Sister Mary Clement Pavlik, who turned 100 years old on March 7, says if given the chance to do it all again, she would — gladly. She says her family taught her the importance of living life in full service to the best of her ability, and she has certainly done that.
She was born on March 7, 1916, the second of Mary and Joseph Pavlik’s six children. Her older brother, Clement, became a Passionist priest. She and her younger brother, William, are the only surviving family members.
In 1930, when she was 14, she entered the Congregation of the Vincentian Sisters of Charity from her home parish of St. Matthew on the South Side. She recalls attending high school on the St. Louise campus and helping to feed farm animals there. Sister Mary Clement has known every mother superior and president of her congregation, including Mother Emerentiana Handlovits, one of five nuns who immigrated from Szatmar, Austria-Hungary, in 1902 to minister to Slovak immigrants in Braddock. In 2015, the order celebrated its 100th anniversary in McCandless.
Sister Mary Clement received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Duquesne University and a master’s in nursing from St. Louis University. She was certified as a registered nurse anesthetist at St. Francis School of Nursing. For more than 15 years, she was administrator of St. Vincent Hospital in Monett, Mo. Sister Mary Clement served in Pittsburgh in healthcare ministry for many years and from 1979 to 1995, she was vicar, then healthcare coordinator at the Vincentian motherhouse.
“I always married the place, wherever I went,” she says.
Now living at the St. Louise campus, she loves to tell jokes and funny stories. Her favorite foods are salami, pumpernickel bread, spicy mustard, kosher dill pickles, salsa, chips and cake.
First Published: March 29, 2016, 4:00 a.m.