By Abbey Hugo
DAVID CITY (SNR) - The Adorers of the Blood of Christ are celebrating 150 years in the United States. This includes a presence in David City for the better part of 100 years.
Their legacy in the U.S. began in 1870 after the sisters were asked to leave Germany due to anti-Catholic Sentiment, according to their website. Their stint in David City began in 1921. Over the years, they’ve played an integral role at Aquinas and St. Mary Catholic Schools. They also founded St. Joseph’s Villa, the first, Catholic, long-term nursing home in the Diocese of Lincoln. The facility marked its 80th anniversary in September.
Sister Frances Pytlik, who recently retired from teaching at St. Mary School, is the only Adorer currently located in David City, but she said she is “only a small part of a larger history.”
“It is the service of many, many sisters and faithful lay people over the years that helped St. Mary School and St. Joseph’s Villa grow to what they are today,” Pytlik said.
Carm Fiala was taught by several Adorers throughout her own education and went on to teach alongside many of them when she became an educator herself. Fiala served 42 years at St. Mary School, and was principal of St. Mary and Aquinas Middle School for 30 years before her retirement.
“They’re wonderful witnesses of God’s love, very giving of sacrifice to serve,” Fiala said of the Adorers. “A lot of them that I knew were talented and very well trained in teaching, and they just dedicated their whole life to it. Just knowing them, they gave us a real sense of their spirit, their charisma as a group.”
Pytlik was a teacher for 49 years, including 35 years as a second-grade teacher at St. Mary. She reminisced on both the fun times, like helping a student hunt for butterfly eggs, and the difficult times, like traveling to a boy’s home when he was battling cancer and unable to come to school.
“Teaching isn’t just presenting material,” Pytlik said. “It is being part of that child’s life, if only for a year, walking with them in all the day-to-day struggles of children, be it on the playground or things happening after school hours.”
Pytlik also volunteers at St. Joseph’s Villa, as she began doing several years before her retirement, spending her time knitting, chatting and swapping gardening tips with the residents there. Pytlik became Chair of the Board of St. Joseph’s Villa in 2009.
St. Joseph’s Villa administrator Trish Steager said she was grateful for all that the Adorers have contributed to the Villa since its establishment.
“The Adorers had the foresight to see the community needed a place to care for their elders 80 years ago,” Steager said. “Up until the early ’90s, the Adorers provided for the day-to-day operations with sisters managing the home and caring for the residents. The Adorers have provided financial assistance, advisory support as board members and spiritual guidance to ensure those cared for in the facility are met where they are and the spiritual needs of each individual living here is supported.”
Fiala was personally appreciative of the “atmosphere of faith” and “spirit of service” that the Villa provided, with both of her parents having been residents there. Within an hour of her parents’ passing, she said, as many staff as were able came in to pray with the family.
Though the Villa is enduring turbulent times with residents unable to interact with one another or be visited by family, it is doing its best to keep spirits high. Bingo and trivia over Zoom have become popular pastimes. Every day the residents come to their doorways to pray a rosary together.
“In many ways it seems that the residents take things in stride,” Pytlik said. “It is just one more challenge to face, as they have faced other challenges over their 90-plus years of life.”
To the question of whether more Adorers will be joining the David City community in the future, Pytlik said only God knows.
