Sisters celebrate jubilee at Mount Saint Joseph

Knott

Two Dunklin County natives are among 22 Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph celebrating jubilees of religious profession this summer at Maple Mount, Kentucky.

Sister Mary Mercedes Knott,  who grew up in Wilhelmina, Mo., has been an Ursuline Sister for 60 years.

Born in Knottsville, Ky., Sister Mary Mercedes moved with her family to Wilhelmina when she was one year old. The daughter of the late James Eugene and Virgie Lee Horrell Knott, she entered the Ursuline community in August 1945.

Friedman

Sister Mary Mercedes has ministered in New Haven, Louisville, and Owensboro in Kentucky, and at the Ursuline Motherhouse at Mount Saint Joseph, where she was director of the diet kitchen for seven years. She also served in Nebraska City, Neb, and in New Mexico at Waterflow and Aztec, where she was engaged in pastoral outreach. From 1998 until her retirement in June 2005, Sister Mary Mercedes ministered at St. Angela Convent in Louisville. She now lives at Mount Saint Joseph, where she is dedicated to the ministry of prayer.

Glennonville native Sister Michael Marie Friedman is celebrating her 40th jubilee as an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph. Sister Michael Marie, daughter of the late Michael Victor and Johanna Christine Vanderfeltz Friedman, entered the Ursuline Community at Maple Mount, Ky., in August 1965.

She has served in Catholic schools in Kentucky for 36 years. Her ministries include teaching at Mary Carrico School, Knottsville, and St. Mary High School, Paducah. She was principal at St. Paul, Princeton; St. Alphonsus, St. Joseph; St. Romuald High, Hardinsburg; St. Mary Elementary, Paducah; and Owensboro Catholic Middle School.

Flaugher

Since 1990, Sister Michael Marie has served as principal of St. James School, Elizabethtown.

Three Ursuline Sisters who ministered in Glennonville are also marking jubilees this summer.

Sister Anita (Bernard Anita) Flaugher, who is celebrating 75 years as an Ursuline Sister, ministered at St Teresa Convent, 1940-48. A native of Fairfield, Ky., Sister Anita also ministered in Bardwell, Fancy Farm, Raywick, Louisville, Browns Valley, Owensboro, and Knottsville, Ky. She taught in Catholic schools in Axtel, Rome, Knottsville, Calhoun, Earlington, and Jeffersontown, Kentucky. She retired in 1994 and now is a faithful member of the Powerhouse of Prayer.

Johnson

Sister Theresa Margaret Hite, a 70th-year jubilarian, ministered at St. Teresa Convent, 1937-40.

A native of Owensboro, Ky. she also served in Mayfield, Flaherty, and Calvary in Kentucky, and Nebraska City and Paul, Neb. She taught in schools in Paducah, Owensboro, New Haven, St. Francis, Fredericktown, Radcliff, and Leitchfield, Ky.

In 1994 she retired to Mount Saint Joseph, where she shares her artistic talents with the sisters and their friends.

Hite

Sister Francis Louise Johnson, celebrating 50 years, taught at St. Teresa School in 1973.

A native of Waverly and Mayfield, Ky., she also taught in Kentucky in the Archdiocese of Louisville, in the Diocese of Owensboro, and in Nebraska, Missouri, and New Mexico. Since 2003, she has been coordinator of the Guest House at Mount Saint Joseph.

Founded at Maple Mount in Daviess County, Ky., in 1874, the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph currently minister throughout Kentucky and in Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, and Tennessee; and in Washington, D.C., and Chillán, Chile, South America.  

Persons wishing to send congratulations to the jubilarians may address them to Mount Saint Joseph, 8001 Cummings Road, Maple Mount, KY 42356-9999.