The Saint of the South End

Eustace Caggiano

 

“She always was purposeful. She always knew what she was doing and why she was doing it. She sometimes lived among criminals and alcoholics and drug addicts and people who were mentally ill, and nothing rattled her cage. No one who knew her will ever say they saw her angry or frustrated.”

When Sister Eustace spoke out, it was to defend those attacked by others. She might wade into a fight between teenagers on a sidewalk to quell the violence, or raise her voice if anyone criticized the presence of immigrants. Pointing out that her mother was born in Italy, “I say: ‘Where did your grandmother come from?’  ” she told the Globe in 1992.

 

Sister Eustace’s obituary gave us the opportunity to write about how we could be purposeful in our lives.

We learned from it the following vocabulary: sanctuary, renowned, sensitivity, fanfare, quell, and aura.

(We also had some fun discussing what it means to “rattle one’s cage,” and shared what rattled ours. Judging by the responses, we’ve not – not yet, anyway – achieved Sister Eustace’s serene temperament.)