The Sisters of the Holy Family from 1872 until 1992 (120 years) were the sacristans at each of the Saint Mary’s Cathedrals in San Francisco.
The Sisters of the Holy Family from 1872 until 1992 (120 years) were the sacristans at each of the Saint Mary’s Cathedrals in San Francisco. Our Sisters made or bought, cleaned, organized and set out for ceremonies and ordinary church services, the vestments, altar boys’ cassocks and surplices, altar linens, vases, decorations, draperies and incidental objects used at St. Mary’s. Their duties in Cathedrals one and two included such ordinary pursuits as arranging flowers and laundering linens to more obscure activities such as painting buskins (the fancy slipper-like shoes that bishops once wore) and coats of arms. They draped the interiors in black for the funerals of popes or decorated for elaborate anniversaries (garlands around the chandeliers included. This necessitated enormous ladders that many of the men around the place refused to climb, causing the sisters to occasionally assume the personality of trapeze artist.) They prepared the intricate scene of Bethlehem at Christmas time and another elaborate display of Mary Magdalene and Jesus in the garden at Easter. They cleaned, polished and filled the three samovars of Holy Week with the oil that would become Chrism, the Oil of Catechumens, and the Oil of the Sick. After the ceremony, the sisters filled the hundreds of small containers brought from every parish, hospital and special ministry of the Archdiocese from those urns.
The Sisters kept a binder in the Cathedral work sacristy to outline the necessities and how-to of each ceremony, where to procure the items needed, the special requirements of each occasion that was unique to the Mother Church of the Archdiocese: ordinations, many graduations, the funerals of dignitaries and special Masses, such as the Red Mass celebrated for lawyers of the City on the feast of St. Thomas More.
The care of all the Cathedrals also extended into the Bishop’s residence where the sisters decorated for Christmas — trees, door hangings, table decor and incidentals for the Bishops and priests who resided there. That also included creating in the new Cathedral whimsical Christmas decorations for the interior patio so that elves and Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their helpers could wander amongst the cyclamen and shrubs of the garden.
This very interesting and time consuming ministry began with Sister Dolores Armer, herself, and continued unbroken under the direction of many gifted and talented sisters and their incomparable work crews of sisters and laity.
Sr. Monica SHF greeting Pope John Paul II
Finally, on June 30, 1992, the last Holy Family Cathedral Sacristan, Sister Monica Kennedy, hung up her apron, broom, ironing board and flower clippers.
St. Monica’s feast is August 27. It seems appropriate to highlight, in the month of her feast, Sister Monica’s marvelous ministry, which combined what was creative, fun, and hard work into a ministry “behind the scenes.”
Cathedral sacristans, religious and lay, provide an environment of beauty for the Liturgy, and an appropriate atmosphere of respect for the Shepherds of the local Church.
