The first morning of school brought the familiar sights and sounds back to St. Mary’s Academy in Glen Falls, New York: students filing in with backpacks, classrooms filling and school year routines beginning once again.
But this year, there was something — or rather, someone — new at the door.
Sister of the Resurrection Laurie-Marie Parisi greeted students as they arrived for the first day on Sept. 10, welcoming them into the pre-K-to-8 academy where she now serves as principal. For St. Mary’s, the sight of a religious sister greeting students on the first day was more than a new school-year tradition.
It marked the return of something St. Mary’s has not seen in more than three decades: religious sisters living and serving in the school and parish.
Sister Laurie-Marie is joined at St. Mary’s, which serves more than 200 students, by two other Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Angela Marie Leo and Sister Mary Lucille Borowski. The three sisters live at a newly established convent on the parish’s property.
And so far, the sisters seem to be getting high marks.
“My daughter came home from school so excited after seeing the sisters,” said Jan VanSchaick, a St. Mary’s parent and parishioner. “She had a wonderful first day.”
For Father Scott VanDerveer, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, the arrival of the religious sisters is the culmination of a long-shot effort to restore something he and other parish and school leaders believed the academy had been missing.
“We had been talking about the gifts of religious life and how being around vowed religious just always uplifts everyone that’s present,” Father VanDerveer recalled.
In recent years, school and parish leaders began looking back at periods when St. Mary’s had been most successful. They saw a recurring feature: religious sisters were leading the school.
“Over the last 15 years, our attendance has declined, and we’ve had several lay principals in the last five years,” said Gary Patton, the parish’s business and operations manager. “We determined that sisters are what we were missing.”
St. Mary’s was founded in 1883 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who staffed the school for most of its history. The school eventually included a high school, but that program closed in 1989. The Sisters of St. Joseph left around the same time, with the last religious sisters gone by the early 1990s.
St. Mary’s story reflects a much broader shift in American Catholic education. In the mid-1960s, more than 100,000 religious sisters were teaching in Catholic classrooms. Today, the number of sisters in the United States has fallen by more than 80%, and religious sisters make up only a small fraction of Catholic-school faculty nationwide.
But despite the odds, St. Mary’s made finding sisters for its school a priority.
St. Mary’s Academy has more than 200 students for the 2026-2027 school year. (Photo: Courtesy of St. Mary’s Academy)
A Search for Sisters
About two years ago, the parish began looking for a religious community willing to establish a presence at St. Mary’s. Leaders put together a 15-to-20-page pamphlet detailing the parish, school and its history, as well as the space available for a convent.
They sent it to roughly 25 to 30 religious communities across the United States, Canada and Ireland. The responses were largely variations on the same theme: The communities were too small, too old or simply did not have enough sisters to take on another mission.
Ironically, one community was not included in the mailing — the Sisters of the Resurrection, whose provincial house was only about an hour away in Castleton, New York.
The connection was made in August 2025, when Father VanDerveer and Sister Laurie-Marie happened to serve together on a panel for new Catholic educators organized by the Diocese of Albany. Sister Laurie-Marie was then completing an internship as part of her certification in school-building leadership.
Father VanDerveer — whose great-aunt was a Sister of the Resurrection — asked her whether she would consider becoming principal of St. Mary’s.
“I don’t think that would be possible,” Sister Laurie-Marie recalled thinking. The Castleton convent was too far away to commute to Glens Falls, and moving a community to a new location would be no easy feat.
But after she told her provincial superior about the conversation, her superior offered a different perspective. “I think it might work,” she told her.
‘What God Is Calling Us to Do Next’
What followed was months of prayer, discernment and conversations between the Sisters of the Resurrection and St. Mary’s. Eventually, the community concluded that establishing a new mission at the school was what God was calling them to do.
Father VanDerveer was struck by the reasoning.
“The sisters said, ‘We are small in number and our average age is old. And we need to stay focused on what God is calling us to do next. And that’s why we’re going to come,’” Father VanDerveer said. “Those were the reasons everyone else said they couldn’t come.”
Making that possible, however, was a significant undertaking for the parish.
The former rectory became the sisters’ convent, while Father VanDerveer moved into a nearby condominium. Parish offices that had occupied the rectory for more than a century were moved into renovated classrooms in the school basement.
Parishioners then helped furnish and prepare the convent, donating furniture, curtains, bedding and kitchen supplies. Father VanDerveer’s former office was converted into an accessible bedroom and bathroom suite for Sister Mary Lucille, who celebrated her 75th jubilee of her religious profession this year.
“It was truly an act of love,” Sister Laurie-Marie said.
Sister Laurie-Marie, who has about 20 years of teaching experience ranging from preschool through high school, now serves as principal. Sister Angela Marie is approaching her final vows and will divide her ministry between the school and parish, while Sister Mary Lucille, retired from active ministry, will assist primarily with the parish food pantry.
The Sisters of the Resurrection were founded in Rome in 1891 by a widow, Celine Borzecka, and her daughter, Hedwig. Their spirituality centers on the Risen Christ in prayer, hope and selfless service. That mission shapes how Sister Laurie-Marie understands her role at St. Mary’s.
“I am here to serve the students, to help them in their spiritual and academic growth,” she said. “I’m here to prepare the teachers to assist them … and to serve the families, the parents, so that we can work together to bring our students to heaven.”
Sister Laurie-Marie Parisi is joined at St. Mary’s, which serves more than 200 students, by two other Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Angela Marie Leo and Sister Mary Lucille Borowski. They students appreciate their presence.(Photo: Courtesy of St. Mary’s Academy)
A New Presence
For Alison Hancock, a St. Mary’s parent and volunteer coordinator whose son is entering eighth grade, the sisters’ arrival represents a return to the school’s roots.
Hancock’s mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles all attended St. Mary’s, but she had never personally experienced the religious sisters who had been such an important part of the school’s history.
“It’s been great to return to our roots,” Hancock said. “We have a very lively parish, and everyone was just so overjoyed to learn of the sisters’ arrival.”
VanSchaick, who attended the school herself through sixth grade, said she was surprised when she learned that sisters were returning.
She had never encountered religious sisters at St. Mary’s as a student, but said her mother, who attended Catholic school, was excited that her grandchildren would now have that experience.
“I just think it’s a happy change,” VanSchaick said, adding that she hopes the sisters will bring consistency to the school and give students a firsthand experience of religious life.
Planting a Seed
That visibility could also give young people an opportunity to consider religious vocations, something both Sister Laurie-Marie and Father VanDerveer hope may happen.
“It would be wonderful if we could encourage vocations to the religious life,” Sister Laurie-Marie said. But, she added, the sisters’ primary goal is to help people live faithfully “in whatever state God calls them to.”
For Sister Laurie-Marie, one challenge is that many people simply have little firsthand experience with religious sisters.
“Many young people — and actually, it’s not just children — haven’t met religious,” she said. “The closest thing that they’ve come to religious is watching Sister Act or The Sound of Music.”
Religious life, she added, is “nothing like what it is in the movies.”
“It’s better,” she added. “It’s far more deeper than what Hollywood portrays it.”
Father VanDerveer believes that simply encountering religious life can plant a seed.
“How many people do have that calling and have just never had it watered or never had it modeled?” he asked. “On the first day, the students just gravitated toward the sisters immediately and recognized them as safe, holy people. It’s the same way I felt about my great-aunt.”
For Sister Laurie-Marie, the entire development has been unexpected.
“A year ago, I never would have guessed I’d be here today,” she said. “Not in my wildest dreams.” But after months of discernment, the sisters believe they are exactly where they are supposed to be.
“God is good,” Sister Laurie-Marie said. “God truly makes what seems impossible possible.”