By Elena Perri • Posted July 17, 2024

The average class size in the United States today is approximately 25 students, so it’s hard to image what it was like for Immaculate of Heart of Mary Sister Edward Quinn to begin her teaching career with a classroom filled with 84 first graders.

Her first assignment at St. Monica School in South Philadelphia also presented an additional challenge: Because the parish had many Italian families, some of her students didn’t speak English.

“I didn’t speak Italian, but I learned a few phrases very quickly,” Sister Quinn said. “I knew how to tell them to sit down and keep quiet.”

Fortunately, a fellow IHM sister could help with the language barrier. “God bless Sister Fabian who was across the hall from me,” Sister Quinn said. “Whenever I had an issue, I could go across the hall, and she would tell me what to do.”

Sister Quinn was the fifth oldest of the 15 children her parents, Marie and Edward Quinn, raised in St. John the Baptist Parish in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. She has seven brothers and seven sisters.

“My father used to always joke that he never had much money, but he propagated the faith his own way,” she said. “My mother was an orphan, so we say she had the family she never really had as a child.”

When she attended St. John’s, it had a grade school and a high school, and Sister Quinn graduated from St. John’s High School in 1964. Her class, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, was the last one to graduate from the high school.

An experience during her senior year of high school helped plant the seeds of her religious vocation. When one of the sisters at the school got sick, Sister Quinn and another classmate were tasked with teaching the nun’s third grade class.

“I taught morning classes, and one of my classmates taught the afternoon classes,” she said. “I guess the sisters felt with all my younger brothers and sisters, I would be able to handle some third graders.”

Sister Quinn said having the opportunity to work alongside the IHM sisters helped her gain a better understanding of who the IHM sisters were, and she felt drawn to their community.

“The IHM sisters were the only [religious] sisters I knew growing up,” she added. “My parents had a lot of respect for the sisters, and one of my younger sisters was named after a [IHM] sister who taught my father in school.”

While Sister Quinn always wanted to become a teacher and considered going through the Archdiocese’s teacher training program, she felt God had a different plan for her.

“I really wanted to imitate what the sisters were doing, so I eventually went to the motherhouse and made my application,” she said. “I felt that this is where God wanted me to go.”

Sister Quinn, who taught in archdiocesan schools for 30 years, has served as Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Data Analysis, Standardized Assessments, and Early Childhood Education in the Office for Catholic Education for the past 17 years.

Her primary responsibility has been ensuring that a high-quality curriculum is taught in archdiocesan schools throughout the five-county Philadelphia area.

She noted one of the successful outcomes of providing Catholic schools with a strong curriculum is the increased number of schools that have earned the distinction of being a National Blue Ribbon School.

“I have seen our standardized test scores being raised to the point where we now have more than 40 schools recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools,” said Sister Quinn, noting that only four schools typically received that recognition in the early 2000s. “That says something about the strength of our curriculum, and we often have been called upon by other dioceses, both across the state and across the country, to share our curriculum with them.”

Of utmost importance to Sister Quinn is that Catholic teachings are incorporated into the curriculum.

“As Catholic educators, all curriculum has to be infused with faith values,” Sister Quinn said. “I don’t care if it’s science, social studies, math, or art, it has to have faith values infused into it.”

Additionally, faith needs to be an integral part of Catholic school communities, according to Sister Quinn.

“We can’t just be educators; we have to be Catholic educators,” she said. “Archbishop [Nelson] Pérez talks about Missionary Discipleship, and I really believe that our Missionary Discipleship means that we are infusing faith that’s going to turn into practice for the students we’re teaching.”

Sister Quinn, who lives in the convent at St. Matthew Parish in Northeast Philadelphia, earned a bachelor’s degree in English and theology at Immaculata University, a master’s degree in elementary administration at Rowan University in New Jersey, and a certificate in religious studies from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

Her family’s connection with the parish goes back many years.

“My youngest experience with St. Matt’s was sitting in my father’s station wagon as a child watching my father put the steelwork up for the upper church,” she said. “My brother [the late Father Edward Quinn] was ordained to the diaconate in St. Matthew’s Church, and my youngest brother made his first communion there.”

Despite having multiple sclerosis, Sister Quinn continues to travel daily to the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Center City, Philadelphia. She is not the only person in her family to have MS; she has two younger brothers with MS, and her brother, Father Edward Quinn, who served as associate director of the Family Life Bureau, died at age 46 after battling a more severe form of the disease.

“God has challenged me with the disability of having multiple sclerosis, but I’ve been very active,” she said. “He’s given me the strength to remain active for over 25 years with it.”

Sister Quinn appreciates the support she receives from her fellow IHM sisters and her extended family, which now includes 147 nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.

“I’m grateful to the sisters I live with who have been so supportive of me,” she said. “My brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews have been exceptional in their care for me and their consideration of my needs.”

Sister Quinn’s 60-year journey through Catholic education has given her the opportunity to teach every grade from Pre-K through college-level education courses. Regardless of what subject Sister Quinn is teaching, she strives to do the best job she can.

“My philosophy is that of St. Francis de Sales: ‘Be who you are but be that well’,” she said.

That dedication to Catholic education even led Sister Quinn to receive the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (Cross for the Church and Pontiff) from Pope Francis in 2018 – an honor given to those who have shown distinguished service to the Church and to the Papal office.

In her free time, Sister Quinn enjoys playing word games, watching old episodes of “Touched by an Angel” on YouTube, and faithfully following the Philadelphia Phillies.

“I do watch the Phillies a lot, and I don’t miss many games,” she said. “The sisters in the house are very much sports fans, too.”

Ensuring that students in archdiocesan schools receive a quality Catholic education continues to inspire Sister Quinn’s work in the Office for Catholic Education.

“The most gratifying part is just knowing that I’m doing God’s work, and what I’m doing is part of God’s plan for me,” she said.

“I’ve always found that I’ve been in the right place at the right time where God wanted me to be.”