Sisters of St. Joseph: ‘bravery and steadiness’

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | The Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine had been teaching the children of freed slaves for 50 years. But in 1913, a Florida law declared it illegal for white teachers to teach black children.

“Three sisters at St. Benedict the Moor School were arrested in 1916,” says Nancy Shaver, current St. Augustine mayor, in a one-hour documentary about the sisters, called “A Legacy of Faith.”

The sisters were acquitted on the grounds that the law didn’t apply to private schools. The Jacksonville public television station, WJCT, produced the film in honor of the community’s 150 years of serving Florida.

The first presentation of the film here took place Sept. 23 at Mercy Hospital, which the sisters founded in 1950. The film premiered March 23 on Jacksonville’s WJCT and aired on Miami’s WPBT Sept. 24 and 25.

“The sisters’ dedication, what they did going to jail for teaching African-American kids, in many ways there’s a bravery and steadiness about them. They’ve left their imprint on Florida,” said Shaver.

The story of the Sisters of St. Joseph begins in 1866 when Bishop Augustin Verot, of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, invited the community to come to Florida to teach the children of newly-freed slaves after the Civil War ended. The bishop, who would become the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870, knew the St. Joseph sisters well: They had taught him where he grew up, in LePuy, France.

Eight French-speaking nuns arrived in St. Augustine in 1866. The conditions were harsh.

“It was really on-the-job training because they had to learn English,” said author-historian David Nolan in the film. “You can just imagine the primitive living conditions they faced, the hot, humid climate, which they weren’t used to, a certain amount of bigotry for teaching black children. You could see the difficulty in the early letters they wrote back to France.”

Those letters, photos and other memorabilia are conserved in a two-story fire-proof, flood-proof building in St. Augustine, where the sisters’ motherhouse is located. The facility also houses the Diocese of St. Augustine archives.

Throughout the documentary, various sisters recount their reasons for entering the order and former students, now elderly, remember their school days.

“It was a blessing that we were taught by the sisters. We didn’t have anyone else to teach us,” said Janie Price, an alumna of St. Benedict the Moor School. “I remember the strict discipline.”

The seed that grew into the documentary started with Jeanette Ghioto, the sisters’ Mission Advancement director. She knew Michael Boylan, president and CEO of WJCT, who was a fellow parishioner at San Juan del Rio Church in St. Johns. He saw the sisters’ history and their work and was inspired by the book, “Beyond the Call.” It was written by Sister Thomas Joseph McGoldrick, curator of the Father Miguel O’Reilly Museum.

Sister Thomas Joseph decided to form a 150th anniversary committee.

“Jeanette asked me to serve as committee chairman,” he said. “Most of the sisters have remained unsung. I thought from the beginning that their story needed to be told. If I could use words to describe them they would be humble and persevering.”

The Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine helped to write a significant chapter in the history of Florida, said Archbishop Thomas Wenski during the documentary’s premiere here.

He remembered the sisters who taught him at Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth. “We hope that they will continue to write chapters in our state’s history book,” he said.

Sister Jane Stoecker, former principal at St. Mary Cathedral School in Miami and now general superior of the Florida community, thanked all the “dear neighbors” for coming to view the presentation at Mercy Hospital.

Like the first sisters who came to St. Augustine to teach the children of freed slaves, the Sisters of St. Joseph today teach at inner-city schools such as St. James in North Miami, whose students are predominantly Haitian-American and lack the resources of those in affluent schools.

St. James School students sang during the presentation and watched themselves in the documentary, which showed them in their classrooms along with their principal, Sister Stephanie Flynn, and assistant principal, Sister Kathleen Carr.

“The mission of our school is to provide a quality education in a Gospel-centered atmosphere,” said Sister Stephanie.

Though most of the sister’s work is highly visible, some of the sisters work behind the scenes — such as Sister Elizabeth Ann Worley, chancellor for administration and chief operating officer for the Archdiocese of Miami.

When not at her day job, “I work and do accounting for a grant program that comes out of a Florida foundation which is collaborating with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to rebuild schools, convents and parishes that were destroyed by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti,” said Sister Elizabeth.  “I may not look like I’m working with Haitians, but I am working in a different way.”

Dr. Rolando De Leon, ob-gyn and chair of Mercy Hospital’s board, called the documentary spectacular.

“I am at Mercy exclusively because of the sisters,” he said. “Their mission is my mission.”