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Diocesan Roundup

Sister remembered for laughter, generosity

CARLOS BRICENO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 11.30.07

ST. LEO | Christmas was a time when Sister Mary Elaine Lippolis, Order of St. Benedict, used to gather presents for migrant workers in Dade City. She loved the poor, her friends said, and they loved her back.

But this Christmas, those who have received presents from her in the past will probably remember her in another way — in their prayers.

Sister Lippolis died Nov. 1 at Holy Name Monastery in St. Leo. She was 88 and had been in failing health for months after a series of strokes.

“She had a great sense of humor,” said Sister Dianne Wansley, Order of St. Benedict, who first knew Sister Lippolis when they lived and worked together at Blessed Trinity Parish in Ocala for three years in the early 1980s. “She had a great amount of energy. So she was always on the go. She loved to be going somewhere and loved to be helping people.”

Sister Lippolis was born July 26, 1919, in Cincinnati. She worked her family’s business until her father sold it and the family moved to Winter Park. A priest introduced her to the Benedictine Sisters and she made her perpetual monastic profession in 1959.

Barbara Lambert entered as a novice in the Benedictine order with Sister Lippolis in July 1954. Sister Lippolis was older — 35 years to Lambert’s age of 24. Nevertheless, the less serious one was definitely Sister Lippolis, Lambert said.

“She was very outgoing and laughed at everything,” said Lambert, who now lives in Dade City. “I had to tell her at times, ‘Look, I’m talking to you seriously. Now you listen to me on a serious basis.’ If there was something to be done, no matter what it was, she would just go at it.”

Lambert left the order when she was a novice in 1955, but she stayed friends with Sister Lippolis throughout the years.

In order to help the migrants, Sister Lippolis studied Spanish and Latin American missionary methods in Puerto Rico. She also taught for years in Catholic and secular schools throughout Florida. From 1969 until 1983, she worked in the Guadalupe Migrant Program at St. Rita Parish in Dade City. From 1983 until 1989, she was director of visitation of the sick at Blessed Trinity Parish in Ocala.

She worked with internal ministries at Holy Name Monastery in St. Leo from 1989 until 1993.

Spiritually, she grew in her prayer life, especially near the end of her life, Sister Wansley said.

“She became the Martha and Mary story,” she said, referring to the Gospel passage where Martha was busy running around and taking care of things, while Mary attended to Jesus. “For so long she was Martha, but then she became Mary. She was always prayerful, but she became more outwardly prayerful. She had a great faith and that faith just showed itself more and more.”

Sister Lippolis is survived by three sisters: Ida May Curtis and her husband, James; Helen Fehn and her husband, William; and Fran Link and her husband, Frank; as well as many nieces and nephews. A funeral Mass was celebrated Nov. 8 at Holy Name Monastery Chapel, followed by burial at Saint Leo Abbey Cemetery.

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Sister remembered for laughter, generosity

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