Sister Virginia Mary Bartholome
Virginia Mary Bartolome was born on October 10, 1923 to William Peter and Margaret Franklin Bartholome in Great Falls, Montana. From her baptism to the end, she had a close relationship with the Blessed Mother, Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Virginia began her formal education in Sister Loyola Domke’s kindergarten class at St. Mary’s School in Great Falls, Montana. She continued her education under the Sisters of Humility through high school graduation. Her father died after an extended illness when she was in high school leaving her mother and two brothers, Jack and William.
Virginia was advised to attend the University of Great Falls for two years before pursuing her vocation. She entered Sacred Heart Convent, the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Humility community there on September 8, 1943. In November her brother, Jack, was killed when his naval transport plane crashed over Rio de Janiero and all aboard were killed. The following summer she received the habit and her name in religion, Sister Marita. Sr. Mathias suggested the name, meaning “little Mary”. It also affirmed her devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux, the “Little Flower”.
In September 1944, first year novice, Sr. Marita, and postulant, Marie Wight, took a train from Montana to Ottumwa, Iowa, to continue their novitiate with the Iowa Humility sisters. This was in advance of the planned amalgamation of the two communities. Riding in a “puddle jumper-train” from Des Moines to Ottumwa, they saw the sun rise over a very flat horizon. Clearly, they were no longer in Montana.
At the station they were greeted by two strange, but somewhat familiar-looking sisters, one who identified herself as Sister Mary Simone. After a short ride they were welcomed by Mother Collette and Sister Mary Magdalen in the convent parlor of the Motherhouse of the Ottumwa Humility sisters. Sr. Marita may have recognized those two as they had come to Mother Mary Francis’ funeral in Great Falls that past January. Eventually they would learn that Mother Francis death had anticipated, in fact speeded up, the planned amalgamation of the two communities. Sr. Magdalen handed Sr. Marita a white veil to wear instead of the black one worn while traveling. She was spared the amused faces when the sisters saw Marie Wight’s postulant garb.
Soon, Sr. Marita joined the eleven (11) novices and began the two-year novitiate, with Sr. Magdalen as Novice Mistress. For a brief time she thought they were “in heaven” but the humidity soon dampened that observation. The first year was dedicated to prayer which she loved. The Bishop of Davenport, Ralph Hayes, invited Bishop Peter Bartholome, her uncle who was Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester, Minnesota, to preside at their first profession on July 17, 1946.
From 1945 to 1947 Sr. Marita and Sr. Suzanne Wickenkamp went twice a week during school months to Marycrest College, in Davenport, to continue work on their undergraduate degrees. Those days were long but they were happy to have a good meal prepared by Sr. Raphael on their return. Sr. Joseph Marie Peters was usually in the car, as well, and would let any complaints about their driving be communicated through Sr. Magdalen.
Sr. Marita graduated from Marycrest College in 1947 with a degree in Business Education and made final vows in 1949.
Her first assignment was to St. Leo’s school in Lewistown, MT, in 1947, where she helped a sister who had two grades in one room. She taught music and business courses in the afternoon at the high school there. That first winter was a difficult time for all the Montana Humilities, as they changed to the “Iowa habit” during those months. She said it was literally and physically a time of “dying and rising” as they adjusted to the new look and feel, and care of the various parts. The good thing was that the new habit had a soft gimp, much more comfortable than the stiff white one.
In 1953 Sr. Marita was assigned to Catholic Central High School in Great Falls which made her mother very happy. She was librarian and teacher there for four years. She studied during summers at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Library Science in 1954. She was named head of the library at Marycrest College in 1957. Sr. Marita completed a Master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1964.
Sr. Marita’s tenure at Marycrest was marked by the sisters’ adaptations to the decrees from the Second Vatican Council: to recall and renew their founding charism, to imitate the “Gospel Jesus” in their lives, and to pay attention to the “signs of the times”. Among the changes were flexible times and manner of prayer and other spiritual practices, the ability to engage more freely with their families and professional peers, and the pursuit of new ministries. For example, Sr. Marita was inaugurated as the President of the Iowa Library Association in 1970, the first sister to hold the position. The choice to resume her baptismal name, Virginia Mary, in 2019 came from the Council’s emphasis on the “initial sacraments of baptism, the Eucharist and Confirmation”.
During a sabbatical in the early ‘70s, Sr. Marita attended Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and the University of Iowa, where she studied policies and practices associated with the administration of merged organizations. This was in anticipation of a possible merger between St. Ambrose and Marycrest Colleges in Davenport .
Sr. Marita resigned as Library Director in 1973 and returned to Great Falls to care for her mother, and to explore life again in Montana and the Diocese of Great Falls--Billings. In leaving, she wrote “…the sisters were the delight of my 17 years with them – truly refreshing, charitable, intellectual, faith-filled models of Mary….”
Sr. Marita lived at the former motherhouse, Sacred Heart Convent, with the remaining Montana sisters. Her mother died in 1974 after several strokes. Sr. Marita became a reference librarian at the Great Falls Public Library, continuing until she retired in 1996. During this time the lives of the Montana sisters changed a great deal. With fewer numbers, they sold Sacred Heart Convent and moved into a house on the west side of Great Falls. When that house closed, Sr. Marita moved into an apartment within walking distance of St. Ann’s Cathedral, the library, Gibson Park, downtown and the grocery store. She played the organ for Sunday evening services and participated in Legion of Mary activities. She had a garden until the day she left Montana for Iowa in the middle of 2009.
In 2013 Sr. Marita moved to Bishop Drumm Care Center in Johnston where she continued a very active life. Visitors saw her bed covered with correspondence in progress, and she always looked like she had just had her hair done. She played the piano for Mass and sometimes sang whatever she wanted. She was full of stories about Montana and her love for that beautiful land. Staff would have loved to get her back there at some time. But they said that she got to wherever she wanted to go there in her wheel chair. She and Sr. Rosalia Riedel celebrated their 100th birthdays last fall, although Sr. Rosalia didn’t quite make it to November 23, as she died on October 31.
Sr. Marita loved peanut butter sandwiches and ice cream and was eating ice cream to the very end. I hope the staff has sent the little notebook in which they kept some of her best funny “quips and quotes” as they called them. Having been at Drumm for almost twelve (12) years, one of the longest there, they will certainly miss her.
This is what Sr. Micheline Curtis wrote in her draft of Sr. Marita’s tribute years ago:
As Virginia and then Marita, “Sister” by [either]name, she was devoted to the Blessed Mother. Her life … had Marian parallels including the loss of her father when she was 14 and her brother in World War II. Picking up and moving from Montana to Iowa to finish her novitiate definitely presented adversity, especially since she had “no say” in the decision….Things that impressed me about Sr. Marita: she never complained about moving back to Davenport from Great Falls and how faithful she was about writing to the sisters at Humility of Mary Center while she was in Montana.
Sister Micheline Curtis, CHM
Sister Mary Rehmann, CHM