of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Josephine Pazdziora)
May 12, 1908 – March 29, 2004
Sacred Heart Province
Des Plaines, Illinois
“Above all things, I ask you to plunge yourselves into the heart of Jesus with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire being.” (Words of Mother Foundress)
Sister M. Gabrielle was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on May 12, 1908, and was named Josephine Mary. Later, upon her entrance into religious life at Nazareth, she was given the name of Gabrielle, for the angel who brought God’s message to Mary at Nazareth. All these seeming coincidences held great meaning for Sister Gabrielle, who used to love to recount them in her later years, reflecting on how the Annunciation and Incarnation mysteries intertwined with the circumstances of her own life.
Josephine was the third of the six children of Rosalie (Sterkowska) and Francis Pazdziora, who were both born in Poland. Sadness was an early visitor to the Pazdziora family when their mother died early in life. This experience was one of Sister Gabrielle’s key memories. In her life portrait, she stated that she recalls standing near her mother’s casket when she was just ten years old. Her father, a very pious man, gathered the children before an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa, one he had carried for years in the processions in his native land of Poland. Gazing on this beloved image and pointing to his six motherless children, he prayed: “Now that their mother is gone, you are the only mother they will have. Be their special mother.”
Concerned about how he was going to raise six children, their father thought of sending them to different relatives, but the children begged to stay together, and so it was. With the help of their elder sister, Mary, their father was able to provide a loving and supportive home for his family. Eventually they moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois and it was here that Josephine and her sister, Julianna, next in line, eventually became acquainted with some of the Sisters who visited their home. Julianna entered the congregation first and was given the name of Sister Raphael. Josephine followed her sister the next year on December 8, 1927, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. After seven months as a postulant, Josephine entered the novitiate in Des Plaines on July 17, 1928, and was given the name of Sister Gabrielle.
Following her novitiate experience, Sister Gabrielle professed temporary vows on July 19, 1930, and was sent to St. Josaphat School, where she taught for one year. In 1931, she was assigned to St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital where she began nurse’s training. This was to be the beginning of a long tenure at the hospital where she continued in ministry until she was eighty-nine years old.
After completing her training in nursing, she returned to the Provincialate for a spiritual renovation before professing perpetual vows on May 1, 1937. It was at this time that she chose as her mystery of vows, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. With the exception of one other year as a teacher at St. Hedwig School in 1948, Sister Gabrielle was to spend the rest of her life in health care ministry.
In her capacity as nurse, or nursing supervisor, she served at Bethania Hospital in Wichita Falls, Texas; Nazareth Hospital in Mineral Wells, Texas; Mercy Hospital in Altoona, Pennsylvania; Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, New Mexico; and St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago for forty-five years. She was also an instructor at St. Mary of Nazareth School of Nursing and taught Medical-Surgical Nursing and Operating Room Nursing. Gifted with a brilliant mind, skillful hands, a loving heart, and precise and dignified in speech and manner, the set of her jaw showed her to be committed and dedicated to nothing but the best and she had the special art of motivating her students to the same.
In addition to her RN, Sister Gabrielle received a certificate from St. Mary’s School of Anesthesiology and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. When curriculum changes phased out operating room experiences as part of the course of studies, she did pre-op teaching of patients, preparing them for surgery and what they could expect before, during, and after the various procedures. Great respect and a deep spirit of concern characterized her visits and assistance to the patients. She gave of herself unstintingly, and always wanted to be around patients even when her own health was failing. Nursing was in her blood and bone. Only reluctantly, in 1997, when failing health necessitated it, did she agree to accept the care provided at Nazarethville.
Sister Gabrielle was a woman of finesse and quiet dignity, one who possessed a gentle sense of humor that often accompanied her shy smile. She was a story-teller and used this art to bring comfort, cheer, and inspiration to those for whom she cared.
For several months prior to her death, it was evident that Sister Gabrielle was failing, but she did not fear death. She wrote that, “Death is like a door that will open for me to enter into my home.” She lived a simple, if demanding philosophy: “to allow God’s grace to work through me to touch others, to secure my own salvation and that of others by bringing souls to Christ, to be remembered as one who lived in harmony with others.”
Sister Gabrielle passed away quietly on March 29, 2004, at the age of ninety-five, having spent nearly seventy-seven years in the service of her God and the People of God. Her nephew, Father John Sponder of the Joliet Diocese celebrated her funeral liturgy together with Father Edward Maraczewski, who used to visit her at Nazarethville. A number of her family members were on hand to bid farewell to someone who had made a deep impression upon their lives and someone they would dearly miss. Sister Raphael placed a rose on Sister Gabrielle’s coffin at the end of the liturgy on behalf of their family. May God welcome her into the company of saints, into a festival of homecoming with the mother she lost early in life, with the father she loved dearly and the sisters and brothers who saw their way through sorrow and held on together in the face of suffering.
Digitized by S. Brendan O'Brien, CSFN, MA
School of Arts & Sciences
History Department
Holy Family University
9801 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19114
215-637-7700 x3279
srbrendan@holyfamily.edu
http://web3.holyfamily.edu/srbrendan
Last updated: October 2006