"This will be our first foreign mission"
When Mother Claudia Glenn sent the letter seen above to Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi in Rome, she was in effect announcing a new era for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. Sisters from Seton Hill had served all over the United States, but they had never before ventured beyond their nation's borders to serve in other lands. Yet, the four sisters that became the first missionaries to South Korea in 1960 planted seeds that 60 years later have developed into a congregation of well over 300 sisters, who work in two co-equal provinces, one based in Greensburg, Pennsylvania and the other in Gwangju, South Korea.
The story begins in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in early October 1959, when Fr. Richers visited the Sisters of Charity at Seton Hill. The Columban priest was a missionary in Korea but his mother, who had been taught by the Sisters of Charity, was from Altoona. According to a Community Bulletin dated Dec. 1, 1959, it was "his mother who had urged him to come to Seton Hill, because 'the kind of sisters needed in Korea were there.' He then asked Mother Claudia if she would receive Bishop [Harold] Henry and take up with him the possibility of accepting an invitation to work in the Vicariate" of Gwangju, which Bishop (later Archbishop) Henry led at that time.
Bishop Henry made his personal visit to Greensburg later that October. He had two specific goals in mind for the Sisters: he wanted them to work in education and to start a Korean community of sisters. The sisters accepted the Bishop's offer and from among many volunteer offers (over sixty), four sisters were ultimately chosen: Sr. Thomas Aquinas (baptismal name: Mary Agnes) Carey, Sr. Mary Noreen (baptismal name: Mildred Patricia) Lacey, Sr. Martin de Porres (baptismal name: Florentine Mary) Knock, and Sr. Marie Timothy (baptismal name: Alice) Ruane.
Almost one year later, on September 11, 1960, a missioning ceremony led by Bishop Connare was held in Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Greensburg. Sr. Thomas Aquinas' brother, Fr. Thomas Carey gave the sermon.
Then, at the Greensburg railroad station, a group of Seton Hill sisters gathered to see the four missionaries off. Listen (on the left) to Sr. Alice's memories of traveling across the United States by train from Greensburg.
On October 6th, 1960, the four sisters left San Francisco and departed for South Korea on the freighter, the California Bear.
The journey across the Pacific Ocean took nearly a month, which included short visits to Japan. Finally, on November 3, the sisters disembarked at the port of Inchon in Korea.
After short stops in Seoul and Gwangju, they arrived at the city that would be their home for the next year: Mokpo.
The American sisters would need to be introduced to a very new culture and society once they arrived in South Korea. As a recent history vividly describes Korea at that time: "On November 3, 1960, when the four Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill arrived in Korea from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, USA, South Korea was rather a young democratic country established in 1948 after being liberated at the end of the World War II in 1945 from 36 years of colonial oppression by Japan. Moveover, since the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953, a cease-fire had been signed only seven years before the sisters came into the country. General poverty and struggle to rebuild from the destruction of the war were going on. The Catholic population in South Korea numbered only 451,888 amounting to less than 2% of the total population of 25 million. However, the Korean people had experienced a long history of 2,000 years with a rich cultural heritage."*
The sisters found a warm welcome awaiting them in the city of Mokpo by the Catholic community. Although he had met the four sisters only recently, Bishop Harold Henry already formed a positive first impression. In a letter to Mother Claudia from November 19, 1960, he observed that, as "one priest said, they fit in here like gloves. They certainly have a spirit of self sacrifice, coupled with humor, which will get them through anything and everything. I told them that there were hard times, disappointments and difficulties coming too, but that I knew their trust in God would bring them through."
One of the first difficulties the sisters encountered had to do with language. The sisters had a long way to go before they were fluent in their adopted country's language. Bishop Harold Henry gave them additional lessons in Korean, giving them their first lesson soon after their arrival in Mokpo. Click on the audio file on the right to listen to Sr. Alice's memories of learning Korean with Bishop Henry.
After a year of studying Korean in Mokpo with tutors while sharing a house with three Caritas Sisters, the sisters were given their first education assignment in Korea, at the request of Bishop Henry. On November 3, 1961, the sisters arrived in the small town of Gangjin, described in one congregation history as "a farming area in the very poor province of Cholla Nam Do, about 50 kilometers from Mokpo."** Listen (on the left) to Sr. Alice's account of how the sisters moved from Mokpo to the school in Gangjin.
By March 1962, the four sisters were able to assume control over the administration of St. Joseph School, a middle school for girls of all faith backgrounds.
In Gangjin, the sisters found themselves falling into the rhythm of the agricultural town's life. As they described in a letter to the community in Greensburg, dated June 1, 1962, "The weather is getting warmer and warmer and we are once again in white habits. The rains have not come yet, and if they don't soon, the barley crops will be ruined. Living as we do surrounded by such fields and daily rubbing shoulders with the farmers we have come to realize what a catastrophe this could be. In fact we would be personally affected by it, since the second semester school fees depend on the success of the barley crop; just as the first semester fees depend on the rice crop. But even more important than this, there will be many empty bowls at meal time in the coming months, for only the very rich can afford to eat rice not mixed with barley. We will have a week off when the barley is ready to be harvested. This should be in the early part of June, but we can't schedule it exactly until the rains come and the crops are ready. Both in winter and summer our life revolves one [sic] the weather. Of course, we knew this, but we were never before so conscious of the fact."
The four sisters had moved into what would be their home for at least the next few years. But who exactly were these first Sisters of Charity teachers in Gangjin?
Sr. Thomas Aquinas (Mary Agnes) Carey (1916-1993) was already the recipient of a doctorate degree by the time she was missioned to Korea. She had graduated from Seton Hill College with a degree in Latin (1940), earned her master's degree in Spanish from Middlebury College (1956), and received a doctorate degree in Spanish from the University of Madrid (1958). She had entered the Sisters of Charity in 1934 and, since 1950, had taught in high schools, as well as at Seton Hill College.
The Pittsburgh native brought her wealth of experience both as an educator and as a sister to Gangjin's St. Joseph School for Girls, where she served as the school's principal. In the 1970s, Sr. Mary Agnes (as she was known in later years) became the first regional superior of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill's newly formed Korean Region.
Sr. Mary Agnes continued to act as the school's principal almost the entire rest of her life, retiring in 1991. In recognition of her service in education in Korea, she had received over the years several awards, including the Presidential Citation in 1991. While visiting back in Pennsylvania, Sr. Mary Agnes was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after. Although she died before she could return to Korea, Sr. Mary Agnes had already begun to organize the Korean Province's archives and history during her short retirement from the school: a history that she had been integral in making.
Sr. Mary Noreen (Mildred Patricia) Lacey (1927-2009) grew up in Munhall, Pennsylvania in an Irish American family. Soon after her graduation from high school, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in 1944. Sr. Mary Noreen taught elementary school classes until she was missioned to Korea.
By that time, she had already received her education degree from Seton Hill College (1957). Once she was sent to Korea, She continued to be an educator at St. Joseph School. For her dedication to education, especially for women, in Gangjin, Sr. Mary Noreen was named the "Person of the Year" by the Gangjin Newspaper in 2005.
Sr. Mary Noreen died in 2009. She had served in Korea for 49 years. She is buried in South Korea, where she passed away. Sr. Sae Hyang Oh, Provincial Superior of the Korean Province at the time, wrote that they in the Korean Provincial House couldn't "believe that Sister Noreen is not with us. We still feel her presence everywhere in this house and in our heart." She ended her correspondence to the sisters in the U.S. Province with a heartfelt note to Sr. Mary Noreen herself: "Finally I want to say good-bye to Sister Noreen again. Sister Mary Noreen! Thank you and we love you! Please rest in peace!"
Originally from New Jersey, Sr. Martin de Porres (Florentine Mary) Knock (1929-2008) entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in 1950. After her novitiate, Sr. Martin de Porres taught science. In Korea, Sr. Martin de Porres continued to be a science teacher. She was also very involved in the construction of the school facility in Gangjin: early film from Korea show her enthusastically supervising work (click on the video on the left to watch Sr. Martin de Porres looking over construction work, and then play the audio file to listen to Sr. Alice's memories of Sr. Martin de Porres)!
In 1967, two years after she returned from Korea, Sr. Martin de Porres left the Sisters of Charity to care for her aging and ailing father and stepmother. The energetic Florentine "Marty" Knock reinvented herself and became a successful professional in the real estate world.
Years later, in 1981, she reminisced with a laugh the humouros "reason" she believed she was picked for the Korean mission, saying that "I think the archbishop was tipped off on how good I was at installing electrical outlets and replacing sash cords." But on a more serious note, she also remembered that her and the other three sisters "loved the Korean people. They were so friendly to us."
At thirty years old, the Brookline, PA, native, Sr. Marie Timothy (Alice) Ruane (b. 1930), was the youngest of the four sisters. Years later, she recalled in a short biographical essay the excitement of crossing over the ocean to Korea: "My piano was in the hold of the ship with a box of 78 rpm folk dance and classical records. My file, holding my BA degree in music education, and a jar of peanut butter were in my suitcase. My heart was filled with anticipation and joy as we crossed the Pacific Ocean. I was a young professed sister then, in the community just twelve years. I had moved from one assignment to another, happily teaching piano, voice, religion and folk dancing at two of our high schools in Pittsburgh. I looked forward to sharing these gifts with my yet unknown students in Korea. I was so excited!"*** Once in Korea, Sr. Alice, graduate of Seton Hill College, worked as St. Joseph School's music and dance teacher (play the audio file on the right to listen to Sr. Alice describe her teaching experience).
Although women religious are sometimes thought of as being disconnected from the world around them, the sisters took note of the injustices and difficulties of the 20th century world they lived in. While the sisters did not require their students to become or to be Catholics, Sr. Alice found her own Catholic belief in Mary, the Mother of God, a powerful way to teach her students about their value as women, regardless of their own faith backgrounds. As Sr. Alice recounts (listen to the audio recording on the right), music class became an opportunity for her to combat the ills of 20th century society.
Sr. Alice returned to the United States for a time in 1969. She was able to return again to St. Joseph School, 1974-1976, in order to teach once again. Sr. Alice's time in Korea deeply impacted her, and she still vividly recalls names, places, and stories sixty years later. In one biographical essay, she reflected on the deep attachment to Korea that grew while she taught there: "Although often filled with happiness, I privately shed my tears of homesickness. I loved every minute of those eleven years and I cried again when I had to say goodbye to Korea."****
Today, she lives in retirement at the motherhouse, Caritas Christi, in Greensburg, PA, always ready with a story to share. The audio excerpts featuring Sr. Alice are from an oral history interview that took place on July 2, 2021.
St. Joseph School for Girls, which soon included both the middle school and a high school, continued to thrive over the years. Both the student body and the faculty (consisting of sisters and lay teachers) continued to expand over the following decades. When St. Joseph High School closed in 2016 (the middle school had already closed at that point), the school had 10,750 graduates to its credit. These graduates work in many different fields and professions, from education to business to religious life. While the original St. Joseph School is no longer open, the Korean Province continues to provide education to the communities they serve. Today, there is a new school in Gangjin, St. Joseph Intercultural High School. This school, which opened in 2018, seeks to educate marginalized students, many of whom are from intercultural families.
* Sr. Sung Hae Kim, SC and Sr. Kyong Min Lee, SC, Living the Charism of Charity: The History of the First Fifty Years of the Korean Province, Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill 1960-2010, translated by Sr. Min Ah Ahn, SC (Seoul, Korea: Spiritual Life Press, 2020), 19-20.
** Sr. Marlene Mondalek, SC, "The Korean Province 1960-1995," in The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Volume Two: 1945-2002 (Greensburg, PA: The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, 2005), 312.
*** Sr. Alice Ruane, "Meet Our Sisters," Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Generalate, website link here.
**** Ibid.
"This will be our first foreign mission"
