Sister M. Ricarda Husava
October 14, 1931 - May 2, 2011
Sister M. Ricarda Husava, OSF. died on May 2, 2011, in Pittsburgh, Pa. She was 79 and her 61st year of religious life.
Sister Ricarda (Amelia) was born in McKees Rocks, Pa., to Ignatius and Julia (Pollock) Husava. Her father was a hard-working laborer, and her mother was devoted homemaker and mother of seven. Amelia attended St. Mark Catholic School, where she first became acquainted with our sisters. After she graduated from eighth grade she went to Mount Assisi Academy and followed her call to enter our community during her senior year.
Amelia was received into the novitiate in August 1949 and given the name of Sister Ricarda. The following year she professed first vows and was sent to teach fourth grade at SS. Cyril & Methodius School in Bethlehem, Pa., where she remained for four years. She taught fifth grade at St. Gabriel School in Pittsburgh during the 1954-55 school year while preparing for final vows, which she made in 1955.
Sister went on to teach the middle grades from 1955 to 1968 at parish schools in the Pennsylvania towns of Emmaus, Stowe, Charleroi, Erie, Ellsworth Canonsburg, Farrell and Tarentum. During the summers and on Saturdays Sister Ricarda attended Mount Mercy College (Carlow University) to earn a bachelor’s degree in education, as well as a master’s degree in library science from from Duquesne University. She served as librarian at Mount Assisi Academy from 1968 to 1976.
With the opening of our Marian Hall Personal Care Home in 1969, Sister Ricarda had a unique calling to attend beauty school in the evenings to become a beautician. She received her diploma from the Pittsburgh Beauty Academy in 1971 and used her skills to serve the women of Marian Hall and our sisters.
From 1976 to 1999 Sister Ricarda served as a director of religious education in a number of parishes in the Pittsburgh and Erie Dioceses and as librarian for the Franciscan Friars, Mount Alvernia High School, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Mount Assisi Convent and the Pittsburgh Diocesan Library. An avid cyclist, Sister Ricarda rode her bike back and forth to school every day — a total of 15 miles each day — while ministering as librarian at Immaculate Conception High School in Washington, Pa., for four years.
In 1999, Sister Ricarda’s health began to fail. She spent her final years in the ministry of prayer and always had a smile for anyone who spoke to her.
In 2008 she received a letter from a former student. In part it read: “I want to let you know that you made a difference in my life. You looked past my irreverence and hyperactivity and saw that I too had something to offer. You took the time to realize that, while I was less obedient to say the least, I was happy and also had something to offer. I thank you for that.”
Our sisters remember Sister Ricarda as one who lived her convictions and acted on them, asserting her individuality and never fearing criticism. While she was always first to tell funny stories, she had a deeply spiritual side to her and prayed intensely. “Rickie,” as she was known to some, was always ready to give a helping hand, lived in resignation to God’s will and was truly Franciscan. Whatever she did she did intensely and with her whole being, truly expressing Franciscan joy.
Sister Ricarda is buried in St. Francis Cemetery at Mt. Assisi Place in Pittsburgh, Pa.