Newest ‘Dinners With Our Founders’ podcast features Mother Colette Hilbert

She arrived in Buffalo in 1898 with the newly formed Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, settling first at Corpus Christi Parish and later moving to Hamburg. Her order would later establish a teacher training school which in 1964 became known as Hilbert College.

But before coming to Western New York, the woman who would become Mother Colette Hilbert faced great challenges, and would make a monumental decision which changed her life, and perhaps the history of Catholic education in Buffalo.

Mother Hilbert is the latest guest to be featured on the Diocese of Buffalo’s special podcast miniseries, “Dinners With Our Founders,” produced by the Diocese of Buffalo to celebrate its 175h Anniversary.

“Dinners With Our Founders” is a series of imagined one-on-one dinner conversations between host Steve Cichon and some of those who left long-lasting impacts on the diocese and community. The newest episode is available for free listening and downloading on WNY Catholic’s official SoundCloud channel, SoundCloud.com/BuffaloDiocese.You may also click on the link below to listen here.

In addition to looking back on her religious life’s path in the episode, Mother Colette Hilbert, played by former longtime WNED-TV personality Eileen Koteras Elibol, reflects on her Polish pride, and her passion for continuing Polish heritage in an era when the nation was politically divided and occupied among three nations, thus temporarily taking Poland off the map.

Also available on the channel are previously released episodes featuring St. John Neumann, Bishop John Timon and Sister Ursula Mattingly. One more episode is planned for future release, featuring Father Nelson Baker.