Sister Mariella Gable, OSB
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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. (S. Kristin was also banished from campus, for ten years. Kristin relates their tale, which also came to include S. Thomas Carey, in “The Bishop, the Chaplain, and the Wicked Nuns” in Stories Teachers Tell, a collection edited by Gretchen Kresl Hassler, Nodin Press, 2004, pages 195-201. The book is in both the CSB and SJU Libraries, LB1027 .S79 2004, and also in the SJU Archives.)
One of the first apartment buildings erected for the College was named in S. Mariella’s 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 was an English professor at CSB from 1928-73. She was also a Dante scholar, poet, editor and writer. Sister Mariella tirelessly promoted the cause of two then little-known authors, Flannery O’Connor and J.F. Powers, and introduced audiences in the United States to such Irish writers as Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain, Mary Lavin, and Bryan MacMahon through her many essays and anthologies.”
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, spring 1985, page 9.
- 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
- Directory of American Scholars, vol. 2: English, Speech, & Drama. New York: R.R. Bowker, 6th, 7th and 8th edictions, 1974, 1978, and 1982.
- 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.
- Malloy OSB, Kristin. “The Bishop, the Chaplain, and the Wicked Nuns,” Stories Teachers Tell, p. 195-201.
- Atkins, Annette. Challenging women since 1913: the College of Saint Bemedict, p. 118-123.