Sister Francesca Parana (above) in 1972 and celebrating her 90th birthday in 2020 (below).
Sister Magdalene as principal in 1966 (above) and marking her 70th jubilee in 2010 (below).
Sister Bonaventure teaching history in 1966 (above) and in her later years (below).
Frances Kralosky Dice (above) as a senior in 1966 and today (below).
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“Sister Bonaventure demanded that we look at a larger world ...”
Opening a Path to the Wider World
FRANCES KRALOSKY DICE | MOUNT ASSISI ACADEMY 1966
Throughout Women’s History Month, our alumnae honor members of the School Sisters of St. Francis
who touched their lives back then and who they consider to have been especially influential in who they are now.
then
I remember Sister Magdalene (Lovrich) as an extremely intelligent person who was as gifted in Latin (she taught all four years) as she was in mathematics. I especially enjoyed her geometry class that blended shapes, spaces and relationships. She said that she had never had a class that completed the whole textbook, but our sophomore class did that year. She challenged us to do our best, and we did.
But my fondest memory of her is my senior year. When she learned that my family was directing me to job hunt — in those days, the boys should go to college, not the girls — Sister Magdalene called my father and started sending college and scholarship information to our house. Four years later, I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, later finished a master’s degree and spent a career in higher education. Thank you, Sister Magdalene, for your part in that journey.
Sister Bonaventure (Anna Catherine Melichar) taught history, but I most vividly remember her Problems of Democracy class in our senior year. Although our family routinely watched the local and national news, I rarely thought about events outside the city. But Sister Bonaventure had a one-question ‘pop quiz’ asking ‘Where is the U.S. President today?’ Was he away at a summit? Was he hosting foreign leaders at Camp David? Was he addressing the nation? The president’s location always sparked a discussion about the day’s events. I still think of that question today as I listen to the news. Sister Bonaventure demanded that we look at a larger world, and I think she would be delighted to see so many competent women now in leadership in the U.S. and across the world.
My siblings and I attended St. Gabriel Church and School, but I never had Sister Francesca (Parana) as a “home teacher.” But we did switch classes for art, home economics (at a City of Pittsburgh school) and music. I remember wonderful afternoons in fourth or fifth grade when Sister Francesca taught our class music, but ended the school day by letting us put our heads on our desk while she read to us. I remember her lyrical voice and getting lost in the magic of the story.
NOW
The niece of Sister Norberta Kralosky, Fran spent her 39-year career in student services at Community College of Allegheny County, the last 15 as registrar there. She lives in Oakmont, Pa., with her husband, Roger, and remains a dedicated volunteer with the Sisters.
Sister Francesca Parana served as provincial minister of the Pittsburgh Province from 1972 to 1981 and was part of our congregation’s General Administration in Rome during the 1980s. After returning to the U.S., she returned to teaching and parish ministry for a few years before serving two terms as provincial vicar and becoming a provincial historian of sorts. Now retired, Sister Francesca lives at Mt. Assisi Place (the former Mount Assisi Convent) in Pittsburgh.
After teaching social studies and Latin at “The Mount” for 13 years. Sister Bonaventure — who later returned to her baptismal name, Sister Anna Catherine Melichar — taught at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh (now LaRoche University), served at our mission in Chile, and taught for 12 years at St. Francis Academy in San Antonio, Texas. Well-versed in the Czech and Slovak languages, she taught English to our Sisters in the Czech and Slovak Republics after the fall of Communism in the 1990s. Even after retiring in 1995, Sister Anna Catherine remained active by collecting items for the missions. Having entered the convent at the tender age of 14, she was our community’s eldest member when she died in 2015, just two months shy of her 100th birthday.
Principal of Mt. Assisi Academy from 1954 to 1970, Sister Magdalene Lovrich was later elected provincial councilor and secretary of the Pittsburgh Province and ministered at our congregational headquarters in Rome for a time. In 1993, she became provincial archivist, bringing to the role her unmatched attention to detail until retiring in 2013. She remained soft-spoken and meticulous until her death in 2015 at age 95.