135th Founding Anniversary

Each year on February 28^th we mark one more year celebrating the accumulation of years that the Benedictine Sisters of Florida have lived the words of the reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (Chapter 3).  “As God’s chosen ones, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  Bear with one another, let peace rule your hearts, live in harmony, teach and admonish one another in wisdom, and never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you.”

We are grateful for all that God has done for us throughout these 135 years since our Founding Sisters ventured forth from Pittsburgh, PA. to Pasco County Florida.  I ponder changes that have drifted “under the bridges” in those years.  Some came quickly to mind: opening and withdrawing from schools – all still a credit to our transition skills as they continue in some form to serve the founding purpose.  Some changes were welcome and settled in easily; some sat uneasy on the Sisters shoulders as they, responded to “the call of our times”.  This included changes in attire, changes from Latin to English, all the changes after Vatican II, and the cycle of the rise and fall of hemlines.

Then I got really curious and went on-line, typed in “year in review” from the 1890, taking big steps through the 20^th and 21^st centuries in clusters of approximately ten years.

In the first decade after the Sisters first day on the job in Florida (1890) The U.S. Congress designated Yosemite a National Park; Grover Cleveland won the U.S. presidential election, becoming the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms; Thomas A. Edison finished building his first motion picture studio; a decline in the New York stock market triggered the Panic of 1893 and first  Monday of September was designated a legal holiday; and Klondike Gold Rush began in Alaska.

1900 – 1920s the Oreo cookie was first introduced, SOS was accepted as the universal distress signal, the first crossword puzzle was published, traffic lights were introduced; World War I began; there was an influenza epidemic and prohibition began.

Women were granted the right to vote; the lie detector was invented; The Reader’s Digest was published; Talking Movies were invented; the first Olympic Winter Games were held; flapper dresses came into style; bubble gum hit the market; penicillin was discovered and the car radio was invented.

In the 1930s the Empire State Building was completed; the US officially got a National Anthem; air-conditioning was invented, the Loch Ness monster was first spotted; the Golden Gate Bridge opened; the helicopter was invented; the first commercial flight flew over the Atlantic and World War II began.

In the 40s our Sisters were busy handing over the administration of parish schools in New Orleans, Olfen, Texas and Slidell, Louisiana.  This freed them to open new parish schools in Florida and to continue staffing summer catechetical programs in parishes where there were no Catholic schools.  In their spare time the Sisters, continued attending night and summer degree courses.  In the world around them, they may not have noticed that nylon stockings hit the market, the jeep was invented, T-shirts, ballpoint pens, computers, Polaroid cameras, the microwave oven, the bikini was introduced.

In the 1950s the first credit card was introduced, the Korean War began, color TV and car seat belts were introduced, and the polio vaccine was created.  The first McDonald’s opened, Velcro and TV remote controls were introduced.  Hula hoops and Lego toys were introduced and The Sound of Music opened on Broadway.

In the 1960s, the Peace Corps was founded, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, the first Catholic president was elected and subsequently assassinated, the Beatles became popular, the Star Trek TV series aired, the first heart transplant was performed, and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

In the 1970s, computer floppy disks, pocket calculators and VCRs were introduced.

Moving quickly through the 80s and 90s, the Rubik’s cube became popular, the first woman was appointed to the US Supreme Court, personal computers were introduced, the first American woman rode a space shuttle and we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall.

These are only a few of the highlights that I picked out… there were many, many more historic events.  When we get our “seasoned” members talking about memories of the “good ole days” they may tell us about learning to drive on a tractor, how much cars have changed … and don’t forget to ask them why Mother Rose Marie bought PJs, rather than nightgowns, for all the sisters after experiencing a hotel evacuation order one night in New Orleans.  What a sight they must have been to the onlookers below: 5 women scantily clad in white nightgowns scampering down the fire escape.  The next morning Mother Rose Marie bought every Sister a pair of PJs for when they traveled.  (Reminds us of Benedict’s admonition to supply each member going on a journey with clean underwear!)

From 1929 – 1959 the sisters operated St. Benedict’s Prep school for boys.  Holy Name Academy provided day and boarding programs for girls from the first days in 1889 until 1964.  Shifting gears, we built new dormitories and a cafeteria to provide services to Saint Leo College students.  In 2014 we made the courageous decision to “begin again” the great adventure of the Benedictine Sisters of Florida – build a new house across the highway.

In our 135 years in Florida our community members have lived with 13 religious superiors.  Now, that alone is endurance!  And, they have had multiple careers.  To name a few: classroom teacher, principal, mission superior, CCD teacher and coordinator, teacher and “mom” at Good Counsel Camp; procurator, worker in various aspects of our guest ministries, archivist and keeper of artifacts and the chronologies.  They’ve been Hospice volunteers, provided service in health care, laundry and kitchen staff, seamstress and coif maker; choir director and sacristan; artist, calligrapher, musician, and champion crafter.  For any I’ve overlooked, rest assured that God got it in the Good Book.

But how, you may ask, in God’s great world, did I get here from there?  In the Gospel recently we heard Peter say to Jesus: “Lord, we have put aside everything to follow you.”   Many years of vowed commitment sit right here in this chapel.  In the midst of an ever-changing church and world.  We offer an example of flexibility, perseverance and stability. Faithfulness to lectio and community exercises shows us that they know where their life in God is sustained.  Their interest in everyday happenings shows their love of learning.  Their many friends within and outside the community clearly pays tribute to our Sisters’ sense of Benedictine hospitality.  If you listen keenly, you hear some other stories that could be told, like the Ajaxed apples, the chief of the oddballs and the day, when we first began wearing “regular” clothes, when one Sister paraded before us to show off her outfit.  She was all ready to go out for a Jai- Alai game with a full-length slip hanging below her shirt out over her new slacks!

In conclusion, Sisters, heed Scripture: continue to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God through him.”

Please join us in prayer as we celebrate our 135th anniversary of the day Benedictine Sisters from PA arrived in San Antonio (Pasco County) FL … now located in St. Leo, FL – Florida’s first incorporated township.

Thank YOU for being in our “Fan Club”

God bless