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54As
a Sister of Mercy, Audrey Synnott ’54 has devoted her life
to teaching, prayer and community outreach. Each weekday morning,
she rises at 5:45 a.m., attends Mass, and participates in community
prayer and an hour of private reflection before heading off to her
job as the coordinator of her religious order’s associates
program, a group of lay volunteers. In the evenings, she has supper
and watches TV.
Like the rest of America, she got hooked on the television show
“Survivor.”
“I was hoping Rudy would win because he seemed to change for
the better,” she says.
Forget the notion of nuns as quiet, fragile ladies sequestered from
society. Synnott and the other Sisters of Mercy are socially active,
empowered women with a vision for the future. With 5,800 members,
the sisters serve nearly 200 healthcare facilities, 20 elementary
and pre-schools, 39 secondary schools, and 20 colleges and universities.
They even have a Web site.
Synnott joined the sisterhood at age 24. She earned an A.B. degree
in English at Vassar College and got an M.A. degree from the University
of Buffalo, where she worked as a teaching fellow. “I enjoyed
teaching, but something was missing,” she says. “I spent
a year trying to figure it out.” Concerned that she had done
little to nourish her spiritual life, Synnott’s mother suggested
she seek the advice of a priest. “Imagine her surprise when
I made the decision to enter the sisterhood!” Synnott says.
As part of her vow to help the poor, the sick and the uneducated,
she continued to teach English at the high school level until her
eyesight began to fail and grading papers became too difficult.
Today, as coordinator of the associates program, she works with
men and women who want to further the sisters’ mission of mercy
while maintaining an independent lifestyle. “These people are
going to be the ones responsible for carrying our work forward as
we get older,” she says.
Though fewer people join religious orders these days, Synnott says
her decision to do so wasn’t uncommon in 1960. “For a
long time, entering religious life was a way for women to get a
really good education and have some authority, which they wouldn’t
have had in normal society,” she says, “but now women
can do more without having to take any vows. They can minister in
the church and be involved in a range of occupations.”
The sisters’ work includes helping people in rural areas get
food and medical attention, organizing grassroots
letter-writing campaigns to advocate environmental and economic
change, conducting adult literacy programs and
caring for the disabled. About 1,700 associates assist the sisters
with their missions. “We invite people to retreats and visit
different parishes hoping to attract volunteers, but we don’t
actively recruit people like the army might,” she says.
Dwindling numbers of people entering religious service can also
be attributed to Vatican II, which strongly encouraged members of
religious orders to re-examine their lives. “Greater freedom
made many sisters realize they were being called to a different
way of living mercy, so many left,” Synnott says.
Doubtless, many sisters left because they felt stifled; however,
Synnott is an exception. She may have been naïve about religious
commitment when she joined, but the more she learned, they more
she wanted to stay. “My life is enriched being surrounded by
women of vision and courage,” she says. “These are inspirational
people who believe in the value of prayer and ministry.”
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