Noella Marcellino

Mother Noella Marcellino, O.S.B., (born Martha A. Marcellino; June 30, 1951) is an American Benedictine nun who has earned a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Connecticut. Studying fungi in France on a Fulbright Scholarship, she concentrated on the positive effects of decay and putrefaction as well as the odors and flavors of cheese.

Biography Marcellino dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College. The Archbishop of Hartford, John Whealon, gave permission for members of the cloistered community of Benedictine nuns of Abbey of Regina Laudis to embark on a pilgrimage for higher education. In December 1986, Marcellino and three other nuns applied and were accepted into courses for Agricultural Science at the University of Connecticut. to France to collect and examine native strains of fungi, with an emphasis on Geotrichum candidum, from traditional cheese caves and stayed an additional three years, analyzing the samples on a grant from the French government.

She is a member of the Abbey of Regina Laudis. She now frequently advises the United States cheese industry and she is a speaker and judge at competitions.

Her brother is John "Jocko" Marcellino, founding member and drummer with Sha Na Na.

Praise She was praised by Rémy Grappin, the late Director of Research at France's National Institute of Agricultural Research, who said that she had studied the biodiversity of raw-milk cheese fungi and no one else was fighting harder to preserve it in a world of standardization and pasteurization. She was named the official cheese maker of Abbey of Regina Laudis and she is part of an ancient order of cheese makers. She won a French Food Spirit Award and the organizers for the award said that she was an international expert of cheese. but she said that she does not like being called a cheese nun. She was filmed while she traveled though the French countryside collecting information from cheese-making experts. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Cheese fest is habit-forming" Holy Trinity Apostolate, "Lenten Symposium 2009" New Worlder, "Mother Noella & The Ecosystems of Cheese"

Footnotes