Engaging the sacred through art
“It was on April 28, 1916, when the World War was still spreading destruction and desolation that I, Marianne Margaret Bersch, came into existence.” And so begins Sister John de Matha Bersch autobiography. Sister John was born in Detmold, Germany on April 28, 1916 and was baptized on May 7 at St. Boniface Church in Detmoldensis, Germany.
Her family immigrated to the U.S. during her childhood. When she was five, she attended kindergarten in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where she became familiar with the English language and customs. She first met the School Sisters of Notre Dame when she attended Holy Angel’s Academy in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where her first religious inspirations were realized. She entered Holy Angels Aspiranture in 1936 and professed first vows in 1939 at the Motherhouse at 901 Aisquith Street in Baltimore. She ministered as a teacher at St. Mark’s in Catonsville, St. Joseph’s in Taneytown, St. Ann and St. Leo in Baltimore City, and St. Mary in Govanstown before becoming a college art professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she taught for nearly 30 years.
Sister John became known for her contemporary sculpture in wood, metal, granite and limestone.
To mark the centennial of the Eastern Province, Sister John presented a 36-inch statue of Mother Caroline to the School Sisters of Notre Dame in November 1976.
“Caroline” is on permanent display in the chapel at Villa Assumpta in Baltimore. The statue represents about 85 hours of work. The artist used a 59-pound piece of Mimusops, a hard, red, durable wood, typically used to make violin bows.
The statue was deliberately left rough because, as Sister John de Matha expressed, “Mother Caroline must have had something of this wood’s ruggedness. … Her life was tooled and not smoothed out."