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Phyllis Hilbert, SSJ
SisterBiography
Former Religious Name: Sister Joseph Therese
Home Parish: St. Luke, Erie, PA
Sister Phyllis was born in Erie, and attended St. John the Baptist elementary school and graduated from Vila Maria Academy. She attended Fordham University in New York; Gannon College, Erie; and Villa Maria College, Erie.
It was during a class retreat in her junior year of high school when the retreat director, Msgr. Nash, was talking about vocations to religious life that she felt God was perhaps inviting her to religious life as a sister. Her parents were among the many, including the Sisters of St. Joseph, who strongly influenced her call to religious life.
Sister Phyllis joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957, and taught school at Our Lady of Peace, Villa Elementary, and Blessed Sacrament schools in Erie, and St. Leo in Ridgway. She also taught religious education at Meadville Center (four parishes) and Holy Rosary parish in Erie. She served as Associate Director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in the Erie Diocese after which she went on to serve for five years as a missionary in Arusha, Tanzania (East Africa). She served as Director of Religious Education for the Diocese of Arusha, Tanzania. She was able to contribute by training/mentoring an African Sister to the position of Director of Religious Education.
Upon returning to the Erie Diocese, she focused on the needs of women at Community House for Women, a ministry founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, while serving as part of the leadership team for the Sisters of St. Joseph. She became co-director of Bethany Ministries and founded Erie DAWN (Dwelling Advocacy for Women in Need). Ten years later, in 2006, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network (SSJNN) as Housing/Family Advocate.
