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 Sr.
Frances Teresa Holzberger, PCJ
Diamond Jubilarian
75 years (1929)
Sr. Frances Teresa Holzberger, PCJ, is celebrating her 75th anniversary
as a professed religious this year. She is doing so in the company of
her friends, The Dominican Sisters of Mary of the Springs. Her last teaching
assignment was at Our Lady of Bethlehem in Worthington, Ohio. Her many
decades of service to God’s people however, covers a wide swath
of country in the U.S. and in the world.
The Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus have always pursued a focused ministry
in education. They began teaching at Parkersburg Catholic High School
in 1932 when it only offered the first year of high school. Sr. Frances
Teresa taught history and religion in the new school, opened 25 years
later, and also played the piano and organ there. Her skills as an administrator
were used in congregational service, particularly in her elected role
as the United States Provincial of the congregation, a post she held several
times.
Sr. Frances came as a young girl from Bavaria, Germany, and settled with
her parents in West Virginia. “It is a beautiful area, and I loved
the people,” she recently reminisced. It was in Parkersburg that
she came to know the local sisters and joined them at age sixteen. Her
parents lived up the road, but the rules at that time precluded her from
visiting, except on Visitors’ Sunday. Asked how she felt about her
decision to become a sister, with the perspective of 75 years she candidly
admitted, “I’ve had a very good life, been very happy, and
never once thought of leaving religious life!”
Sr. Frances Teresa’s community, the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus,
has only six sisters still in the United States, although they are thriving
in other parts of the world, with sisters in Belgium, Austria, Colombia,
Peru, Spain, England, Lapland, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia. In Indonesia
alone, 180 sisters minister to over 10,000 children and travel by boat
among 21 bays to teach.
The decision was made a few years ago that living out their retirement
at the motherhouse in Belgium would be a cultural hardship for the few
remaining American sisters. The Dominican Sisters in Columbus offered
their hospitality, their motherhouse, and their nursing facility, Mohun
Health Care Center, and the PCJ sisters are a now a welcome part of the
Columbus community. Today, Sr. Frances Teresa resides at Mohun and has
an active ministry of prayer.
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