Madeleva Wolff

Sister M. Madeleva Wolff, C.S.C., (May 24, 1887 – July 25, 1964), the "lady abbess of nun poets", was the third President of Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Life Sister Madeleva was born in Cumberland, Wisconsin, in 1887, and christened Mary Evaline Wolff. Her father, August Wolff, was a Lutheran and a saddle and harness maker, who was twice mayor of Cumberland. He read poetry to Mary Evaline. Madeleva's mother, Lucy, was a devout Catholic. Mary Evaline learned how to handle pliers, tacks and hammers. She climbed thorn apple trees, diagrammed wildflowers and in winter ice-skated from morning to night. At school, she "lived to learn, and so lived richly," she wrote in one of her books, My First Seventy Years.

Madeleva decided to become a religious sister during her first semester at Saint Mary's College. She was given the name "Madeleva" upon her acceptance into the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1908 and took her final vows when she finished her bachelor's degree in 1910. Bishop Edwin V. O'Hara, then chair of the Episcopal Commission on the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, encouraged her to begin such a program at St. Mary's College. It took only months for her to create the school, which began offering classes on June 19, 1943. She received a gold medal at the 1939 World's Fair in New York for submitting the best Indiana poem. In 1959, America gave her its Campion Award, named for St. Edmund Campion and given to "a scholar or public figure for 'eminent and long-standing service in the cause of letters.'”

Legacy In 1984, the actress Helen Hayes donated $50,000 to St. Mary's College to endow a scholarship in the name of her late friend, Sr. Madeleva Wolff.

The Academy of the Holy Cross has a Madeleva Scholars Program. It provides a structure for students who enter during their freshman year to achieve most fully the qualities of courage compassion and scholarship.

Within St. Mary's College:

The Madeleva Society, composed of benefactors of the college Madeleva Hall, a classroom building Sister Madeleva Poetry Society Madeleva Lecture Series

Madeleva Lecture Series The lecture series honors Sister Madeleva's establishment in 1943 of a School of Sacred Theology (since closed) that provided the first opportunity in the U.S. for women to pursue graduate studies in theology. The lecture series highlights the work of women in theology. On April 29, 2009, the Feast of St. Catherine of Sienna, the 1985 - 2001 Madeleva lecturers jointly issued THE MADELEVA MANIFESTO: A Message of Hope and Courage directed at women in the church. (See External links below.)

Past Madeleva Lecturers

Monika K. Hellwig, 1985 Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, 1986 Mary Collins, OSB, 1987 Maria Harris, 1988 Elizabeth Dreyer, 1989 Joan Chittister, OSB, 1990 Dolores Leckey, 1991 Lisa Sowle Cahill, 1992 Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ, 1993 Gail Porter Mandell, 1994 Diana L. Hayes, 1995 Jeanette Rodriguez, 1996 Mary C. Boys, SNJM, 1997 Kathleen Norris, 1998 Denise Lardner Carmody, 1999 Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, 2000 Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP, 2001 Margaret Farley, RSM, 2002 Sidney Callahan, 2003 Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM, 2004 Past Madeleva Lecturers on the 40th Anniversary of Vatican II, 2005 Susan A. Ross, 2006 M. Shawn Copeland, 2007 Barbara Fiand, SNDdeN, 2008 Anne E. Patrick, SNJM, 2009 Wendy M. Wright, 2010 Kwok Pui-Lan, 2011 Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, 2012 Catherine E. Clifford, 2013 Christine Firer Hinze, 2014 Voices of Young Catholic Women, A Panel Discussion, 2015 Marianne Farina, CSC, 2016 Ilia Delio, OSF, 2017 Mercy Amba Oduyoye, 2018 Nancy Pineda-Madrid, 2019 Lecture Postponed, 2020 Barbara Reid, OP, 2021 Lecture Canceled, 2022 Cristina L. H. Traina, 2023 Natalia Imperatori-Lee, 2024 Kathleen Sprows Cummings, 2025 Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, 2026

Quotations "I like to go to Marshall Field's in Chicago just to see how many things there are in the world that I do not want." "Thinking of things to be done, hopes to be realized, persons to be helped, I say laughingly that I go to a multitude of funerals daily, burying so many deceased projects, so much of what I have had to let die and must bury without regret." "I wrote at least one poem a month over a period of fifteen or twenty years, every one of which I sent out at once to earn its living by publication in some magazine." Chaucer's Nuns, and Other Essays (1925) Pearl; A Study in Spiritual Dryness (1924) Knights Errant, and Other Poems (1923) A Plea for the Familiar Essay in College English (1918)

Works inspired by Sister Madeleva Composer Zae Munn used Sister Madeleva's poetry as the text for a piece written for a women's choir titled "Touched to Apocalypse" (2001). Composer Elizabeth Poston used Sister Madeleva's poetry as text for a piece for voice and piano titled Sheepfolds. (1958)