Women of Accomplishment

She’s 77 years old and has eschewed a life of comfortable retirement in favor of one dedicated to uninterrupted service for people in the poorest country of the western Hemisphere, Haiti.

Her name is Sister Mary Finnick. She is a member of the order of the Grey Nuns of Yardley Pennsylvania and runs Matthew 25 House, a rehabilitation center turned hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one of the few such facilities which survived the earthquake that destroyed large swaths of Haitian cities and towns.

It was a photo highlighting her effervescent smile, as she was flanked by two Haitian children with the same happy expression that caught my attention. In our own very different culture, it’s hard to believe that people living amidst such extreme destitution can still retain the ability to internalize an I-will-survive attitude towards life despite continual setbacks – but such is the ethos of the Haitian people.

Sister Finnick is typical of modern nuns who, although greatly diminished in numbers, are still out in the world extending their work of service to others. The only outward hint – not counting the twinkle in her eyes -- that Finnick is a nun is the small crucifix protruding from a chain tucked under the collar of her yellow knit shirt.

There are six autonomous congregations of the Grey Nuns. The first was founded in the early 18th century by Marguerite d’Youville for the expressed purpose of serving society’s marginalized. Born in Quebec, Canada, Marguerite was formally recognized as a saint in 1990 by the Roman Catholic Church, the only Canadian to hold that distinction.

I can easily relate to these extraordinary women of accomplishment. It was teachers such as Sister Finnick – a professor before her current assignment – from the order of the Grey Nuns of the Cross who saw me through the first eight grades at Ste. Jeanne d’Arc, a bi-lingual grammar school in Lowell, Mass – Finnick’s home town, and one of the New England cities named in Bob Braun’s article which inspired this post.