Sister M. Madeleva Wolff, C.S.C., (May 24, 1887 – July 25, 1964), the "lady abbess of nun poets", was the third President of Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
She was given the name "Madeleva" upon her acceptance into the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1908 and took her final vows when she finished her bachelor's degree in 1910.
[1] The American Mercury, Commonweal, The New Republic, The New York Times, and the Saturday Review of Literature were among the secular publishers of her work.
She served as a teacher and the principal of the Academy of the Sacred Heart (opened in 1878, the school closed in 1937) in Ogden, Utah, and as President of College of Saint Mary-of-the-Wasatch in Salt Lake City.
Some of her most tangible contributions included the establishment of the School of Sacred Theology (the first and, for more than a decade, the only institution to offer graduate degrees in theology to women and lay men),[2] the introduction of the Department of Nursing Education, and the construction of the Moreau Center for the Arts (named for Father Basil Moreau, it was one of the first all-purpose buildings for art studies—containing both galleries and theatres—in the country).
[4][3] Her creation of the School of Sacred Theology at St. Mary's College in 1943 was an outgrowth of her service on a committee of the Midwest chapter of the National Catholic Educational Association, which identified a problem in that religious sisters were being assigned to teach religion at Catholic institutions across the United States but were unable to enroll in graduate theology programs.
[2] Bishop Edwin V. O'Hara, then chair of the Episcopal Commission on the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, encouraged her to begin such a program at St. Mary's College.
[3][7][8] In 1984, the actress Helen Hayes donated $50,000 to St. Mary's College to endow a scholarship in the name of her late friend, Sr. Madeleva Wolff.
It provides a structure for students who enter during their freshman year to achieve most fully the qualities of courage compassion and scholarship.