Yesterday afternoon I received a two sentence email:
“It is with a great sense of loss that we send this message announcing the death of Sister M. Pacelli, OSF. Sister Pacelli passed last evening, Tuesday, February 16 with Sister Madonna and Sister Mary Margaret at her bedside.”
For twelve years I went to Catholic school and had many religious sisters for teachers. When I enrolled in a Catholic college–Alvernia University–I never expected there to be religious nuns teaching us. Professors had doctorates and that just wasn’t something “nuns” did, was it? Apparently it was!
Sister Pacelli taught English and Communications and whatever picture you have in your head of a religious sister…chances are she wasn’t it. Except for the habit part, she did wear the habit. Of course she had her doctorate. She launched a criminal justice department at Alvernia when she was dean–picture a sister about 5′ 2″ and a bunch of big burly cops. She taught a class called “From Batman to Dracula”. Need I go on?
Her name “Pacelli” means “little peace” but I suspect whoever bestowed that name on her didn’t know her very well. Either that or it was an inside joke. “Little hurricane” would have been more appropriate.
My senior year in college I was taking a short story writing class with Sister Pacelli. My writing classes were “for fun”. My major was Political Science. As she was ripping one of my stories to shreds in her office one afternoon(she was tough) she asked what I’d be doing after graduation. I told her I was thinking about getting my doctorate in history. She pointed to my assignment, full of red ink, on the desk between us. “You could put yourself through school with your writing.”
Huh? Writing was my hobby. Nobody have ever told me I could make a living with my writing. Seriously? I never forgot what Sr. Pacelli said and eventually I did become a writer and, to the amusement of anyone who reads the acknowledgements of my first book, I mention Sister Pacelli. We both wrote our first books at the same time and each had a copy of the other’s book on our bookshelves.
Thanks for all you did for me Sister Pacelli.
Sister Pacelli lit my flame. Who lit yours?