Heritage Society Keeps BVM Memories Alive
by Pat Nolan, BVM

BVM Louise French (Anne) is interviewed by Virginia Hughes, BVM (Flocella) on her memories of the 1968 Chapter.

Memory remains alive and thrives through stories. “You don't have anything if you don't have the stories,” writes Leslie Marmon Silko in her novel Ceremony.(1) How often does the name of a person or a past event connect itself to a story?

BVMs find resonance with this as well. For nearly 20 years the BVM Historical Society, now known as the BVM Heritage Society, has endeavored to preserve actual BVM stories by researching, collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting the history of the BVM congregation.

While much of the exhibited work of this organization has centered around celebrations—the Centennial of the Motherhouse in 1992; the sesquicentennial arrival of the BVMs in Dubuque in 1993; Father Terence Donaghoe's 200th birthday in 1995; and, in 2003, Mary Frances Clarke's 200th birthday—a good deal of the ongoing work of the Society is reflected in the researching and the collecting of stories of ordinary BVM life from the past 174 years.

Late in the 20th century, the Heritage Society initiated and encouraged BVMs to trace their ancestry, resulting in a genealogical collection of family trees and histories of several hundred BVMs primarily from California, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Members of the society have

• researched lives of early Mothers General,
• presented papers and chaired sessions at the History of Women Religious Congregations Conference,
• nvited theologians and historians to speak on the role of women religious at their two yearly meetings.

More recently, in 2003, Kathryn Lawlor, BVM (John Laurian) current chair of the BVM Heritage Society, published a commentary on the writings of Mary Frances Clarke and, in 2004, Ann Harrington, BVM (St. Remi) published Creating Community: Mary Frances Clarke and Her Companions.

Currently two projects gaining momentum in the Heritage Society are the writing of BVM biographies and the collecting of BVM oral histories.

To date, the Mount Carmel Archives holds literally hundreds of biographies of deceased sisters, the majority of which have been authored by Jane McDonnell, BVM (Bonaventure). Oral history cassette tapes number approximately 250; many of these have been recorded by a number of BVMs.

In their writing, biographers follow specific guidelines in recording information about a sister's background and all details related to entrance and ministries. Biographical material is researched in a variety of places, some of which include files from schools, parishes, and convents where sisters lived and worked. Articles, stories and pictures often abound in such files.

Of this work, Jane McDonnell asserts, “I love doing it!” The routine, a few biographies every day, each according to the same format, is offset by the material. As Jane mentions, “Even though the outline is always the same, the subjects change—they are all people!”

A sister who completes her oral history on cassette tape or for whom her history is recorded by someone else signs what is known as a “deposit agreement” which allows the tape to be preserved and subsequently used for research.

Most oral histories are completed by BVM interviewers who guide the sister through a variety of topics related to memories of family customs and traditions, education, entrance, and places of ministry.

Some oral histories have been transcribed by Jean Byrne, BVM (Jean Francis). Jean has also transcribed BVM “wake stories,” those memories of the deceased sister shared by those attending her wake.

According to Mary Lauranne Lifka, BVM, archivist for the Sisters of Charity, BVM, requests for access to archival documents must be written and are honored “for due cause or valid reason.”

Practical uses of biographies and oral histories seem evident: research related to congregational business, family inquiries, varieties of requests from former students or others with whom and for whom a sister ministered, as well as material for funeral reflections.

Beyond the practical, inspiration resulting from kept memories touches and moves those who journey in similar footsteps.

Georgia Ann Lange (Georgelle), member of the BVM Heritage Society, is quite certain that biographies and oral histories “show the personal, individual, unique side of the BVM community.” They offer the stories that keep the memories alive.

Footnote:
1 (New York: Viking, 1977)