I do have a fascination with cemeteries. When I arrived on campus and first walked the Mt. Alvernia cemetery, I contemplated all the repetitive gravestones. I found the earliest one placed, I found my friend Ray's aunt's, I observed names and dates. That's all that exists here, names and dates. I knew every one of them has a story to tell. I thought about how God knows them all, and what they did with their lives here on the Mount. Many of them had very long lives, living into their 90's and even passing 100! And although I was here for the buildings, I wondered about their stories. I wondered about the things that took place within the walls of the Motherhouse, and the people who passed through, and the people who lived here. And I want to share a bit about what I found!
The Motherhouse is pretty empty. There's some furniture around, a few pianos (any takers??), loads of books, and a lot of telephones! There are no names. Except one. I was nearly finished with the third floor when I found this name on a wardrobe cabinet. I took a photo and when I got home, I Googled the name, Sister Mary Angelita Molina. I learned that she was from Puerto Rico and wrote a book about her 15 year missionary journey to Africa. It was $6 on Amazon, so I ordered it. It was a quick read, but also a very fascinating one! She mentions the Motherhouse in Millvale, "running" up and down the stairs, living in "the attic", and her nerves the day the Council called her to a meeting (I wonder which room they met in!) to first assign her a year sabbatical and second to approve her mission to Africa.
The book has several fascinating stories of near-harrowing encounters and how God protected her, and she certainly made the most of her time in her beloved Africa! My favorite story is "The Saga of the Roller Skates." Periodically she would travel back to Pittsburgh for vacation (Imagine!) One sister offered her a pair of roller skates for the African children, which she gladly accepted. Then another sister offered her two pairs of roller skates, which she also accepted. Before she knew it, she had eight pairs of roller skates to take back to Africa with her! But at the airport, they almost didn't allow her to travel with them. Three years later she returned to Pittsburgh, but felt she couldn't beg for more roller skates. "Oh! You of little faith," Jesus says to us." A week before she was to return to Africa, her superior called her to the office where a woman was on the phone. She had heard Sister Angelita was collecting roller skates; she owned a skating rink that was closing, and offered her a brand new shipment of EIGHTY PAIRS of new roller skates!! And yes, it wasn't easy, but she traveled back to Africa with all of them! What joy those children must have felt when she came back!
So how did a Puerto Rican lady end up as a Sister of St. Francis in Millvale, Pittsburgh PA, USA? I didn't find out until much later when I came across another book, The First 50 Years in Puerto Rico by Sister M. Zita Green OSF. It covers the Sisters' mission there from 1931-1981. In that time, 112 Sisters had given 1,036 years of service, teaching in six different schools, teaching lepers, and the "doctrina" to thousands of children. The book mentions many names, coming and going, graduating from novitiate to professed, and how they served in various schools. The first Puerto Rican girl to join the Order came in 1946. More would join after. Born Juanita Molina in 1939, she started hanging out with the Franciscan Sisters in Puerto Rico in January, 1959. In April of that year, she first traveled to Pittsburgh with a few others as a postulant. They received their training at the Motherhouse and she returned to the island as Sister Mary Angelita when a new school year opened in September of 1964. She is mentioned several more times and appears in photos for much of the rest of the book. She taught the very first First Communion class at Villa Prades in 1965. She studied at Fordham University in 1973-74 then pursued pastoral work among the Indians in Thoreau, New Mexico where she remained when the book was written in 1981. She did return to Puerto Rico to attend a communications workshop in 1979.
And why would a Puerto Rican lady want to minister in Africa? Sister Angelita begins her book with her personal story. During the 18th century war between Holland and Spain over possession of the Island of Puerto Rico, many of the Spaniards fled to her small town of Uruado and settled there. They began to marry Indios and she was born of this mixed ancestry. Her grandfather on her mother's side was a short Spaniard with blue eyes and blond hair. Her grandmother was Indios and African, very tall with long dark hair and brown eyes. Sister Angelita jokes about her own short stature throughout her book! She also mentions that her time at Fordham University was spent pursuing a master's degree in Religious Education. She talks of the many African people she met in her journey who helped solidify her desire to minister in that country. After her training and approvals, she left for Nigeria on December 14, 1988. Her dream of ministering in Africa wasn't reached until she was 49 years old! She left the country for the last time after learning she had cancer and started her final journey back to Pittsburgh on June 29, 2004.
That certainly wasn't the end of her story though. She didn't come back to Pittsburgh and just let the cancer take over. I was hopeful she wrote her book right there at a pull-out desk in the wall of "the attic" at the Motherhouse, but no. She ministered in Mississippi and South Carolina also, writing her book in Hawaii in 2008! And apparently, she moved back to Millvale to the third floor at some point and that was her last room at the Motherhouse until they moved to Wexford in 2018. Her name remains on the wardrobe cabinet, and I do believe it was left there just for me, to share her story with even more people.
I'm sad I didn't get to meet Sister Angelita, that I was learning of her just after she passed into Glory. She died in September 2022, and I found her name in December. She will never know I found her name, read her book and shared her story, that her light still shines today. May we all live in such a way.
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