One never knows what hidden gems one might find in the archive collection until a given request comes in and an information search ensues. Recently a request for information came in regarding Sister Scholastica Feldung. A quick check confirmed that she was one of our community’s founding members, yet her name is not one often mentioned. Looking through On Good Ground, our community history written by Sister Mary Ruth Coffman, OSB, I learned that she was born in Elk County, PA and was the younger sister of Sister Josephine Feldung, another one of our founding members.
There was hardly any information in the community history about Sister Scholastica. There was plenty of material about Sister Josephine, who joined the Benedictine Sisters in Carrolltown, Pennsylvania and eventually was among the small group who founded Holy Name Priory in San Antonio, Florida in 1889. In 1898, five Benedictine Sisters from Holy Name Priory travelled to Cullman, Alabama to staff the school at the Catholic parish but only after much pleading by the abbot of St. Bernard to the bishops of San Antonio and Mobile. The Sisters were allowed to staff the school in Cullman for the 1898-1899 school year with the understanding that the situation would be re-evaluated the following summer. Sister Josephine Feldung was among these five Sisters; however, there was no mention of Sister Scholastica. Only when the Cullman mission proved successful did the Bishop of Mobile allow the sisters in Cullman to become independent and accept new vocations. Their new foundation was called Mary Help Convent.
Within a short period of time, three women joined the Mary Help community. Eva Feldung, at the age of 41, was the last of the three to become a postulant. When she became a novice, she was given the name Sister Scholastica. Her first profession of vows was June 5, 1901 in the parish church. When eight Benedictine Sisters from Kentucky, who already had been doing mission work in Alabama for a number of years, agreed to merge with the community of eight sisters in Cullman in 1902, Sister Scholastica Feldung was the youngest in religion though not in age.
The very thin pocket file in the archive had little information to add to what could be gleaned from the community’s history. A one-page biographical summary states the following:
“Sister Scholastica was 41 years old when she entered. She loved the prayer-life. When not engaged in that she kept busy performing Convent domestic arts. She cultivated flowers and was always happy to see the fruits of her labors placed in the chapel.
While working among her plants, on a cold day in January 1929, she contracted pneumonia, which proved fatal within a few days. She died on January 23, 1929, after receiving the Last Sacraments. During her entire religious life until the few days of her sickness, she had never been absent, nor even late for Morning Prayers. She died during the morning prayers of January 23, 1929.”
In the same sleeve as her biographical information is a typed story told by Sister Walburga Garber, OSB:
“In the ‘howling twenties’ fire extinguishers were installed on the various floors of the main building. Among the first to come abruptly face-to-face with these chemical containers was dear old Sister Scholastica Feldung, who spent most of her time out of doors with her plants and flowers. Confronted with this modern innovation, this venerable nun exclaimed with the utmost protest of faith that she could muster: ‘You just can see! All dese years God has been takin’ care of us. We haven’t had no fires. And now dey can’t trust Him.’”
Just as a note, the location where Sister Scholastica cultivated her plants and flowers is exactly where the chapel was built in 1930-31. Perhaps she already knew that this was holy ground!
By Sister Therese Haydel, OSB