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n the fall of 1877, a student from Union County, Ky., arrived at Maple Mount – a young woman who would change the fortunes of the Ursuline Sisters forever. Her name was Leona Willett. Leona was the star student in the second graduating class of Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She later joined the Ursulines as Sister Aloysius and became a driving force as both an educator and leader of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph through their infancy as an independent community. Oct. 1 this year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Mother Aloysius Willett. Along with her mentor Mother Augustine Bloemer and her protégé Mother Agnes O’Flynn, Mother Aloysius set the foundation stones for the Ursuline community that are still in place today. She did all this after suffering through a difficult childhood. “Born to Lead,” the book written by Ursuline Sister Eugenia Scherm, detailed Mother Aloysius’ early life. Her mother died of tuberculosis not long after giving birth to Leona’s brother, Thomas. The two children were raised by Leona’s grandmother for a few years. Her father remarried two years later, and the new couple had nine children. After the first child was born, her stepmother called for Leona and Thomas to be returned, but her stepmother treated her cruelly compared to her own children. By the time Leona was 10, members of the family petitioned the court to give Leona’s grandmother custody of the children. Leona prospered in her time at Mount Saint Joseph Academy,
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–By Dan Heckel, Mount Saint Joseph Staff
and upon her graduation in 1880, became a public-school teacher in her native Waverly. Her love for the Ursuline Sisters and her desire to serve God drew her too strongly, and she returned to Maple Mount on July Ursuline Sisters pose with the 1918 graduates of the 16, 1882, to join the Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Maple Mount, Ky. Front: Ursuline community. Angela Payne, Mother Aloysius Willett, Celestine Buren. Back: Isabel Sheeran, Mother Agnes O’Flynn, By that fall she was teaching at the Academy Gladys Aubrey, unknown Sister, Bernadette Cotter. tipping point for the Sisters at and named Director of the Mount, provided the impetus Studies. In those days, all novices received for Mother Aloysius to pursue independence for the community. It their training in Louisville, where was the beginning of more than two the Ursuline Sisters – the first of years of difficult feelings between whom arrived from Bavaria in the Motherhouse in Louisville and 1858 – spoke mostly German. By the community at the Mount. 1892, the Academy was attracting In the fall of 1912, the many American-born girls from the apostolic delegate to the United surrounding rural area who wanted to join the Ursuline Sisters, but who States declared that the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph did not want to move to Louisville. could become an independent Together with Mother Augustine and Father Paul Volk, the priest who community. As a symbol of the new growth expected for the fledgling brought the Ursulines to Maple community, Mother Aloysius Mount, Mother Aloysius worked ordered the planting of 100 maple toward having a novitiate at Maple trees extending from the Guest Mount. Louisville Bishop George House to the cemetery, thus creating McCloskey approved the novitiate All Saints Avenue. It was part in 1895, with Mother Augustine of a beautification program that as the local superior and Mother included adding terraces, concrete Aloysius as the novice mistress. walkways and the planting of other In 1905, with Mother trees and shrubs. She also oversaw Augustine’s health deteriorating, the building of St. Angela Hall. Mother Aloysius replaced her as On July 16, 1913 – the feast local superior. She would lead her of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – Sisters at Maple Mount for the next with Bishop Denis 15 years, through the birth of a new O’Donaghue present, community. Mother Aloysius Following the death of Bishop Willett was elected McCloskey in 1909, the superior superior by her of the Ursulines in Louisville Sisters. attempted to close the novitiate Prohibited from at Maple Mount and to bring all Bishop Denis novices to Louisville. This, the taking on more O’Donaghue
