Country's oldest sister dies

Imagine seeing the church in three different centuries.

Sr. Martha Pellow, OSF, did.

The oldest religious sister in the United States died June 2 at her motherhouse in Bay Settlement, just north of Green Bay. She was 111 and had entered the community of the Sisters of St. Francis at Bay Settlement on June 10, 1908.

"Sister was well prepared for her death. She was longing eagerly to meet her God face to face," said Sr. Sally Ann Brickner, community superior.

Sr. Martha, who called the reasons for her longevity "God's secret," was born May 18, 1889, in Oconto Falls to John and Elizabeth Pellow. She was a member of St. Anthony Parish there and returned home to celebrate the parish's centennial three years ago.

Even though she was one of 10 children, her parents were opposed to her entering religious life. But, after being suddenly cured of tuberculosis, Margaret (her baptismal name) Pellow joined the Bay Settlement community at age 19. The sisters came to get her in a horse and buggy.

There followed a long career in education, healthcare and housekeeping. Even after retiring to the motherhouse in 1971, Sr. Martha continued to sew clothes for the missions. She was still sewing for her community's ministry in Chicago when she celebrated her 100th birthday. Her mother had been a seamstress and Sr. Martha took right to stitching. Sr. Mary Jo Kirt of her community remembers that Sr. Martha never needed a sewing pattern. "She'd just dream it up."

In fact, her sewing led to her vocation. As a teen, she worked with a dressmaker in Oconto Falls. One day, while making a dress, she heard a voice tell her that she had another vocation, to religious life. She relied on that voice and the guidance of her priest.

Relying on God was a hallmark of Sr. Martha. One of her assignments was at St. Anthony School in Neopit on the Menominee Indian Reservation. It was lumberjack area when Sr. Martha was there. And each month, when the lumberjacks got paid, Sr. Martha would take to the railroad handcarts and make the rounds of the lumber camps, begging funds for the children.

Like St. Francis, Sr. Martha also loved nature and was a member of the Audubon Society for more than 40 years. She even became a taxidermist via a correspondence course. Her one unfulfilled wish was to visit Hawaii to see the birds and the flowers. "For her," Sr. Kirt said, "Heaven was being in Hawaii with God."

After her eyesight began to fail, Sr. Martha prayed almost constantly, often saying several rosaries a day and going to the community chapel for morning, noon and evening prayer and daily Mass.

"Until very close to her death," Sr. Brickner said, "at night, she would be in her wheelchair and use her feet to walk herself down to the chapel to say good night to our Lord and the Blessed Mother."

Sr. Kirt also remembers the prayers Sr. Martha offered for nearly everyone she met. "If you ever needed anything you'd go to Martha and ask her to pray for you."

After breaking a leg at age 95, Sr. Martha decided to dedicate herself to daily prayer for vocations to priesthood and religious life. Her prayers paid off. Her community will receive its first new member in a number of years this fall. And the priest presiding at her funeral on June 6, Fr. Mathew Siekierski, was a student at St. Joan of Arc School in Goodman while she taught there.

In nearly 91 years in religious life, Sr. Martha saw many changes in the church. Some of the biggest came from Vatican II. She admitted that those changes were hard to adjust to at first. "Vatican II swept me off my feet," she told The Compass on her 100th birthday.

But she came to see the fruits of the Council. "So many more people are working for the church now as lay ministers. They're bringing more people into the church."

Sr. Martha remained active in her community until her death. Members of her community read to her each day. She continued to pray and to correspond with many friends and relatives. A cherished gift for her 110th birthday was a roll of stamps.

Her birthday wish this year was to go home to God. And she faced eternity with the same secret that led her from the church of 1908 through Vatican II and into the 21st century:

"I was willing to trust."

(Sr. Martha Pellow is survived by the members of nieces and nephews, other relatives, her religious community and many friends. Memorials may be sent to the Bay Settlement Sisters, St. Francis Convent, 3025 Bay Settlement Rd., Green Bay, 54311.)