Benedictines celebrate two feast days for St. Benedict – July 11 and March 21. July 11 was the date Pope St. Paul VI declared St. Benedict the Patron of Europe. As I was pondering various ways I might focus on St. Benedict for this blog, I heard a ping on my cell phone. It alerted me to an email from Legacy.com, their annual reminder to me of the anniversary date of a friend’s death.
Florence Marie “Tootsie” Hollingsworth became a Benedictine Oblate in her old age. Florence’s life reminded me that we are never too old to begin new journeys! We can be transplanted into new places and thrive. We can set our sails toward a new spiritual quest and feel the exhilaration.
Florence Cataldi was born in Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven children of Italian Catholic immigrants. I can’t remember how, but she met and married Cecil Hollingsworth, a young man from rural Alabama. When they married, they made their home near Cecil’s family farm. This was not an easy transplant for Florence. Cecil’s family did not readily welcome this lovely olive-skinned Catholic girl into their Protestant family. Remember this was the 1950’s when there were still vestiges of prejudice against Italian immigrants and Catholics in the rural South. Nevertheless, Cecil and Florence enjoyed a good marriage for 59 years.
After Cecil died, Florence transplanted herself to Cullman to live at our Benedictine Manor retirement community. Being a devout Catholic, it was a dream come true for her to live so near a Benedictine monastery. At the Manor, she enjoyed interaction with the Sisters who worked there and our Oblate volunteers. She was faithful to daily Mass at the Manor. Through her relationships with our Sisters and our Oblates, Florence was encouraged to become a Benedictine Oblate. In her old age, Florence set her sails toward this new spiritual quest!
After Florence died on July 6, 2013, at age 88, her obituary included the fact that she had become an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Florence found joy in being involved with our Benedictine community, and I’m grateful that was reflected in her obituary. This is where I circle back to the Feast of Saint Bendict on July 11. What better way to pay tribute to Benedict this week than to remember the life of one elderly woman who lived 1500 years later, who became one of 25,000 Benedictine Oblates world-wide. Benedictine monastic communities of women and men, their Oblates, and the Rule of St. Benedict continue to have a wide-reaching impact in our world. Like Florence Hollingsworth, our Oblates join us on this daily spiritual quest as Jesus’ disciples, to seek Him above all else, with the Gospel as our guide, to make peace our quest and aim.
By Sister Sara Aiden Burress, OSB