Earnest in prayer and mighty in their labor of love – Benedictine Sisters at Saint Vincent College

By Mary Seamans
Multimedia Journalist

LATROBE – Have you ever wondered how the Benedictine sisters came to serve the students and religious community at Saint Vincent College? That question was answered at a “lunch and learn” event Feb. 20 at the college featuring a talk by Mother Mary Anne Noll, OSB, prioress of St. Emma Monastery, Greensburg.

The talk on the “History of Sisters at Saint Vincent” was borne out of conversations about the history of women at Saint Vincent College between Heather Albright, dean of admissions and chair of the Women’s Leadership Team; Dr. Jeff Malory, executive vice president; and archivist Guy Davis. They wanted to do something special to recognize the religious sisters and the important role they continue to play at the college.

Saint Vincent College currently has three sisters studying and supporting women’s ministry on campus. Over the last several years, college leaders have built a relationship with Assumption College in New Jersey, a junior college that prepares sisters to go on to four-year institutions in the United States. The majority of the sisters are international, coming from as far as Vietnam, Tanzania and Mozambique.

So how did the sisters originally come to Saint Vincent? It was need meeting need.

In Germany in 1931, inflation was rampant. The Abbey of St. Walburga in Eichstaett was founded in 1035 to house 40 sisters, and now there were 120. Many of the sisters were sent out to help support the motherhouse, and nearly 40 were sent to Saint Vincent, where there was also serious financial need.

“God used this need to begin a wonderful presence of our sisters at Saint Vincent for 56 years, and the relationship is still vibrant today,” said Mother Mary Anne.

The sisters spoke no English, and everything was new to them, including fireflies, terrible thunderstorms, the food, homesickness and the culture. The oldest to arrive in 1931 was Mother Leonarda Fritz, 50, affectionately known as Mother Bearcat.

In the early days the nuns and the monks at Saint Vincent were not allowed to talk to each other. The sisters cooked for and served the students and seminarians, and several years later, they began serving the monks. The sisters scrubbed the floors on their hands and knees, cooked, washed dishes, and even took care of pest control in the basement kitchen – for which they were rewarded with payment of a glass of beer.

Later, the sisters designed and sewed vestments and purificator sets, aprons, and stuffed animals, made shoes, and crocheted cinctures.

Right before World War II broke out, the sisters received a letter telling them to “look out for yourselves.” In 1943, they purchased the John Robertshaw House and 10 acres near Greensburg, and the following year they purchased the adjacent 90-acre Robertshaw dairy farm.

When Mother Leonarda was 70, she built the Fatima Chapel with a dining room underneath, and at 74, she built the 50 private-room retreat house at St. Emma Monastery. At 80, she built the novitiate building with 30 cells and the Sacred Heart Chapel. She died in 1965 and was the first to be buried in the cemetery she had laid out months earlier.

Greensburg became a diocese in 1951, and Bishop Hugh L. Lamb was installed as the first bishop in 1952. Bishop Lamb moved into St. Emma Monastery intending to stay for three weeks, just until he could buy his own residence, but ended up living there for seven years, until he died in 1959. With his encouragement, the sisters built the retreat house and dedicated it in 1954. The Greensburg Knights of Columbus held the first retreat there in 1955, and since then, more than 200,000 people have attended retreats there.

“I am so privileged to be here and to be in the line of the sisters who served at Saint Vincent,” Mother Mary Anne said. “The sisters came here in 1931, and had just started a novitiate program in 1961 when I entered Saint Emma’s in 1962. They had only been here for 31 years, and I had no idea that they were practically newbies!

“I have been a sister now for 62 years, so I have experienced two-thirds of their history. I am grateful for the wonderful relationship that I have had with the monks all these years, and I have known all the sisters who have ever served here, with the exception of the first five, who died before I entered, and remain buried in the cemetery of Saint Vincent.”

She said when she entered, there were three tables in the dining room: a professed table, a second table for novices and a third table for the four Felician sisters and two Vincentian sisters teaching at Greensburg Central Catholic High School, who stayed until the faculty house was built on campus.

“In 1964 I made my first vows while the youngest sisters celebrated their 25th jubilees. At that time, there were 40 sisters serving at Saint Vincent. The sisters often came to St. Emma’s when they had health problems, and eventually the number of sisters decreased there and increased at St. Emma’s.

“In 1987, Father Donald Raila described the Sisters of St. Benedict as ‘Earnest in prayer and mighty in their labor of love.’ I thought this was a beautiful summation because this is how the sisters understood their vocation; it was to live each day out of love for God in their Benedictine life and to love those whom they served.”