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Smith, Alice Gustava (Sister Maris Stella) (1899–1987)

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Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.

Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.

Alice Gustava Smith, better known by her students and readers as Sister Maris Stella, taught English at the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) in St. Paul for nearly fifty years. During that time she also published books of verse that built her reputation as a skilled and spiritual poet.

Smith was born in Alton, Iowa, in 1899. During her junior year in high school she moved to St. Paul to attend Derham Hall High School. At that time, Derham Hall was located on the campus of the College of St. Catherine.

Smith graduated from Derham Hall in 1918. Two years later she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph and took the name Sister Maris Stella. In 1924 she received her undergraduate degree from the College of St. Catherine with majors in English and music. Shortly after receiving her degree, she became a faculty member of the college.

Sister Maris Stella’s career took off when she sailed to England and earned her master’s degree in English at the University of Oxford. Soon after returning from Europe she became a star in the English Department at St. Catherine’s. She loved teaching and became a popular creative writing teacher as well as a poet-in-residence.

In 1939, Sister Maris Stella published her first volume of poetry, Here Only a Dove. During the 1940s she continued to write poetry for magazines. The English poet and novelist Alfred Noyes included a dozen of her poems in The Golden Book of Catholic Poetry, an anthology he edited in 1946.

By the end of the decade, Sister Maris Stella had published her second volume of poetry, Frost for St. Bridget. A nature lover, she linked the Irish St. Bridget with the frost in bleak trees, where, as she wrote in one poem, “Under the moon the orchards bloomed with hoarfrost, the white hills lay pale.”

During this poetically creative period, Sister Maris Stella continued to teach English at the College of St. Catherine. For almost twenty years she also served as chairperson of the school’s English Department. She enjoyed teaching literature, the history of the language, and, especially, creative writing. With such a busy schedule, she found less and less time to write her own poetry.

Then, in the early 1950s, the poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton visited the college as a Phi Beta Kappa lecturer. After Sarton returned home, she started a fellowship program for writers like Sister Maris Stella who had little time to travel and write. Sarton believed that writers often suffered from “divine discontent” when they lacked time for creative work.

Sister Maris Stella was surprised and pleased to receive a grant that allowed her to participate in Sarton’s program during the 1958–1959 academic year. She traveled to the Southwest, where she wrote poetry in a desert landscape markedly different from Minnesota’s. Several of these new poems were later published by North Central Publishing Company in a special Christmas edition.

Another highlight in Sister Maris Stella’s career was a collaboration with Paul Fetler, a music professor and composer from the University of Minnesota. Fetler wrote a cantata inspired by her poem “The Veil and the Rock.” The first performance of the cantata was held at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

After serving in the English Department at St. Catherine’s for close to fifty years, Sister Maris Stella retired from active teaching in May 1971. By then, she had returned to using her birth name, Alice Gustava Smith. It was under this name that St. Catherine’s Alumnae Association published her Collected Poems in 1982. The book included several new poems as well as poetry selected from earlier volumes.

Sister Alice died in 1987. Although she suffered from ill health toward the end of her life, she is remembered for her acceptance of aging and her spiritual outlook on life. Her colleagues often quoted her poem “Joseph of Dreams,” which includes the line, “in that last hour be a great light.” They agreed she herself was a great light for others, especially young women writers, for whom she was a strong guide.

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Maris Stella, Sister. Here Only a Dove: A Book of Poems. New York: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1939.

——— . Frost for St. Bridget. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1949.

——— . Cause of Our Joy. St. Paul: North Central Publishing, 1956.

“Sister Alice Smith, Scholar, Teacher, Poet Retires after 50 Fruitful Years.” SCAN: St. Catherine Alumnae News, Fall 1971.

Smith, Sister Alice Gustava. The Animals’ Carol and Other Poems. St. Paul: North Central Publishing, 1976.

——— . Collected Poems. St. Paul: College of St. Catherine Alumnae Association, 1982.

“Sister Alice Smith Dies at 87; Poet Taught at St. Catherine’s.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 19, 1987.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.
Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.
Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella, left) with May Sarton (right), c.1958.
Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella, left) with May Sarton (right), c.1958.
Black and white photograph of composer Paul Fetler (at the piano) with Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella), c.1969.
Black and white photograph of composer Paul Fetler (at the piano) with Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella), c.1969.
Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) in her office at the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.
Black and white photograph of Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella) in her office at the College of St. Catherine, c.1970.
Black and white photograph of St. Catherine’s alumna Betty Hubbard (right) pinning a corsage on Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella, left) at the College of St. Catherine in 1971. Photographed by P.J. Strasser.
Black and white photograph of St. Catherine’s alumna Betty Hubbard (right) pinning a corsage on Alice Gustava Smith (Sister Maris Stella, left) at the College of St. Catherine in 1971. Photographed by P.J. Strasser.

Turning Point

St. Anthony Guild Press publishes Here Only a Dove, Sister Maris Stella’s first volume of poetry, in 1939, launching her career as a professional poet.

Chronology

1899

Alice Gustava Smith is born in Alton, Iowa.

1918

Smith graduates from Derham Hall High School in St. Paul.

1920

Smith enters the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph and takes the name Sister Maris Stella.

1924

Sister Maris Stella receives her undergraduate degree from the College of St. Catherine.

1930

Sister Maris Stella continues her education in England and receives her master’s degree from Oxford University. She returns to St. Paul to teach English at the College of St. Catherine.

1936

Sister Maris Stella completes one of her first public creative works: the highly symbolic pageant, “The Fire Bringers.”

1939

Sister Maris Stella publishes her first volume of poetry, Here Only a Dove, with St. Anthony Guild Press.

1946

The English poet Alfred Noyes publishes a dozen of Sister Maris Stella’s poems in the anthology The Golden Book of Catholic Poetry.

1949

Sister Maris Stella publishes her second volume of poetry, Frost for St. Bridget, with Sheed and Ward.

1958

The author May Sarton arranges for Sister Maris Stella to take a year’s sabbatical in the Southwest to provide her with a new landscape and more time to write poetry.

1969

Sister Maris Stella’s poem “The Veil and the Rock” becomes the text for a cantata written with Paul Fetler, a music professor and composer from the University of Minnesota.

May 1976

Sister Maris Stella retires after serving as an English department faculty member of the College of St. Catherine for almost fifty years, including a number of years as chairperson of the English Department.

Decem-ber 1976

North Central Publishing Company publishes “The Animals’ Carol and Other Poems” in a special Christmas edition.

1982

St. Catherine’s Alumnae Association issues Sister Alice’s final book of poems. It includes poetry published by a number of magazines, as well as poems from earlier collections.

1987

Sister Alice dies at the age of eighty-seven.