh Ursulines in 1909, was instrumental in getting all women religious in Pittsburgh certified as teachers and founded the Sisters’ Alumnae Association of Duquesne University. When she died at age 109 on March 31, 1997, at Marian Home on the Ursuline campus, it was determined that she had been the oldest woman religious in the United States!
Several Pittsburgh Ursulines enriched Louisville with their teaching ministries. Sisters Mary Catherine Vukmanic and MarieAline (Antonia Marie) Massicotte taught at Ursuline College, and Sister Mary Catherine went on to earn a doctorate in theology from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Sister Mary Catherine also taught at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in the 1950s, and at St. Mary’s Seminary-College of Theology and St. Catharine College, both in Kentucky. Another Pittsburgh Ursuline, Sister Anna Marie (Bernadette) Trance was the first Sister to teach at Bellarmine College when she joined their education faculty in 1963. One previously skeptical student said after a semester in Sister Anna Marie’s class, “Sisters make very capable college teachers. I’d like to see Bellarmine have more of them.”10
Continued from page 9
Top: Angela Merici High School cornerstone laying with sister and priests, 1959 Bottom: Angela Merici High School cornerstone laying with students, 1959
1958 saw the centennial celebration of the Ursulines’ arrival in Louisville, and much fanfare and pageantry. School plays, lectures, and liturgical celebrations marked the occasion. The community had achieved much during the 100 years from its humble beginnings on Chestnut Street.
That same year, the Ursulines received permission to build a third Ursuline high school for girls in Louisville which would be in the south end, near Shively. The Ursulines viewed building the school, Angela Merici High School, as a significant milestone to usher in the next century of their ministry in the United States. 11 By the late 1950s, the Ursuline Sisters had staffed, or were staffing, 23 parochial schools in the Louisville area, as well as schools in other states. In Louisville, they owned and operated Ursuline College, Ursuline Academy, Sacred Heart Academy, Sacred Heart Model School, Angela Merici High School, and the Ursuline Speech Clinic.
Schools that Ursulines served between 1858–1965*
Name of School City State Years served St. Martin of Tours School Louisville KY 1858—1967 Ursuline Academy Louisville KY 1859—1972 St. Mary School Louisville KY 1861—1871 Corpus Christi School Newport KY 1864—1900 St. Aloysius School Covington KY 1866—1867 St. Joseph School Louisville KY 1867—1872** St. Peter School Louisville KY 1868—1967 SS Peter & Paul School East Liberty PA 1869—1874 St. Boniface School Lafayette IN 1868—1877 St. Charles Borromeo School Peru IN 1870—1874 St. Joseph School Logansport IN 1870—1874 St. Anthony School Jeffersonville IN 1870—1892 SS. Peter & Paul School Cumberland MD 1870—1981 St. Mary School Madison IN 1872—1954 Holy Childhood of Jesus Mascoutah IL 1872—1888 St. Boniface School Germantown IL 1873—1877 St. Francis of Assisi School Dayton KY 1873—1901 St. Joseph Academy St. Joseph KY 1874—1912 Immaculate Conception Columbia IL 1875—1890 Sacred Heart Academy Louisville KY 1877— St. Mary School Bloomington IL 1877—1883 St. Boniface School Edwardsville IL 1878—1880 St. Mary School Metamora IL 1878—1894 St. Mary School Lincoln IL 1878—1882 St. Patrick School Lincoln IL 1878—1882 St. Mary School El Paso IL 1879—1882 SS Peter & Paul School Haubstadt IN 1879—1881 St. Celestine School Celestine IN 1880—1885 St. Vincent de Paul School Louisville KY 1880—1979 St. Mary School Memphis TN 1881—1890 Sacred Heart School Pekin IL 1881—1888 St. Patrick School Minonk IL 1881—1882 St. Boniface School/Westside Catholic Consolidated Evansville IN 1881—1980 Huberta Academy/St. Joseph School Owensboro KY 1881—1919 St. Francis of Assisi School Ottawa IL 1882—1887 Holy Ghost School St. Louis MO 1883—1893 St. James School St. James IN 1884—1890 Holy Trinity School Louisville KY 1885—1979 St. Alphonsus School St. Joseph KY 1885—1888 St. Bernard School St. Louis MO 1886—1899
The community had achieved much during the 100 years from its humble beginnings on Chestnut Street. That same year, the Ursulines received permission to build a third Ursuline high school for girls in Louisville which would be in the south end, in Shively. The Ursulines viewed building the school, Angela Merici High School, as a significant milestone to usher in the next century of their ministry in the United States.
AMHS Math class with Sr. Georgine Grabenstein, Carol Brennenstuhl, Ann Garns and Peggy Molloy, 1962
The 1960s arrived in a wave of revolutions: cultural, economic, and political. The Vietnam War cast a long shadow over the country, and the civil rights movement brought to light many injustices that had long been a part of our country’s history. Priests and religious found themselves drawn into social justice concerns as never before. And within the Catholic Church, Vatican II was the revolution.
Opened in 1962 by Pope John XXIII, and closed in 1965, this twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church sought to connect the Church with the modern world—to open its windows and present its teachings in a manner that was relevant and understandable to the laity.
Just prior to Vatican II, in 1961, Pope John XXIII asked religious communities to send 10 percent of
Schools that Ursulines served between 1858-1965*
Name of School City State Years served St. Mary School St. Henry IL 1886—1887 St. Joseph School Memphis TN 1887—1888 St. Henry School St. Louis MO 1889—1893 St. Michael School Frostburg MD 1891—1899 SS Peter & Paul Ursuline Academy Cumberland MD 1892—1966 St. Patrick School Mount Savage MD 1896—1899 St. Joseph Orphange Louisville KY 1897—2010 St. Boniface School Louisville KY 1898—1967 St. Anthony School Louisville KY 1899—1971 St. George School Louisville KY 1899—1976 St. Helen School Louisville KY 1902—1998 St. Sylvester School Ottenheim KY 1903—1904 St. Romuald School Hardinsburg KY 1903—1912 St. Mary School Cumberland MD 1903—1989 St. Elizabeth of Hungary Louisville KY 1906—1982 St. Leo the Great School Louisville KY 1906—1974 St. Therese School Louisville KY 1907—1987 St. Ann School Louisville KY 1907—1985 St. Peter Claver School Louisville KY 1908—1967 St. Mary High School Cumberland MD 1910—1959 St. Francis of Assisi School Louisville KY 1911—1989 St. Martin School Rome KY 1912—1916 St. Augustine School New Straitsville OH 1915—1955 St. Francis de Sales Morgantown WV 1915—1987 Sacred Heart School/Conemaugh Catholic Conemaugh PA 1915—1979 St. Patrick Academy Sidney NE 1916—1989 St. Mary School Rushville NE 1916—1933 St. Patrick School North Platte NE 1916—1975 St. Aloysius School Louisville KY 1916—1916 St. Ambrose School Seymour IN 1917—1929 St. Joseph School Diamond IN 1918—1923 St. Mary School Washington IN 1918—1928 St. Michael School South Sioux City NE 1918—1923 St. Michael/St. Therese School Omaha NE 1918—1941 St. Bartholomew School Columbus IN 1919—1929 Blessed Sacrament School Omaha NE 1920—1990 Sacred Heart Junior College/Ursuline College/Bellarmine Louisville KY 1921—1996
Continued from page 11 their members to serve in Latin America. So, in November 1961, Sister Cosma Coponi, then Mother Superior, wrote to her Sisters: “May we ask the Sisters who are interested in working in Latin America for a period of at least five years to inform us of their willingness to do so?”12
Twenty sisters volunteered.
In February 1964, the next superior, Mother Agnes Marie Long, received a letter from the Apostolic Nuncio in Peru requesting Sisters to teach in a high school for girls. Mother Agnes Marie and Sister Delia Lynch traveled to Lima in March of that year to determine where the Louisville Ursulines could best serve. Father Thomas Garrity visited Mother Agnes Marie, seeking religious to come to Carmen de la Legua in Callao outside of Lima, then a slum area of impoverished families who had migrated there from the Andes Mountains.
The Brothers of St. Gabriel from Montreal, Canada, also asked Mother Agnes Marie for Sisters to teach English in the Liceo Naval Almirante Guise, the Peruvian Navy School for children of Navy personnel. Mother Agnes Marie accepted responsibility for the school, as that arrangement would help fund the missionary work in Carmen de la Legua.13
Much like the small group of Ursulines who left Bavaria to start the community in Louisville, four Louisville Ursulines left for Peru in July 1964, knowing very little about
Schools that Ursulines served between 1858–1965*
Name of School City State Years served St. Michael School Madison IN 1922—1954 Sacred Heart Model School Louisville KY 1924— St. Rita School Louisville KY 1928—1982 Catholic Schools Office Louisville KY 1932—1984 Ursuline High School/Columbia Catholic/Cardinal Newman Columbia SC 1936—1998 St. Peter School Columbia SC 1936—1972 St. Joseph Academy O’Connor NE 1937—1951 Holy Spirit School Louisville KY 1937—1978 Our Mother of Sorrows Louisville KY 1937—1991 Sacred Heart School Camden MS 1946—1992 Archdiocesan Reading Clinic Louisville KY 1947—1969 St. Raphael the Archangel Louisville KY 1948—1996 St. Mary School Jackson MS 1949—1990 Our Lady of Lourdes School Louisville KY 1950—1988 Archdiocesan Opportunity Class/Special Education Class/ Msgr. Pitt Learning Center Louisville KY 1951—1971 Archdiocesan Sight Saving Class Louisville KY 1951—1968 Shawe Memorial High School Madison IN 1952—1999 St. Mary-Michael School/Pope John XXIII School Madison IN 1954—1984 St. Aloysius School Shepherdsville KY 1954—1991 St. Joseph School Columbia SC 1954—2016 Ursuline Speech Clinic Louisville KY 1956—1996 St. Clement School Louisville KY 1957—1986 Ursuline Academy Pittsburgh PA 1957—1981 Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament School Pittsburgh PA 1958—1979 Angela Merici High School Louisville KY 1959—1984 Our Lady Help of Christians Louisville KY 1959—1972 Incarnate Word College San Antonio TX 1959—1960 Ursuline Tutoring Program/Tutoring Center Louisville KY 1960—1995 St. Joseph School Pittsburgh PA 1961—1984 Ursuline Special Education Learning Center Louisville KY 1964—1981 St. Timothy School Louisville KY 1964—1988 Liceo Naval Almirante Guise Lima Peru 1964—1971 Santa Angela Merici School Callao Peru 1964—
—Sister Lee Kirchner
the people or the missionary work that awaited them. Sisters Helen Margaret (Aquinas) Schweri and Mary Xavier Smith joined the staff of the Peruvian Navy School and Sisters Lelia “Lee” (Placidus) Kirchner and Mary Martha (Joseph Marie) Staarman began working in the barriada of Carmen de la Legua, in Callao.
After a three-month crash course in Spanish, Sister Lee and Sister Mary Martha set about their monumental task to start a school in the barriada. Sister Lee recalls, “I felt so zealous until I saw our mission, Carmen de la Legua, which was a slum area of 10,000 poor families that lived along a dried-up bed of the Rimac River in straw huts and spoke another language. Oh, my Jesus, guide and keep me.”
They had no electricity, running water, sewers, basic medical care or transportation. The area had a lot of mosquitos, scorpions and vermin, and disease was rampant. In 1965, after a lot of red tape, they were able to open Santa Angela Merici School. They started it with 75 children in two first grade rooms, one box of chalk and two erasers! Enrollment quickly grew as it was the only Catholic school in the area.14
For over a hundred years, the Ursulines of Louisville had reached out to many communities in faith, both in the United States and Peru. They had changed to meet the needs of the people and were challenged by the words of their foundress, St. Angela Merici: “If, according to times and circumstances, the need arises to make new rules or to do something differently, do it prudently and with good advice.”
Sweeping changes within the Church in the late 1960s and the decade that followed awaited the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville. They met those changes in faith, hope, and with a return to their roots, examining their charism and the very structure of their community life.
Top: Mother Agnes Marie Long (L) and Sister Delia Lynch (second from R) visiting a school in Lima, Peru, run by Roman Union Ursulines while on a fact-finding trip in 1964, prior to sending Louisville Ursulines to Peru. The sister in a white habit is Sister Stephanie, a Roman Union Ursuline, March 1964. Bottom: The first four Sisters missioned to Peru in 1964 (L-R): Mother Xavier Smith, Sister Lee (Placidus) Kirchner, Sister Mary Martha (Joseph Marie) Staarman, and Sister Helen (Aquinas) Schweri. Footnotes are on page 15. Special thanks to Laurel Wilson for research for this article.
