Tender Mercies: “Isadore’s Secret” – by Ruth A. Tucker
Bless the Lord who crowns you with tender mercies (Psalm 103, NKJV).
When we contemplate love and care and tender mercies bestowed upon another, we usually imagine the person to be alive. But throughout history—particularly among Christians—there has been special care accorded the dead. Jesus’ body was perfumed with spices and laid to rest in a tomb set aside for burial. Generations later Christians stayed behind in Alexandria during a pandemic to nurse the sick and bury the dead. Pagans, fearing for their own lives, had abandoned family members—the dying and the dead.
A proper burial honors a life and brings closure to loved ones. But in many situations there is no proper burial. This was true of Sister Mary Janina. Born in 1874, she was orphaned as a youngster and sent to a Felician convent in Detroit at age nine. She was later assigned to teach at Holy Rosary School in Isadore, Michigan.
Today the school is closed but Holy Rosary Catholic Church is a lively center of activity. Across the road from the church is a small red farmhouse that doubles at a writers’ retreat belonging to my husband and me.
By all accounts Mary Janina was satisfied in her work there and had no enemies, but for the priest’s housekeeper who deeply resented her close relationship with the resident priest, Father Andrew. Then one summer day in 1907, after Father Andrew returned from a day-long outing, he was confronted with the news that Mary Janina was missing. He organized a search party, and in the weeks and months that followed, with the help of law enforcement, the wooded hills of Leelanau County were combed for evidence of the missing sister.
The local buzz was that she had exchanged the Felician nuns for freedom or that her disappearance was related to scandal involving Father Andrew. Years passed with no closure. Rumors persisted amid a carefully-crafted Church cover-up.
Finally, eleven years later when Holy Rosary was finalizing plans to build a new church, the new resident priest was informed by a fellow priest that he should not proceed until the bones of the sister were dug up from the dirt basement of the church. With the church sexton, the priest covertly entered the basement and began shoveling. They placed the bones in a box and then buried the box in the adjoining cemetery—all under the cover of darkness.
Isadore’s Secret by Mardi Link (who spent a weekend writing at our retreat in Isadore) recounts the fascinating story of Mary Janina and the murder trial that ended with the conviction of Stella, Father Andrew’s housekeeper. The episode in the book that I found most moving occurred at the trial:
“Judge,” said a female voice from the gallery, “may we have a moment with our Sister.” With every pair of eyes upon her, Mother Antonia stood and faced Judge Mayne. The entire row where she had been seated was filled on both her right and her left with brown wool and black veils… “Of course, Mother,” Judge Mayne said, nodding. “Please, do as you will” …
At the judge’s nod of consent, Mother Antonia and sixteen of her Sisters, stood and filed silently to the front of the room, circled the table where the skeleton lay, and clasped each other’s hands. Their shoulders heaved with silent weeping, and Mother Antonia led hem in the recitation of their ritual prayer for the dead.
The ritual for the dead among Felician nuns includes the words “According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.” Through God’s tender mercy and the tender mercies of the nuns Sister Mary Janina was finally laid to rest.
Plain Truth Ministries | Box 300 | Pasadena, CA 91129-0300
