Oral History: Sister Angelica Little
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Sister Angelica Little
Subject
Sister Angelica Little
Description
An oral history of Sister Angelica Little, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1923 until 1993. The interview was conducted by Sister Virginia Pascaretta on March 5, 1983 and March 15, 1983.
Sister M. Angelica Little was born on September 23, 1904 in Ebensburg, Pa. Daughter of Peter J. Little and Bertha O’Connor, Mary Elizabeth Little joined the community on September 8, 1923 as Sister M. Angelica Little.
Sister M. Angelica taught school education for many years, including at St. John’s High School, Scottsdale; and Sacred Heart High School, Pittsburgh; and later taught English at Seton Hill College. From 1953 to 1970, she taught visually handicapped children at the DePaul Institute, Brookline. After her retirement in 1970, she remained at the DePaul Institute as a tutor.
Sister M. Angelica earned her B.A. in English and Education from Seton Hill college in 1926 and earned her M.A. in these subjects from Columbia University in 1933. She also studied Special Education for the Blind at Catholic University in the summers of 1953 and 1954. In 1942 she helped found the House of Mary during her social ministry in Pittsburgh. She was a prolific writer of songs, verses, and plays, and she directed her students at the DePaul Institute in her plays throughout her teaching career. She also introduced the Talking Prayerbook for the Catholic Blind recordings for her students in 1955.
Sister M. Angelica Little passed away on March 10, 1993 at the age of 88.
Sister M. Angelica Little was born on September 23, 1904 in Ebensburg, Pa. Daughter of Peter J. Little and Bertha O’Connor, Mary Elizabeth Little joined the community on September 8, 1923 as Sister M. Angelica Little.
Sister M. Angelica taught school education for many years, including at St. John’s High School, Scottsdale; and Sacred Heart High School, Pittsburgh; and later taught English at Seton Hill College. From 1953 to 1970, she taught visually handicapped children at the DePaul Institute, Brookline. After her retirement in 1970, she remained at the DePaul Institute as a tutor.
Sister M. Angelica earned her B.A. in English and Education from Seton Hill college in 1926 and earned her M.A. in these subjects from Columbia University in 1933. She also studied Special Education for the Blind at Catholic University in the summers of 1953 and 1954. In 1942 she helped found the House of Mary during her social ministry in Pittsburgh. She was a prolific writer of songs, verses, and plays, and she directed her students at the DePaul Institute in her plays throughout her teaching career. She also introduced the Talking Prayerbook for the Catholic Blind recordings for her students in 1955.
Sister M. Angelica Little passed away on March 10, 1993 at the age of 88.
Creator
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Publisher
Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Date
1983/03/05
1983/03/05
Rights
All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Format
Audio cassette tape
Type
Oral history
Identifier
OH-30
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sister Virginia Pascaretta
Interviewee
Sister M. Angelica Little
Transcription
OH 30-1 1
This is an interview for the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, PA. The interviewee is Sister Angelica Little. The interviewer is Sister Virginia Pascaretta. The interview is taking place at DePaul Institute. The date is March 5, 1983.
Sr. Virginia : Sr. Angelica, to begin with, would you please give me a little bit of your family background?
Sr. Angelica: Well, I was born in Evansberg, PA in 1904 and I had five sisters and two brothers. My father was an attorney in the town and my mother was originally from Johnstown, my father, from Loretto.
SVP: Would you like to give your father's name?
SAL: Peter J. Little and my mother was Bertha O'Connor Little.
SVP: I think that at one point in our conversations you mentioned that there was a reason for your going to Seton Hill Academy.
SAL: Yes, my father grew up in the town of Loretto; Sr. Cecilia Schwab grew up there also. On one occasion Sister asked him if he would send his six daughters to Seton Hill and enroll them in St. Joseph's Academy; he agreed to do this and he did. When I went to Seton Hill, I had two older sisters there and three to come after me. So I entered th Academy in the Fall of 1918. There was a class of 200 girls and there were three Directresses that I lived under during my four years in the Academy: Sr. Francesca, beloved of all the girls, Sr. Angela Sullivan and Mother Claudia. The buildings there, I remember, were only two at the time, the Administration Building and Maura Hall. There was no passage way going over to the post office as there is now; it was possible to walk from the old laundry and the bake house straight down to the old gym. There was no building between the kitchen and what is now the dishwasher; that was all open then. The pantries were up, but nothing else.
I enjoyed my years in the Academy very much. I was attracted to the community by the things that the Sisters did, just going about their work. In the evenings, many of them, on warm Spring days, would collect on the spiral stairways which extended from the porch on each side of the Administration Building. I loved to watch them. And another gathering was in the "court" where the Sisters with long paddles in their hands stirred apple butter in a big steaming kettle; it was beautiful thing to watch from upstairs. These things attracted me to the community. And another gathering was in the Fall, I was in the community then. Each sister, professed as well as novices, put on a gingham apron, got a pan and filled it with vegetables and fruit; we called it "courting". We would have a nice time down in the kitchen peeling our fruit and cutting up vegetable . Sr.
Salome Kline was the one who did a lot of the canning and preserving in the old kitchen. We would smell the good spicy smells in the Fall. What really attracted me after I finished the Academy was. I was going to wait until I entered, for I always wanted
to be a Sister, but I didn't talk to anyone about it because I thought they would be surprised on account of a few pranks I had been involved in. Then, Sr. Theodosia and I talked one time outside the chapel and she said that she wouldn't give anything in this world for even one year of her community life. That's when I decided to enter that September instead of coming back fro a second year of college. So I was in school five years.
SVP: How did your parents accept that news?
SAL: Well, Sr. Victoria, my sponsor, said I should go home and talk to them and when I got home, I just couldn't say a word about it. I came back and I wrote a note; instead of saying I'd like to enter, I wrote that I'd like to come back to stay. Well, they were delighted; they were very happy.
When it was time to enter, my sister Claire was always taunting me saying, "Only three more dinners, only two more breakfasts", and I couldn't stand it anymore. So, I had my sister Margaret call the Mistress of Novices and ask if I could come early. I entered on the 6th of September, 1923. Mother Mary Francis didn't have any problem with the young sisters working in close contact with all the others and we had many happy talks with the senior sisters. We didn't know the pioneers but they did. Sr. Ligouri would work with us on our habits and one of her frequent sayings was " _ is the soul of a religious, without it you are not much more than a layman." Sr. Baptista and I used to talk, too; she had a niece in our community years later. She would tell me about Mother Aloysia Lowe. She said that one reason was she always wanted to build a house for the sisters; that was her goal. She said that when she thought of going back to Cincinnati, "It was hard to abandon the cradle that rocked me." Sr. Baptista would say that "She taught us how to live when too high were they the paths of knowledge; she taught us how to die." I used to go to the cemetery and read the tombstones; only two of them had inscriptions, really. Mother Aloysia's said:
She has gone and left us; in her of love. Her image carved in
So, therefore, is her children's guiding star Whose only death is in her for zeal.
I used to go to every place on the campus, down to the dairy, and up to the towers, to read the inscription on the bell:
Ave Maria peel out the bells, Over the hills and over the dales.
All hail fair queen and mother of many Near whom the seraph's eyes gaze and
Ring loud sweet bells, ring long sweet bells and pray In the words that are Gabriel's, - - Ave Maria.
Well, what else? Well, the Novitiate life was very structured in those days, of course. We had morning prayers and a ½ hr. of meditation in the Grotto. Then, we had Mass and, our charge list was always hanging up, so we went to our charges. Sometimes to the laundry, sometimes to the kitchen. We always had time for a little walk, without shawls around us, outside. We had Chapter once a week and we really dreaded that because we had to kneel down publicly and tell our faults, such as, "We worked without our gingham aprons, we didn't keep our charges, we didn't keep recollection ." We had quarter prayers at quarter to 12, that's why they called them that, and we had our prayer for benefactors. I'm sure we must have prayed for Mother Seton's Canonization, all told, for over fifty years that God would hasten the time of her canonization.
St. Vincent says that we always want an answer to prayers before God wants to give it. St. Theresa says God delays His answer because He loves prayer so much and we waited and prayed for fifty years for Mother Seton's canonization.
We had recreation before night prayers during our Novitiate and then we'd
have night prayers at quarter of eight. I always thought that was good to have silence right after night prayers, stop in the oratory after prayers for a little visit and then right up to bed. We'd have the lights out at 9:30 and be up at 5:00 the next day.
The sisters entering today don't know the joy of getting the habit that we had years ago. It was a great joy in helping to make it, then putting it on and kissing the cap
before putting it on. Sisters were always pinning the ends of their caps when walking down the hall. I'll never forget the time we came back for Christmas; some of us entered from the back of the chapel and the sisters were already assembled. We didn't know who some of them were. We thought, well, what's the matter? They hadn't any curtains
on their caps! We didn't know Sr. Mary Cletus had red hair; we didn't know Sr. _ had curls behind her cap. We were amazed, but what happened was they had had a curtain on their caps.
In the Academy we wore middies and skirts, of course. We had our mail given out
in the community room at Cecilian Hall at noon. I always remember Sr. Marie Antoinette when she was our angel, she said that if there were any infractions that we were guilty of she wouldn't give out the mail to them. She used to say that she would "Communicate the intelligence verbally". And we'd think, "what? What did she say?" "Communicate the
." That didn't sound a bit like Sr. Marie Antoinette. When I entered I heard those words when the Community Customs were read and thought, "Oh, that's where Sister got that phrase."
This is an interview for the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, PA. The interviewee is Sister Angelica Little. The interviewer is Sister Virginia Pascaretta. The interview is taking place at DePaul Institute. The date is March 5, 1983.
Sr. Virginia : Sr. Angelica, to begin with, would you please give me a little bit of your family background?
Sr. Angelica: Well, I was born in Evansberg, PA in 1904 and I had five sisters and two brothers. My father was an attorney in the town and my mother was originally from Johnstown, my father, from Loretto.
SVP: Would you like to give your father's name?
SAL: Peter J. Little and my mother was Bertha O'Connor Little.
SVP: I think that at one point in our conversations you mentioned that there was a reason for your going to Seton Hill Academy.
SAL: Yes, my father grew up in the town of Loretto; Sr. Cecilia Schwab grew up there also. On one occasion Sister asked him if he would send his six daughters to Seton Hill and enroll them in St. Joseph's Academy; he agreed to do this and he did. When I went to Seton Hill, I had two older sisters there and three to come after me. So I entered th Academy in the Fall of 1918. There was a class of 200 girls and there were three Directresses that I lived under during my four years in the Academy: Sr. Francesca, beloved of all the girls, Sr. Angela Sullivan and Mother Claudia. The buildings there, I remember, were only two at the time, the Administration Building and Maura Hall. There was no passage way going over to the post office as there is now; it was possible to walk from the old laundry and the bake house straight down to the old gym. There was no building between the kitchen and what is now the dishwasher; that was all open then. The pantries were up, but nothing else.
I enjoyed my years in the Academy very much. I was attracted to the community by the things that the Sisters did, just going about their work. In the evenings, many of them, on warm Spring days, would collect on the spiral stairways which extended from the porch on each side of the Administration Building. I loved to watch them. And another gathering was in the "court" where the Sisters with long paddles in their hands stirred apple butter in a big steaming kettle; it was beautiful thing to watch from upstairs. These things attracted me to the community. And another gathering was in the Fall, I was in the community then. Each sister, professed as well as novices, put on a gingham apron, got a pan and filled it with vegetables and fruit; we called it "courting". We would have a nice time down in the kitchen peeling our fruit and cutting up vegetable . Sr.
Salome Kline was the one who did a lot of the canning and preserving in the old kitchen. We would smell the good spicy smells in the Fall. What really attracted me after I finished the Academy was. I was going to wait until I entered, for I always wanted
to be a Sister, but I didn't talk to anyone about it because I thought they would be surprised on account of a few pranks I had been involved in. Then, Sr. Theodosia and I talked one time outside the chapel and she said that she wouldn't give anything in this world for even one year of her community life. That's when I decided to enter that September instead of coming back fro a second year of college. So I was in school five years.
SVP: How did your parents accept that news?
SAL: Well, Sr. Victoria, my sponsor, said I should go home and talk to them and when I got home, I just couldn't say a word about it. I came back and I wrote a note; instead of saying I'd like to enter, I wrote that I'd like to come back to stay. Well, they were delighted; they were very happy.
When it was time to enter, my sister Claire was always taunting me saying, "Only three more dinners, only two more breakfasts", and I couldn't stand it anymore. So, I had my sister Margaret call the Mistress of Novices and ask if I could come early. I entered on the 6th of September, 1923. Mother Mary Francis didn't have any problem with the young sisters working in close contact with all the others and we had many happy talks with the senior sisters. We didn't know the pioneers but they did. Sr. Ligouri would work with us on our habits and one of her frequent sayings was " _ is the soul of a religious, without it you are not much more than a layman." Sr. Baptista and I used to talk, too; she had a niece in our community years later. She would tell me about Mother Aloysia Lowe. She said that one reason was she always wanted to build a house for the sisters; that was her goal. She said that when she thought of going back to Cincinnati, "It was hard to abandon the cradle that rocked me." Sr. Baptista would say that "She taught us how to live when too high were they the paths of knowledge; she taught us how to die." I used to go to the cemetery and read the tombstones; only two of them had inscriptions, really. Mother Aloysia's said:
She has gone and left us; in her of love. Her image carved in
So, therefore, is her children's guiding star Whose only death is in her for zeal.
I used to go to every place on the campus, down to the dairy, and up to the towers, to read the inscription on the bell:
Ave Maria peel out the bells, Over the hills and over the dales.
All hail fair queen and mother of many Near whom the seraph's eyes gaze and
Ring loud sweet bells, ring long sweet bells and pray In the words that are Gabriel's, - - Ave Maria.
Well, what else? Well, the Novitiate life was very structured in those days, of course. We had morning prayers and a ½ hr. of meditation in the Grotto. Then, we had Mass and, our charge list was always hanging up, so we went to our charges. Sometimes to the laundry, sometimes to the kitchen. We always had time for a little walk, without shawls around us, outside. We had Chapter once a week and we really dreaded that because we had to kneel down publicly and tell our faults, such as, "We worked without our gingham aprons, we didn't keep our charges, we didn't keep recollection ." We had quarter prayers at quarter to 12, that's why they called them that, and we had our prayer for benefactors. I'm sure we must have prayed for Mother Seton's Canonization, all told, for over fifty years that God would hasten the time of her canonization.
St. Vincent says that we always want an answer to prayers before God wants to give it. St. Theresa says God delays His answer because He loves prayer so much and we waited and prayed for fifty years for Mother Seton's canonization.
We had recreation before night prayers during our Novitiate and then we'd
have night prayers at quarter of eight. I always thought that was good to have silence right after night prayers, stop in the oratory after prayers for a little visit and then right up to bed. We'd have the lights out at 9:30 and be up at 5:00 the next day.
The sisters entering today don't know the joy of getting the habit that we had years ago. It was a great joy in helping to make it, then putting it on and kissing the cap
before putting it on. Sisters were always pinning the ends of their caps when walking down the hall. I'll never forget the time we came back for Christmas; some of us entered from the back of the chapel and the sisters were already assembled. We didn't know who some of them were. We thought, well, what's the matter? They hadn't any curtains
on their caps! We didn't know Sr. Mary Cletus had red hair; we didn't know Sr. _ had curls behind her cap. We were amazed, but what happened was they had had a curtain on their caps.
In the Academy we wore middies and skirts, of course. We had our mail given out
in the community room at Cecilian Hall at noon. I always remember Sr. Marie Antoinette when she was our angel, she said that if there were any infractions that we were guilty of she wouldn't give out the mail to them. She used to say that she would "Communicate the intelligence verbally". And we'd think, "what? What did she say?" "Communicate the
." That didn't sound a bit like Sr. Marie Antoinette. When I entered I heard those words when the Community Customs were read and thought, "Oh, that's where Sister got that phrase."
Original Format
Audio cassette tape
Duration
19:39
31:05
31:04
31:05
31:04
Bit Rate/Frequency
96kHz
Collection
Citation
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, “Oral History: Sister Angelica Little,” Collections of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, https://scsharchives.com/items/show/688.
Item Relations
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