The end of an era – more like several eras – comes this month when the last two Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity (better known as the Stella Niagara Franciscans) at the St. Leo Convent on Columbus’ south side in the Merion Village area move back to the religious order’s motherhouse in New York.
Sisters Alberta Wilkes, OSF, and Margaret Scanlan, OSF, have lived in the convent next to what is now St. Leo the Great Oratory for several decades and have spent significant portions of their religious life ministering in the Diocese of Columbus and in Ohio.
Sister Alberta, who grew up in the Cleveland area, and Sister Margaret, a Columbus native whose family resided close to St. Leo, will join approximately 35 of the Holy Name Province’s 74 remaining sisters in Stella Niagara, New York, in the Buffalo area.
The three U.S. branches of the worldwide order also has sisters in California; Colorado; Nebraska; Florida; New York; West Virginia; Chiapas, Mexico; and Tanzania.
In late August, a prayer service and reception at the convent was attended by approximately 75 visitors who ranged from provincial councilors from New York to lay associates of the order, relatives, area residents and Bishop Earl Fernandes.
“Although there is sadness in the departure of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity (Stella Niagara Sisters), from what I have seen and heard, the people of the Diocese of Columbus are filled with gratitude for generations of dedicated service, especially in the area of Catholic education,” Bishop Fernandes said.
“On their behalf, I express to the sisters, our profound gratitude, assuring them of our heartfelt prayers. Their service and witness will not be forgotten.”
Though the order is leaving St. Leo Convent, seven of its sisters remain in the diocese at various residences. The oldest, Sister Barbara Holtzinger, 101, is a Columbus native currently at Mohun Health Care Center, which is a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Peace on the city’s east side.
The Stella Niagara congregation, founded in the Netherlands by Mother Magdalen Damen in 1835, came to the United States in 1874 and established their first convent and novitiate in Buffalo.
One year later, in 1875, sisters were sent to Columbus to open St. Vincent’s orphanage. That same year, they opened Sacred Heart convent.
During the next 125 years in the diocese, they carved out a legacy that includes the establishment of St. Ann’s Hospital in Westerville and Columbus St. Francis DeSales High School, staffing the St. Therese Shrine and Retreat Center on Columbus’ east side from its founding in 1926 until 1971, and involvement in various apostolates in education, health care, social work, rural life, administration and youth ministry.
Among the other service activities and residences listed in a 1974 Catholic Times article marking the order’s jubilee year in America were St. Vincent Children’s Center; Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School; St. John XXIII School; the parishes of Columbus Sacred Heart, Columbus St. Matthias, Columbus St. Anthony, Columbus Our Lady of Victory, Columbus St. Christopher, New Lexington St. Rose, Lancaster St. Bernadette, Junction City St. Patrick, Columbus Holy Cross and Columbus St. Mary, Mother of God; Mount Carmel Hospital; Ohio Nurses Association; diocesan education office; and in rural life around New Straitsville.
A letter to the editor of The Catholic Times in June 1987 from Father Richard Snoke thanked the order for 113 years of education and service in Perry County and at New Lexington St. Rose School, which the order staffed from its opening in 1912 until the order’s departure at the end of the 1987 school year.
The order’s association with St. Leo Church and School began in 1904, two years before the convent that the sisters inhabited for 117 years was built, when three sisters were assigned to teach at the school. They commuted by street car or walked each day from St. Vincent’s orphanage to St. Leo and also to St. John and Holy Rosary to work with students.
When St. Leo School was established, it was the first free parochial school in Ohio. Enrollment started at 150 students and grew into the 400s by the 1950s.
Clara Babbert, the first graduate of the school who completed all eight grades there in 1912, entered the convent with the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity in 1919 and later returned to Columbus as Sister Mary Daniel to teach at St. Vincent’s orphanage.
The Stella Niagara sisters remained at St. Leo as teachers, touching countless lives and inspiring numerous religious vocations, until the school closed in 1997.
The diocese deactivated the parish two years later, and the church was used during the next 20 years for weddings and funerals and by the Korean Catholic community until the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest arrived in October 2020 at the invitation of former Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan to establish an oratory dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass.
Since the closing of the school and parish in the late 1990s, the convent has continued to serve as a residence to a reduced number of sisters and as a meeting spot for the order’s various ministries.
Throughout their history at St. Leo, the sisters have attended to the needs of the community, providing food and medicine for the homeless and sometimes odd jobs for individuals in need of work as part of the sisters’ Franciscan charism.
At one point, nine sisters lived in the well-maintained convent, which includes a full kitchen, dining area, parlor, offices, chapel and bedrooms to house up to 10 people. Renovations and additions have included handicapped-accessible ramps, a chair lift and first-floor laundry.
A statue of St. Francis of Assisi near the front door of the convent is visible to passers-by from Hanford Street and has stood guard over the sisters for years.
“As our sisters say farewell to St. Leo’s Convent, we recall the way it has provided a space for community Masses and prayer, for overnight stays and for official visitations by leadership as well as many other gatherings,” said Sister Nancy Zelma, the first provincial councilor for the order as part of a blessing at the convent reception last month.
“And we see the changes and additions that this house has undergone to assist our frailer members. Our hope is that this residence will continue to be of good service to God’s people.”
Sister Margaret has spent significant portions of her life at St. Leo. A daughter of the parish, she graduated from the school, assisted the sisters with their work in the church and school during her youth, and eventually entered the order.
In 1967, she returned to St. Leo School as a teacher. All told, she spent 12 years in teaching in New Jersey, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio.
In the late 1980s, she came back again to St. Leo as a pastoral associate for 10 years and then became a religious education consultant in the Diocese of Steubenville before another return in 2001 to St. Leo, where she has remained ever since.
“I’ve been fortunate to be ‘home’ for all of those years,” she said. “My family’s here, which is really nice. But I’ll get to come back at least a couple of times a year.”
Sister Alberta came to the diocese in 1987 to finish a degree in journalism, encountered the sisters at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center near Ohio State University and entered the order. After spending time in New York for religious formation, she returned to Columbus.
She worked at St. Ann’s Hospital with employee publications and then began the first of two stints with The Catholic Times as a reporter and writer. While living at the former Holy Rosary convent on the east side of Columbus, she developed an interest in the community kitchen at Holy Rosary-St. John Church. That led to her obtaining a degree in social work.
Until retiring five years ago, Sister Alberta worked in geriatric social work for several private health-care organizations and for Franklin County for 17 years.
“I don’t want to live alone, and I don’t want to go out and get an apartment,” Sister Alberta said of her decision to move to New York. “At this age, I think it’s better to be with a group and, right now, with women’s religious orders nationally, we’re all in the same boat as older orders.
“We’re trying to take care of our elderly, but how can we leave a legacy? We have all these things we started.”
Both sisters said they chose to move back to Stella Niagara to live in community “because there are lot of ministry opportunities when you’re with more people,” Sister Alberta said.
“I would say our legacy is the well-established places like the hospital, orphanage (now closed) and high school,” Sister Margaret said.
The diocese, which owns St. Leo Convent and has provided maintenance through the years, has yet to determine how the building will be used.
