Parish to honor women who entered religious life from North Adams

Saturday April 28, 2012

NORTH ADAMS -- As a young child enrolled at Saint Joseph's Elementary School, Sister Natalie Cain found the nuns who staffed the former elementary and high school to be mysterious, but also to be warm and caring.

"I remember one recess, when I was in fifth grade, Sister Patricia Thomas pointed out every one of my siblings to me and called them by name. There are seven of us and it amazed me that she was connected to all of us," Cain said Wednesday. "In spite of finding them to be mystic and mysterious, because of the habits they wore, I knew they had a human side and that they loved and cared for us. When I went through high school, I felt a call to be with people and I felt that God was calling me. The other piece that drew me was the sense of community."

Cain, who entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1962 and will celebrate her 50th anniversary with the order in September, is one of 104 local women -- 84 deceased and 20 living -- who will be honored on Sunday at 10:45 a.m. at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in celebration of Vocation Sunday, which honors those who have entered the religious life. The women being honored either graduated from Saint Joseph's High School or entered a religious order through one of the city's churches.

Roman Catholic churches observe the fourth Sunday of Easter as Vocation Sunday. A reception will follow the Mass at Saint Elizabeth's Parish Center.

"Hopefully, the occasion will also

be another step in the unifying process in the North Adams Catholic Community as members of the now consolidated parish of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary recognize women who entered from Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Francis of Assisi, Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur, Our Lady of the Incarnation, and Holy Family, which later became Our Lady of Mercy, or were graduates of the former Saint Joseph High School in North Adams and lived nearby," Justyna Carlson, a member of the Vocation Sunday committee, said.

Cain said that before Saint Joseph's Elementary and High School was closed in 1974, the Sisters of Saint Joseph, which still make their home at Mont Marie in Holyoke, played an im portant role in educating the city's children.

"What drew me to take my first steps to joining the Sisters of Saint Joseph at the age of 18 was the love I had seen," she said. "In 1963, I received my habit and became Sister Marjorie Joseph. I became a teacher in 1967, teaching in Longmeadow."

During those early years, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council, an effort aimed at moving the Roman Catholic Church into the modern era.

"He asked all of the orders to trace their roots back to their beginnings and see what was the reason they were founded and see if we could translate that into the modern era," Cain said.

For the Sisters of Saint Joseph, those early roots were in LePuy, France, where a group of six women founded the order in 1650 -- living amongst their neighbors, working in orphanages and caring for the sick and the poor. They also began teaching young women how to sew lace -- giving them skills to help raise them out of poverty.

"The original sisters dressed in common clothing, which at the time had to be the black outfits worn by widows, and lived among the people they served," she said. "We have always been about social justice."

Following the directive of the Pope, the sisters began living in the community, began entering fields other than education, wearing common clothing and many reverted back to their birth names.

The changes brought not only Cain back to her home, where she directed religious education classes at the former Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Church in Adams before taking a position with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, but they also brought Sister Eunice Tassone back to the city.

A few years before Cain entered the order, Tassone, a city native and graduate of Drury High School, would enter the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1958.

"I had a conversion experience at 17 that turned my life in a completely different direction," she said Wednesday. "Instead of going to Springfield to become a physical education teacher, I ended up going into the convent and becoming a teacher."

She spent 10 years teaching in Labrador, Canada, and also taught at Saint Joseph's High School in Pittsfield, before returning to the city in 1980 to start the Catholic Outreach To Youth (COTY) Center.

"While I was in Labrador, Father John Bourque somehow found out that I was being rotated home to further my graduate studies," Tassone said. "He had called my community to see if I would take a position here. I came home for a visit and came to see him, with no intention of taking the position. He told me he wanted me to start a youth program and I could do anything I wanted to bring kids back to church. I told him I'd come for a year, and I'm still here."

While she's handed over the reigns of the COTY Center, she is still leading the Haiti Plunge, a project started at the center in 1984.

"While working with the kids, I challenged them to make a difference. I told them they could make anything happen," Tassone said. "They stuffed my own words back into my mouth and in 1984, I went to Haiti with nine kids and founded the village we're still working in. I go every month now."

She added, "The Haiti Plunge is the greatest educational tool. The kids tell me that it's an adventure-based learning plan and can do things they would never be able to do in a classroom. My classroom doesn't have four walls. When I look back at the road I've taken, it's one of the greatest journeys and one of the most life-giving experiences. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I'd do everything the same."

For Cain, the experience, although different, has been just as fulfilling and rewarding.

"When the Sisters of Saint Joseph left the city when the school closed, they promised they would return," she said. "For a time, I thought Sister Eunice and myself were the fulfillment of that promise. But in recent months, I've gone to the Friendship Center in North Adams and the Pope John Paul Charity Center in Adams, and I have seen people who I went to school with and people who were taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart carrying out their work -- loving their neighbors and caring for the poor. They are the fulfillment of that promise."

To be honored

Deceased:

Sisters of St. Joseph

Entered from St. Francis of Assisi Parish

Sister Edward Maria Sharron 2012

Sister Mary Benedicta Cernauskas 2007

Sister Patricia Agnes Clossey 1979

Sister Mary Louise (Mary Chrysostom) Durnin 1980

Sister Mary Antoinette Durnin 1952

Sister Cecilia Regina Flaherty 1969

Sister John Francis Kiely 2003

Sister Agnes Angela Lyons 1999

Sister Therese (John Michael) Nolan 2006

Sister Agnes Claudia Pierce 1975

Sister Agnes Dolores Reilly 1993

Sister Alice Maria Durnin 2004

Sister Mary Bernard (Gertrude) Smith 2001

Sister St. Luke Dalton 1959

Sister Mary Euphemia Hynes 1960

Sister Margaret Mary Hynes 1951

Sister Francis Joseph Maher 1961

Sister St. Helen of the Cross McGowan 1970

Sister Mary Niceta Moran 1959

Entered from Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur

Sister Marguerite (Eleanor Raymond) Pelletier 1984

Before several parishes existed; listed as having entered from North Adams

Sister St. Felix Carr 1985

Sister Francis Assisium Crowley 1930

Sister Marita Driscoll 1971

Sister Mary Aloysius Fagan 1942

Sister Mary Adelaide Flaherty 1912

Sister John Francis Flaherty 1930

Sister Charles Augustine Foley 1927

Sister Mary Antoinette Hatton 1913

Sister Mary Charitina Horrigan 1949

Sister Mary Stella Kehoe 1931

Sister Mary Claudia Kennedy 1929

Sister St. Christopher Lally 1919

Sister Mary Nazareth O'Connell 1953

Sister Mary Clotilda O'Hara 1915

Sister Joseph Louise Quinn 1940

Sister Teresa Maria Tash 1960

Daughters of the Heart of Mary

Entered from St. Francis of Assisi

Helene Barrett DHM 1968

Sisters of St. Joseph of Watertown, N.Y.

Entered from North Adams

Sister Mary Thomason (Mary Rowan) 1918

Sisters of Providence

Entered from North Adams

Sister Mary Augustine (Martha Walden)

Sister Mary Carol Desrosiers

Sister Mary Aloyse (Mary Buckley) 1944

Sister Mary Ambrose (Hanna Kelliher) 1942

Sister Mary Annette (Annette Costello) 1944

Sister Mary John (Barbara Roedel) 1980

Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace

Entered from North Adams

Sister Mary Consilio (Mary Fitzgerald) 1985

Sisters of St. Francis

Entered from North Adams

Sister Geraldine (Johanna Finnegan)

Sister Mary Martin (Mary Nugent)

Dominican Nuns

Entered from North Adams

Sister Mary Augustine (Susan Cummings)

Religious Venerini Sisters

Entered from St. Anthony of Padua (and St. Joseph High School)

Sister Annetta Funghini

Sisters of St. Anne of St. Marie Province

Entered from Holy Family

Sister Mary Gethsemane (Ida Marien/Edith Merriam)

Sister Blanche Meunier

Sister Mary Immaculate Heart (Paulita Vachereau)

Sister Marie Bernard de Sienne (Yolande Vachereau) (and Notre Dame School)

Sister Rita Foucher

Sister Anne Marie Foucher

Sister Alice Paquin

Entered from Notre Dame School

Sister Marie Emma (Malvina Girard)

Sister Marie Pierre aux Liens (Marie Filion)

Sister Marie Louise de Jesus (Ida Adam)

Sister Marie Sylvie (Marie St. Denis)

Sister Marie Rose Ida (Rose Adam)

Sister Marie Luis de Sacre Coeur (Evelina Lanoue)

Sister Marie Rose du Crucifix (Margaret Daniel)

Sister Marie Angelina (Eleanor Grandchamp)

Sister Marie Veronique de Jesus (Priscilla Granges)

Sister Marie Didace (Caroline Brassard)

Sister Marie Willibrod (Carmelite Barbeau)

Sister Marie Clair-Isabelle (Clara Beauparlant)

Sister Marie Lucie des Anges (Lumena Ladouceur)

Sister Marie Corona (Aurore Charbonneau)

Sister Marie Claire de Remini (Honorine Lord)

Sister Marie Benigna (Cesarie Hebert)

Sister Marie Cyria (Hermina Gagnon)

Sister Marie François D'Annecy (Rita Meunier)

Sister Marie Sylvia (Sylvia Desautels)

Sister Marie Anne Eveline (Eveline Paquette)

Sister Marie Emma (Irene Cardinal)

Sister Marie Thérèse de la Providence (Therese Forgette)

Sister Marie Juanita (Miss Blair)

Sister Mary Valère

Grey Nun

Entered from Notre Dame

Sister Marie Anne St. Pierre

Soeurs de Saint Nom de Jesus

Entered from Notre Dame

Sister Marie Loiselle

Hospitalière

Entered from Notre Dame

Sister Anna Loiselle

Sisters of the Presentation of Mary

Sister Cecile Desnoyers

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Those still living have been invited to the Mass and a reception to follow in St. Elizabeth's Center. Twenty sisters from five orders have been located.

Sisters of St. Joseph

Entered from St. Francis of Assisi Parish

Sister Natalie Cain (Sister Marjorie Joseph)

Sister Constance Daub (Sister Margaret George)

Sister Barbara Faille (Sister Francis Richard)

Sister Bette Gould (Sister Helen Charles)

Sister Sally Marsh (Sister Bernice William)

Sister Mary Anne Nolan (Sister Christopher John)

Sister Cornelia Roy (Sister Margaret Charles)

Sister Patricia Francis Sharron

Entered from Our Lady of the Incarnation Parish

Sister Jean Schneider (Sister Stephen Mathias)