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Mother Lucille Cutrone, a founding member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, died October 27. Mother Lucille died at the Convent of San Damiano in the Bronx, New York, where she resided. She was 77 and had been diagnosed with AML Leukemia.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, will celebrate her funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Monday, November 4.
Mother Lucille was part of the beginning of a new religious community spearheaded by the late Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, and other Capuchin Franciscans. It came in the wake of her encounters with the former Gulag prisoner, Fr. Walter Ciszek, author of With God in Russia.
Born Lucille Angela Cutrone on August 7, 1947, to Frank and Filomena Cutrone, she grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where she was drawn to the idea of religious life by the religious sisters who taught her.
But she took a different path, beginning a teaching career after graduating from St. John’s University in Queens, New York. For 20 years, she taught in public schools in both Virginia and New York, first as an elementary school teacher and then serving children with emotional disabilities and special needs. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Education from St. John’s, an Ed.S in Counseling and Guidance from Eastern New Mexico University, and a Master’s in Special Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Encounters with saints
In the early 1980s, her life began to move in a decidedly different direction after meeting now-Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit priest who had spent time in prison in the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 1950s. Fr. Ciszek, who worked at Fordham University in New York after his return from Russia, was Lucille’s spiritual director for several years.
“Through his wise and gentle guidance, Lucille began to hear again the call to become a spouse of Christ, that same invitation she had once perceived as a young child,” according to the obituary posted by her community.
“It was through the late renowned spiritual guide, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR (then a Capuchin), that in 1986, Lucille met Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, one of the eight founding members of the newly formed Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who had recently begun in the South Bronx,” the obituary said.
Mother Lucille used to say that Fr. Andrew reminded her of Fr. Ciszek, having “that same quality of holiness.”
With the permission of Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York from 1984 to 2000, and under the guidance of Fr. Apostoli, Lucille and five other women on July 16, 1988, began what would eventually become the Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, popularly referred to as the CFR Sisters. Sr. Lucille of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was invested on August 2, 1989, and professed final vows on August 22, 1995.
Fruits of her labor
Today the CFR Sisters have five convents in three countries, serving the poor through outreaches such as a soup kitchen, an overnight shelter, food and clothing pantries, and a drop-in center. Some of their works of evangelization include parish missions, retreats, youth and young adult ministry, school visits, peaceful pro-life witness, and leading people of all ages in Eucharistic Adoration.
“Mother Lucille imparted to her sisters her own deep compassion for the poor and suffering,” said her obituary. “She was greatly loved by many who would otherwise have considered themselves alone in the world – these were the people toward whom Mother Lucille gravitated. She encouraged all to entrust themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary and was never without a Miraculous Medal for those to whom she ministered.”
Mother Lucille served as the first General Servant of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal from 1995-2018. Simultaneously she served in every level of formation, most notably as Novice Directress until 2008 and Temporary Professed Directress until 2014.
After beginning in the South Bronx, she opened five convents: Bronx, New York; East Harlem, New York; Leeds, England; Drogheda, Ireland; and Atlantic City, New Jersey. She was also a member of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, served as an Advisor to their Board, and participated faithfully in their annual National Assembly and other programs in support of religious life in the United States.
Mother Lucille is survived by her religious community of 33 sisters; her brother Jack Cutrone; her sister Marie (Frank) Braccia; her brother Vito Cutrone, and her sister-in-law Michele Cutrone. She was predeceased by her parents and a brother, Angelo “Lee” Cutrone.
