She Was Not a Music Teacher

Unlike many of the early sisters, Mary Flannelly was not a music teacher; in fact, she is not recorded as teaching anything. Mary was born on December 15, 1895, in Attymass, County Mayo, Ireland. At some point, her family emigrated to the United States. According to the priest who recommended her to the community, she worked for a family for three years before she entered, and the priest was stationed at St. Vincent’s Seminary in Germantown, PA. Why she chose the Scranton IHMs rather than the Philadelphia branch, we shall never know. But she did select the Scranton IHMs, and entered the community on May 26, 1917, was received on August 7, 1917, and professed on August 2, 1919.

Newspaper accounts of her reception stated that the sisters’ choir sang the beloved hymn, “Chosen, Chosen” at Communion time, and the bishop compared the regimen and training the girls would receive in the novitiate to that of the young men preparing for the Army. Mary Flannelly received the name of Sister M. Laserian. Although she did not serve as a teacher in school, she was referred to as “the children’s dietician.” She was stationed at Laurel Hill Academy in Susquehanna, PA, Marywood College in Scranton, PA, and for six years at the IHM Academy in Coeur d’Alene, ID.

Sister Laserian was sent to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, WA; she was quite ill for several months before she died on October 7, 1940. Her funeral was held at 9:00 a.m. at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Coeur d’Alene, and at least 400 people, including the students at the Academy, attended her funeral. Sister Laserian’s body is buried in St. Thomas Cemetery. It was said she was loved by all, especially the children she served as a dietician. So, no matter what we do or how we serve, there is no small deed that will go unnoticed.