2026 Jubilee Spotlight

Living & Learning

UPON HER DIAMOND JUBILEE, sister marguerite stewart
reflects on her greatest lessons and influences

Sister Marguerite Stewart entered the School Sisters of St. Francis in 1950 from St. Peter’s Church in her native Westfield, Mass., and professed first vows at Mount Assisi Convent in Pittsburgh in 1951. She celebrates her 75th Jubilee in 2026.

Sister Marguerite Stewart finds herself in a very comfortable place these days — looking back across the fulfilling religious life and storied ministry career that delivered her here from her childhood years in Westfield, Mass.

She remembers not being particularly thrilled to learn as an eighth-grader that three members of the School Sisters of St. Francis would be coming to serve at St. Peter Church there. But it didn’t take long for them to grow on her, especially Sister Annunciata Youhas, who shared and encouraged young Ruth’s love of music.

“I admired them long before I had any aspirations of joining them,” she remembers of the Sisters. “I loved music. Sister Annunciata played the organ and led the choir. I would watch her. Later she gave me piano lessons, and I became more connected to her, and I liked what I saw.”

The seeds of Ruth’s religious calling were planted, but her family encouraged her to finish high school and then go to the convent. “It was important to finish high school and be a normal teenager,” she says of her days at St. Mary High School in Westfield. “I was very involved in high school, in cheerleading and music, and it helped me grow up.”

Upon entering our community in 1950, young Ruth was asked what she wanted to study. The options were relatively limited then, as most young Sisters were expected to pursue education or nursing.

“I wanted to study music,” she remembers without hesitation.

Her superiors took it under advisement, but soon after making first vows in August 1951 and receiving the name Sister Marguerite, she was dispatched to San Antonio, Texas, where she taught at St. Joseph School until 1958. “I enjoyed being in Texas,” she says of her time there. “I loved the children and, when it was time to leave, I found it difficult.” Some of those earliest students still keep in touch with her today.

Sister was also deeply influenced in her earliest ministries by the quite leadership of Sister Ludmilla Gelak, who served as a domestic Sister in convents in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “She was so gentle and so kind and had such wisdom in her simplicity,” Sister Marguerite remembers. “She taught me so much just by being who she was.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from Mount Mercy College (now Carlow University), Sister Marguerite eventually did get to study music at Manhattanville College in New York, laying the groundwork for her 17 years as a music teacher at our former St. Francis Academy (SFA) in Bethlehem, Pa.

She initiated the school’s first musical, starting from scratch and organizing the students for a successful staging of My Fair Lady. “If they only knew!” she says of hiding her own fears and frights from those early casts and audiences. Nonetheless, she pulled it off, and a tradition was begun. Many other musicals followed, as did the annual Christmas Vespers that continued until only a few years ago.

Sister Marguerite grew immeasurably as a teacher and leader during those years at SFA, preparing her for new roles within her religious community. She was elected provincial minister of the Bethlehem Province in 1982 and, later, vicar general of the international community in 1989.

“Serving in Rome for 12 years was a life-changing experience for me. As director of formation, I traveled to wherever our young sisters were,” she says.

Sister also traveled to India 20 times alone. “Adjusting to climate and languages was a challenge, but I learned so much and I grew, especially spiritually,” she says.

Those many visits and the hand she had in formation of the younger Sisters rank among her most precious experiences. “Seeing the young Sisters in India and Slovakia, I wonder if they did more for me than I did for them. I was humbled that they were so open and honest with me.”

Her traveling days are over, and she’s okay with that. “Places don’t mean that much to me. People do.”

At 95, she does a little less these days, but remains fulfilled by her role as spiritual director to 16 people who she describes as “a great variety of folks.”

“It’s a very valuable process to see people open up and grow,” she says. “It helps them — and me — to build a closer relationship with God.”

While deeply connected with those to whom she ministers, she continues to nurture her own relationship with God. “I’m still a work in progress,” she says. “I try to spend time in prayer every day, short periods throughout the day. I try to not let a day go by that I don’t do good reading. And there’s always someone with whom to talk about something of a spiritual nature.”

Seventy-five years on, she can still relate to her younger self, stirred then and now by music and a sense of service. “I’ve enjoyed building relationships and being open to taking risks. I wasn’t always the greatest of risk-takers,” she says of her own personal journey. “Relying on God along the way, I’ve learned to accept success, but also failure.”

Sister considers herself to be gentle, kind, open and still curious. “And I want to stay that way,” she says. “I’m an introvert but also courageous. I think of the many times I went to India all by myself.”

Music still moves her, whether as part of a spiritual program, in private prayer, or while simply relaxing in her bedroom at Monocacy Manor — a tidy space tastefully decorated with pink flowers. Drawing, painting and adult coloring books also offer outlets for her creativity.

She can often hear and see the students from Chrysostom Academy — the Orthodox Christian school that now occupies St. Francis Academy’s former classrooms — going about their day and it makes her smile, both inside and out. “It is a joy to see the children and hear their enthusiasm,” she says. “I remember how dedicated we were to SFA and thank God that, even now, our mission of education continues here in this place.”

The advice she’d offer them — and anyone else, for that matter — is born of life-long experience and an ever-deepening faith. “Continue to believe in God’s great unconditional love for you,” she attests. “Love Him totally in return, and share that love with others.”