Sisters of the Holy Spirit: Garfield Heights, Ohio
The Sisters of the Holy Spirit of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland have provided health care and supportive services to seniors at the Jennings Center for Older Adults since 1942. Although small in number, this group of women has had a powerful impact on the lives of thousands of elders for over 60 years. The Sisters became famous for their gifts of cookies to the Cleveland Indians baseball team during their slump in the 1980s and their championship runs in the 1990s. Today they sell them as "Nun Better" Cookies to benefit their mission at the Jennings Center.
The order was founded by Mother Josephine (Barbara Timofieff Finatowicz, 1861-1936). Born in Russia to an aristocratic Orthodox family, she became a convert to Roman Catholicism and entered a Carmelite Monastery in Rome. She dreamed of establishing a community devoted to the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the service of the Church in its areas of greatest need. She and her sisters worked in Italy, Russia, Dalmatia, and Poland taking care of the sick, the elderly, the poor, orphans and abandoned children. In 1922 she settled in Cleveland, where, in 1932, the order was officially established. Sister Assumpta with "Slider", the Indians' mascot
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