The life and work of various Ursuline Sisters of Louisville provided inspiration for comic strips created by Sacred Heart Academy art students in celebration of Catholic Sisters Week, March 8-14.
The students showed their work in late February at the Ursuline Motherhouse on Lexington Road.
Ursuline Sister Jean Anne Zappa, the congregation’s president, said in a press release, “I was amazed at how the art students captured not only the life of their particular sister, but the spirit of that sister’s personality and gifts.
“By their research and study of the sisters’ lives, they were able to communicate the nuances of each sister’s life, talents and contributions they shared with others,” Zappa said.
The comic strips highlighted nine deceased sisters, whose ministry holds historic significance to the Ursulines and the wider community, according to the release.
- Mother Martina Nicklas purchased the first parcel of land on the Lexington Road campus.
- Mother Angela Leininger oversaw the building of the Motherhouse in 1917.
- Mother DeChantal Mulligan lived to be 109 years old.
- Sister Casilda Bowling taught at Sacred Heart and Ursuline College and published a book of exam questions used nationwide in classrooms.
- Mother Cosma Coponi was a nurse at Camp Taylor during the 1918 flu pandemic.
- Sister Brendan Conlon founded Christian Help of Mingo County in Kermit, W.V., to help families with emergency assistance.
- Sister Martha Buser was an author who traveled around the world speaking about St. Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursuline Sisters.
- Sister Regina Bevelacqua co-founded St. Mary’s Center, which serves intellectually disabled adults and teens from the Louisville area.
- Sister Anne Mary Lochner co-founded and served as the first director of Project Women, now Family Scholar House, which helps single mothers pursue higher education and employment opportunities.
Emily Jarboe, who teaches art to sophomores at Sacred Heart, said she’d been thinking about a project that would weave the sisters’ work with art. The idea for the comic strip came to her during a retreat she attended last December, she said.
“At first I was thinking of having the students create a portrait of the sisters. During the retreat, I learned more about St. Angela, and then talking with the sisters at the retreat, I thought it would be more interesting for the students to research the lives and experiences of the sisters and create a piece telling an aspect of their lives.”
Students who created the artwork said they enjoyed learning about the sisters’ legacy and were happy to see the community’s response to the project.
“It was quite heartwarming to have touched the sisters’ heart so deeply,” said Liz Staley, a sophomore who participated in the project.Catholic Sisters Week “shines a light on the spirituality, mission and community building of women religious,” according to its website, catholicsistersweek.org.
