While Maria Harden's siblings did their chores or helped prepare meals, she planned blessings.
“We'd go outside to play, and she would plan a Mass,” said her sister, Victoria Hobson-Kielman. “We always joked she just didn't want to cook.”
When Maria approached a sister at Ursuline Academy, where she was a student, and asked about becoming a sister, she was shocked when she was told she couldn't because she was black.
“That hurt her to her heart,” said Hobson-Kielman, who noted the family had a mix of black, white, Native American and Puerto Rican ancestry. “But she talked to our Papi, and he said, ‘You don't let anybody keep you from God.' ”
Sister Maria Harden, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph for nearly 30 years and a teacher for 24, died suddenly on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. She was 54.
Sister Maria grew up in East Liberty as a member of Corpus Christi Parish. Her parents were deeply religious, Hobson-Kielman said. At brunch after early Mass, James Harden would ask the children what they learned from the week's sermon, and wouldn't let them finish their food until he thought they grasped the lesson.
“My father wanted all of us to be priests and nuns. Maria migrated to that, but the rest of us? Uh-uh,” she said. “Me, I said I wanted to have lots of … kids.”
Sister Maria worked as a pharmacy technician at the former St. Francis Hospital before joining the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden. She taught at the St. Benedict the Moor school in the Hill District from 1997 to 2011, and lived in a convent with the other nuns across from the school. When that school moved, she transferred to Sacred Heart Elementary in Shadyside.
After the Rev. David Taylor's parish of St. Charles Lwanga in Homewood absorbed Corpus Christi, Sister Maria would bring her father to the 8:30 a.m. Mass each week.
As one of only two black sisters in the order, she worked with the Ladies Auxiliary of St. Peter Claver to try to bring more black men and women to religious orders, Taylor said.
“She'd work toward being a role model and helping others to join the church,” he said.
Sister Maria was teaching first-grade at Sacred Heart Elementary School this year.
“She loved it, she loved her children,” said Sister Sandy Kiefer, a friend. “They idolized her.”
Many sisters, former students and fellow parishioners reached out when word spread that Sister Maria was sick, Hobson-Kielman said.
“Behind the scenes she'd been working and helping so many people. When she went down, you started seeing how many lives she affected,” she said. “We were a family and we all had the same pain.”
Sister Maria was predeceased by her mother, Margaret; and her sister, Starlee. She is survived by her father, James; and siblings Martin, of Frederick, Md.; Victoria, of Penn Hills; and Kevin, of East Liberty. The family had lost touch with her brother Marcelino.
The Sisters' Motherhouse in Baden will hold visitation from 1 to 8 p.m. Monday and 1 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow Tuesday's visitation in the Motherhouse Chapel, with interment in the Sisters' cemetery.
Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. Staff writer Elizabeth Behrman contributed.
