Sisters return to St. Mary’s school

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

St. Mary’s Academy, the regional Catholic School in Glens Falls, opens today (Sept. 10) with something not seen at SMA since the 1990s: Sisters!

The new principal is Sister Laurie-Marie, a member of Sisters of the Resurrection, based near Castleton on Hudson.

Sister Angela Marie, who will take her final vows in the coming year, is an experienced accountant and now the Parish bookkeeper.

Sister Mary Agnes, 93, drove for other seniors at her convent. Here, she will be more of a “spiritual center,” says Father Scott VanDerveer, the parish priest.

They all came to St. Mary’s in July.

While a layperson might call them nuns — and they look the part, dressed in traditional black and white habits — they are technically “Sisters.”

“Nuns live a fully cloistered life,” explained Fr. Scott. Although the three Sisters live in a convent — the former Parish House and offices, now converted as their private home — their work and their lives are more public-facing than nuns.

Nuns or Sisters, live an unassuming, private life, Sr. Laurie-Marie said when she quickly but kindly declined a Chronicle request for an introductory interview.

Fr. Scott, however, offered, “I’ll spill the tea” on St. Mary’s choice to reintroduce Sisters into the congregation and the school, even as he knows the three may well be uncomfortable.

“I do expect that there are some culture shocks for them, and for us,” he said.

“They live a life that is so disciplined and so humble compared to what most of us in the rest of the world live. I find it pretty delightful to discover the things I never would have known about them. They accepted it graciously, but it was not easy for them to be on a billboard on Route Nine,” for example, Fr. Scott said.

The billboard remains, three larger-than-life Sisters smiling benevolently upon drivers headed up Miller Hill toward Walmart. “That was really hard for them.”

“I knew from experience the power that Sisters bring when they arrive in a place,” Fr. Scott said. “They’re like yeast in the dough.”

“We were talking about the 150th anniversary of St. Mary’s Academy,” Fr. Scott says. It’s coming in 2033.

“When we look back over the history of the school, what are the greatest treasures we’ve had? One of them almost everybody brought up was having Sisters as teachers and involved in their lives.

“I mean, there are legendary stories of the rulers and the strictness. But there are so many more stories of people saying, ‘Oh, I loved Sister Roberta. She taught me.’ ‘There was this sister I confided in.’ There are so many moving stories of Sisters who taught life lessons in passionate, compassionate ways.

“It was very clear, if we could bring some Sisters back in any capacity, the school would benefit.

“We put together a prospectus on St. Mary’s Academy and St. Mary’s Parish, much the way a college would. We mailed it to almost 30 different English-speaking Sister communities in the U.S., Canada and Ireland. We said, if you are willing to give us a chance, we will offer you housing, a car, stipends, a wonderful parish community, a beautiful up-and-coming town, a school with this great history that’s on the upswing.

“We started with the Sisters of Saint Joseph because they were the founders of Saint Mary’s Academy. They came up by stagecoach in 1883 to start the school.

“Almost every community responded lovingly, but declined us politely. They said, ‘We would love to come, but as you know, there are fewer sisters than ever, our community has too few members. We are too elderly. We have to stay focused on our future survival.’“

Then, last year, Fr. Scott says, he was on a panel for new Diocesan teachers, alongside Sister Laurie-Marie, who was teaching second grade at St. Jude’s Catholic School near Troy, and pursuing her principal certification at SUNY Albany.

It turns out, St. Mary’s hadn’t included the Sisters of the Resurrection in their mailing. “We sent them a packet, and they responded — ‘Yes,’” Fr. Scott reports.

He adds, “The reasons they said they were coming are the exact same reasons everyone else said they couldn’t.”

He quotes: “We’re smaller than we’ve ever been, Our median age is old, and we need to stay focused on our survival. For those three reasons, we are coming to St. Mary’s Academy.“

The decision wasn’t Sr. Laurie-Marie’s, he adds. “It was the Provincial Superior in Castleton, and their Mother General all the way in Rome.” It only so happens Sr. Laurie-Marie is who the Order sent.

They sent three sisters, to form a sort of mini-convent, one of the stipulations.

“Now that they’re living in the convent, many people have told me it feels like they’re blessing the whole block, like their blessing is going deep into the First Ward and into downtown.

“They’re much more private than other members of religious life, so it is a little more of a fortress feeling in the house. That is different than what a lot of people expected, but I find people are kind of delighted by it. We’re going to learn a lot about devotion from these Sisters, and they’re going to learn a lot about how to live in the world from us.“

“If it were up to the way most parishes work, we could have become almost just social work hubs, not as related to the mystical life as we could be.

“The sisters are so devoted to the mystical life, they could forget that we’ve got to let families know what a jewel St. Mary’s Academy is. We can’t hide it under a bushel basket. So the sisters are probably going to stretch a lot in their lifestyle, because we’re going to call them out of a kind of esthetical modesty.

“We’re seeing young people interested in formalized religion in a way that we haven’t seen in a couple generations,” Fr. Scott says. “Because I live in the secular world as a Parish priest, I know that if you want to share this way of life with the next generation, you have to be able to talk about it.”

He says, “All three sisters attend daily masses at churches all over the area. They’re getting seen and known by people in the community that don’t have a connection to SMA.“

“The Sisters coming brings St. Mary’s Academy to a new chapter,” he says.

“We have had a renaissance at the school. Enrollment last year and the year before was up 15% each year,” he said, adding 30 students for a total of 230, with more than 100 in the Noah’s Ark preschool, the rest in the K-8 school.

“Everyone is waiting to see what the ‘nuns’ bring,” he says.

“One of the things Sr. Laurie-Marie wants to do is focus on academic excellence. She has expertise in curriculum development for all grades.

“St. Mary’s, what it gives your kids, it elongates their childhood while also propelling them into leadership opportunities they would not get at another type of school. It inoculates them against despair, because we have a worldview that allows them to say, oh, there’s an invisible world, bigger and more real even than the world we’re in. I can trust that there is a loving force that guides all this.“

Fr. Scott says, “Sister Laurie-Marie has met with every faculty member, every staff member all summer long, and any parent who wanted to meet.

“She’s got great experience, and she brings a level of dedication that is only possible when a person is living a life that’s completely geared — the word we would use in the Catholic Church is ‘consecrated’ for that purpose.”

Copyright © 2026 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserve