Sister Barbaralie Stiefermann (formerly Sister Avellino) is both a voracious reader and an accomplished writer. How appropriate, then, that her 75 years of consecrated life have come with many plot twists.
“I’ve had such a diversity of careers, which has been really interesting,” Sister Barbaralie asserted. “I’ve loved the variety – it’s been so exciting!”
Sister Barbaralie grew up on a farm in Frankenstein, a rural community 12 miles from the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City. The village had no public school, so the state, in consultation with the pastor, trustees, and the School Sisters of St. Francis, turned the parish’s Catholic school into a public school staffed by sisters in full habit.
“I was in second grade when that happened,” Sister Barbaralie remembered. “Having the sisters as teachers was the best thing that happened to our town. The sisters were all young and energetic, and they had to meet the state’s standards, so they were the smartest and the best. They instilled in us an understanding of how important an education is, and their sense of community is what attracted me to religious life.”
Sister Barbaralie began her vocation journey at age 14 when she came to Milwaukee to attend high school at the motherhouse. She was officially received into the School Sister community four years later.
She was training as a full-time musician at Alverno College in the fall of 1952 when she received an unexpected call.
“Holy Redeemer School was short one teacher, and in desperation, Mother Corona turned to me. It was the night before the first day of school!” Less than 12 hours later, Sister found herself – as a 20-year-old college student with no classroom teaching experience – standing in front of 48 first graders.
She survived that trial by fire and, the following fall, she was assigned as one of four sisters to teach at St. Irene School in Warrenville, Illinois. “It was a brand-new school, and the parish had not yet ordered books or desks! For a whole month, the first graders and I spent the school day sitting on the floor! It became a dynamic school, but I worked my tail off there for many years.”
Sister Barbaralie spent her first two decades of ministry as a teacher, musician, and principal at Chicago area grade schools, then another five years turning a struggling high school into a well-regarded preparatory school. She then chose to serve for more than a decade as a campus minister at Northern Illinois University.
“There were people from all over the world there, and that was wonderful because it really opened my mind,” Sister said.
“There were people from all over the world there, and that was wonderful because it really opened my mind,” Sister said. But it was also the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, which added a layer of crisis ministry to Sister’s workload. “Students would come to me and say, ‘I’m dying, but don’t tell anyone.’” She said that if she were young again, she would return to campus ministry.
Sister Barbaralie also taught communication skills at a career college in Arizona for five years. There were floor-length mirrors placed in the corridors with captions such as “Are you dressed for success?” “What an interesting place to teach,” Sister said. “I learned a lot about the corporate world.”
After leaving her campus ministries, Sister Barbaralie became director of an art gallery for 11 years. “Who goes to work every day with a smile on their face?” she asked. “I did, because I was surrounded by beauty and tranquility.”
After participating in a retreat, Sister felt a surprisingly urgent inner call to focus on writing. Elderly sisters who remembered one of the order’s earliest leaders, Mother Stanislaus Hegner, encouraged her to write that mother general’s story. She traveled around Wisconsin, interviewed sisters who knew Stanislaus, read thousands of her letters, and completed a highly praised biography. She has since written meticulously researched and entertaining biographies of two more superiors general, as well as the history of her community’s relationship with the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, and a memoir of her own life and ministry.
Now 93, Sister appreciates that retirement gives her time to gain perspective without the pressures of a schedule.
“I now can spend time looking in a different way at my life and the lives of the people I’ve touched, and still touch,” she said. “This is a time when I can look deeper, and see people who are real heroes, real role models. It’s a wonderful time of life, and I’m eager to see how I will continue to love, interact, and grow, even in eternal life!”
— by Michael O’Loughlin