Sharing Congregational Expertise, Rome, Italy

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On June 27, 2016, the motherhouse community said good bye to Sister Mary Elizabeth Wood, who is the archivist in the province of Chardon, Ohio, USA. She was with us once again to work in the generalate and motherhouse archives together with Sister Mary Supriya and Sister Maria Elke. The six weeks she was here went by only too quickly, and we very much enjoyed working together – not only because of Sister Mary Elizabeth’s expertise and the tasks which were accomplished with her assistance but also for the fun we shared.

On the “motherhouse birthday” on June 15 we were excited to be able to bring out one of the old manual typewriters (which still works!!) along with some of the devices with which we used to place an embossed ND at the top of our correspondence. Also a list of sisters who were members of the motherhouse and generalate community at the time of the move from Via Como to Via della Camilluccia was shared, as well as excerpts from the annals of these exciting months. All these items were put on display in our refectory and generated a lot of interest especially from our younger community members.

We were also happy to be able to identify many other treasures that had found their way to the archives and find the correct place to keep them after entering each item into the archives database. Did you know that we have an archives database for the motherhouse which currently has 4578 entries? Often we wish that all the items which can be found there were able to tell us their story.

At times we need to be detectives to find the correct information! Here is an item with which we need some help. Who can tell us more about the sisters in this photo and the location where it was taken? We know that Mother Maria Bonaventura Feldmann and Mother Maria Antonie Sommer are in it and that it was taken in Germany. The text under the crucifixion scene reads “Rette deine Seele” [save your soul] as we were able to decipher with a good magnifying glass.

Sister Mary Elizabeth returned to her home province of Chardon, where she was awaited by the sisters working with her in the archives of the Chardon province and her community. Thank you, dear Sister Mary Elizabeth, for so joyfully and generously accepting the call to the motherhouse once again, and thank you, dear Sisters in Chardon, for sharing Sister Mary Elizabeth with us!