Fourth Superior General
August 2, 1918 – January 17, 1920
Reverend Mother Mary Stanislaus was born Mary Bittenbender on February 10, 1853, in Locust Gap, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. At 16, she entered the Reed Street Convent of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. With Mother Agnes Bucher as her novice mistress, Sister Mary Stanislaus professed less than two years later. Throughout her nearly 50 years as a sister of St. Francis of Philadelphia, Mother Stanislaus sustained her devotion to her community and its life of prayer. Sister M. Jeanette Clare, OSF,[1] writes that even “on the morning of her death, though increasingly ill, Mother Stanislaus was present for every Community prayer” (50).
Less than two months after she professed, Sister Stanislaus, along with her superior and another sister, was sent to the new mission of St. Bonifacius School in St. Clair, Pennsylvania. At the school, she “developed marked proficiency and tact in teaching” (Clare 50). An assignment to teach in Doylestown followed in 1876 and continued until 1885. Mother Agnes then chose Sister Stanislaus to head the staff of a new school, St. Francis Academy in the town of Baker, Oregon. As Sister Jeanette Clare writes, “After almost a week of sitting up in the dusty uncomfortable trains, [Sister Stanislaus and four other sisters] arrived at Baker, then not much more than a crude mining town” (50).
Two years later, Sister Stanislaus used her experience and talents to reopen St. Joseph Academy in Pendleton, Oregon. The school had earlier been under the direction of the Mercy Sisters. In 1900, while she was serving as superior of St. Joseph Academy, Mother Stanislaus was elected as her order’s first western provincial. Following that responsibility came service in the East as superior of St. Paul Convent, Wilmington, Delaware, and then as superior of St. Elizabeth Convent, Philadelphia. By 1917, Mother Stanislaus was back on the West Coast serving at St. Joseph Hospital, Tacoma.
On August 2, 1918, the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia selected Mother Mary Stanislaus to follow Mother Mary Aloysia as head of their community. As superior general, Mother Stanislaus soon opened a school mission in the St. Stanislaus parish in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. But perhaps most significantly, she ministered to the countless individuals who were being affected by the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Sister Jeanette Clare quotes from a letter that Mother Stanislaus wrote to her community at the time of the 1918 pandemic, a letter reflecting her Franciscan spirituality and charism:
During the prevailing epidemic, the Sisters [everywhere], including School Sisters,
have permission to visit the sick and assist in nursing the stricken people in hospitals
and in private homes. Charity obliges us to lend our assistance wherever it is needed, irrespective of creed or color. (51)
Mother Stanislaus was, sadly, to have only a brief term as superior general. After traveling to St. Paul Convent, Wilmington, in a snowstorm on January 16, 1920, she experienced what she only admitted to being “some indisposition” (Clare 51), but shortly after taking part in morning prayers on the following day, she passed away. Mother Mary Stanislaus Bittenbender was buried in Our Lady of Angels Cemetery on January 23, 1920.[2]
Learn more about our history and see a short timeline of events here. Stay tuned for more spotlights on other founding members and superiors.
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