Marian Helper • Winter 2022-23 • Marian.org 27 Saints Benedict and Scholastica were twins, both founders of religious communities in the sixth century. Once a year, the siblings visited each other to discuss spiritual matters. The story goes, at their last meeting, Scholastica sensed her death was close at hand. She begged her brother to stay with her. Benedict resisted, obliged to return to the monastery. Scholastica appealed to God, and a mighty storm whipped up, preventing Benedict’s departure. The siblings talked through the night. Three days later, Benedict saw a dove ascending Heavenward, a sign that his sister had died. The story resonates with a pair of modern-day siblings, both in religious orders: the late Fr. Walter Pelczynski, MIC, and his sister, Sr. Mary Florence Pelczynski, CSSF. “We were together the day before he died,” Sr. Mary Florence recalls. “I went to see him to celebrate the Immaculate Conception, which was the following day. They said he was anxious to hear that I made it safely home that night. The next day, they called to say he had died.” Marian connections Father Walter, the founder of the Association of Marian Helpers in 1944, died (rather fittingly) on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 2000, age 84. His sister, 98, just celebrated her 80th jubilee as a Felician Sister and lives at the order’s provincial motherhouse in Enfield, Connecticut. Sister Mary Florence’s connections to the Marians run deep. The Pelczynskis grew up in Adams, Massachusetts, next door to the Michalenkos, and attended the same parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka. Sister recalls playing in the snow with the future Fr. Seraphim. “He was mischievous,” she recalls with a smile. “He ran into me once and rubbed my face in the snow. Well, I got him back good, and rubbed his face in the snow for a good 10 minutes.” Fast-forward a half-century, and the playmates were now colleagues, with Sr. Mary Florence assisting Fr. Seraphim in the translation of the Diary of St. Faustina from Polish into English. Good example Sister Mary Florence was inspired by the Felician Sisters in her home parish to enter the convent in 1936, professing her perpetual vows in 1942. As her brother, eight years her senior, oversaw the purchase of Eden Hill in Stockbridge and established the Marian presence there, Sr. Mary Florence embarked on 60 years of service as a teacher and a pastoral care associate in hospitals. Throughout, she never forgot her brother’s advice. “He used to always say to me, ‘Florence, remember: You and I are examples to the family and everyone around us. So don’t forget that we must always behave properly.’” A Polish foundation, the Felicians have a strong devotion to the Divine Mercy, and in the 1940s assisted the Marians by printing the first Englishlanguage editions of the Novena, Litany, and Chaplet. With her 100th birthday not far off, Sr. Mary Florence is grateful for God’s mercy in her long life. “The Lord has a job for me to do, which is why I’m still here,” she says with a twinkle in her eye. “He knows what it is, and I guess we’re not finished yet.” Sister Mary Florence Pelczynski, CSSF, has fond memories of her brother, the late Fr. Walter Pelczynski, MIC. Living history
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