In Loving Memory...

Sister M. Laurencita, CSC
(Frances Loretta Maloney)
Birth: March 14, 1911
Profession: January 6, 1931
Death: September 27, 2006

As we gather to remember our sister, Laurencita, we do so not only to thank and praise God for her, but also to appreciate better her giftedness in life. Some of us knew about Sister Laurencita and some of us knew her at different times in her life.

Sister Laurencita was born Frances Maloney in the early 1900s at a time in San Francisco when life could be wonderful, yet difficult. She would often tell stories of growing up in that rough and tumble world, where her family worked on the wharfs. At that time it was much more primitive than the Fisherman’s Wharf we know today.

Sister Laurencita was the second youngest of a family of 11. She was always close to her family and kept in constant touch with them throughout the years. During her 78 years in Holy Cross her ministry included some years in teaching; parish ministry; hospital accounting; as superior of Saint Catherine-by-the-Sea in Ventura, California; and as health care administrator at Holy Cross in Silver Spring, Maryland, Saint Agnes in Fresno, California, and Mount Carmel in Columbus, Ohio.

In coming to Holy Cross, she brought an Irish faith – a faith that grew and was the touchstone of her spirituality. Throughout the years it was strengthened and matured with prayer, symbol and ritual meaningful to Laurencita – devotion to St. Joseph and the scapular.

Some remember being taken to a large fig orchard in Fresno and being asked to help her bury St. Joseph medals, petitioning St. Joseph for that land for the new hospital. The land was obtained, and the new hospital built on that site.

She had a talent for reaching out to others with compassion and kindness, and this was all embracing. She knew no stranger and was as comfortable with the poor as with the affluent. If you walked down the hall with her, she would introduce you to everyone by name, and would often share something good about the person. She was a connector – when people were sick, she would reach for the phone and call them. Her telephone ministry was active until her very last days. At 95, she had a host of friends of whom she knew the names, their families and many other important aspects of their lives – even those she had associated with, perhaps, 50 or more years ago.

In her Bible she had underlined passages of Jesus’ words to us of caring for and serving the poor, and she found ways to do this. For example, if persons were in need of work, she usually found a job for them. Or, in listening to an individual who was financially strapped, she would find a way of slipping in a bill. In the early days at Saint Agnes, priests had very little money, and it was a well-known fact that she bought them clothes, as well as other needed items. When strangers appeared at the hospital door hungry she would always give them food and a place to eat. Some referred to this as her “outdoor café.” She had a special love for the poor.

Often when a sister is in administration as long as Laurencita was, she has generally developed a strong sense of control. Ironically the very abilities that have made her successful as administrator, especially control, are always the hardest to be transformed. Letting go, and the slow process of transformation, is difficult for all of us, and it is harder for those who have had years of administration.

For Laurencita a loose grasp from her strong control, even of details, was hard in coming. When she made the decision to stop the blood transfusions – being the hospital woman she was – she knew what this meant but God was not ready – yet.

During these last few months in particular, in being with Laurencita, I have been deeply touched by her struggle to let go – and the beautiful way she surrendered into the richness of God’s love for her – in peace.

Perhaps when we meet Laurencita in heaven, we may find she has planted medals there for us to let go and let God!

Written by Sister Michaeleen Frieders, CSC

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of the Holy Cross Ministry With the Poor Fund, Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556.