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Sister Mariella Gable, OSB

Sister Mariella Gable (1898-1985) was a significant figure in the history of St. Benedict's.  She served the College as Assistant Professor of English, Professor of English, Head of the English Department, advisor to the Quarterly and Scribes and Critics, and was named Professor Emeritus of English.  At one point in her career she was banished from the campus for four years by the local bishop for allowing the inclusion of A Catcher in the Rye on a suggested reading list for S. Kristin Malloy's course in contemporary American literature.

One of the first apartment buildings erected for the College was named in her honor, as was an annual prize for literature awarded annually by the College's Literary Arts Institute, the website of which states the following about S. Mariella:

"Sister Mariella Gable's spirit inspires the Literary Arts Institute and all of its programs. Dante scholar, poet, editor, writer, champion of new fiction, the late Sister Mariella Gable was an outstanding English professor who taught at the College of Saint Benedict from 1928-1973.... She guided many students into lives informed by literature and played an important role in the early careers of such writers as Flannery O'Connor, Betty Wahl, and J.F. Powers." 

Here are several resources about and by S. Mariella:

• Eulogy by S. Kristin Malloy, "Sister Mariella Gable's life was spent spying on heaven," published in St. Benedict's Today in 1985.
• Obituary, 1985
• A Biography of S. Mariella Gable was written by S. Nancy Hynes as an introduction to S. Mariella's book, The Literature of Spiritual Values and Catholic Fiction
• The History of the Pageant as told by Mariella Gable, O.S.B.
• In League with the Future: The First Fifty Years of the College of St. Benedict, as written by Mariella Gable, O.S.B.
• Sister Mariella Gable Award
• American Catholic Who's Who. Volume 23, 1980-1981. Edited by Joy Anderson. Washington, DC: National Catholic News Service, 1979.
• Biography Index. A Cumulative Index to Biographical Material in Books and Magazines. Volume 24: September, 1998-August, 1999. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1999.
• Directory of American Scholars, vol. 2: English, Speech, & Drama. New York: R.R. Bowker, 6th, 7th and 8th edictions, 1974, 1978, and 1982.