of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
(Helen Grondziowski)
August 4, 1914 – April 13, 2004
Saint Joseph Province
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
“Let us never separate the love of Jesus from the love of Mary.” (as cited in For Me to Live is Christ, p. 87.)
Helen Grondziowski was born on August 4, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and baptized at Saint Anthony Church in Homestead, Pennsylvania, on August 9, 1914. One of seven children of Nicholaus and Angela (Tantala) Grondziowski, she was one of three to enter religious life with her brother, Stanislaus J. Grondziowski CSSp and Sister Mary Damien CSFN.
Helen attended Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School and Mount Nazareth Academy in Pittsburgh.
Becoming a postulant in 1930 and a novice in 1931 in Pittsburgh, Sister made her first profession of vows on August 16, 1933, and her perpetual vows on September 8, 1940, in Bellevue. Combining college studies with an active teaching ministry from 1933, she received an undergraduate degree in education from Villa Maria College in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1966. She was certified in Elementary Library Science in 1971.
For a total of sixty years, Sister dedicated her life to teaching elementary age children at St. Stanislaus School in Cleveland, Ohio; St. Stanislaus School and Saint Casimir School in Erie, Pennsylvania; Holy Family Institute, Saint Stanislaus Kostka School, and Holy Family School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sacred Heart School in Portage, Pennsylvania; and Catholic Elementary in Newton Falls, Ohio. From 1982 she served as part-time librarian at St. Stanislaus School in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sister would unhesitatingly volunteer for tasks others shunned and be the first to arrive and last to leave making sure everything was cleaned, in order and completed. Those who worked with her compared her to the Martha of the Gospel minus Martha’s complaint to the Lord, for Sister Genevieve never sought recognition for her work.
A quiet and simple soul, Sister Genevieve loved life and enjoyed being with people, reading and trying her talents in cooking and crafts. Once retired to the Manor she frequented the craft room and often played “elf” by decorating the sisters’ bedroom doors for the Christmas holidays.
After some years of acute health problems, Sister Genevieve gradually left her beloved craft room and entered into a quiet life as a gentle recipient of care from staff and sisters at Holy Family Manor. Sister entered eternal life on Apri1 13, 2004. On April 15, 2004, a wake service was held in Holy Family Manor chapel. Reverend David Moczulski, OFM celebrated her funeral liturgy on Apri1 16, 2004, in Holy Family Manor. Sister Genevieve was interred in Saint Joseph Cemetery on the provincialate campus.
Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord!
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