Foundress of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal remembered for inner light, charity

(OSV News) -- Mother Lucille Cutrone, foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, was remembered as a "devoted daughter of the church" during her funeral Mass celebrated Nov. 4 in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Mother Lucille died Oct. 27 "surrounded by the love and prayers of her sisters" at the Convent of San Damiano in the New York borough of the Bronx, where she resided, according to her community. She had been recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which affects the blood and bone marrow. Mother Lucille was 77.

"How grateful we CFR sisters are for her persevering 'yes' and faithfulness in living and imparting our charism to us over the past 36 years," said Mother Francis O'Donnell, current general servant of the religious community.

Clergy, family, friends and men and women religious came to St. Patrick's from far and wide to pay their respects to Mother Lucille, including Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey, who prayed with the community during solemn vespers the evening of Nov. 3. The community has a mission in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The next morning's funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York. Bishops including Coadjutor Bishop Joseph A. Williams of Camden sprinkled Mother Lucille's casket with holy water as it left the church, bound for St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.

Thinking back to when Mother Lucille was diagnosed with terminal cancer a month earlier, Mother Francis recalled the encouragement her fellow religious sister offered the community.

"As the sisters shed some tears, she was radiant with an otherworldly joy, as if she had just received the call she had been eagerly waiting her whole life for. Jesus, at long last, was calling her home to heaven," Mother Francis said.

"She said to me in her last days, beaming amidst her sufferings: 'This is a great life, but the best is yet to come," Mother Francis said. "She wasn't perfect, but she did the best she could and left the rest to God, firmly trusting in Romans 8 that 'God works for the good of those who love him.' She taught us the same."

Deeply believing in "how loving and merciful our God is, and how powerfully present Jesus is in the sacraments, she joyfully spent her life to the very end sharing that Good News with as many people as possible," Mother Francis said.

Father Glenn Sudano, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, remembered Mother Lucille's beautiful smile, adding that her baptismal name, Lucille, came from the Latin word for "light."

"If you would ask her or comment to her about this light that we would see emanating from her face, she would tell us … that it wasn't from her, but it was from him. It was not generated within, but generously poured out from above," Father Sudano preached in his homily.

Individuals like Mother Lucille, he recalled, "are an inspiration to us, but … also a provocation to us, because if some hearts and souls can be so pure, and so many faces of people radiate the light of God, should [that] not be the same for ourselves?"

Born Aug. 7, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York, Lucille Angela Cutrone graduated from St. John's University and began a teaching career that spanned 20 years. She taught in public schools in both Virginia and New York, first as an elementary school teacher and then serving children with emotional disabilities and special needs. She went on to earn advanced degrees in education and counseling, including a master's in special education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

In the early 1980s, "her life began to move in a decidedly different direction" after meeting Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek (1904-1984), who became her spiritual director for several years, according to her community. Now a candidate for sainthood, the U.S.-born priest arrived in New York after 23 years in Russia. He spent many years in Soviet labor camps and ministered clandestinely among the Siberian population after his release.

"Through his wise and gentle guidance, Lucille began to hear again the call to become a spouse of Christ, that same invitation she had once perceived as a young child," her community said.

In 1986, Lucille met Father Andrew Apostoli, one of the eight founding members of the newly formed Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who had recently begun in the South Bronx. "He reminded me so much of Father Ciszek," Mother Lucille used to say of Father Andrew. "He had that same quality of holiness."

With the permission of Cardinal John J. O'Connor, then archbishop of New York, and under the guidance of Father Apostoli, Lucille and five other laywomen on July 16, 1988, began what would eventually become the Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal. (Father Apostoli died Dec. 13, 2017, at age 75.)

She was invested as Sister Lucille of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Aug. 2, 1989. She professed temporary vows two years later, and on Aug. 22, 1995, Sister Lucille professed final vows.

She served as the first general servant of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, from 1995 to 2018, leading the community in compassion for the poor and suffering. After beginning in the South Bronx, she opened five convents in: the Bronx; New York's East Harlem neighborhood; Leeds, England; Drogheda, Ireland; and Atlantic City.

Mother Lucille is survived by her religious community of 33 sisters; her brother Jack Cutrone; her sister Marie (Frank) Braccia; her brother Vito Cutrone; her sister-in-law Michele Cutrone; five nieces and three nephews; and seven great-nieces and great-nephews.