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Sister Margaret Mary Schwartz

"Okey, dokey."

"Super, duper!"

In the presence of Ursuline Sister of Louisville Margaret Mary Schwartz you will soon hear one of these expressions. A more positive person would be hard to find.

Sister Schwartz, 87, is busy and happy today at the Ursuline Sisters' Motherhouse in Louisville, Ky., but she'll quickly tell you that she is from Nebraska. "My mother's family had large farms. From them I inherited a love of wide, open spaces; a love for the outdoors," she said. She puts this love to work by cultivating a flower garden. "Except for Christmas and Easter and a couple of winter months, I can usually find enough flowers for the chapel."

After completing the eighth grade, Sister Schwartz left Omaha, Neb., for the long train ride to Kentucky to join the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville who were her teachers in elementary school.

In 1949, she rejoiced at being sent back to Nebraska to teach at St. Patrick School in North Platte. During the 1955-56 school year, Sister Schwartz taught 65 children in grade two. Over the years, she was assigned to schools in other parts of the country, but she returned two more times to North Platte, for a total of 16 years. For five years, she was both principal of the grade school and the local superior of the convent. During those years, 14 Ursuline Sisters were living in the convent and teaching at either St. Patrick High School or St. Patrick (later McDaid) Elementary School.

In addition to her gardening skills, Sister Schwartz also inherited an artistic bent. "All my life, even in grade school, I've enjoyed painting and crafts," she said. "I took every art course offered while in college. Oil painting was my favorite."

When Sister Schwartz "retired" to the Ursuline Motherhouse in 1981 she began helping in the crafts program at the congregation's nursing facility. Soon, she opened the Ursuline Sisters Craft Shop on the Louisville campus, where she spends most of her days. Items made by the sisters in the Craft Shop range from afghans to items for newborns to all types of home decorations for the Christmas season. She and several sisters sell items in the shop and often take their wares to weekend fairs sponsored by parishes and other entities in the Louisville area. "I really enjoy talking to all the people. And they seem to enjoy meeting us and learning what we make and sell," Sister Schwartz said.

If Sister Schwartz is not busy in the Craft Shop packaging a recently completed item or sorting through a box of donated yarn, she can be found in the Ursuline Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in the Ursuline Motherhouse. She has been the sacristan since the 1980s and makes sure she is around whenever the chapel is in use. In addition to preparing for the daily Mass and prayer times for the nearly 50 sisters who live at the Motherhouse, her duties include working two evenings each month with the Archdiocese of Louisville, taping Masses for the benefit of the homebound and others who can no longer participate in services at a parish church.
Sister Schwartz's involvement in several ministries is typical of the "retired" sisters residing at the Ursuline Motherhouse. Some volunteer at hospitals or emergency centers; others perform various duties within the convent or tutor in the campus schools. Among these 46 sisters currently living at the Ursuline Motherhouse are three others who also taught in North Platte: Sister Thelma Sheehan, Sister Macrina Stermec and Sister Bibiana (now Frances) Schaf, a native of David City, Neb.

For these Ursulines, the Motherhouse is more than just a retirement home; it is a place for their ministries, began long ago, to continue. Ursuline Sisters who reside at the Motherhouse call Louisville their home, but the sisters come from all over the United States in ministries that today take them to 13 dioceses in 11 states and Peru, South America. As Sister Schwartz proves, once a sister comes "home" to the Motherhouse, she never finds herself without purpose.

Efforts to renovate the Ursuline Motherhouse in Louisville and make it more ADA accessible and user-friendly for the aging sisters are underway. Doing so, allows sisters like Sister Schwartz the opportunity to remain active physically, mentally and spiritually as they age and prepares for the future years as other sisters come home to the Motherhouse.

Click here to find out more about the Ursuline Motherhouse renovations.

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