ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS —
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s.
It was a decision that older sister Mary (now known as Sister Joseph) made as a teenager: that she wanted to become a Sister of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, and that Patty (now known as Sister Patty) made four years later that made them sisters in a second sense: both members of the same Congregation of religious sisters.
Sister Sisters
Thus for the past 55 years the Fillenwarth sisters have lived not only as blood sisters, but as religious sisters as well.
A fun sense of camaraderie livens the area when Sisters Patty and Joseph, now both in their seventies, are together: a teasing humor, a warmth, a playful bantering.
“She was spoiled,” Sister Joseph taunts Sister Patty.
As the two sisters work together cleaning dishes after preparing treats to share with family members, Sister Patty mentions, “I was one of the youngest, so I used to sneak out when they were doing dishes at home.”
“See, she was spoiled! It came from her own mouth,” Sister Joseph says.
“I was not just a youngest, I was the smartest,” laughs Sister Patty.
“There’s one in every family,” laments Sister Joseph, shaking her head.
Both sisters know the teasing is all in fun. They say their parents taught them that you could be different and still get along, and that has served their relationship and that of their siblings well.
“Since we’ve been in the community, we really haven’t been in proximity all that much. But we’re always happy to see each other, and we always seem to love what we do,” Sister Patty said.
Despite the lack of proximity, plenty of similarities exist in the sisters’ life paths. “We both started as teachers, and then we were both principals, and then she went to the foreign missions in South America and I went to the home missions, so we were both missionaries in different senses,” Sister Joseph said.
The sisters say they are both full of energy and determined. They point out plenty of differences as well: Sister Patty is more laid back than Sister Joseph; Sister Joseph is more of a neat nick than Sister Patty.
But both share a similar life’s passion: helping others, especially those who are poor.
That passion has sometimes stretched them beyond their comfort zones: to the South American country of Peru, to areas in the U.S. where only one half of one percent of the population was Catholic or to the big, intimidating city of Chicago.
Today, both sisters live out that passion full-heartedly in the work they do.
Sister Patty
Sister Patty is the founder and director of Providence Family Services in Chicago, where she also serves as a counselor to Spanish-speaking and often low-income individuals who would not have access to such help elsewhere.
Sister Patty’s journey to Chicago started in Peru when she volunteered to go as a foreign missionary with a group of Sisters of Providence in the early 1970s.
“That changed my whole life,” she said.
Sister Patty returned home after six years due to political unrest that caused the Congregation to deem it unsafe, but she didn’t want to lose her Spanish. A sister in her Congregation’s leadership suggested she go to Chicago; that did not excite her.
“I said, ‘Oh no, too big and chaotic and busy, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. And the other sister said, ‘Just go and try.’ So, here I am 37 years later. So it is big and busy, but it also has a lot of wonderful people,” Sister Patty said.
Sister Patty served as a teacher and then principal at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Chicago for more than 15 years. During that time she noticed among the people in her Humboldt Park neighborhood an unmet need for affordable, bi-lingual counseling. So with the support of her congregation, Sister Patty set out to fill that need to a struggling population. She returned to school to get a counseling degree and then opened Providence Family Services. Now, 18 years later, PFS also offers English as a Second Language classes, citizenship classes, computer classes and an afterschool homework club for students whose parents may not speak English well enough to help with homework.
“I love doing it. It gives me energy in itself. People say, ‘You’re always running around, up and down, up and down, up and down all day.’ And I get tired from it, of course, but I’m energized by it because I know we’re doing good work, and people are being helped. It does my heart good to see people helping themselves. “
Sister Joseph
“I wanted to do some kind of missionary work with the poor,” Sister Joseph said.
So she spent 27 years working with the Glenmary home mission priests in small, impoverished rural parishes in Oklahoma and Kentucky.
Upon her retirement six years ago, Sister Joseph stepped right into her current role as director of Providence Food Pantry in West Terre Haute. There she works with agencies and various churches in the area to offer food to people in need.
“I think the most important thing is the support that we give from the pantry. It’s nice to see all the churches working together and trying to help the needy in the community,” Sister Joseph said.
People who come to the pantry are treated with dignity. They get to choose foods they like, and they get three different kinds of meat, and eggs and fresh produce, she said.
Sister Joseph said that she is thankful for the good health and energy that keeps her so active despite her 76 years. In addition to running the pantry every Thursday morning, the rest of the week she keeps busy with tasks such as traveling around Terre Haute and West Terre Haute to pick up donated foods from Catholic Charities or local grocery stores. She also works to keep the area from which they operate clean and organized and to keep all the paperwork in order.
Sister Joseph also volunteers two afternoons a week tutoring a child at Educational/Family Services in West Terre Haute. She staffs a phone room in one of her motherhouse buildings on Monday and Wednesday mornings. When she’s not doing those things, she is writing thank you notes and encouraging people to keep on giving to the pantry.
Like her sister, Sister Joseph is always going, always pouring her energy into helping others.
“I think we’re here to be of service, and Jesus didn’t go to the wealthy. He went to the people who needed help. Not that you overlook the rich, but there’s such a great need,” Sister Joseph said.
Sister Patty agrees.
“I’m happy here. I’m here because I want to be here. Nobody ever made me come. Nobody ever made me stay. And that’s why I stay, because I like it,” Sister Patty says of her ministry at Providence Family Services.
And though their common passion has led them to different places with similar missions, the sisters remain close.
“I’m always glad to come home and see Mary [Sister Patty still calls her sister by her given name], but she knows and I know that I do my business and she does hers. And she thinks I’m crazy sometimes, and I think she’s crazy sometimes,” Sister Patty says.
Sister Joseph agrees with her sister. “And we both know it,” she says, “… that you’re crazy sometimes.”
Features
Related Photos
-
Dishes and a smile: Sisters Patty and Joseph Fillenwarth wash dishes together at St. Mary-of-the-Woods after preparing treats to bring to a family gathering. The two sisters share not only a biological sisterhood, but a religious sisterhood and a passion for serving people in need. (Submitted photo)
-
Sister Patty Fillenwarth chats with a student in the after-school homework club at Providence Family Services in Chicago where Sister Patty serves not only as the founder and director but also as a counselor offering affordable, bi-lingual counseling to her neighbors in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. (Submitted photo)
-
Sister Joseph Fillenwarth puts her many years experience as a teacher and principal to use as she volunteer tutors a student at Educational/Family Services in West Terre Haute. (Submitted photo)
-
Sister Patricia Fillenwarth (Submitted photo)
-
Sister Joseph Fillenwarth (Submitted photo)
Discussion
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
Sister sisters share a love for helping those in need
- Features
-
-
3 virtues 4-H has taught these youths
Perseverance, integrity, honesty, responsibility and service are the hallmarks of any successful business.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: A Wood’s student’s quest to save thousands of turtles
If you don’t like something, sometimes it’s a matter of taking it into your own hands to change it. For Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College student, Amber Slaughterbeck, that mentality couldn’t be any more true.
-
TRIED 'N' TRUE: Fix this Oven Fried Chicken ahead of time
When my brother Gary’s wife got breast cancer, he needed something he could fix ahead of time to throw into the oven when it was time to fix supper after Kathy’s treatments.
-
Fit for a King: Couple opens Clayshire Castle as bed and breakfast in rural Bowling Green
There aren’t too many castles around the Wabash Valley, but now there is one worth checking out. Sit back and relax, and let me tell you the story of the Clayshire Castle and Lord Douglas and Lady Josephine. It’s a modern day fairy tale complete with, yes, a castle.
-
Steps to the River: Watermark Landing project brings artistic recognition to Valley’s most prominent waterway
Petra Nyendick recalls that when she moved to Terre Haute in 2005 in hopes of opening an art gallery, one of her initial surprises was usage of the Wabash River by people in the city was so light.
-
Bond of Brothers: Performance to reveal complex kinship between Dreiser and ‘My Brother Paul’
Two famed writers linger in Tedi Dreiser Godard’s family tree.
-
Longtime weatherman Jesse Walker relates well to people of Wabash Valley
While in middle and high school, Jesse Walker developed a strong interest in the weather. He thought about a career at the National Weather Service or at a storm prediction center, but the idea of becoming a television meteorologist never entered his mind.
-
CULINARY COURSES: Clabber Girl Classroom Kitchen provides variety of cooking courses for the Valley
There are a few taste-bud-tantalizing-perks for having America’s leading baking powder producer in your backyard. For nearly 120 years, Clabber Girl has been a staple in Terre Haute. In 1899, Hulman and Company began offering up what was to become one of the oldest brands in the country, Clabber baking powder. In 1923, the company changed the baking powder brand name to Clabber Girl.
-
RIVER OF SOUND: Composer sees symphony bring his musical imagination to life
David Watkins smiled as he stood on the Tilson Auditorium stage. The audience stood, too, applauding.
Two of his compositions had just been performed by the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Neither piece — “A Wabash Portrait” and “River Fanfare” — had been played publicly in decades. -
The Beauties of Spring: Stunning array of wildflowers bloom each spring in Collett Park
Groundskeepers put off the first mowing of Collett Park each spring.
Admirers of the place, Terre Haute’s oldest park, like it that way.
A stunning array of wildflowers covers the 21-acre lawn for a few short weeks. Those plants, known as “spring beauties,” emerge in March, bloom in April and go dormant by May, when the brilliant waves of white and pink flowers disappear. -
Day spent with daughter inspires Valley man to write children’s book for her
It started with a warm sunny blackberry picking outing, a bee buzzing, a little bird nest with eggs in it and a little girl begging her daddy for a night-time story. And from those ingredients the children’s book, “The Bee in the Blackberry Bush” came to fruition.
-
From kilts to haggis, Wabash Valley Scottish Society marks a decade of preserving heritage
As soon as Richard Cooper breaks into his Scottish accent, a smile automatically follows.
It happened last week as he recited a work of legendary Scotland poet Robert Burns. -
Witness to history: April movie chronicles Jackie Robinson’s trials as be breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier — something Vigo County native Harry Taylor witnessed first hand
The upcoming movie “42” aims to show America what Jackie Robinson endured.
Harry Taylor witnessed it firsthand.
Robinson wore jersey No. 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Taylor wore 41. Both were 28-year-old rookies, considerably older than most. Taylor got delayed by military service in World War II. Professional baseball’s unwritten but ironclad code of racial discrimination had kept Robinson and other African-Americans out of the majors since the 1880s. -
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s. -
Geocaching Indiana: Clay County man develops idea to use geo-art to create outline of state in caches
Indiana, long-known as the Crossroads of America, has for years been a destination for people coming from around the world to witness such activities as the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Indianapolis Colts football games and Indiana University Hoosiers basketball games.
Since October 2012, Indiana’s attractions have come to include the surprising geo-art creation of a group of Wabash Valley geocachers — people who use Global Positioning Systems and similar location-sensitive devices to find hidden objects for fun. -
Voice of a Storyteller: Chance meeting of Twain, Paris youngster inspired narrative voice of Huck Finn
The block offers no hints of its place in American literary history.
Customers dodge raindrops, walking in and out of an auto parts store. -
Pearls of the Wabash: Efforts to reintroduce mussels
Broken bricks, shattered large clay tiles and thin strips of lumber nailed into a crimped piece of sheet metal, sit piled down a county road in Hillsdale.
-
Natural Habitat: Meet 17-year-old Ben Cvengros, who has a knack for capturing wildlife — in particular, birds — on his camera
I would like to introduce you to a 17-year-old Parke County teenager who has an incredible level of patience. Ben Cvengros was 12 years old when he found his passion for photography.
-
WORD PLAY: Scrabble Club broadens Greene County youngsters’ vocabularies and experiences in a fun way
Drew Helton nodded his head like a wise college professor dispensing scholarly advice.
-
Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people.
-
Crossroads Rep opens with ‘You Can’t Take It With You’
The 2013 summer season for Crossroads Repertory Theatre at Indiana State University bears the theme, Three Laughs and A Scream. It opens June 21 with a comedy that has remained popular since it was first staged in 1936: “You Can’t Take It With You.”
-
‘Pirates’ to invade Terre Haute Children’s Museum on Saturday
The Terre Haute Community Band will perform “A Pirate Adventure: The Treasure of Music!” at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Terre Haute Children’s Museum.
-
Learn about ‘The Wabash in Legend and Lore’ at Symphony fundraiser
Hear Vigo County historian Mike McCormick speak on “The Wabash in Legend and Lore” during the Terre Haute Symphony League’s fundraiser at noon Wednesday in the Country Club of Terre Haute. Reservations are due Friday.
-
GRAPE SENSE: Some think Chardonnay is next big thing in northwest wine
Does the wine world need another great Chardonnay region? California has the great big buttery, woodsy Chards while Chablis brings the mineral and acid. There is virtually every style in between from regions across the globe.
-
TRIED ’N’ TRUE: A Bar-B-Que recipe from my brother, Mark
My brother Mark lives in California. He does a lot of cooking. Both of my brothers are great cooks. (I’m the oldest of all my siblings.) Mark gave me the Bar-B-Que recipe.
-
Concert to honor Indiana composers, arrangers
The Terre Haute Community Band kicks off its summer season with Indiana’s official state song, “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” written by Terre Haute’s own Paul Dresser.
-
Water show kicks off Vigo library program
The Vigo County Public Library will stage its kickoff event for the summer reading program “Dig into Reading” with a water show from 3 to 4 p.m. on Monday on Walnut Street in downtown Terre Haute.
-
BRUCE’S HISTORY LESSONS: This week in 1944: D-Day and the Airborne assault on Normandy
This week (June 5) in 1944, with the D-Day invasion of the Nazi-occupied Normandy coast set to begin, the man in charge of that invasion, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, paid a special visit to members of the U.S. 82nd and the 101st Airborne.
-
All Valley artists encouraged to submit art at Vigo County Fair
Artists from throughout the Wabash Valley are encouraged to submit works to the 84th Vigo County Fair, which will take place July 7-15 at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Recycling initiative in full swing at Vigo County Public Library
The Vigo County Public Library has recycled the weight of two compact cars (7,000 pounds) since April, this after an employees’ initiative to recycle library-wide.
- More Features Headlines
-
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Robot Action Connected to Human Thought
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
NYC 911 Call Lasts for 8 Hours
Obama: US Has Helped Syrian Rebels
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
California Cops Cruise on Stand-up Paddle Patrol
Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans
Raw: 100K Protesters Flood Brazilian Streets
Afghan Forces Take Afghanistan Security Lead
Raw: First Lady, Daughters Enjoy Irish Sights
Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent'
Transgender Candidate Running in NYC
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
Man Who Disrupted Flight Ranted About CIA
Feds: 7-Eleven Stores Exploited Immigrants
Oklahoma City Thunder Players Tour Moore
Today in History June 18
Iran's Rowhani Urges 'Path of Moderation'
Boeing, Airbus Battle for Sales Supremacy
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
WATCH IT: Lil Wayne tramples American flag
Mariah Carey Looks Beautiful in a Tiny Cut-Out Swimsuit
Out of Control Boat Throws Passengers Overboard
See Lindsay Lohan in Rehab
Sofia Vergara Posts Perky Backside Pic in Thong
Gaga Ditches Her Crazy Couture
Caught on Tape: Teacher Accused of Beating Autistic Child
"Stay Classy" Campaign Aims to Curb Binge Drinking
Sesame Street Tackling Tough Topic Parents in Jail
Miss Utah Fumbles Interview Question
Deranged man claims Newark-bound flight was poisoned
Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton Show Off Their Amazing Bikini Bodies
NBA FINALS: Spurs Win Game 5, Lead Series
