Sister Mary Faith Schuster

SCHUSTER, OSB Sister Mary Faith Schuster, OSB, 92, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, KS. Mass of Resurrection will be Saturday, May 26, 2007 at 10:30 A.M. in the monastery chapel with interment to follow in the monastery cemetery. The vigil service will be Friday, May 25th at 7:00 P.M. also in the monastery chapel. The Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home is in charge of final arrangements. Memorial contributions are suggested to Mount St. Scholastica, 801 South 8th Street, Atchison, Kansas 66002. Online condolences may be left at www.arensbergpruett.com Sister Mary Faith (Gertrude) was born July 10, 1914, one of twelve children of Fred and Jennie Brummel Schuster of Pilot Grove, Missouri. She entered the Atchison Benedictines in 1934 and made monastic profession in 1936. A graduate of Mount St. Scholastica College, she earned the doctorate in English at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1953. For more than 50 years she taught in the high schools and colleges staffed by her community. After 14 years in high schools, including the former Lillis High School, Kansas City, Missouri, she taught at Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kansas, Marillac College, Normandy, Missouri and Mount St. Scholastica College and Benedictine College, Atchison, Sister Mary Faith was also dean at Donnelly College from 1963-67. She gave particular attention to international students, assisting their transition to second language use and to at-homeness in another culture. Sister Mary Faith traveled to New England and California on grants from the Kansas City Regional Council for higher Education, and to Thailand, India, and Europe. She was a past member of the Modern Language Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the American Benedictine Academy. She received first place award for biography in 1950 from the Catholic Press Association. Benedictine College recognized her in 1977 with the Offeramus Medal, an award given annually to an outstanding alumna, and in 1980 with the Teacher of the Year Award. A teacher of remarkable intensity and influence, Sister Mary Faith urged her students to write, to capture with words the fleeting moments of insight or beauty, and convinced them that it was possible for them to do so. A writer herself, she published for more than fifty years in national and regional magazines and newspapers. For her community's centennial in 1963, she wrote its history, "The Meaning of the Mountain". She cofounded the Kansas Poetry Society in 1985 to give a publishing outlet for young writers, and for some years edited its publication, "Sunflower Petals." A regular columnist for "The Leaven", newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, she also taught creative writing classes at the Atchison Shepherd's Center. Of her own work she said, "Writing is too serious for me for it to be called a hobby. In many ways it is almost a necessity." She was predeceased by her parents, by her brothers, Arthur, Fred, and the Rev. Daniel Schuster, OSB, (Leo) of Conception Abbey, Conception, MO, by her sisters, Sister Scholastica (Imelda) Schuster, OSB of the Atchison community, Sisters Teresa (Benedicta) and Xavier (Winifred) Schuster of Yankton, SD and by her sisters, Adela (Mrs. William Schollmeyer), Elinor (Mrs. William James O'Shea), and Mildred. She is survived by her sister Rosemary (Mrs. Bud McKiernan), Marceline, MO and her brother, Dr. Joseph Schuster, Grand Junction, CO, by nieces and nephews, and by her monastic family.