Bill Schubart: Homage to the Sisters who have served Vermonters

With the recent death of Sister Janice Ryan, I was inundated with memories of an earlier Vermont, bringing up my own Catholic, and the extraordinary impact of nuns on me and on all Vermonters.

The Jeanne Mance School of Nursing, Fanny Allen Hospital, Bishop Degoesbriand Hospital, Trinity College, the cloistered Carmelite convent in Williston, Mater Christi School, where my older children went, Rice High School, Christ the King, Sacre Coeur in Newport, where my stepfather attended school, and countless other reminders demonstrate the benevolence and good works of Vermont’s large population of nuns.

These institutions and more were started and managed by the various orders whose sole mission was charitable works. Others were started by priests, but often staffed largely by nuns.

In all this, there was a commitment to good works and community, seemingly subsumed now in today’s culture of self-obsession, entertainment and consumerism. Young women facing poor prospects for marriage or worse, the fear of an abusive one filled with hard work and endless child-bearing, often sought refuge in a convent where they might experience the safety of a sisterhood, but would also have a life filled with good and needful work.

Vermonters of all faiths owe a great deal to the many orders of nuns who have been an important part of the fabric of our state — the Benedictines, the Ursulines, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Providence, Atonement Sisters, Carmelites, Daughters of the Holy Spirit, Sisters of St Joseph and The Hospitallers of St Joseph.

While the male hierarchy of the Church struggles with their own misdeeds, a steep decline in their own numbers and the rise in orthodoxy that puts them at odds with many in their own flock, we can all be grateful for their female counterparts and for their simple , direct works of faith.

So often in life, it is what we do rather than what we say that makes all the difference. Our children become who we are, not who we tell them to be. The exemplary life stands in stark contrast to fire and brimstone preaching, Solomonic judgment, canon law, and rigid orthodoxies.

Throughout the volatile history of the Catholic Church, nuns from many religious communities — while suffering the edicts, politics and even retribution of the church’s male hierarchy — were able to gain spiritual sustenance from helping others in need: raising orphan children, helping young men and woman in trouble find their way back into society, teaching, nursing and caring for the ill or infirm, tending the dying, supporting people in prison, feeding and caring for the poor — in essence, following the words and example of Christ.

Many among the sisters have served Vermonters in government leadership positions, as college heads, or as hospital managers. The Bishop DeGoesbriand and Fanny Allen hospitals were staffed largely by the Hospitallers of St Joseph. Trinity College, whose early mission was to help young women off the farm or from factory families become educated and have an economic choice beyond their first proposal of marriage, which was largely staffed by the Sisters of Mercy.

And always behind these leaders, there were countless nuns whose only residual image might be a gentle smile, the beautiful habits of their particular order, and the countless good works of their sisterhoods of faith.

In the temptation in the desert, Christ rejects the devil’s gifts of mystery, power and authority in favor of the exemplary life and free will — a lesson not lost on the extraordinary nuns who have woven so much into the fabric of Vermont for 200 years. To simply care for someone without judging them is a great gift.

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