Sister George Marie Wathen, OSU

In the name of the community, the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, I offer love and sympathy to family and friends of Sister George Marie, especially to you, Sister Marie Bosco, and Ursuline Associate Mary Rose Bryant, sisters of Sister George Marie, to her brother Joseph Paul and her half-brother George Robert, to Sisters Mary David and Clarence Marie, first cousins, and to each one of us who felt especially loved by Sister George Marie. (I have the distinct feeling that includes all of us!) To Sister Martin Gertrude, and again to you, Sister Mary David, classmates of Sister George Marie, I offer loving sympathy. To the staff in health care, past and present, and to the staff in pastoral care, I extend sincere gratitude for your continued graciousness and attentiveness in caring for an of our Sisters, but particularly at this time for your care of Sister George Marie. We empathize with you, Sister Catherine, in your loss. Your devotion to Sister George Marie was inspiring. Thank you!

“On a special Thursday, April 15, 1909,” Sister George Marie writes, “I began my life in this world. My parents were George Xavier and Myrtle Ann Raley Wathen. I was born in Marion County on the Bradfordsville Pike, a few miles out of Bradfordsville, Kentucky. I was the third child. Later on there were nine children – two boys and seven girls: Harry, Josephine, Paul, Isabel, Anna, Louise, Mary Rose, and Cecilia. We were loved, wanted, and had a happy Christian life. We had family prayers morning and evening and grace before meals. Often on winter Sunday afternoons my mother would read stories from magazines to us. If the stories had any sadness connected, I would watch for tears from my father’s eyes.”

Sister George Marie continues: “I was given the name of Mary Catherine, after my maternal grandmother: Saint Catherine of Siena was, my patron saint. One way I remember trying to imitate her was to stop on every step going up and down the stairs and pray the Hail Mary.”

Mary Catherine’s years of primary education were spent in a one-room school, where classes were taught from pre-primer through grade 8. She speaks of enjoying school and the happiness she felt when her mother invited the teacher to share an evening meal with the Wathen family. “It was a great year when Saint Joseph School opened with Sister Patricia Cummins, Sister Rose Alice Morgan, and later Sister Mary Edna Robinson.” Mary Catherine reminisces. “My mother went to boarding school for a year at Saint Catharine and we loved to hear her tell about the time she spent with the Sisters, which made us more anxious to have the Sisters come to Saint Joseph.”

After much praying, thinking, and feeling that God was giving Mary Catherine a vocation to religious life, Mary Catherine responded to that inner voice. “Papa drove me to St. Mary’s to catch the train en route to Mount Saint Joseph. At St. Mary’s I met Mary Oda Mudd (Sister Mary Oda), Borgie Buckler (Sister Jean Mark), Thelma Jewell (Sister Theresa Carmel, who left before making final vows), and Mildred Abell (Sister Mary Damien), all on their way to the Mount. All of us had heavy hearts but we managed to have fun on the train. This was the beginning of the second season of my life.