Mother Leonarda Lentrup

Foundress, US Paraclete Province

"Sr Leonarda came to the United States with forty seven cents. Thirty six years later when God called her, she left her adopted country with the blessings of her works: three hospitals, two Homes for the Elderly, one Retreat House, and one Home for Girls, ten schools, several seminary kitchens where her Sisters still did the work, a large Provincial House in Techny, and hundreds of friends. All sensed the love of the Holy Spirit in her very demeanor. It is because of this closeness to the Holy Spirit that we can say of her with the author of Proverbs: The woman who is wise is the one to praise." (From A Biography of M. Leonarda Lentrup S.Sp.S. by Ann Gier)