Order marks 75th anniversary

The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year with a full slate of Masses and other observances.

The Carmelite motherhouse in Germantown, called "Avila-on-the-Hudson," is perched on hills overlooking the Hudson River. The grounds were purchased by the order 60 years ago to replace their cramped quarters in the Bronx, where the order was founded.

The order's foundress, Irish emigre Mother Angeline Teresa McCrory, O.Carm., was originally a Little Sister of the Poor. She felt unsettled, however, and "inspired to render a somewhat different type of care, to serve all economic levels," according to Mother Mary Suzanne, O.Carm., current Superior General. Seven others joined her to begin the Carmelite order in 1929.

Today, 27 sisters reside at the Motherhouse. Another 206 serve the elderly at Carmelite homes in the Northeast, Florida and Ireland. Avila-on-the-Hudson is also home to the Carmelite System and the Avila Institute of Gerontology, corporations founded to support the order's efforts to serve the elderly.

Sole goal

"Our sole focus is the care of the elderly," said Mother Suzanne. "That is the ambition that we embrace in the spirit of Mother Angeline: a homelike environment, high respect for the sanctity of individual life, and preservation of the dignity of the elderly."

The sisters' day is punctuated by prayer, along with more modern activities: administrative meetings, direct nursing and meetings with physicians.

Outside of the motherhouse, the sisters' ministries in the Albany Diocese center around Teresian House, an Albany nursing home.

"Teresian House was forward-thinking in rendering the highest level of care in innovative settings, and eager to do things that would be more life-giving for the elderly, trying to get away from the institutional setting," said Mother Suzanne.

Among the innovations at Carmelite-run homes like Teresian House are in-house hair salons, individualized wake-up times and activities, and a "neighborhood" arrangement in wings of the nursing home. Residents who are able serve on councils and planning committees.

"When we go to conventions and [other organizations] get up to announce the new things that they're doing -- well, we usually did it five years ago," boasted Sister Ann Elizabeth, O.Carm.

Like other workers in the field of gerontology, the sisters also attend seminars and programs to expand their knowledge. Many sisters wear traditional black habits instead of scrubs.

While some sisters came to the order to work with the elderly, others were attracted by the "great joy" in the sisters' lives. Sister Anthony Veilleux, O.Carm., worked in secular nursing homes before coming to a facility run by the Carmelites. There, she says, she "felt something different -- a sacredness in what they did." Sister Gabriel entered the community when it was only seven years old: "I didn't even know it was a new community at first!" she said. "Mother Angeline was so down to earth and human."

Some of those human touches are preserved in a museum room: Mother Angeline's personal effects, including photographs, a license plate, a comb and a yellowing sign that graced her desk, reading: "For God so loved the world that He did not send a committee."

Now, the 90-room novitiate has been converted into offices, save for guest rooms and novitiate rooms reserved for newcomers. No novices or postulants currently reside there, but Mother Suzanne keeps hope alive: A full-time vocation director "is throwing out the lines in hopes that there will be some nibbles," she said.

Rewards

Serving the elderly is a "difficult, physically demanding ministry. It's not easy, but it's rewarding," explained Mother Suzanne. "It takes a special grace to respond with the fullness of love and dedication to the elderly."

She said the sisters find inspiration in the seniors they serve.

"Our whole basis for trying to render care is seeing Christ in the elderly," she said. "People look at broken bodies, mental infirmities, and they write [the elderly] off. They never get to know their great faith, their individual accomplishments, the heroics that these people display every day."

Marking anniversary

To commemorate their 75th anniversary, the Sisters are holding a host of celebrations: In May, Bishop Howard Hubbard celebrated an anniversary Mass; in September, sisters, friends and relatives will "come home" to the motherhouse for a weekend of recollection and celebration; in October, the congregation will meet for Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. In addition, a new facility is being built in Ohio to replace two older, obsolete ones.

However, Mother Suzanne believes that the greatest achievement of the order isn't in its buildings, but in its philosophy.

"Just because a person moves into a home doesn't mean their life is over. We've kept the focus on the sanctity of life," she said. "That continues to be our hope -- that through our presence, we've been able to give witness to that."

(7/15/04)