Genevieve Buccigrossi’s Interview with Sister Janet
Julia D’Alessio’s Interview with Sister Michael
Genevieve Buccigrossi’s Interview with Sister Janet
Buccigrossi Interview Transcript
The Story of Sister Janet and her Connection to Nano Nagel
Sister Janet Dunn is a remarkable person who has dedicated her life to serving God and following the values of the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Sister Janet has said “[The thing I like most about teaching] is conveying a message of life to the kids… With the little ones, it’s just actual pure joy because I can have bad days, believe me, but on a whole you can make the kids happy. You can make them, feel good about themselves. That’s the big thing.” Sister Janet is someone who never puts herself first. She is always thinking about helping others. She would not have all the opportunities she has if she did not commit to becoming a nun. Sister Janet made a life changing decision to enter the Sisterhood and dedicate her life to helping others and serving God. Not everyone can commit to such conditions where their whole life is dedicated towards doing good things for others. Sister Janet is perfect because she has a big heart and is very caring and helpful. Most of Sister Janet’s service is educating children. An influential reason for why Sister Janet does most of her work educating is Nano Nagel. She founded the convent Sister Janet resides with. Nano Nagel and Sister Janet are a lot alike. Not only did Sister Janet’s decision to become a nun reflect who Nano Nagel was, but also the values by which Sister Janet lives. Sister Janet has dedicated her life to following Nano Nagel’s values of educating and helping those who need it.
Nano Nagel was a kind-hearted woman who grew up in Cork, Ireland. She founded the convent that is know today as the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She spent her life helping the poor and educating the children on the streets. Sister Janet describes her as “a brave woman, but a very religious woman”. Nano Nagel did not live a poor life herself. In fact, she came from money. While in France getting an education, she saw so many people in need of help. Instead of looking the other way and not using the resources she had to help them, she took initiative. With the help and money of her brother, Nano Nagel sought out to help the people. First she started running a make-shift school for children. They had to be kept hidden the whole time because what Nano Nagel was doing was illegal. Sister Janet called the school a “hedge school” because they had to hide behind hedges so they would not be caught. Sister Janet explained Nano Nagel’s work as dangerous, but said “The law didn’t touch them though, thank God”. She risked her life to give other children an education and a chance for them to make something of themselves. While her school was taking off, joining a religious order was now in the works. Nano Nagel was at the point in her life where her work was not just a job anymore. She wanted to commit herself to doing work for the needy. Nano Nagel wanted to join a religious order that allowed her to go out into the streets and be in contact with the people. It was her unique desire to be with the people that led her to start her own convent, The Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Sister Janet continues to do the work Nano Nagel was doing while being a part of the Staten Island chapter of the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Sister Janet was raised on Staten Island with two brothers and a sister. She attended Saint Peter’s High School and was not the typical student thought to become a teacher. Sister Janet did not enjoy school. She did not like the learning aspect of school, but would eventually find out she loved teaching. She lived a life any teenager would. “I dated before I entered, I went out” she mentioned. Even though she lived a typical teenager life, Sister Janet becoming a nun “was something always in the back of [her] mind”. When she made the decision to enter the convent, it was not what her family expected. Her brothers did not know how long she would last and her mother was not very pleased with the decision. They would later come around to Sister Janet’s commitment. Her decision was made and it would prove to be a tough choice. She had to watch her friends leave as her new life called for a different way of living. Sister Janet would stick around and prove her family wrong. To this day, she is a part of the Presentation S
isters of the Blessed Virgin Mary right on Staten Island where she was raised. She has made many friends along the way and has done a great deal to follow Nano Nagel. Sister Janet has been a teacher for decades at several different schools educating children, she is a certified Emergency Medical Technician and truly loves the life she has as a nun.
Choosing to be apart of the Presentation Sisters was another big decision Sister Janet had to make. “I wanted to be a Meryknowll Sister. I read these books on how to be a missionary. I loved it and then I met the Presentation Sisters and then decided to enter the Presentation Sisters.” Sister Janet explained. What drew her to the Presentation Sisters was the work they did with the community and their main focus on education. Sister Janet is a teacher so its clear to see the reasoning for joining the convent she chose. Just like Nano Nagel, she teaches and goes out into the community. All of this is capable because of the values Nano Nagel founded in the convent and its members. Sister Janet continues to keep Nano Nagel’s spirit alive by doing the work Nano Nagel did during her time.
Education is the main factor connecting Nano Nagel and Sister Janet. Both of them focus on educating children. Nano Nagel founded a make-shift school to educate the poor children of Cork, Ireland. Sister Janet, earned her Masters in education so she can be a teacher. She takes pride in the Sister’s education explaining “All the Sisters in the order, in order to teach they had to be educated.” Sister Janet could not become a teacher just because that is what her convent did. She had to go to school, just like all the other Sisters and get a Masters. She currently teaches kindergarten at Saint Ann’s and specializes in special education. As mentioned before, Sister Janet as a child did not enjoy school. When a priest questioned her about wanting to become a teacher, Sister Janet honestly stated: “I liked being on the other side of the desk. I liked to teach, I didn’t like going to school. I didn’t like going to school until I went for my Masters.” Sister Janet truly found her passion. To this day she is still teaching. Over the years Sister Janet said she has taught at “Saint Ann’s, Saint Mary’s, Our Lady of Help of Christians, Saint Sylvester’s and Saint Christopher’s”. Sister Janet is even the only Sister at her convent currently teaching. She enjoys the work she gets to do as a teacher. Just like Nano Nagel, she gets the opportunity to go out into the community and help. Sister Janet takes the Staten Island Railroad like any other person would and goes to work. She has a job she loves and it was all possible because of her decision to become a nun. Sister Janet chose the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary for a reason. It was reasons like Nano Nagel and their goal of educating that played a factor in her decision. It is not just education that connects the two together, but the joy they get from helping the community as well.
Nano Nagel and Sister Janet have the same feelings towards educating children. Nano Nagel risked her life and jail time to educate children. She was a person who truly loved what she was doing and wanted to help. Sister Janet did not go to the extend Nano Nagel did, but she feels the same way about teaching. When asked what she liked most about teaching, Sister Janet responded: “With the little ones, it’s just actual pure joy because… you can make the kids happy. You can make them feel good about themselves.” Sister Janet does not just teach because that is what her convent is known to do. Sister Janet gets pleasure from teaching a child something new. She likes the young ones because they are excited about learning, “They come in, they’re fresh. As I said their like sponges.” Sister Janet is given the opportunity to shape these kids and teach them something valuable. She does not miss out on her chance. Sister Janet was probably the most excited while talking about her job. She had a big smile on her face and anyone could tell it was because she really loves teaching. This is why Sister Janet and Nano Nagel are alike. Both are genuine people who want to do good in their community. They had the chance to do something and they did while loving their work in the process.
Sister Janet does not just follow Nano Nagel in the classroom. Nano Nagel’s main reason for creating a religious organization was so she could go out into the streets and be with the people. She wanted to help the poor. Sister Janet helps other people as well besides her kindergarten students. A lot of the nuns with the Presentation Sisters go out to work in parishes, Universities or even the United Nations. Teaching is not this convent’s only specialty. Sister Janet uses her summer months off to go further outside of Staten Island to help others. “I’ve gone to the farms in Long Island, the potato farms with the migrant workers,” she said. Summer means opportunity to go out and spread their work. Sister Janet explained they “work in different areas that we were needed in.” Over a century ago, Nano Nagel was going out into the streets and now, the nuns that have joined her established convent are still following her examples. If there was another main focus this convent had, it would be nursing. Sister Janet became an Emergency Medical Technician to help her fellow Sisters at the convent and even her mother when she became sick. She worked six years in the infirmary giving a helping hand. Sister Janet was needed there and so she went. “There was I’d say maybe six at a time that were sick, but [that convent] was a great place.” Sister Janet was aware of what was around her. Other nuns would get sick and they needed help, but she was never negative about it. She has a good heart that always wants to help. Her Sister’s were her friends and Sister Janet wanted to care for them. As Sister Janet talked about some Sisters that have passed away, she got emotional, but remembered the good times. “[The old convent] was great. We had Sisters like Sister Timothy and Mary and Joseph. The minute it started snowing [Sister Timothy] would be out on the snow plow. She’d be out there. She would start, all you had to do was see one flake of snow and she would be out there. She was so funny…” Sister Janet cared about her friends and was always someone to look out for them and be the care giver. She carries the values Nano Nagel had. She is kind-hearted, helps those who need it and is a good person.
Sister Janet has lived a full life. From the moment she declared “I wanted to give my life to God”, she has done nothing but great things. Nano Nagel founded the convent on educating and helping the poor and that is what Sister Janet has done. She found her passion for teaching and enjoys going to work everyday to teach her kindergarten class. When she is not teaching, she is caring for her Sisters at the convent or going out into the community to lend a helping hand. Sister Janet seems like the vision Nano Nagel had for her convent. Sister Janet is truly a caring, genuine person who has never regretted entering religious life.
About Genevieve
Genevieve Buccigrossi is a Freshman at Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island. She is an accounting major, but loves history. A fun fact is that Sister Janet has known Genevieve since the day she was born and they are still in contact to this day.
Julia D’Alessio’s Interview with Sister Michael
D’Alessio Interview Transcript
The Life of a Nun: A Recount of the life of Sister Michael P.B.V.M
“I think the sixteen years at St. John Nuemman, I grew a great deal,” said Sister Michael. “…[F]or sixteen years, I saw the place build up. I started with twenty-three children, and I ended up with 650. I started a nursery with seventeen children and then had to give it over to someone else because I couldn’t do it all. I was second in charge. It gives you a sort of power but also a humility to realize you can help other people. So I guess that’s one of the biggest times of my life.” This story is just one example of how Sister Michael’s commitment to being a member of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM)has changed her life. Although there are nuns who chose to leave the sisterhood, Sister Michael demonstrates the unique dedication that is required to be a religious sister. Her story reveals the significance and sacrifice of committing to God and a religious lifestyle while also living in an increasingly secular society.
Sister Michael is part of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), an Irish-Catholic convent of immigrants who settled in the United States and adapted and changed to the varying times, situations and services the community required. Honora (Nano) Nagle was the foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM, who immigrated to the United States on the request of Father Arthur Donnelly to provide their skills of education. The Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM not only moved to a new country, but also throughout their history in the United States have consistently moved from place to place in order to help the community. In the process, they have adapted their community service as was necessary for each new place they inhabited.
The Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM have a long history in New York City. The sisters inhabited St. Michael’s Church for the first ten years on West 34th St in Manhattan, where they educated children. The Sisters then began hosting an orphanage for children in need at Frost Farm on Greenridge, Staten Island, which was purchased by Father Donnelly. This orphanage soon became known as St. Michael’s Home. It was here that the Sisters’ convent split. Some stayed on Staten Island permanently while the others went back to Manhattan. The Diocese asked the Sisters on October 4th, 1945 to give up St. Michael’s home and continue their work as teachers. The Sisters then moved to a new home in Grymes Hill, where they would stay for twenty years. They eventually left when the house became unsuitable for the amount of inhabitants it was hosting and moved to their new house in Annadale on August 15th, 1965. The Sisters continued their work of reaching out to the community at their new home in Annadale. In the 2000s the convent was in need of major repairs, so the Sisters sold fifteen acres of their original sixteen acres to build a brand new convent with the one acre they had left. This convent is where Sister Michael currently resides.
A dedicated nun to the Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM, Sister Michael provided insight on the background of the convent and its origins and also on the life of a nun. The interview was an honest and insightful reflection of her past eighty-six years, of which she spent sixty-eight as a religious sister. In addition to her experience as a nun, Sister Michael also had lived a contrasting life of a lay-person, who is someone who is a non-ordained member of the church and who has not dedicated her entire life to the church. “At eighteen I was on my own,” said Sister Michael. “I worked, and I dated.” Sister Michael was able to reflect on her life as a lay-person when she discussed what it is like to live the life of a religious sister.
Sister Michael was raised by her Jewish grandmother up until the age of eleven, when she became a ward under the orphanage at St. Michael’s home, the orphanage which was run by The Sisters of the Presentation of the BMV. Sister Michael reflected fondly on her experience as a ward of The Sisters of the Presentation of the BMV. “We had good meals, played basketball, participated in girl scouts,” she said. “The thing you miss most is that you don’t have a family. But that was my life and that’s fine.” Though Sister Michael might have felt that she would have liked to have a family of her own, the Sisters of the Presentation of the BMV became her family and provided her with a happy life as a child. By an act of fate or of a higher power, Sister Michael would also later become the Director of Religious Education (DRE) at St. John Neumann, which was built on the former location of St. Michael’s home. She recounted this to be one of the most memorable experiences from her life as a religious sister.
The life of a religious sister entails both rewards and sacrifices, just as any other experience in life does, and for Sister Michael, one benefit of being a religious sister has been having an impact on the community. Sister Michael was proud of how the Sisters have brought about positive change to Staten Island. During the interview Sister Michael, discussed the past Easter she had spent with a family whose grandmother she had taught. “Looking at this family on Easter Sunday, I could have almost cried even though I’m not overly emotional,” she said. “To see a grandmother who I taught in the third grade, and she’s teaching her grandchildren how to hold a bead and say a rosary.” She had taught the grandmother in this family as well as several uncles and aunts also in that one family. For Sister Michael this was very impactful: “To watch this other generation, I believe our legacy has been met. I believe my work is finished,” she said. Sister Michael has had a tremendous impact on the Staten Island, and her dedication to Staten Island showed in her attitude towards the community. “Staten Island is our home and our legacy,” Sister Michael said. There is tangible evidence that the Sisters have brought good change. For example, in the 1960s, the sisters were teaching in thirteen different schools with about eight nuns in each school. Many of those schools are still successful, like Moore Catholic High School. Sister Michael has been able to witness generations that she has helped and influenced as well as the success of schools where she helped to teach.
Another significant dimension of being a religious sister is the opportunities that the sisterhood provides to the women that take the oath. For Sister Michael, joining The Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM provided her the opportunity to have a college education and a career as a teacher, which enabled her to help and influence the children in her community. “What was wonderful for me was that I was well-educated,” she said. “I went to Fordham in Manhattan, got a grant for Columbia and Iona for French. But outside the order I would have been working.” The Sisterhood encourages and provides opportunity. Many convents do not require, but strongly suggest, that the women looking to join a convent should have at least a bachelor’s degree. Many also allow the novitiates the time to work towards a bachelor’s degree. In the case of Sister Michael, though she didn’t have a college degree when she joined the convent, she worked towards one in the early years of her Sisterhood. Even with all the opportunity that the Sisterhood provided to Sister Michael, she was humble. “When I was committed I didn’t care if they told me I was going to cook,” she said. In other words, it did not matter what she was asked to do—Sister Michael joined the convent to serve God and Jesus and would have done that in any way that was required of her. The college education and all that came along with it were just additional benefits that were a result of her commitment to the Sisterhood and to God. This attitude alone is an example of the commitment that a religious Sister feels towards their convent.
One sacrifice of becoming a religious Sister is that a Sister vows not to be married or have kids and, instead, commits to marry Jesus Christ. To many lay-people this is a deterrent to becoming religious sister, but to Sister Michael this was never a shortcoming or a lost opportunity. Sister Michael strongly believes that she has been happily married throughout her time as a sister and that she has had many children. Her children are those that she has taught and influenced through her service to the Staten Island community. She talks constantly about her love for Jesus and the relationship that she has maintained with him. “Like any life, you have a honeymoon and a marriage,” she said. Sister Michael clearly has a love and respect for Jesus and has no regrets for the life she has chosen for herself.
Considering both the good and the bad experiences of her life, Sister Michael was content. “I would say I’m a happy person,” she said. Her story illuminates the life of a religious Sister as well as the experience of somebody who has been helped by the Sisters. Along with that, Sister Michael’s story presents an example of a lifelong commitment to a deeply religious lifestyle. She loves and admires Jesus, the man to whom she chose to dedicate her life. She has a clear appreciation for all that the Presentation Sisters of the BVM have provided for her throughout her life, both in childhood and adulthood.
About Julia
Julia is a Freshman at the Macaulay Honors College at CSI. She is a nursing major with a minor in American Sign Language, with hopes of one day obtaining an interpreting degree in American Sign Language.
