The first women employed at Saint Vincent
The first women employed at Saint Vincent Archabbey and College came from the Saint Walburga Abbey at Eichstatt in Bavaria.
Under the leadership of Mother Leonardo Fritz, O.S.B., ten Benedictine Sisters arrived in Latrobe on February 25, 1931. Archabbot Alfred Loch, O.S.B., had invited the sisters to live and work on the campus of Saint Vincent. Thus began a fifty-six-year period of service to the Saint Vincent community. Prior to the sisters’ arrival, all domestic work at Saint Vincent was performed by monks and hired laymen. They broke new ground as the first females to work at the all-male institution. By 1939, forty sisters had come to Saint Vincent, where they would prepare and serve meals for the Prep School, College, Seminary, and Monastery. Many of those early meals created by the sisters had a distinct German flavor and featured beef, pork, sauerkraut, potatoes, thick gravy, vegetables, and Saint Vincent bread.
The sisters at Saint Vincent not only prepared and served meals to the students and monks, but also created meals for special events, banquets, ceremonies, and retreats. During the lean years following the Great Depression, the benevolent sisters also provided meals for homeless men who frequented the campus in search of food. There was a special area off the kitchen where homeless men could secure both a morning and an evening meal. The sisters also prepared care packages of food for impoverished families, which were distributed by the Saint Vincent lay brothers.
Beginning in the summer of 1967, the sisters were tasked with feeding the staff and players of the Pittsburgh Steelers who made Saint Vincent College their annual training camp. Some may recall an incident during one training camp when a scuffle between Steeler players “Mean” Joe Greene and Jimmy Allen broke out in the cafeteria, but was quickly quelled by a spatula-wielding Sister Monica and her diminutive partners, Sister Margareta and Sister Pancratia Fruth.
By 1987, there were only thirteen sisters remaining at Saint Vincent Archabbey and College, and most of them were in the twilight of their earthly lives. Mother Franziska Kloos, O.S.B., the Abbess of Saint Walburga Abbey in Germany, visited her sisters at Saint Vincent and recommended that the aging sisters join the other Benedictine Sisters at St. Emma Monastery. As the sisters prepared to move, Mother Hedwig commented, “It is our time to go. We have happy memories. It was a great privilege to live and work at Saint Vincent. It kept us young at heart.”
By 1987, there were only thirteen sisters remaining at Saint Vincent Archabbey and College, and most of them were in the twilight of their earthly lives. Mother Franziska Kloos, O.S.B., the Abbess of Saint Walburga Abbey in Germany, visited her sisters at Saint Vincent and recommended that the aging sisters join the other Benedictine Sisters at St. Emma Monastery. As the sisters prepared to move, Mother Hedwig commented, “It is our time to go. We have happy memories. It was a great privilege to live and work at Saint Vincent. It kept us young at heart.”
In 1934, Sister Gaudentia Kaemmerle left Bavaria to come to Latrobe where she worked for more than fifty years. She would become the last sister to have served at Saint Vincent. She died on January 28, 2012, at the age of 97. With her passing, the final link to a fascinating chapter in the history of Saint Vincent Archabbey and College ended. In a tribute to the sisters, former Archabbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B., P’63, C’68, S’72, wrote, “The character of Saint Vincent today owes much to the loving presence of the sisters for so many years. They cooked and served meals, canned food and made preserves, made vestments and ceramics, knitted Afghans and booties, prayed and sang. They taught us all— we were all their students. All who have been privileged to know them are grateful for the abiding influence of that loving ‘gentle touch.’ In a true spiritual sense, the sisters will always be a beloved part of Saint Vincent.”