McSheffrey, Sister Annuciata (Margaret)
Biographical
From the website of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, "Mother Annunciata was, first and foremost, an educator who had a “genius for teaching,” according to Superior Generals, Vol. II. The work of education was, for her, the “magnificent obsession.”
At the age of 28, she was named directress of St. Mary’s Academy, a girls’ school on the motherhouse campus in Notre Dame, Indiana, which later became Saint Mary’s College. She was beloved by both students and teachers. In admiration, one of her pupils who later became a Holy Cross sister said, “Mother’s talks … sought to prepare us for life.”
Portrait of Mother M. Annunciata
Portrait of Mother M. Annunciata
Mother Annunciata particularly loved forming teachers. Her weekly faculty meetings were inspirational. As Superior Generals describes the meetings, “Her quick mind so eager to imbibe knowledge, so eager to impart it … all caught fire from her spirit.”
An ardent advocate of higher education for women, Mother Annunciata reasoned that “On women devolves the work of laying at least the foundation of the education of all men and women, and that, too, during the most susceptible period of their lives.”
Under Mother Annunciata, Saint Mary’s College became a pioneer among schools for women (and remains so today). She helped make concrete the vision of Mother M. Angela (Gillespie), CSC, to transform the academy into an institution for higher learning. It was during Mother Annunciata’s administration that the first woman graduated from Saint Mary’s College in 1898.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out. Writing to the governors of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, Mother Annunciata placed the Congregation’s hospitals and the service of the sisters at their command. Several Sisters of the Holy Cross served with distinction as nurses at Camp Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky, and Camp Conrad in Columbus, Georgia, over the course of the four-month war.
From her early days through to her last, Mother Annunciata was also known for possessing “a voice of rare sweetness,” according to Superior Generals. She sang in a “sweet, clear voice that poured her heart out in the prayer of music.”
After a long period of ill health, Mother Annunciata died in 1900 on April 29, Easter Sunday. That morning, the Easter alleluias were stilled and songs of mourning took their place. The timing of her death in springtime seemed only right, as Mother loved nature. “To her each flower and sunset held a message from heaven,” said one who knew her.
Places
- Ireland (nation) (Place of Birth)
- Philadelphia (inhabited place); Pennsylvania (state) (Place of Birth)
- South Bend (inhabited place) (Place of Birth)