Oral History: Sister Teresa Costello

‘Let’s run past the moon!‘

“My father often took me outside with him to bed down the animals, maybe because I was an ‘asker.’  I’m sure my mother probably wanted him to take me outside due to her own frustration with my questions. She was pregnant and had other younger children to take care of. Dad would point out the stars and their patterns to me when we were outside, and he would say as we raced back to the house, ‘Let’s run past the moon!’”

Sister Teresa Costello, formerly Sister Ellen Maureen, was born in Liscuib, East County Galway, Ireland. “That area of Ireland was very poor. Liscuib, where I lived, was like a third world country in many ways. We had no electricity, no running water, no bathroom, no refrigeration. We got our water from a stream, or we collected rainwater. We washed our clothes in rainwater that we collected in a tank outside our house, and we heated with an open fireplace.”

Teresa Magdalene Costello is the seventh child born to Thomas and Ellen Keane Costello. She is one of five girls in the family, which also has five boys. A midwife assisted Ellen in each of her births in this small village, where Thomas farmed the ground and Ellen kept house and children.

All the children worked on the farm growing up. They could bundle sheaves of oats. The kids planted carrots, sugar and table beets, parsnips and potatoes. They cared for the livestock. Teresa describes a childhood Saint Mother Theodore Guerin would have been very familiar with.

Teresa attended Garafine National School which was ‘about three fields away’. Garafine was a two-room school with a fireplace in each room. A Catholic School, the teacher taught the Bible on handwritten pages because there was no money for books. Education at Garafine ended with eighth grade. There was a Parish church that was only active at Mass on Sundays and for funerals.

U.S. Connection

Teresa’s father, Thomas Costello, left Ireland when he was young, during a time of high unemployment and economic struggle. He went to the United States and found work in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Thomas served with the United States Navy during World War I on the transport ship the U.S.S. Covington.

The Covington carried a total of 21,000 American sailors to France during World War I. When Germans torpedoed the Covington, boats that accompanied the Covington rescued Thomas and 770 other sailors. Six sailors perished.

When Thomas Costello’s military service was over, he returned first to Massachusetts and then went home to Ireland, where he met and married Teresa’s mother Ellen.

Ellen Keane was from Kilconell, in County Galway, and was raised by an aunt and uncle. Ellen’s mother had died young, and her father could not continue to work and care for seven young children.

Independent Parents

Ellen’s family made a match for a husband for her when she was old enough, but she refused to marry. She met Thomas and they courted on their bicycles and arranged their own marriage in the local parish church. There was a great sense of independence in this young couple.

Ideals are formed in childhood.”

Anonymous

Thomas and Ellen and their 10 children along with Teresa’s paternal grandmother lived together in their small home in the village. Teresa has only fond memories of her childhood.

“My mother and my grandmother were best friends. Winter and summer I remember because we could go outside and could go anyplace we wanted. From the time we could walk we spent most of our time helping on our small family farm. We lived in a poor village, although my family was considered better off than some of the others because my mother was a wonderful manager. Everyone played together, poor and rich.”

Teresa’s father died on her fifth birthday. “He had pneumonia. I snuck in behind my mother that morning and he told me ‘Happy Birthday,’ and I remember that every year on my birthday. I have very fond memories of my father. I remember reaching up to his hand and holding it when I was so young.”

The Plan: Education

When Teresa’s father died, her mother was left to manage the farm and the household. American relatives offered to take the children, but Ellen Costello determined to keep them all together in Ireland.

She had a plan for her children: Education. She wanted the girls to have an education beyond eighth grade, and she wanted the boys to have a trade. One by one they came to the United States.

Teresa has warm and loving connections to her sisters Nancy, Agnes, Margaret, and brother Tom, all still living, and she speaks with them almost daily.

Life in the US

Chris worked in retail and Nancy became a nurse. Mike, the oldest son, managed the farm. Jimmy became a carpenter. Jack was also a farmer, while Eddie became a meat cutter. Margaret was a certified nurse’s aid, Tom worked in the Boston courts, and Teresa and Agnes entered religious communities.

Teresa was sent to the United States unaccompanied when she was 14 years old. Her two older sisters Chris and Nancy were already in Massachusetts. Teresa had never flown and was headed to relatives in Boston. However, her plane landed in New York City, and she had no idea how to get where she needed to go, or how to find a phone to contact her aunt and uncle who were expecting her flight to arrive in Boston. It was the days before modern air terminals or cell phones. “I don’t remember being scared because I was from the village and we were never afraid of anybody. So, I asked people. I met my first Black man there, and I asked him for directions. He was very helpful. He made a phone call for me, and I finally got to Boston.”

Teresa lived with her Uncle Eddie and Aunt Mary, who had a successful liquor business. She attended St. Thomas Aquinas School in Jamaica Plain for the remainder of her eighth-grade year, taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, then went on to Cardinal Cushing High School in South Boston and was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence.”

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

Becoming a Sister of Providence

“I planned when I was a senior in high school to become a religious. I remember thinking when I graduated that a third of my class were engaged to be married.” That was not the path Teresa would journey.

Teresa interviewed with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She liked them but continued to seek. She visited the Poor Clares, the Order of Saint Clare. “They were cloistered and I thought ‘no.’ I thought because I was quiet then maybe it would work, but I decided ‘no.’ I like people. I like to be with people; I still remember visiting the Poor Clares and talking through the screen.”

One of Teresa’s relatives told her that she had a cousin, Maria Garrity (RIP), who was a Sister of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She went to Malden, Massachusetts, and visited with Sister Maria Garrity, a first cousin of her father. “We sat in the yard, and she had a good sense of humor, subtle, and I liked that. I thought, if she can use that then I think I can get along there. When I finished visiting with her, she asked if I would like to be a Sister of Providence. Sister Maria impressed me so much with her quiet manner and her sense of humor. She wrote to Mother Gertrude Clare (RIP), superior general at the time, for me and she got a letter back that said yes, I could come and they would try me as a postulant.”

Teresa came to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on the train with four or five other young women who were entering as postulants. One of them was Carolyn Glynn, Teresa’s best friend for 70 years. Altogether 16 or 17 women entered when Teresa entered.

Learning the ways

The change, the lack of freedom, the schedule was a challenge at first. “I was often late. If you were late the punishment was to kneel up front until prayers were over. And we worked very hard. I never worked in the infirmary, I was probably better at scrubbing floors, although it was very tiring. But the novitiate sisters were extremely kind. Sister Marie Ambrose (RIP) was a gentle lady, and Sister Mary Dominica (RIP) was like a grandmother to us. Because we came from the East Coast the four of us rarely had company. Sister Mary Dominica was wonderful to us; it saved the day for me. I was so happy to come to the Woods.”

The spirit of faith consists in doing our actions for God, in his presence, to look upon all events of life as directed by God.”

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

Beginning of Ministry

Teresa Magdalene Costello became Sister Ellen Maureen. Although teaching was not her first choice as a profession, she had entered a religious order that taught.

Teresa received her Bachelor of Science degree in education from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and her Master’s in Education from Indiana State University. She would later receive a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling from Emmanuel College as well as a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation, Donaldson, earned when she was 60 years old. Teresa is also a social worker, and earned her LCSW.

Teresa’s teaching career began at Saint Genevieve and then Immaculate Conception schools in Chicago. After six years in Illinois, Teresa moved to Malden, Massachusetts, because her mother had had a severe stroke. At that time a sister could only go home if a parent was very ill or had died. In Massachusetts she taught at Sacred Heart in Malden, St. Rose in Chelsea, and St. Patrick in Stoneham; and in Rochester, New Hampshire, she taught at Rochester Catholic.

She was at Lady Isle in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she taught at Mother of Mankind School. Teresa’s teaching career lasted 21 years. “When I look back, I see those were very insecure years in many ways. A teacher could have their assignment changed on a dime.”

Missioned in Massachusetts, she was able to visit family often. Sister Teresa wore the habit and didn’t drive but was still able to see family and friends often.

Reflect seriously on what you desire to do; above all else pray much that our dear Lord may make know to you what he wishes you to do.”

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

A Thirst for Knowledge

The desire to learn has shepherded this Sister of Providence since she was a little girl. Throughout her life that passion to know more has led her journey of faith and service. Each summer of the school year she sought graduate courses to enroll in. To obtain her master’s in education she enrolled in Indiana State University during the summer breaks from school and took the required classes for three summers.

Sister Teresa began studying theology in 1978. She attended Emmanuel College in Boston and received a master’s in pastoral education. Following that, she had a residency at Connecticut Valley Hospital School of Pastoral Care for one year: “I was in a class with ministers from other denominations. I was the only woman. It was a wonderful education. It made a great impression on me, and I came out of it feeling confident.”

Divorce Ministry

Sister Teresa worked for Catholic Family Services in Norwich, Connecticut, for three years, traveling throughout the state to meet with groups of divorced or separated or remarried Catholics. “I learned so much there. I wasn’t prepared for ‘divorce’ ministry, but I was prepared for group work and counseling. I traveled all over Connecticut to meet with divorce groups in individual parishes. Anyone could come; they didn’t have to be Catholic. At that time priests would have area meetings. I was not welcome in those meetings but I attended because I was doing diocesan work. All the time, when I would read the newspapers, I would ask myself ‘Where are Catholic Sisters needed?’ I was looking for poor people and their needs.” Although she enjoyed the divorce groups, she decided with the Director of Family Services that a divorced woman might be the better candidate to succeed her in that role.

She worked next as a tenant coordinator in Symphony Towers, a high-rise building in the crime area of Boston. Her tenants were predominantly persons who were Black, elderly, poor, and disabled. Always seeking ways to assist those marginalized, Teresa was a member of the AIDS Action Committee in Boston. Some tenants as well as those seeking apartments in the building were HIV positive, people who often had trouble finding a place to live due to discrimination. Sister Teresa was familiar with and assisted them with the paperwork that would help them secure housing. She moved to a similar job in Chinatown where several of her tenants were Chinese and Russian couples, many of them refugees from violence.

Housing

Sister Teresa chose housing as a ministry because she knew of the significant need for affordable housing for the elderly. Always, Sister Teresa was responding to the question she had posed, ‘Where are Catholic sisters needed?’ She read The Boston Globe daily, continually seeking to understand the needs of the poor. A pressing issue then and now: housing for the indigent, the marginalized, the elderly.

What we are meant to do in life pursues us.”

Joan Chittister, OSB

“I love to learn. I love to read for information. I came home to the Woods every summer. Out East nothing was happening, but things were happening here at the Woods and I wanted to know what was going on. We did not have the money for me to fly out, but I had the blessing of the Provincial to come home if I could find a way. So, I got a ticket for $18 and took the bus and came home to the Woods to take classes and spend the summer in school.

If I had any difficulty it was when I would return from the Woods and be using different language in theology. That was difficult for some sisters who had not regularly come back home. If I had any hard time it was trying to maneuver the changes that were happening at the Woods while living in the East.”

Encouraging Education

Sister Teresa returned to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1995 and worked for Providence Self-Sufficiency Ministry. She drove to about an hour to Sullivan, Indiana, weekly to work with groups living in government housing.

Sister Teresa educated them regarding their rights and encouraged people to pursue education, explaining how they could accomplish that. She had been gathering knowledge and was now sharing what she knew with the poor, the elderly, the marginalized.

In Boston and in Indiana she was a fountain of knowledge for people she assisted, reading the paper daily for what was available to them. She encouraged people’s dreams.

A New Ministry

In 1997, Teresa pursued an opportunity to work in Florida with the late Sister Cathy Buster. Sister Cathy was working with families and housing. Teresa worked with Cathy and then received a grant for two years to work with adult English learners there.

From 1997 to 2001 she was the Director of Project Light of Manatee, Inc., in Bradenton, Florida, teaching English to adult learners. She and the late Sister Carolyn Glenn worked together there.

When they moved on from that job, they obtained a grant which allowed them to create a 501c3, and with the assistance of Catholic Charities, they could teach immigrants English, help them get their green cards and achieve citizenship. “I went to the Naturalization Ceremony once. It was magnificent to see people from all over the world gaining their citizenship status. We helped them learn so they could pass the test.”

Hurdles

When Sister Teresa left Florida she returned to Massachusetts. There she taught English to Haitian immigrants at the center for the elderly in Malden. When Sister Teresa was 78 years old a serious automobile accident in Boston hospitalized her for six months.

She had a stroke and retired back to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods at age 80. Teresa has continued to experience the aftereffects of that injury, but she has not stopped and has been a volunteer in many areas since her return home, including in healthcare, the mailroom, the White Violet Center and wherever else ‘a Catholic Sister was needed.’

She walks almost daily, and she and the late Sister Theresa Clare Carr walked everywhere on the grounds of the Motherhouse and college day after day.

We live in the shelter of one another …”

Irish saying

Sister Teresa Costello was present in Rome for the canonization of Sisters of Providence foundress Saint Mother Theodore Guerin. She has been to France and has returned to Ireland three times.

Her early years in Ireland are reminiscent of the late 1800’s in the states, and it gave her a heart for the poor and a drive to find them, to discern with them and to help them to fill the needs they have. The daily newspaper has been a powerful tool in this sister’s hands, answering “Where is a Catholic Sister needed?” Multitudes of people who are elderly,  immigrants, HIV positive or poor have been blessed by the gift Sister Teresa Costello carries with her, the gift of actively seeking them because that is where she found a Catholic sister was needed. This sister’s spiritual life exemplifies her strong faith and her desire to fulfill the mission of love, mercy and justice all of her life.  

Where are We Needed?

When Sister Teresa entered the novitiate she was fulfilling the wish she had had since high school to become a member of a religious order. The daughter of loving parents who worked hard and a mother who was determined to see her children get an education and succeed, she has used those skills developed at home to honor God and to make life better for others.

She is gifted with the spirit of pursuing knowledge for the betterment of those Jesus has commanded us to care for. Teresa knew what she wanted, and her advice to anyone considering entering the religious life is to know themselves, and to know their God, regardless of their faith denomination.

God is in the people who need us.”

Anonymous

Caring for Those in Need

When Teresa was asking herself ‘Where is a Catholic Sister needed?’ she was following the mandate to care for those who are the marginalized.

Sister Teresa’s intelligence and her practice to learn something new every day has guided her. She has never questioned her commitment to her religious vocation. Quiet and reserved, she has sought to make and keep good connections within her community and has a deep love for its members. She still walks every day.

This Sister of Providence has carried the charism of love, mercy and justice throughout her life. Her spiritual commitment and love of being in service has led her to accomplish much. She has wonderful stories. Ask her about her mother and the tinkers, or her father laying under the stars with her describing the constellations.

Ask her about the man she had never seen before who came to visit his sister at the convent when she was at St. Genevieve, a man who immediately recognized that she must be the daughter of Thomas Costello. You might find her in the sunroom reading the newspapers as she continues to do daily.

This Sister of Providence, who was not interested in teaching, has been an ardent lifelong learner herself. “I was an asker.” And hundreds and hundreds of people have been blessed by her asking, “Where are Catholic Sisters needed.”