Oral History: Sr. M. Boniface Curren
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Sr. M. Boniface Curren
Subject
Sister M. Boniface Curren
Description
An oral history of Sister M. Boniface Curren, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1916 until 1990. The interview was conducted by Sister Virginia Pascaretta on March 12, 1983.
Sister Mary Boniface Curren - born Margaret Mary Curren on June 10, 1895 - entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in September of 1916. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Duquesne University in 1944. She was Principal at Sacred Heart High School where she taught from 1946-1951. She also taught at St. James in West End and St. Philip in Crafton. During her early years at St. Mary Magdalene, she worked alongside a young Bishop Hugh Boyle, then a priest. Sister Boniface died on December 28, 1990. Her blood sister, Sister John Baptist, died on that date one year earlier.
Creator
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Publisher
Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Date
1983-03-12
Rights
All rights to this recording belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Format
Audio cassette tape
Language
English
Type
Oral history
Identifier
OH-8
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sr. Virginia Pascaretta
Interviewee
Sr. M. Boniface Curren
Location
Assumption Hall
Transcription
OH 6-1 1
This is an oral history interview for the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The interviewee is Sister Boniface Curran. The interviewer is Sister Virginia Pascaretta. The interview is taking place at Assumption Hall, March 12, 1983.
SVP: To begin the session Sr.Boniface, could you give me a brief history of your family background? Your mother and father's names; when and where you were born.
SBC: My father's name was Christopher Curran. He was born in Waterford in Ireland in 1866.
He died in 1899 in Pittsburgh, PA. My mother's name was Brigid Walsh, born in 1898 and died in 1954. My parents were married in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. They came to Pgh during the Johnstown flood. That was in 1889. I was born on June 13, 1895, in Pgh. It was a very happy home; every one worked to help mother because my father died when he was 33 and mother was 31. My mother was a darling, a very saintly person who lived and guided us close to God very _
SVP: Sister, at one point, you told me that you had always wanted to be a Sister. When did you first meet the Sisters of Charity? Was it when you went to school?
SBC: I started school at St. John the Baptist on 36th Street and Liberty Avenue. I was in the first grade and the second grade with the same teacher, Sr. Virginia Donnelly; she was a very kind teacher. In my school years there I had St. Patricia and Sr. Antonia; these dear Sisters were a good thing for me.
SVP: I understood you to tell me at one time, Sister , that Sr. Antonia who was one of your teachers gave you special devotion and special talks prior to your First Communion . Do you want to tell us about that?
SBC: Sr. Antonia was a very religious person. She talked greatly and at much length on the Blessed Mother. So when First Communion time came around, she spoke very beautifully about the sacrament and what it does for us; and also to ask for anything we wanted and if it would be pleasing to God we would get it. So, I was thinking about my mother who was very sick at that time. I would ask the Blessed Mother that she would console her and help her that she might get well. And I would ask for a very sickly lady who lived on our street. She met me on the way to Holy Communion that day and she asked me to pray that she would get better. And I thought of myself that I would like to be a Sister, a Sister of Charity. I would like that very much. I got my three wishes: my mother got well after four years of sickness; my neighbor, Wendy?, got better; and I received what I asked for, a vocation to a religious order.
SVP: When you finally decided to enter our community, you were delayed in doing that, I understand, because of your mother's illness. Would you describe that a little?
SBC: One Saturday, once when I went to Confession, the priest in the confessional box, after I was finished, he said, "Margaret, I think you have a vocation to the Religious life the more I thought of it. May I suggest ." And he said, "What order would you want to belong to?" And I said, "Well, I was taught by the Sisters of Charity and I love them." And so then he also said, "Margaret, did you know that our mother is going to have a very serious operation and there is only one chance out of 100 that she might get better? If you are wanting to go to the convent, put it off and make sure that you are
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doing the right thing first. If God gave you a vocation, He won't take it from you." And so I listened to that Father .
That evening Mother said to me, "Did you go to Confession, Margaret?" And I said, "Yes, Mother." She said, "Did the priest there tell you anything?" I said, "Yes, he gave me my penance." And did he say anything else?" And I stopped. And then I began to say what Father said, and I told my mother what Father said. "I don't want to stand in your way."
SVP: And what did you decide to do?
SBC: So I decided that since mother was going to have this terrible operation, and none of us were sure she'd recover, I decided not to go until later on. Because as the priest said in confession, "Your mother depends on you, so if God gave you a vocation He won't take it from you.'" So I didn't go. Shortly after that I made a retreat at the Passionist Convent in ,and the priest, Fr. Guido, God rest him, after he heard my confession, he said to me, "Little girl, I think you have a vocation to religious life.''
SVP: And Fr. Guido was a Passionist, a Passionist priest? SBC: Yes
SVP: Did you tell him about your mother at that time?
SBC: Not to the confessor, to Fr. Guido? No, he just heard my confession.
SVP: After the retreat then, you felt that it would be better for you to stay at home and wait until your mother became better.
SBC: Um Hum. I thought she would need the help with the work. We all worked, everyone of us, except Sr. John Baptist; she was the youngest.
SVP: How long after that then, did you enter the community?
SBC: Well, as I said this morning, I stayed and worked until June of 1908. I was 21, just 21, and I thought. .. Well, I was assured that mother was getting better.
SVP: Your First Holy Communion date was 1908. SBC: Yes, in June.
SVP: And then you entered the community in what year? SBC: 1916
SVP: I thought I understood you to say that Sr. John Baptist entered before you did? SBC: We both entered the same year, but she entered in March, March 19.
SVP: Of 1916?
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SBC: Yes.
SVP: And you entered?
SBC: September 24 of the same year.
SVP: Of the same year. And what are your recollections of the Novitiate?
SBC: Well, there were so many beautiful things in the novitiate. Especially the right to listen to the spiritual reading and nice talks we got from our _
SVP: Mistress of Novices? SBC: Yes. And...
SVP: Who was that?
SBC: Well, I had two, in fact I had three. The first one was ... SVP: Your Mistresses were? You said you had more than one. SBC: Sr. Hildegarde and Mother Rose Genevieve.
SVP: But she wasn't Mother Rose Genevieve at that time. SBC: No, she was Sister.
SVP: And what are your early recollections of your Novitiate training? Of Sister, Mother Rose Genevieve and Sr. Hildegarde?
SBC: Very peaceful, very understandable, very kind and very caring; they were good women. SVP: What did you like best about being in the Novitiate under those sisters?
SBC: I think I'd say I liked everything the same way, Sister. SVP: Everything was always good, huh?
SBC: Um hum.
SVP: And then when you finished your novitiate training, you went out immediately to school. SBC: St. Mary Magdalene's.
SVP: That was your first mission? SBC: Yes, in Homestead.
SVP: And I understand that you went there with Sr. Mary Charotte. And what grades were you assigned to? What special ....
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SBC: From Seton Hill they assigned me to be with Sr. Mary Charlotte doing the First Grade. There were too many for one teacher so there were two. Sisters had one room and I had the other across.
SVP: And I understand that you were doing a special reading method. SBC: Yes, the Shields Method.
SVP: Would you like to . . . .
SBC: See, Sr. Mary Charlotte and one other sister were sent to Washington, D.C. to get this work from the people who were putting this new thing out. And then see, I was sent with her and I was to have First Grade, too.
SVP: So then she was teaching you that method.
SBC: We both- - - she'd teach one subject and I'd teach the other. She'd teach first and then I sort of gathered up on that and would repeat here and there.
SVP: nd what was the method? SBC: It was. . . Oh, I didn't like it!
SVP: You didn't like the method then because it required too much memorization.
SBC: Yes. I don't know; I was just glad to get rid of it. I only taught it in that one room in that one school.
SVP: You only taught it that one year?
SBC: Yes, when I went to... taught at Holy Cross, yes, Holy Cross was my next mission, I taught the method. In the meantime that method was lost out to the Sisters of Charity. They didn't care for it, none of them did.
SVP: So you didn't like the method, but I understand that you do have some stories about the way the children responded to it; they couldn't keep the memorization going. Would like to recount one of those stories?
SBC: One of my little boys was to have read the next day. He had taken a book home the night before with the idea to study it. And when it was his turn to read, he just looked at me and I said, "Well, if I start it, you finish it." So, I read the first two lines for him. I said, "Now what comes next?" He says, "All the of the rest!"
SVP: Question. Wasn't Bishop Boyle at St. Mary's as a young priest when you were there teaching First Grade?
SBC: Fr. Boyle was there and he used to come into the classrooms to talk to the Sisters and the children. One day he came into my room and I had 18 action verbs on the board and I had the class up at that time, pointing to them to tell me the words. Then I went through the whole 18 ; then Fr. Boyle said, "Send them to their seats," and I did. He took
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the chalk and he told me that he would write down what I said so I gave him the words,
the 18 action words and he wrote them down. He said, "Call that class up now". I called the class up and he took the pointer and began to point at the words -no answer. The next one- no answer. He turned to me and said, "See, Sister, I knew that was memory work; they didn't know that. He said,"Rub out the words,"so I rubbed them out and he whispered to me, "And place the words differently than I had on the paper." Then I wrote them and he said, "Call that same class up," so they came up and I pointed to the words and they just spun them out very quickly. He said."How's come you know them now ; you didn't know them when I had them on the board?" In one voice they said, "Father, we can't read your writing!" He said, "Good-bye, Sister."
SVP: That's a good story. Wasn't it Sr. Ann Elizabeth?
SBC: Now that is where it comes in here. That evening Father came over to the convent. to see the First Grade Sister. So I was called and he told sister that I was ..
SVP: He told Sr. Ann Elizabeth?
SBC: No, no, he told Sister uh, that he was in my classroom and that when Sister wrote them on the board they knew them, but when I wrote them on the board, he said they couldn't read my writing. So, he said, "I guess I'll have to learn how to write. So, Sr. Ann Elizabeth would you please teach me how to do the method? - The Palmer Method?" She said, "Gladly, Father. Father came two or three times and everything was doing nicely, but then he got tired and was busy, so he asked Sr. Ann Elizabeth to write his name on a piece of paper. He took the paper into one of the stores in town and had a stamp made from it. The people in the parish said "Oh, how Fr. Boyle has improved in writing, look at that!"
SVP: During the time that you were at St. Mary Magdalene the influenza epidemic occurred.
Weren't you involved with Sr. Agnes Josephine, helping some families at that time? Would you like to tell about that?
SBC: Sr. Agnes Josephine and I were sent to a family down below the railroad . . . a poor family, but a very good family. Everyone in that family was sick except the new baby; the new baby was a little boy about a month or two old. So, there was no one to help them. Sister and I stayed; we washed their clothes, we sorted them and put them away. We cooked their meals, gave food to the children and milk to the little baby, medicine to the father and mother and to the others who were to get it. We worked with them for at least a week until we saw a little improvement. One of the boys, he was just a tiny boy at the time, is PA's best harmonica player. Charles ?
SVP: Charles what? Do you remember the last name? You can't think of it? Well, that's alright. How did you have time to take care of the family? Was it after school hours or what?
SBC: All of the schools were closed on account of the influenza. So that gave us a chance to go and help; we helped wherever we could. The Sisters went up to the tent and stayed all night in the open tent because the air was to have been the factor in getting well, and they came in the morning and they rested; then they went back again. In the meantime, Sr. Adelaide, Sr. Agnes Josephine and myself prepared the meals. We did their
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clothing, washing their gowns for them, whatever we could to help out.
SVP: Were some of the sisters struck by the epidemic?
SBC: Yes, everyone, but myself. Sr. Agnes Josephine even got it. They said they had to send them to the hospital. I was the only one that was there.
SVP: Where was the tent?
SBC: Up above the hill, up in Homestead, way up above. You'd have to go in a car to get up there. All the sisters that were well, went there. But the ones that were sick, were too sick, they were sent to the hospital.
SVP: And who took care of the people that were going to be under that tent? Was it a Salvation Army thing, or?
SBC: No, it was, must have been, some society in Homestead. They sent them out and the Sisters would have to wear long white gowns, myself included, and so did Sr. Agnes Josephine. We would stand on the porch and put them on them. And take them off as we went out.
SVP: And what was the purpose of the Sisters going up to the tent? SBC: They were treating the sick.
SVP: They were treating the sick up there.
SBC: Feeding them, washing them, taking care of them, giving them medicine. They stayed all night.
SVP: Were there any doctors?
SBC: Yes, oh, Yes. But they needed help; there were so many of them. That whole area up on top of the hill, as it were. I've never seen it, but they say it was pretty far up.
Somebody used to take them up in their car. They were wonderful to the sick.
SVP: Do you have favorite memories of being at St. Mary Magdalene's?
After you left St. Mary Magdalene's where did you go?
SBC: I went to Holy Cross and enjoyed the children there, enjoyed the work. I went to Stephen's, Hazelwood and I was there for fourteen years; I have beautiful memories of certain people who are now in the religious life. St. John's, South Side - lovely people there. St. Anselm's Swissvale - I was there for seven years; the children were very nice; the children were very impressive. Sacred Heart in Greensburg - I taught there and I was superior for six years. I have four children, five children, no, three children that became religious from Sacred Heart in Greensburg. Two of them, one of them is a twin and she is in our community. One boy had studied for 18 years as a brother and he is now becoming a priest; he'll be ordained and - - -
SVP: Who is the Sister that is in our community?
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SBC: The lawyer.
SVP: Sr. Melanie?
SBC: Yes, and her sister; she was a twin. I had two sets of twins that year. The Petroy's and the Di Pietro's. The Petroy's is the one - - - the two boys and he studied for 18 years and now he'll soon be ordained a priest.
SVP: Then where did you go?
SBC: St. James in West End - I enjoyed that very much; I spent nine years there. St. Philip's in Crafton - My sister was with me at that time -Sr. John Baptist.
St. Therese's in Munhall - Beautiful memories of very kind people and lovely children. Sacred Heart - Every moment was a joy there.
SVP: That was Sacred Heart in Pgh.
SBC: I have taught in 11 schools and I taught over 3,696 pupils. It might be more than that. just put that down. I have it in my book though ; I can show you.
SVP: And you were in First Grade all of those years?
SBC: In two instances, no, in three, I had First and Second, that was double grades. And that was at Sacred Heart, I had double grades.
SVP: That was in Greensburg?
SBC: Yes, then I had St. Philip's, too. Then Sacred Heart in Pgh. SVP: And was you last mission?
SBC: Yes.
SVP: And from Sacred Heart in Pgh. you came to Assumption Hall? SBC: Right.
SVP: Looking back on all of your experiences as a First Grade teacher, do any of them stand out in your memory as something you'd like to recount for us?
SBC: I don't want to brag though.
SVP: Well, I don't think you'd be bragging; I think it would be interesting
SBC: Well, I have 8 girls that became Sisters and 10 boys that became priests, and 3 boys became Brothers.
SVP: And they were all pupils of yours?
SBC: Yes, that's why, they were all different ones that I just couldn't point them out. There
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were these pupils that were _
SVP: How would you look at what you have done in the First Grade? You seem to have felt that they were all happy memories. They were all good experiences. Is that truly the way you look at your life as a Sister of Charity? As a First Grade teacher over the years? Is there anything that you would have changed if you had to do it over again.?
SBC: Just to be a little more zealous.
SVP: A little more zealous. You enjoyed teaching then? SBC: I'd go back again today if I could _ SVP: If you could hear better.
SBC: Um hum.
SVP: In your recollections of the community, could you mention some of the people who were special to you or who seemed outstanding?
SBC: In my earlier years in school, Sr. Antonia was an outstanding Sister, in everything -
in teaching and charity to little people who were not guided correctly at home and it was a pleasure to come to school for them. And Mother Eveline, Lord have mercy on her, and Mother . . . uh, what's the other one?
SVP: Mother Claudia?
SBC: Claudia. And Mother Rose Genevieve.
SVP: I was wondering, since Sr. John Baptist entered shortly before you did, what was it like having a sister in the community?
SBC: A little bit of heaven.
SVP: Is there anything that you would change if you had to do this all over again? SBC: Do you mean in teaching?
SVP: In teaching, or in your whole experience as a Sister of Charity.
SBC: If I had to do over again, I would choose what I have seen and what I know and I would choose it again.
SVP: You 'd choose it again, without a doubt.
SBC: Uh hum, I appreciate being a Sister of Charity.
SVP: Sister, I'd like to thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for contributing what you have done.
SBC: You're welcome. Glad to do it.
Original Format
Audio cassette tape
Duration
31:09
Bit Rate/Frequency
96kHz
Collection
Tags
Other Media
Citation
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill and Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, “Oral History: Sr. M. Boniface Curren,” Collections of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, accessed April 20, 2024, https://scsharchives.com/items/show/514.
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