Sister Mary Elizabeth Imler, a Franciscan Sister of the Sacred Heart out of Frankfort, Illinois, came to her vocation through a love of studying and teaching science. Her path is a testament to the notion that faith and reason can complement each other. But Sister Mary Elizabeth’s love of learning is nothing new, and it stretches back to her childhood in the Midwest.
From the Lab to the Classroom
Sister Mary Elizabeth grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as one of five sisters with one brother. As a youth she spent hours reading in a tree in her backyard. She attended Catholic elementary school and high school. At the latter, she fell in love with the sciences, particularly biology, chemistry, and physics.
She studied science at the University of Notre Dame before getting an education degree from St. Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Indiana). “I loved going to school,” Sister Mary Elizabeth says. “That was exciting for me.” Her first job out of college was working in a research laboratory. As a woman in a male-dominated field, she earned the respect of her colleagues.
“There was a little bit of trouble in the adjustment, not me, but with the guys, until one big piece of machinery broke down,” she says. “I rolled up my sleeves and grabbed a wrench and climbed up on it and fixed it. After that, it was kind of smooth sailing.”
While recuperating from a work-related allergic reaction, she visited St. Louis. She met her friend and her friend’s friend, a nun, and visited the St. Louis Arch. Sister Mary Elizabeth commented to her friends that if she were ever to teach, she’d bring the students to the arch to see a real-life example of a catenary arch.
A month later she got a call from the principal of an all-girls academy in St. Louis offering her a job. She accepted and began her career as a science teacher. She taught chemistry at first and later introduced a physics curriculum to the school. Sister Mary Elizabeth moved back to Indiana to teach at another high school to be closer to her father who was battling cancer. There, at St. Joseph High School in South Bend, she began to feel the call to religious life.
A Franciscan Sister of the Sacred Heart visited the high school seeking potential candidates from the student body. Sister Mary Elizabeth saw an advertisement for a retreat hosted by the sisters and felt it was a good opportunity. “I thought, ‘That’ll be a way for me to kind of figure out what my life’s about.’ I didn’t know it was a retreat for vocations! So, at the end of the weekend, they said, ‘We like what we see. Would you consider entering?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, no way!’ That wasn’t what I was searching for at the time.”
A few years later, Sister Mary Elizabeth picked up a summer course and, as if by providence, two Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart were in the class. She helped tutor the sisters in science and was impressed by their way of life. At age 29, she joined. “[I liked] their joy, their welcoming spirit, and just great sense of humor,” Sister Mary Elizabeth recalls. “They did education. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll do that.’”
Teaching as Ministry
Sister Mary Elizabeth was able to spend the first part of her vowed life studying the writings of St. Francis, but soon she returned to teaching. She was assigned to teach chemistry and physics at Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne. The school was run by the Franciscan Friars of the then-St. John the Baptist Province. “They stirred my spirit,” she says. “We just had a lot of fun.” After Sister Mary Elizabeth taught for several years, the sisters sent her to study spiritual direction. She already served as a mentor for students, but this gave her the opportunity to deepen those connections. “Those aha moments were just really precious for me,” says Sister Mary Elizabeth. “When [students] would catch on to something, whether it was, ‘What does it mean to be a saint?’ or Einstein’s theory or how a telephone works. I just love that.”
With a background now in spiritual direction, Sister Mary Elizabeth and a friend established the Portiuncula Center for Prayer, which has since developed into a well-known retreat center. Soon after, Sister Mary Elizabeth was elected to lead the community as general minister.
She served two five-year terms in the role. In the first five years, Sister Mary Elizabeth brought many new ideas. In the second term, she felt called to lead a different way. “It was just a marvelous sense of conversion,” she says. “I still did leadership, but I had a sense of it being sort of just the opposite of [the first term]. The congregation really led me.”
Sister Mary Elizabeth served as the president of the Franciscan Federation in 2008, continued providing spiritual direction, and earned a master’s degree in Franciscan studies from St. Bonaventure University. After her terms in office, she taught at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, for 14 years. She has also led many pilgrimages to Assisi. Today, she is once again general minister of the congregation. After more than 40 years in ministry as a science teacher, spiritual director, pilgrimage guide, and community leader, Sister Mary Elizabeth has a unique view on faith and science. She views the two—sometimes seen as incompatible disciplines—as different sides of the same coin.
“The Franciscan tradition embraces all of that,” she says. “I love to see the tension of the sciences and our faith tradition because I think that pushes both of them to search for the truth. They help each other limp along.” Through her journey as a scientist, educator, and Franciscan leader, Sister Mary Elizabeth exemplifies a life where faith and reason walk hand in hand.
