For Earth Day: A Story of Love for the Land

It was a gray drizzly morning, just before Earth Day, when I visited the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity beside the Stella Niagara Preserve in Lewiston. As I entered the property, I noticed statues of St. Francis of Assisi dispersed throughout and heard continual and delightful birdsong. The clouds never lifted that day. But after talking to the sisters about the beloved nature preserve and walking the grounds, my mood lifted despite the weather.

The sisters, an international congregation, have been the resident stewards of the meadows and stunning Niagara River shoreline property known as Stella Niagara since 1907. But they almost settled in a more urban setting. They had made the final purchase payment for their motherhouse on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, when the provincial minister from Germany arrived for a visit. After seeing the property, she expressed her vision for a location closer to nature – by a river or lake. The story illustrates the sisters’ deeply rooted history of embracing the beauty and healing power of nature.

Love of nature is “who we are,” notes Sister Jo-Anne Grabowski, provincial minister at Stella Niagara. We share common ministry with St. Francis of Assisi and Pope Francis, she continued, noting her favorite passage from Pope Francis’s book “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home” where Pope Francis quotes St. Francis of Assisi, who prayed “Praise be to you our Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.”

The sisters eventually settled on Stella Niagara, with breathtaking views of the Niagara River for their motherhouse. The land was also historically significant for events that occurred there during the War of 1812 and for Native American history.

For more than a century, the sisters loved the land as an ecological haven. They served as good stewards conceiving of Stella as an Earth Center which supports wildlife and other environmental projects. In 2013, the Western New York Land Conservancy approached the sisters to purchase a portion of the property because of its historical and environmental value. Sister Jo-Anne notes that Nancy Smith, then executive director of the Western New York Land Conservancy, and her staff worked with the sisters and the surrounding community for more than two years to assure all parties that they would preserve the property as a nature preserve for generations to come. The sisters embraced them as the new caretakers, formally selling 29 acres of the property in 2015. The creation of the Stella Niagara Preserve aligned with the sisters’ belief in respecting and appreciating the beauty of the land as a reflection of the Creator.

The sisters retained a little more than 100 acres where they live and operate a retreat center, an elementary school with an outdoor education program, and a health center for the sisters.

 With the help of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, the Stella Niagara Preserve, which is open to the public, now has publicly accessible walking paths, fishing and kayak access, along with improved shoreline protection, and protected coves for fish and wildlife habitats.

As you walk the grounds you can visit the grotto, the Peace Memorial, and the chapel. Experience the peace of sitting near the river and experiencing its constant soothing but powerful motion – never ceasing, holding secrets, and reminding us of our insignificance. You can listen to the quiet – which is interrupted only by a mix of birdsongs, chirps, calls and whistles. It is a designated Important Bird Area (download a free bird identifier app before you go).

 We are charged with being good stewards of our environment to nurture and protect nature in perpetuity. In 2015, the sisters ensured the protection of nature by making the decision to sell their property to the Western New York Land Conservancy and, in doing so, blessed the Earth and all of us.  

For more information and a trail map see: https://www.wnylc.org/stella-niagara-preserve