A Beloved Nun Is Retiring, but Nobody Calls Her Shy according tot he New York Times
June 19, 2005
…Sister Eileen, who will turn 82 at the end of the month, is a beloved figure at Cathedral, a Roman Catholic girls’ school on 56th Street at First Avenue. She has run the annual candy sale since 1980, the same year she helped to form the school’s marching band, the Cardinals.
So it is not surprising that her retirement this month after 42 years is a significant event for the school. But it is a milestone in another way: she is Cathedral’s last teacher from the Sisters of Charity of New York, the order that founded the school 100 years ago. (Seven nuns from other orders remain, one teaching art and six in administrative roles.)
“It’s like a legend is leaving,” said Susan Sandstrom, who is taking Sister Eileen’s place as chairwoman of the language department. “It will never be the same.”
The principal of the school, Sister Elizabeth Graham, said: “She is education from head to toe. She brings peace to my soul.”
Sister Eileen came to the school in 1963 as head of the foreign language department and as a Spanish teacher. At the time, the school was on Lexington Avenue at 50th Street, across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria.
“I wanted to dedicate my life to serving God, and teaching seemed the best way,” said Sister Eileen, who grew up in Yorkville and knew she wanted to become a nun from age 5.
She has been in the Sisters of Charity for 60 years, and like the order’s founder, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton – Mother Seton – she once wore a black bonnet and habit. Today she wears a navy blue suit, white blouse and blue-and-white veil.
It is no secret that few women are becoming nuns these days. And, with so many fields opened to them since the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, those who do often find their calling outside education.
After she retires, Sister Eileen expects to use her language skills in her own neighborhood, Rego Park, Queens, teaching Spanish at Our Lady of the Angelus parish and helping Spanish speakers with translations.
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