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Notre Dame Sisters mark milestones NDA breaks ground on expansion May 5, 2008 Nun offers mercy, but robber gets jail May 1, 2008 Local School Specializes In Education For Women April 29, 2008 Dallas diocese picks new Catholic schools' leader May 2,2008 April 20, 2008 Yorkville prepares for Pope's visit April 7, 2008 Members of Wilton's School Sisters of Notre Dame attend UN conference March 5, 2008
Notre Dame gets $2M anonymous donation WORCESTER, MASS — Thanks to a $2 million anonymous donation to Notre Dame Academy, students of Central Massachusetts’ only Catholic all-girls high school can look forward to a new art studio and gallery, music studio and student center. The lead gift, the largest in the school’s history, brings the total received to nearly $3 million toward the $4.5 million goal. Groundbreaking on the new wing is expected in June, with planned completion in 18 months. “I think we all agreed that to follow suit with the quality of what the faculty is doing, and the quality of what the girls are doing, we really needed to update the facility,” said fundraising committee member Kate Monahan Myshrall of Worcester, an alumna in the class of 1980. Plans call for the addition of computer technology for graphic arts design in the art studio and a technologically advanced music studio for the study of music theory and composition. Extensive renovations are also planned to upgrade the existing science labs, classrooms, theater and integrate state-of-the-art learning systems. “A committee of parents and alumnae has been studying this for three to five years and we decided this year to begin a silent fundraising and end that phase in June,” said Sister Ann Morrison, principal of the school. “This $2 million gift has certainly been wonderful. I do not know the donor’s name, but other members of the school community have made contact.” Since Notre Dame Academy opened in 1951 on Salisbury Street, more than 3,300 women have received an education at the academy, which is owned and operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. “In some ways, the wonderful things about the school are the same as when I went here in the ’70s — like how devoted and caring the teachers are and how much they expect from you. The close-knit community and the fun traditions, those things are the same,” said Rachel Kenary Egan of Worcester, class of 1977 and mother of three daughters, Emily, class of 2006; Rachel, class of 2007; and Abigail, class of 2008. Mrs. Egan and her husband, Jay, are co-chairmen of the fundraising effort with Michele and Bill Landes of Southboro. “But we know the way they teach kids today, and how girls are taught in particular, that the style is much different,” said Mrs. Egan. “When I went here, desks were in rows, but now they are taught in a cooperative style with fewer kids in each class. That means you need more room,” she continued. “Also, technology is different today and you need room for that equipment. And the arts and general curriculum has expanded.” The capital campaign’s theme, “Journey of a Young Woman,” is depicted in a watercolor of a girl with a backpack as she is about to enter the gates of Notre Dame. It also symbolizes the beginning of her journey into womanhood. “Girls enter as scared little 14-year-olds at the threshold of their life and come out these beautiful young women,” said Mrs. Myshrall. “It’s such an awkward stage for girls at that age and Notre Dame provides a special place for them. The faculty and staff are so in tune to what girls need at that stage of their life. “I still keep in touch with many of my classmates who have come back to the area and are now at major companies, law firms and schools. They are not just outstanding in their profession, but in their local community as well,” she said. “You graduate from Notre Dame
thinking that you can do anything. You leave to set the world
on fire. And we’re still trying.” Portrait of a nun drawn in new bio
August 1, 2000 "The sisters are really special wondrous loving people" said Thousand Oaks resident Andrea Fuchs who for the past five years has come regularly with her 88-year-old mother to pray with the sisters on Sunday morning. This month the local sisters will be celebrating both the 150th anniversary of the order's formation and the 75th anniversary of their arrival in California. Invited to the event which will begin with a Mass at 4 p.m. are 2600 guests. Nine priests will attend with Regional Bishop Thomas Curry officiating. The service under a canopy in front of the convent will be followed by a buffet dinner in the gymnasium of neighboring La Reina High School which is one of the three schools the sisters own and run in California. "Getting an education at La Reina was no doubt one of the blessings of my life" said Theresa Solis who graduated from La Reina and now works for Amgen. "The atmosphere really allowed me to excel not only in academics but in leadership skills as well." In addition to their teachings the Sisters of Notre Dame are also active in local charitable non-profit organizations for seniors and young people such as the Conejo Youth Employment Service Manna Many Mansions and Hospice. "The sisters of Notre Dame as you may expect quietly go about doing the business of following their ministry in terms of community service" said Thousand Oaks City Councilman Andy Fox who is planning to attend the anniversary celebration. "La Reina consistently has students participating in outside community programs so the sisters really do lead by example. They are really involved in the community. Certainly their influence goes beyond the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion." The religious order of the Sisters of Notre Dame was first inspired by St. Julie Billiart who turned to teaching the impoverished children of France during the French Revolution. Later in 1850 during the Industrial Revolution Sister Maria Aloysia began the order of the Sisters of Notre Dame in the spirit of St. Julie by taking in and educating the impoverished children of Germany. Now 150 years later the order is represented in 13 countries and five continents in schools from Watts to Uganda. "The dinner is for all the people that have been associated with the Sisters of Notre Dame over the years" said Sandi Stutzman La Reina volunteer and public relations coordinator. "They've got a lot a lot of supporters." Celebration The Sisters of Notre Dame will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of their order and the 75th anniversary of their arrival in California on Sunday Aug. 13th. Sunday Liturgy will be held at 4 p.m. at Notre Dame Center with a dinner reception at La Reina High School immediately following. The event is by invitation only. Copyright, 2000, Ventura County Star Boston Globe December 9, 1999 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME CELEBRATE
BIRTHDAY\ ORDER MARKS 150 YEARS OF MINISTERING TO NEW ENGLAND At the Notre Dame Education Center in South Boston, small miracles take place every day. They are reflected in the faces of 500 students, most of them new immigrants, struggling to learn English, and a smaller number of others preparing for their high school equivalency and learning to read at the patient prodding of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The new arrivals come from 44 countries and speak more than 20 languages. "Language is vital for their livelihood," said Sister Suzanne Murphy, one of the seven nuns who founded the center in 1992. "The center fills another need. Some of the students come from countries where they are at war with each other. They come to the center and talk about their differences and seem to be able to work them out." The center is one of three in the country run by the sisters. The others are in Lawrence and Washington, D.C. The centers are one of the 14 ministries of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who are celebrating their 150th anniversary in New England this year. In honor of the occasion, some 1,000 alumni of the schools where the sisters have taught or still teach, along with friends and admirers, will gather tomorrow evening at the World Trade Center in Boston, capping a year-long series of events. Funds raised will support the congregation's ministries in their mission "to stand with poor people as they struggle for adequate means for human life and dignity." In their constitution, the sisters cite education as "fundamental in bringing about the reign of God." The order's director of development, Sister Janice Waters, said its mission is "to provide a quality education for those who have the hardest time getting one: working-class families, the poor, immigrants, and adults who have slipped through the system." The congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur was founded in France in 1804 by Julie Billiart, who later was honored with sainthood. Its founding mission was to teach and reach out to the poor, particularly women and children. In the 19th century, the sisters branched out to North America, Europe and Africa. In 1849, three sisters arrived in Boston and taught at St. Mary's in the North End, then the only Catholic parish school in Boston. They later established schools in cities and mill towns throughout New England. Today, more than 2,100 sisters of the order serve in 15 countries on five continents. In New England, the order has three provinces and 630 sisters. The recipients of Notre Dame education have come from all walks of life and many have gone on to distinguished careers. Governor Paul Cellucci is one of them, having attended Notre Dame schools in Hudson for 12 years. "I remember the good sisters with great fondness," the governor said through his spokesman. "They reinforced for me the values learned at home, which were to be respectful and tolerant of others." Besides teaching, the nuns also do outreach with the poor and the elderly, work with needy families in public housing, or those displaced from public housing, with programs such as Project Care & Concern in Dorchester, Julie's Family Learning Program in South Boston, the Notre Dame Montessori School in Dorchester, and St. Julie Asian Center in Lowell. "Our mission is the same today as it was in the beginning," said Sister Maria Delaney, executive director of the education center in South Boston and one of its founders. "We've endeavored to stay in the city to work with those who need us most. We have been able to adapt education to the needs of the people." Before the center was started, the site was home to Cardinal Cushing Central High School, one of more than 100 schools the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur founded in New England. When the school closed in 1991, the sisters opened the center to accommodate the booming immigrant population. "We've lasted so long," Sister Maria said, "because we've been able to adapt to the times." They opened Emmanuel College in Boston in 1919, the first Catholic college for women in New England. In conjunction with the anniversary, tomorrow's ceremony will honor seven people who have had distinguished careers or lent their talents and time to the nuns' work with the newly established Notre Dame Education Awards. Those receiving the award include a nun, an educator, a physician, a woman who works at one of the order's food pantries, a man who helps the nuns with their finances, an alumnae group worker and a priest. "I attribute my success as an educator to the Sisters of Notre Dame," said Maryann Manfredonia, principal of East Boston Central Catholic High School, who will receive the Sister Marie Francesca, SND, Award for Excellence in Education. Manfredonia was once a student at the school she now heads. Now, 50, she recalled that when she was 14, she entered what was then Fitton High School for Girls, run by the sisters. "I was a frivolous girl, not as studious as I should have been," she said. "The sisters taught me good study habits and guided me with loving patience. They took a child and formed me into a woman." Along with three other parochial schools in East Boston, Fitton merged into East Boston Central Catholic in 1974. "As an educator today," Manfredonia said, "I strive to pass on to my teachers and students that combination of discipline and value system which the nuns taught me." Sister Suzanne Murphy, who taught at Cardinal Cushing for 20 of her 40 years in the order prior to teaching at the education center, will also receive the excellence in education award. With other nuns, Sister Suzanne has lived in the housing projects of South Boston for so long, she said, "that it is really home for me now. My move into the development is one of the most important things I ever did. "As a sister," she said, "we are always looking for a way to discover God. We can do that by living close to the people and taking part in all neighborhood activities." The Award for Courageous Service will be given to both Dr. Thomas S. Durant, assistant director of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Eva Mae Wilson, who has worked with Sister Joyce McMullen at Project Care & Concern for 12 years. An alumnus of schools run by the sisters, Durant has repeatedly volunteered his medical services in war-torn countries around the world. At Project Care & Concern, Wilson works in the food pantry and thrift shop where, Sister Joyce said, "she has gained a lot of respect and is a very valuable associate." Wilson, 63, of Roxbury, is related by marriage to the late Sister Dolores Harrall, the first African-American to enter the New England Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame. For his work as spiritual director at Campion Center, a Jesuit renewal center and retirement home in Weston, the Rev. James T. Sheehan will receive Le Bon Dieu Award for Spiritual Leadership. Sheehan, 70, first learned about the Sisters of Notre Dame as a child because his aunt was one. In the 1960s, he worked with them in an Emmanuel College program in South Boston where men and women were trained for different ministries. "They have been a model for me of the servant church," Sheehan said. "If their foundress were still alive, she would be cheering like crazy." Two other award recipients will be Margaret M. Mahler, of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federation of Notre Dame Alumnae, and Gerard J. Persson, founder of the Woburn-based Baystate Financial. They will receive the Anam Cara Award for Collaboration and Partnership. Mahler, 77, of Cambridge, has long been active in alumnae affairs and still keeps in touch with a nun who used to be her teacher and is now retired. "I worked for the phone company for 42 years," Mahler said, "and our supervisor said she could always pick out the girls who had gone to parochial school for their politeness and hard work." Persson has been a financial advisor on a pro bono basis for the nuns for more than 20 years. "Wherever the sisters go," he said, "they touch people. Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company Journal Gazette (Mattoon, IL) April 1, 1995 School Sisters of Notre Dame open centennial season The School Sisters of Notre Dame, St. Louis Province, celebrate 100 years of dedicated service to youth, women and the poor. Recently the School Sisters marked the beginning of the anniversary season by holding a day of service, prayer and celebration. Centennial activities continue through Nov. 11. Those in the Mattoon area participated in one of several diocesan-wide service projects to serve the people of the community. The School Sisters volunteered their time at a temporary, emergency child care center for families under stress. The center offers a homelike atmosphere for children at risk for abused women and children. In addition, the sisters spent quality time visiting with young patients at a local hospital. The fourth service project found the sisters working at a home for pregnant women and girls. The sisters also visited the homebound and people in nursing homes. Two School Sisters of Notre Dame serve in Mattoon at Immaculate Conception Parish. They are Sister Mary Odile Poliquin, director of religious education, and Sister Mary Timothy Ryan, pastoral associate. Six other School Sisters of Notre Dame have served in Mattoon, since 1980. They are Sisters Mary Celia Bauer, Nancy Marie Becker, Mary Boniface Janson, Rose Mary Linhoff, Sylveria Spinner and Mary Jeannine Vermeersch. The School Sisters of Notre Dame is an international congregation of more than 6,000 women religious from 21 provinces serving in 30 countries. The St. Louis Province currently consists of 734 women religious serving in 24 states and 10 countries. In addition to the day of service on March 25, the centennial celebration will include celebration liturgies at St. Francis Parish in Quincy, on May 7, and St. Anthony Parish in Effingham, May 21; a Family and Friends Day at the Province's Motherhouse in St. Louis on June 24; and the Life Visions Award Dinner in St. Louis on Nov. 11. Celebrating 100 Years In March, 1895, seven School Sisters of Notre Dame moved into the house on Grand View Estate overlooking the Mississippi River. Within a decade of its foundation, the province included missions in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Arkansas and Texas. During the first 70 years, the School Sisters of Notre Dame of the St. Louis Province helped build a vital parochial school system, established secondary schools and colleges, and staffed orphanages and schools for children with special needs. In the post World War II era, the sisters continued to heed the call to develop a world vision and a sense of global responsibility. After Vatican II, the call to further Christ's mission was answered in view of the emerging needs of a rapidly changing society. Copyright 1995, 2007, Journal Gazette and Times-Courier
July 4, 2007 IT'S THEIR HABIT TO HAVE
FUN To passersby, the Sisters of Notre Dame's stately home overlooking Dixie Highway in Park Hills, Ky., casts the illusion of a castle on a hill. Inside the large 1920s home, antiques fill the library, dining halls and corridors. All sizes of crucifixes created from various woods and metals hang on the walls. In some of the sisters' private rooms, rosaries are carefully placed on the pillows for easy access for end-of-the-day prayers. Exuberant singing flows from the Provincial House Chapel during Mass. In the remainder of the home, though, nuns, visitors and employees speak in soft, reverent tones. Serenity permeates the St. Joseph Heights campus -- perhaps serving as a spiritual sanctuary, preparing the community's 140 women to enter into the real world to tackle the issues of society with compassion, peace and hope. Today, though, the grounds will be filled with noise, music and games as the Sisters put on their 85th Fourth of July Festival and Social. It's a gathering they launched in 1922, after the Depression left the order financially struggling. Today, it remains as one of their largest fundraisers: They annually net $40,000 to $50,000 to support their mission in Uganda, Africa, and their retired nuns. In the 1920s, they had started building their home on the hill on what was then farmland in Covington. They needed a festival during that tough time to generate money to complete the original portion of the St. Joseph Heights campus. It was quite an affair. Dixie Highway was closed for the festival, which included $1 chicken dinners, boxing bouts, music and a car raffle. In 1926, it was a Custom Eight Sedan, donated by Willys Motors. The chicken dinners proved to be too much work, but plenty of other activities remain. The holiday frivolity contrasts sharply with the nuns' overall role today. "Early on in American history, nuns were the courageous risk-takers who realized the great challenges of the time," said Sister Marla Monahan, the SND local provincial, or leader. "They were the peace makers who tackled social concerns and took the lead on Catholic education." In the modern era, the Sisters of Notre Dame are still responding to society's needs, especially those surrounding war, poverty, homelessness and justice. "Our home does give the appearance that we have built a refuge from the world," said Sister Marla, "but really it represents an openness to the world. We are open to what the world desires of us, what God has called us to do." The Covington Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame has been called to do plenty since its first home opened in 1874 with two nuns on Montgomery Street in Covington. The Sisters have emerged as an integral part of the region. For the past century, they've prepared thousands of women for life at the region's largest Catholic High School, Notre Dame Academy, also located on its scenic Park Hills campus. In Fort Mitchell, they operate the Diocesan Catholic Children's Home, a refuge for children that have endured emotional and physical abuse. The sisters teach and serve as principals at several inner-city schools, such as Holy Spirit in Newport and Prince of Peace and St. Augustine in Covington. In Fort Wright, Ky., they operate St. Charles Care Center, a full-service senior living community, which furthers their mission to foster the fullness of life, especially for people who are poor, sick and aged. Less visible roles for the Sisters of Notre Dame include teaching religion, a prison ministry, addressing social concerns in the inner city and rural areas of Northern Kentucky. They also operate a Montessori school, Julie Learning School, on the Park Hills campus and care for the elderly sisters there. Outside the region, the Sisters operate the St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Ky., and run St. Julie Mission and school on a self-supporting farm in Buseesa, Uganda. They are wrestling with the long decline in the number of women who turn to sisterhood. Times have changed, and so have the women entering the order. Many of the women now come later in life, but they are also often the women who end up staying. The group is currently working on a strategic plan that will address their future needs. Not all of the order's 140 sisters live on the Park Hills campus. Some have chosen to live in smaller residences near where they serve. They often come back to the larger home on the hill, though. "I realized early on that, if you pool your gifts with others, you can make a bigger difference," said Sister Marla. Many of the order's nuns agree. All have brought different talents to the diverse pool of backgrounds and interests. Sister Mary Delores Giblin's role for the past 37 years has been molding the young women of Notre Dame Academy in her social studies classes. She will retire this year from teaching, but knows plenty of other roles await her. One of them is working in the order's archives. "I certainly learned a lot about myself too," she said. "Teaching taught me to have more patience, understanding, compassion." Sister Mary Joell Overman said the order has allowed her to carry on what her parents and her education at Notre Dame Academy instilled in her early on. "The sisters certainly nurtured that seed of vocation," she said. In addition to serving as the order's local leader, or provincial, she has served on the international level as superior general for 12 years. She is currently an ombudsman for Northern Kentucky Social Services. Copyright (c) 2007 The Kentucky Post
August 4, 1990 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME REUNITING IN CINCINNATI Five hundred Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur from throughout the United States and nine foreign countries will gather in Cincinnati for four days beginning Thursday to celebrate the congregation's first 150 years in America. One of the first religious communities of women in Cincinnati when they arrived from Europe in 1840, the Sisters of Notre Dame founded 16 schools during their first four decades. Only nine years after coming to Cincinnati, they established themselves in Dayton, initiating Catholic secondary education in the city at Franklin Street Academy. Chaminade-Julienne High School is a direct descendant of the academy. Many parish schools were opened under Notre Dame auspices as well, including Emmanuel, Holy Trinity, St. Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, St. John, Holy Angels, Holy Family, St. Agnes, St. James, St. Rita, Immaculate Conception, St. Helen and Ascension schools. Today the Sisters of Notre Dame continue to serve at Dayton-area parishes, hospitals and schools. Family, friends and former students of Notre Dame are invited to take part in the sesquicentennial at a series of events, including a Mass of Thanksgiving next Saturday celebrated by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk at St. Francis Xavier Church in downtown Cincinnati. Sister Carol Marie Diemunsch, a native of Dayton, is coordinating the events. Copyright, 1990, Cox Ohio Publishing
October 14, 1990 SISTERS AUCTION SOME OLD
FAVORITES TO RAISE MONEY It was a once-in-a-century yard sale, and the pickings were more than the average household clutter of unused furniture and extra kitchen utensils. Among the things that the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato auctioned off on Saturday were a bobsled made at the turn of the century, confessional kneelers, life-size religious statues, marble pillar decorations, Communion host-makers, and a special crucifix and holy water bottle for administering last rites. ``We're doing it to clean house, basically,'' said Sister Virginia Bieren, associate director of development and public relations for the Mankato province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. ``We've gotten to the point where it has to go,'' said Bieren, who joined the order after graduating in 1956 from high school in Washington state. ``There's no room for it, no need for it. We try not to keep excessive things we don't need. It's part of our vow of poverty.'' Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay for the care of retired and elderly sisters who live at the Mankato province residence, which sits atop Good Counsel Hill overlooking the city. A cornucopia of items accumulated by the sisters over decades was spread out on the courtyard of Good Counsel, home to the Mankato province since 1912. About 570 women belong to the Mankato province; about 200 of them reside at Good Counsel, and of that number about 100 are retired. Fast-talking auctioneers began selling off items about 10 a.m. By 1 p.m., some of the things that had fetched the highest price were never-used church pillar decorations made of plaster and marble ($1,000), a tall Sacred Heart statue (about $500) and tall armoires (about $425). The auction and a nearby craft fair also sponsored by the sisters drew more than 1,000 people. About $30,000 was raised by the auction and another $5,000 was generated by the craft fair. Some shoppers were there for sentimental reasons. They were graduates or relatives of students who attended the Good Counsel Academy the sisters operated until 1980. The all-girls school, which had boarding and day students, has since merged with Loyola High School. Bieren acknowledged that, like other religious orders, membership in the School Sisters of Notre Dame has declined from its mid-1960s peak. But she offered assurances that Saturday's auction did not signal the demise of the province. For people with ties to the sisters and the school, the oak desks, dressers and washstands reflected ``the good times and the sad times. It is a day for a lot of emotions,'' Bieren said. Sister Carmen Burg, director of development and public relations, said the day was ``like a reunion'' for former Good Counsel students. Shirley Noy, of Vernon City, spent $55 on a small round table with a carving of Good Counsel Academy around a picture of Pope John Paul II. It was done in 1979 by a Mexican man whose name is inscribed atop the table. Noy plans to give the table to her daughter, Connie Hackett, who graduated from the academy in 1968. ``I wanted something commemorative for my daughter,'' Noy said. Some shoppers were antique dealers or collectors looking for bargains - they hovered close to a tent covering dozens of pieces of coveted Red Wing pottery and kept a sharp eye on the Depression-era glass. A few dealers walked away unhappy, complaining that the bidding was too high. ``It definitely isn't a place to try to get a bargain,'' said Lynn Mawby of Waseca. His wife, Oma, runs an antique store, and the pair bought a commode stand for $75. Many of the sisters watched stoically as religious items made priceless because of their spiritual significance were inspected, touched, bid on and, finally, sold. For Bieren, the now-empty Red Wing crocks reminded her of the days when the province was self-sufficient and the sisters harvested fruits and vegetables they had nurtured in large gardens. A marble-top table with oak legs reminded Bieren of Sister Mary Edmund, renowned for her cake-decorating skills. ``This was her table,'' Bieren said. A retired sister, Irmina Opitz, watched with a grandnephew, Tom Monn, of Woodbury, as the religious statues were auctioned. Opitz at first downplayed any emotional attachment. ``We're old enough not to care anymore,'' she said. But when bidding began on a Sacred Heart statue of Jesus, Opitz recalled, ``We'd kneel at that statue every morning before we went to work.'' When the piece fetched nearly $500, a satisfied Opitz said, ``That's worth that to us, too.'' Copyright (c) 1990 St. Paul Pioneer Press Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) August 22, 1995 NUNS FIND WAY TO KEEP GIVING
- AFTER DEATH NEARLY 700 HAVE PLEDGED THEIR BRAINS TO HELP TAME
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. Sister Genevieve Kunkel spent half a century in classrooms from Florida to Massachusetts, teaching English, history, French, Spanish. She finally retired at the age of 79, but then along came one of the most intriguing academic challenges of her life. A researcher interested in aging and Alzheimer's disease asked the School Sisters of Notre Dame if they would donate their brains to science when they die. Sister Genevieve and nearly 700 other nuns in the Catholic order, all 75 or older, said yes. They also agreed to be studied. "Once you've been a teacher for 50 years," says Sister Genevieve, 84, ''you teach until death." For researcher David Snowdon,
an epidemiologist at the University of He wants to know why some people remain sharp until death while others suffer the memory loss characteristic of Alzheimer's. The nuns are ideal to study
because as adults they all had similar lifestyles - they didn't
smoke, drink much or have babies. They enjoyed good Because their lives didn't differ much as adults, Snowdon suspects that it is the differences in the nuns' childhoods - specifically their early intellectual development - that influenced their health later on. "What we suspect is that the development of the brain, that the development of intellect early in life, is critical to building a healthier, fully optimized brain for later life," Snowdon says. He thinks of it as building up a brain reserve that can be called on when needed. Most of the nuns have spent their lives teaching - in Philadelphia, Camden, Baltimore and other cities. Some nuns worked in orphanages. Others ran the convents. Now retired and living in regional motherhouses around the country, many of the nuns remain active and involved. Sister Genevieve, who joined the order when she was 21, typically has four books going at once, takes an aerobics class twice a week and distributes Holy Communion to sisters too sick to make it to the chapel for Mass. "The sisters really bring aging and health alive to us," said Snowdon, who recently shared a noontime meal of spaghetti and meatballs with sisters in the dining room at the Villa Assumpta motherhouse in Baltimore. "It's not all brain tissue and computer numbers. It's easier for us to translate our findings if we have a human face." The sisters are put through an annual battery of tests each year to check their physical and mental agility. They must look up a phone number, spell ''world" backward, turn on a faucet and work a series of door latches, among other things. The test can point to clinical signs of Alzheimer's, but a certain diagnosis can be made only at death. So far, more than 100 nuns have died and their brains have been examined to check for the telltale protein lesions and tangles of Alzheimer's, as well as for signs of stroke. Snowdon is comparing the sisters' brain findings to their test performances. One sister at the Baltimore motherhouse, Sister Mary, taught until the age of 85 and lived to nearly 102. She read the newspaper every day and helped organize meals for the sisters in the infirmary almost right up to her death. Snowdon was amazed at the nun's memory and mental acuity. Surprisingly, the postmortem examination of her brain found extensive lesions of Alzheimer's. "What's remarkable about her is she actually had one of the highest Alzheimer's lesion counts we've seen, but she was functioning at the highest level by measure of our test," said Snowdon, who plans to soon publish a scientific paper solely on Sister Mary's case. "She is our gold standard," he said. "She's a model of what's possible as far as aging goes." Snowdon is also looking at the nuns' early family and health histories, including autobiographies that they were required to write before taking their final vows to join the order. How the nuns wrote about themselves around age 20 varied dramatically from one sister to the next. He believes the way the nuns expressed themselves in youth is a good measure of their "intellectual capacity," which in turn foreshadows their mental abilities later on. "One sister might write 'I was born on March 12, 1914,' " Snowdon said. ''Another sister might say, 'It was a snowy night in Milwaukee on March 12, 1914, when a warm bundle of joy was delivered to my loving parents.' " "We believe that how people write and the content of their autobiographies will have a strong predictive power in determining their mental and physical disabilities later in life," he said. Snowdon has found that nuns who worked as teachers tend to live longer, healthier lives than nuns who worked as domestics - cooking and cleaning the convent where the nuns lived. The teaching nuns were better educated, sometimes holding master's and even doctorate degrees. While other studies have shown a link between education and health in old age, it was thought that less educated people did not fare as well because they were more likely to smoke, have a stressful life and receive poorer medical care. However, because such lifestyle differences do not exist among the nuns, Snowdon believes that the critical factor in their mental health is the intellectual nourishment they got in childhood. He cited "good nutrition, parents reading to their children and trying to get them to develop their brain and their intellect to their full potential." With this good start, he said, "then 70 years later when you start getting a few strokes or lesions of Alzheimer's, you might have a chance of neutralizing the impact." Other researchers suspect that keeping the mind active through reading, doing puzzles and keeping up on the world may also ward off mental deterioration in old age. While adults cannot grow new neurons, or brain cells, researchers believe that intellectual stimulation can foster the growth of new connections, or synapses, between brain cells. Like a computer with many pathways, the brain may then work around deficits caused by Alzheimer's or strokes. Nationally, about half of people over the age of 85 have symptoms of Alzheimer's. In 1986, Snowdon started studying the School Sisters of Notre Dame who were living in the motherhouse in Mankato, Minn. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, expanded in 1990 to include sisters living at seven motherhouses around the country. Based on their age, 1,000 sisters were eligible for the study; of those, 678 - an amazing sign-up rate by research standards - agreed to participate, according to Lydia Greiner, the study's project manager and a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. Sister Louis Marie Koesters, administrator of the Baltimore motherhouse, was not old enough at the time to herself enroll, but she enthusiastically embraced the study's goal for her fellow sisters. The order was founded in the
1800s with the goal of educating women, "of There was more than a little curiosity when the first Baltimore sister in the study died and her brain was removed for study. When her body was brought to the chapel for a viewing, the sisters "were wondering if she would have any visible scarring. Would she have any hair?" Sister Louis Marie said. Mercifully, the sister looked just as they had remembered her. Snowdon, who was taught by nuns as a child, has won both the cooperation and affection of his study subjects. The first time Sister Genevieve heard him speak, she congratulated him on his skillful use of "convent jargon." On his recent visit to Baltimore, the sisters joked good-naturedly about his shoulder-length hair and complimented him on his hot-pink flowered vest and matching tie. One sister inquired in a roundabout way whether there was anyone special in his life. "I've spent so much time in convents," joked Snowdon. At an afternoon session, Snowdon briefed the sisters on the research. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study Alzheimer's," he told them. "I've been with it nine years now and we can really see (the study) blossoming." He said he was adding a genetic
component to the study, to check for defective copies of a gene
called apolipoprotein E4, which has been linked to Alzheimer's.
Would the sisters be willing to donate a swab sample of cells "You've already agreed to donate your brains. I don't think this is a big deal," he said, as the room erupted in laughter. After the session, Sister Maris Stella Schneider, who grew up in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood and taught for 33 years at the St. Boniface School there, said she was happy to be part of the scientific endeavor. She is 89 now and gray hair peeks from her black habit. "If someone can be helped by it, that's a good thing," she said. Sister Mary Ita Lashley, 80, said she feels the study has a touch of the divine. "I think Dr. Snowdon must have been inspired to choose a religious community for his research," she said. "I think he was inspired to do it and you only get inspiration from God." Copyright (c) 1995 The Philadelphia Inquirer |
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Local School Specializes In Education For Women April 29, 2008 April 20, 2008 Yorkville prepares for Pope's visit April 7, 2008 Members of Wilton's School Sisters of Notre Dame attend UN conference March 5, 2008
Notre Dame gets $2M anonymous donation WORCESTER, MASS — Thanks to a $2 million anonymous donation to Notre Dame Academy, students of Central Massachusetts’ only Catholic all-girls high school can look forward to a new art studio and gallery, music studio and student center. The lead gift, the largest in the school’s history, brings the total received to nearly $3 million toward the $4.5 million goal. Groundbreaking on the new wing is expected in June, with planned completion in 18 months. “I think we all agreed that to follow suit with the quality of what the faculty is doing, and the quality of what the girls are doing, we really needed to update the facility,” said fundraising committee member Kate Monahan Myshrall of Worcester, an alumna in the class of 1980. Plans call for the addition of computer technology for graphic arts design in the art studio and a technologically advanced music studio for the study of music theory and composition. Extensive renovations are also planned to upgrade the existing science labs, classrooms, theater and integrate state-of-the-art learning systems. “A committee of parents and alumnae has been studying this for three to five years and we decided this year to begin a silent fundraising and end that phase in June,” said Sister Ann Morrison, principal of the school. “This $2 million gift has certainly been wonderful. I do not know the donor’s name, but other members of the school community have made contact.” Since Notre Dame Academy opened in 1951 on Salisbury Street, more than 3,300 women have received an education at the academy, which is owned and operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. “In some ways, the wonderful things about the school are the same as when I went here in the ’70s — like how devoted and caring the teachers are and how much they expect from you. The close-knit community and the fun traditions, those things are the same,” said Rachel Kenary Egan of Worcester, class of 1977 and mother of three daughters, Emily, class of 2006; Rachel, class of 2007; and Abigail, class of 2008. Mrs. Egan and her husband, Jay, are co-chairmen of the fundraising effort with Michele and Bill Landes of Southboro. “But we know the way they teach kids today, and how girls are taught in particular, that the style is much different,” said Mrs. Egan. “When I went here, desks were in rows, but now they are taught in a cooperative style with fewer kids in each class. That means you need more room,” she continued. “Also, technology is different today and you need room for that equipment. And the arts and general curriculum has expanded.” The capital campaign’s theme, “Journey of a Young Woman,” is depicted in a watercolor of a girl with a backpack as she is about to enter the gates of Notre Dame. It also symbolizes the beginning of her journey into womanhood. “Girls enter as scared little 14-year-olds at the threshold of their life and come out these beautiful young women,” said Mrs. Myshrall. “It’s such an awkward stage for girls at that age and Notre Dame provides a special place for them. The faculty and staff are so in tune to what girls need at that stage of their life. “I still keep in touch with many of my classmates who have come back to the area and are now at major companies, law firms and schools. They are not just outstanding in their profession, but in their local community as well,” she said. “You graduate from Notre Dame
thinking that you can do anything. You leave to set the world
on fire. And we’re still trying.” Portrait of a nun drawn in new bio
August 1, 2000 "The sisters are really special wondrous loving people" said Thousand Oaks resident Andrea Fuchs who for the past five years has come regularly with her 88-year-old mother to pray with the sisters on Sunday morning. This month the local sisters will be celebrating both the 150th anniversary of the order's formation and the 75th anniversary of their arrival in California. Invited to the event which will begin with a Mass at 4 p.m. are 2600 guests. Nine priests will attend with Regional Bishop Thomas Curry officiating. The service under a canopy in front of the convent will be followed by a buffet dinner in the gymnasium of neighboring La Reina High School which is one of the three schools the sisters own and run in California. "Getting an education at La Reina was no doubt one of the blessings of my life" said Theresa Solis who graduated from La Reina and now works for Amgen. "The atmosphere really allowed me to excel not only in academics but in leadership skills as well." In addition to their teachings the Sisters of Notre Dame are also active in local charitable non-profit organizations for seniors and young people such as the Conejo Youth Employment Service Manna Many Mansions and Hospice. "The sisters of Notre Dame as you may expect quietly go about doing the business of following their ministry in terms of community service" said Thousand Oaks City Councilman Andy Fox who is planning to attend the anniversary celebration. "La Reina consistently has students participating in outside community programs so the sisters really do lead by example. They are really involved in the community. Certainly their influence goes beyond the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion." The religious order of the Sisters of Notre Dame was first inspired by St. Julie Billiart who turned to teaching the impoverished children of France during the French Revolution. Later in 1850 during the Industrial Revolution Sister Maria Aloysia began the order of the Sisters of Notre Dame in the spirit of St. Julie by taking in and educating the impoverished children of Germany. Now 150 years later the order is represented in 13 countries and five continents in schools from Watts to Uganda. "The dinner is for all the people that have been associated with the Sisters of Notre Dame over the years" said Sandi Stutzman La Reina volunteer and public relations coordinator. "They've got a lot a lot of supporters." Celebration The Sisters of Notre Dame will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of their order and the 75th anniversary of their arrival in California on Sunday Aug. 13th. Sunday Liturgy will be held at 4 p.m. at Notre Dame Center with a dinner reception at La Reina High School immediately following. The event is by invitation only. Copyright, 2000, Ventura County Star Boston Globe December 9, 1999 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME CELEBRATE
BIRTHDAY\ ORDER MARKS 150 YEARS OF MINISTERING TO NEW ENGLAND At the Notre Dame Education Center in South Boston, small miracles take place every day. They are reflected in the faces of 500 students, most of them new immigrants, struggling to learn English, and a smaller number of others preparing for their high school equivalency and learning to read at the patient prodding of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The new arrivals come from 44 countries and speak more than 20 languages. "Language is vital for their livelihood," said Sister Suzanne Murphy, one of the seven nuns who founded the center in 1992. "The center fills another need. Some of the students come from countries where they are at war with each other. They come to the center and talk about their differences and seem to be able to work them out." The center is one of three in the country run by the sisters. The others are in Lawrence and Washington, D.C. The centers are one of the 14 ministries of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who are celebrating their 150th anniversary in New England this year. In honor of the occasion, some 1,000 alumni of the schools where the sisters have taught or still teach, along with friends and admirers, will gather tomorrow evening at the World Trade Center in Boston, capping a year-long series of events. Funds raised will support the congregation's ministries in their mission "to stand with poor people as they struggle for adequate means for human life and dignity." In their constitution, the sisters cite education as "fundamental in bringing about the reign of God." The order's director of development, Sister Janice Waters, said its mission is "to provide a quality education for those who have the hardest time getting one: working-class families, the poor, immigrants, and adults who have slipped through the system." The congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur was founded in France in 1804 by Julie Billiart, who later was honored with sainthood. Its founding mission was to teach and reach out to the poor, particularly women and children. In the 19th century, the sisters branched out to North America, Europe and Africa. In 1849, three sisters arrived in Boston and taught at St. Mary's in the North End, then the only Catholic parish school in Boston. They later established schools in cities and mill towns throughout New England. Today, more than 2,100 sisters of the order serve in 15 countries on five continents. In New England, the order has three provinces and 630 sisters. The recipients of Notre Dame education have come from all walks of life and many have gone on to distinguished careers. Governor Paul Cellucci is one of them, having attended Notre Dame schools in Hudson for 12 years. "I remember the good sisters with great fondness," the governor said through his spokesman. "They reinforced for me the values learned at home, which were to be respectful and tolerant of others." Besides teaching, the nuns also do outreach with the poor and the elderly, work with needy families in public housing, or those displaced from public housing, with programs such as Project Care & Concern in Dorchester, Julie's Family Learning Program in South Boston, the Notre Dame Montessori School in Dorchester, and St. Julie Asian Center in Lowell. "Our mission is the same today as it was in the beginning," said Sister Maria Delaney, executive director of the education center in South Boston and one of its founders. "We've endeavored to stay in the city to work with those who need us most. We have been able to adapt education to the needs of the people." Before the center was started, the site was home to Cardinal Cushing Central High School, one of more than 100 schools the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur founded in New England. When the school closed in 1991, the sisters opened the center to accommodate the booming immigrant population. "We've lasted so long," Sister Maria said, "because we've been able to adapt to the times." They opened Emmanuel College in Boston in 1919, the first Catholic college for women in New England. In conjunction with the anniversary, tomorrow's ceremony will honor seven people who have had distinguished careers or lent their talents and time to the nuns' work with the newly established Notre Dame Education Awards. Those receiving the award include a nun, an educator, a physician, a woman who works at one of the order's food pantries, a man who helps the nuns with their finances, an alumnae group worker and a priest. "I attribute my success as an educator to the Sisters of Notre Dame," said Maryann Manfredonia, principal of East Boston Central Catholic High School, who will receive the Sister Marie Francesca, SND, Award for Excellence in Education. Manfredonia was once a student at the school she now heads. Now, 50, she recalled that when she was 14, she entered what was then Fitton High School for Girls, run by the sisters. "I was a frivolous girl, not as studious as I should have been," she said. "The sisters taught me good study habits and guided me with loving patience. They took a child and formed me into a woman." Along with three other parochial schools in East Boston, Fitton merged into East Boston Central Catholic in 1974. "As an educator today," Manfredonia said, "I strive to pass on to my teachers and students that combination of discipline and value system which the nuns taught me." Sister Suzanne Murphy, who taught at Cardinal Cushing for 20 of her 40 years in the order prior to teaching at the education center, will also receive the excellence in education award. With other nuns, Sister Suzanne has lived in the housing projects of South Boston for so long, she said, "that it is really home for me now. My move into the development is one of the most important things I ever did. "As a sister," she said, "we are always looking for a way to discover God. We can do that by living close to the people and taking part in all neighborhood activities." The Award for Courageous Service will be given to both Dr. Thomas S. Durant, assistant director of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Eva Mae Wilson, who has worked with Sister Joyce McMullen at Project Care & Concern for 12 years. An alumnus of schools run by the sisters, Durant has repeatedly volunteered his medical services in war-torn countries around the world. At Project Care & Concern, Wilson works in the food pantry and thrift shop where, Sister Joyce said, "she has gained a lot of respect and is a very valuable associate." Wilson, 63, of Roxbury, is related by marriage to the late Sister Dolores Harrall, the first African-American to enter the New England Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame. For his work as spiritual director at Campion Center, a Jesuit renewal center and retirement home in Weston, the Rev. James T. Sheehan will receive Le Bon Dieu Award for Spiritual Leadership. Sheehan, 70, first learned about the Sisters of Notre Dame as a child because his aunt was one. In the 1960s, he worked with them in an Emmanuel College program in South Boston where men and women were trained for different ministries. "They have been a model for me of the servant church," Sheehan said. "If their foundress were still alive, she would be cheering like crazy." Two other award recipients will be Margaret M. Mahler, of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federation of Notre Dame Alumnae, and Gerard J. Persson, founder of the Woburn-based Baystate Financial. They will receive the Anam Cara Award for Collaboration and Partnership. Mahler, 77, of Cambridge, has long been active in alumnae affairs and still keeps in touch with a nun who used to be her teacher and is now retired. "I worked for the phone company for 42 years," Mahler said, "and our supervisor said she could always pick out the girls who had gone to parochial school for their politeness and hard work." Persson has been a financial advisor on a pro bono basis for the nuns for more than 20 years. "Wherever the sisters go," he said, "they touch people. Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company Journal Gazette (Mattoon, IL) April 1, 1995 School Sisters of Notre Dame open centennial season The School Sisters of Notre Dame, St. Louis Province, celebrate 100 years of dedicated service to youth, women and the poor. Recently the School Sisters marked the beginning of the anniversary season by holding a day of service, prayer and celebration. Centennial activities continue through Nov. 11. Those in the Mattoon area participated in one of several diocesan-wide service projects to serve the people of the community. The School Sisters volunteered their time at a temporary, emergency child care center for families under stress. The center offers a homelike atmosphere for children at risk for abused women and children. In addition, the sisters spent quality time visiting with young patients at a local hospital. The fourth service project found the sisters working at a home for pregnant women and girls. The sisters also visited the homebound and people in nursing homes. Two School Sisters of Notre Dame serve in Mattoon at Immaculate Conception Parish. They are Sister Mary Odile Poliquin, director of religious education, and Sister Mary Timothy Ryan, pastoral associate. Six other School Sisters of Notre Dame have served in Mattoon, since 1980. They are Sisters Mary Celia Bauer, Nancy Marie Becker, Mary Boniface Janson, Rose Mary Linhoff, Sylveria Spinner and Mary Jeannine Vermeersch. The School Sisters of Notre Dame is an international congregation of more than 6,000 women religious from 21 provinces serving in 30 countries. The St. Louis Province currently consists of 734 women religious serving in 24 states and 10 countries. In addition to the day of service on March 25, the centennial celebration will include celebration liturgies at St. Francis Parish in Quincy, on May 7, and St. Anthony Parish in Effingham, May 21; a Family and Friends Day at the Province's Motherhouse in St. Louis on June 24; and the Life Visions Award Dinner in St. Louis on Nov. 11. Celebrating 100 Years In March, 1895, seven School Sisters of Notre Dame moved into the house on Grand View Estate overlooking the Mississippi River. Within a decade of its foundation, the province included missions in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Arkansas and Texas. During the first 70 years, the School Sisters of Notre Dame of the St. Louis Province helped build a vital parochial school system, established secondary schools and colleges, and staffed orphanages and schools for children with special needs. In the post World War II era, the sisters continued to heed the call to develop a world vision and a sense of global responsibility. After Vatican II, the call to further Christ's mission was answered in view of the emerging needs of a rapidly changing society. Copyright 1995, 2007, Journal Gazette and Times-Courier
July 4, 2007 IT'S THEIR HABIT TO HAVE
FUN To passersby, the Sisters of Notre Dame's stately home overlooking Dixie Highway in Park Hills, Ky., casts the illusion of a castle on a hill. Inside the large 1920s home, antiques fill the library, dining halls and corridors. All sizes of crucifixes created from various woods and metals hang on the walls. In some of the sisters' private rooms, rosaries are carefully placed on the pillows for easy access for end-of-the-day prayers. Exuberant singing flows from the Provincial House Chapel during Mass. In the remainder of the home, though, nuns, visitors and employees speak in soft, reverent tones. Serenity permeates the St. Joseph Heights campus -- perhaps serving as a spiritual sanctuary, preparing the community's 140 women to enter into the real world to tackle the issues of society with compassion, peace and hope. Today, though, the grounds will be filled with noise, music and games as the Sisters put on their 85th Fourth of July Festival and Social. It's a gathering they launched in 1922, after the Depression left the order financially struggling. Today, it remains as one of their largest fundraisers: They annually net $40,000 to $50,000 to support their mission in Uganda, Africa, and their retired nuns. In the 1920s, they had started building their home on the hill on what was then farmland in Covington. They needed a festival during that tough time to generate money to complete the original portion of the St. Joseph Heights campus. It was quite an affair. Dixie Highway was closed for the festival, which included $1 chicken dinners, boxing bouts, music and a car raffle. In 1926, it was a Custom Eight Sedan, donated by Willys Motors. The chicken dinners proved to be too much work, but plenty of other activities remain. The holiday frivolity contrasts sharply with the nuns' overall role today. "Early on in American history, nuns were the courageous risk-takers who realized the great challenges of the time," said Sister Marla Monahan, the SND local provincial, or leader. "They were the peace makers who tackled social concerns and took the lead on Catholic education." In the modern era, the Sisters of Notre Dame are still responding to society's needs, especially those surrounding war, poverty, homelessness and justice. "Our home does give the appearance that we have built a refuge from the world," said Sister Marla, "but really it represents an openness to the world. We are open to what the world desires of us, what God has called us to do." The Covington Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame has been called to do plenty since its first home opened in 1874 with two nuns on Montgomery Street in Covington. The Sisters have emerged as an integral part of the region. For the past century, they've prepared thousands of women for life at the region's largest Catholic High School, Notre Dame Academy, also located on its scenic Park Hills campus. In Fort Mitchell, they operate the Diocesan Catholic Children's Home, a refuge for children that have endured emotional and physical abuse. The sisters teach and serve as principals at several inner-city schools, such as Holy Spirit in Newport and Prince of Peace and St. Augustine in Covington. In Fort Wright, Ky., they operate St. Charles Care Center, a full-service senior living community, which furthers their mission to foster the fullness of life, especially for people who are poor, sick and aged. Less visible roles for the Sisters of Notre Dame include teaching religion, a prison ministry, addressing social concerns in the inner city and rural areas of Northern Kentucky. They also operate a Montessori school, Julie Learning School, on the Park Hills campus and care for the elderly sisters there. Outside the region, the Sisters operate the St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Ky., and run St. Julie Mission and school on a self-supporting farm in Buseesa, Uganda. They are wrestling with the long decline in the number of women who turn to sisterhood. Times have changed, and so have the women entering the order. Many of the women now come later in life, but they are also often the women who end up staying. The group is currently working on a strategic plan that will address their future needs. Not all of the order's 140 sisters live on the Park Hills campus. Some have chosen to live in smaller residences near where they serve. They often come back to the larger home on the hill, though. "I realized early on that, if you pool your gifts with others, you can make a bigger difference," said Sister Marla. Many of the order's nuns agree. All have brought different talents to the diverse pool of backgrounds and interests. Sister Mary Delores Giblin's role for the past 37 years has been molding the young women of Notre Dame Academy in her social studies classes. She will retire this year from teaching, but knows plenty of other roles await her. One of them is working in the order's archives. "I certainly learned a lot about myself too," she said. "Teaching taught me to have more patience, understanding, compassion." Sister Mary Joell Overman said the order has allowed her to carry on what her parents and her education at Notre Dame Academy instilled in her early on. "The sisters certainly nurtured that seed of vocation," she said. In addition to serving as the order's local leader, or provincial, she has served on the international level as superior general for 12 years. She is currently an ombudsman for Northern Kentucky Social Services. Copyright (c) 2007 The Kentucky Post
August 4, 1990 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME REUNITING IN CINCINNATI Five hundred Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur from throughout the United States and nine foreign countries will gather in Cincinnati for four days beginning Thursday to celebrate the congregation's first 150 years in America. One of the first religious communities of women in Cincinnati when they arrived from Europe in 1840, the Sisters of Notre Dame founded 16 schools during their first four decades. Only nine years after coming to Cincinnati, they established themselves in Dayton, initiating Catholic secondary education in the city at Franklin Street Academy. Chaminade-Julienne High School is a direct descendant of the academy. Many parish schools were opened under Notre Dame auspices as well, including Emmanuel, Holy Trinity, St. Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, St. John, Holy Angels, Holy Family, St. Agnes, St. James, St. Rita, Immaculate Conception, St. Helen and Ascension schools. Today the Sisters of Notre Dame continue to serve at Dayton-area parishes, hospitals and schools. Family, friends and former students of Notre Dame are invited to take part in the sesquicentennial at a series of events, including a Mass of Thanksgiving next Saturday celebrated by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk at St. Francis Xavier Church in downtown Cincinnati. Sister Carol Marie Diemunsch, a native of Dayton, is coordinating the events. Copyright, 1990, Cox Ohio Publishing
October 14, 1990 SISTERS AUCTION SOME OLD
FAVORITES TO RAISE MONEY It was a once-in-a-century yard sale, and the pickings were more than the average household clutter of unused furniture and extra kitchen utensils. Among the things that the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato auctioned off on Saturday were a bobsled made at the turn of the century, confessional kneelers, life-size religious statues, marble pillar decorations, Communion host-makers, and a special crucifix and holy water bottle for administering last rites. ``We're doing it to clean house, basically,'' said Sister Virginia Bieren, associate director of development and public relations for the Mankato province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. ``We've gotten to the point where it has to go,'' said Bieren, who joined the order after graduating in 1956 from high school in Washington state. ``There's no room for it, no need for it. We try not to keep excessive things we don't need. It's part of our vow of poverty.'' Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay for the care of retired and elderly sisters who live at the Mankato province residence, which sits atop Good Counsel Hill overlooking the city. A cornucopia of items accumulated by the sisters over decades was spread out on the courtyard of Good Counsel, home to the Mankato province since 1912. About 570 women belong to the Mankato province; about 200 of them reside at Good Counsel, and of that number about 100 are retired. Fast-talking auctioneers began selling off items about 10 a.m. By 1 p.m., some of the things that had fetched the highest price were never-used church pillar decorations made of plaster and marble ($1,000), a tall Sacred Heart statue (about $500) and tall armoires (about $425). The auction and a nearby craft fair also sponsored by the sisters drew more than 1,000 people. About $30,000 was raised by the auction and another $5,000 was generated by the craft fair. Some shoppers were there for sentimental reasons. They were graduates or relatives of students who attended the Good Counsel Academy the sisters operated until 1980. The all-girls school, which had boarding and day students, has since merged with Loyola High School. Bieren acknowledged that, like other religious orders, membership in the School Sisters of Notre Dame has declined from its mid-1960s peak. But she offered assurances that Saturday's auction did not signal the demise of the province. For people with ties to the sisters and the school, the oak desks, dressers and washstands reflected ``the good times and the sad times. It is a day for a lot of emotions,'' Bieren said. Sister Carmen Burg, director of development and public relations, said the day was ``like a reunion'' for former Good Counsel students. Shirley Noy, of Vernon City, spent $55 on a small round table with a carving of Good Counsel Academy around a picture of Pope John Paul II. It was done in 1979 by a Mexican man whose name is inscribed atop the table. Noy plans to give the table to her daughter, Connie Hackett, who graduated from the academy in 1968. ``I wanted something commemorative for my daughter,'' Noy said. Some shoppers were antique dealers or collectors looking for bargains - they hovered close to a tent covering dozens of pieces of coveted Red Wing pottery and kept a sharp eye on the Depression-era glass. A few dealers walked away unhappy, complaining that the bidding was too high. ``It definitely isn't a place to try to get a bargain,'' said Lynn Mawby of Waseca. His wife, Oma, runs an antique store, and the pair bought a commode stand for $75. Many of the sisters watched stoically as religious items made priceless because of their spiritual significance were inspected, touched, bid on and, finally, sold. For Bieren, the now-empty Red Wing crocks reminded her of the days when the province was self-sufficient and the sisters harvested fruits and vegetables they had nurtured in large gardens. A marble-top table with oak legs reminded Bieren of Sister Mary Edmund, renowned for her cake-decorating skills. ``This was her table,'' Bieren said. A retired sister, Irmina Opitz, watched with a grandnephew, Tom Monn, of Woodbury, as the religious statues were auctioned. Opitz at first downplayed any emotional attachment. ``We're old enough not to care anymore,'' she said. But when bidding began on a Sacred Heart statue of Jesus, Opitz recalled, ``We'd kneel at that statue every morning before we went to work.'' When the piece fetched nearly $500, a satisfied Opitz said, ``That's worth that to us, too.'' Copyright (c) 1990 St. Paul Pioneer Press Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) August 22, 1995 NUNS FIND WAY TO KEEP GIVING
- AFTER DEATH NEARLY 700 HAVE PLEDGED THEIR BRAINS TO HELP TAME
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. Sister Genevieve Kunkel spent half a century in classrooms from Florida to Massachusetts, teaching English, history, French, Spanish. She finally retired at the age of 79, but then along came one of the most intriguing academic challenges of her life. A researcher interested in aging and Alzheimer's disease asked the School Sisters of Notre Dame if they would donate their brains to science when they die. Sister Genevieve and nearly 700 other nuns in the Catholic order, all 75 or older, said yes. They also agreed to be studied. "Once you've been a teacher for 50 years," says Sister Genevieve, 84, ''you teach until death." For researcher David Snowdon,
an epidemiologist at the University of He wants to know why some people remain sharp until death while others suffer the memory loss characteristic of Alzheimer's. The nuns are ideal to study
because as adults they all had similar lifestyles - they didn't
smoke, drink much or have babies. They enjoyed good Because their lives didn't differ much as adults, Snowdon suspects that it is the differences in the nuns' childhoods - specifically their early intellectual development - that influenced their health later on. "What we suspect is that the development of the brain, that the development of intellect early in life, is critical to building a healthier, fully optimized brain for later life," Snowdon says. He thinks of it as building up a brain reserve that can be called on when needed. Most of the nuns have spent their lives teaching - in Philadelphia, Camden, Baltimore and other cities. Some nuns worked in orphanages. Others ran the convents. Now retired and living in regional motherhouses around the country, many of the nuns remain active and involved. Sister Genevieve, who joined the order when she was 21, typically has four books going at once, takes an aerobics class twice a week and distributes Holy Communion to sisters too sick to make it to the chapel for Mass. "The sisters really bring aging and health alive to us," said Snowdon, who recently shared a noontime meal of spaghetti and meatballs with sisters in the dining room at the Villa Assumpta motherhouse in Baltimore. "It's not all brain tissue and computer numbers. It's easier for us to translate our findings if we have a human face." The sisters are put through an annual battery of tests each year to check their physical and mental agility. They must look up a phone number, spell ''world" backward, turn on a faucet and work a series of door latches, among other things. The test can point to clinical signs of Alzheimer's, but a certain diagnosis can be made only at death. So far, more than 100 nuns have died and their brains have been examined to check for the telltale protein lesions and tangles of Alzheimer's, as well as for signs of stroke. Snowdon is comparing the sisters' brain findings to their test performances. One sister at the Baltimore motherhouse, Sister Mary, taught until the age of 85 and lived to nearly 102. She read the newspaper every day and helped organize meals for the sisters in the infirmary almost right up to her death. Snowdon was amazed at the nun's memory and mental acuity. Surprisingly, the postmortem examination of her brain found extensive lesions of Alzheimer's. "What's remarkable about her is she actually had one of the highest Alzheimer's lesion counts we've seen, but she was functioning at the highest level by measure of our test," said Snowdon, who plans to soon publish a scientific paper solely on Sister Mary's case. "She is our gold standard," he said. "She's a model of what's possible as far as aging goes." Snowdon is also looking at the nuns' early family and health histories, including autobiographies that they were required to write before taking their final vows to join the order. How the nuns wrote about themselves around age 20 varied dramatically from one sister to the next. He believes the way the nuns expressed themselves in youth is a good measure of their "intellectual capacity," which in turn foreshadows their mental abilities later on. "One sister might write 'I was born on March 12, 1914,' " Snowdon said. ''Another sister might say, 'It was a snowy night in Milwaukee on March 12, 1914, when a warm bundle of joy was delivered to my loving parents.' " "We believe that how people write and the content of their autobiographies will have a strong predictive power in determining their mental and physical disabilities later in life," he said. Snowdon has found that nuns who worked as teachers tend to live longer, healthier lives than nuns who worked as domestics - cooking and cleaning the convent where the nuns lived. The teaching nuns were better educated, sometimes holding master's and even doctorate degrees. While other studies have shown a link between education and health in old age, it was thought that less educated people did not fare as well because they were more likely to smoke, have a stressful life and receive poorer medical care. However, because such lifestyle differences do not exist among the nuns, Snowdon believes that the critical factor in their mental health is the intellectual nourishment they got in childhood. He cited "good nutrition, parents reading to their children and trying to get them to develop their brain and their intellect to their full potential." With this good start, he said, "then 70 years later when you start getting a few strokes or lesions of Alzheimer's, you might have a chance of neutralizing the impact." Other researchers suspect that keeping the mind active through reading, doing puzzles and keeping up on the world may also ward off mental deterioration in old age. While adults cannot grow new neurons, or brain cells, researchers believe that intellectual stimulation can foster the growth of new connections, or synapses, between brain cells. Like a computer with many pathways, the brain may then work around deficits caused by Alzheimer's or strokes. Nationally, about half of people over the age of 85 have symptoms of Alzheimer's. In 1986, Snowdon started studying the School Sisters of Notre Dame who were living in the motherhouse in Mankato, Minn. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, expanded in 1990 to include sisters living at seven motherhouses around the country. Based on their age, 1,000 sisters were eligible for the study; of those, 678 - an amazing sign-up rate by research standards - agreed to participate, according to Lydia Greiner, the study's project manager and a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. Sister Louis Marie Koesters, administrator of the Baltimore motherhouse, was not old enough at the time to herself enroll, but she enthusiastically embraced the study's goal for her fellow sisters. The order was founded in the
1800s with the goal of educating women, "of There was more than a little curiosity when the first Baltimore sister in the study died and her brain was removed for study. When her body was brought to the chapel for a viewing, the sisters "were wondering if she would have any visible scarring. Would she have any hair?" Sister Louis Marie said. Mercifully, the sister looked just as they had remembered her. Snowdon, who was taught by nuns as a child, has won both the cooperation and affection of his study subjects. The first time Sister Genevieve heard him speak, she congratulated him on his skillful use of "convent jargon." On his recent visit to Baltimore, the sisters joked good-naturedly about his shoulder-length hair and complimented him on his hot-pink flowered vest and matching tie. One sister inquired in a roundabout way whether there was anyone special in his life. "I've spent so much time in convents," joked Snowdon. At an afternoon session, Snowdon briefed the sisters on the research. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study Alzheimer's," he told them. "I've been with it nine years now and we can really see (the study) blossoming." He said he was adding a genetic
component to the study, to check for defective copies of a gene
called apolipoprotein E4, which has been linked to Alzheimer's.
Would the sisters be willing to donate a swab sample of cells "You've already agreed to donate your brains. I don't think this is a big deal," he said, as the room erupted in laughter. After the session, Sister Maris Stella Schneider, who grew up in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood and taught for 33 years at the St. Boniface School there, said she was happy to be part of the scientific endeavor. She is 89 now and gray hair peeks from her black habit. "If someone can be helped by it, that's a good thing," she said. Sister Mary Ita Lashley, 80, said she feels the study has a touch of the divine. "I think Dr. Snowdon must have been inspired to choose a religious community for his research," she said. "I think he was inspired to do it and you only get inspiration from God." Copyright (c) 1995 The Philadelphia Inquirer |