Mother Mary Alexander Kucharski

Mother Mary Alexander Kucharski led the Buffalo province from 1946 to 1953, guiding post-war growth and assuming leadership of a province that had grown to consist of more than 700 sisters.

She was keen in planning for the Buffalo province’s growth and directed the purchase of acreage that proved to be providential when Villa Maria College was constructed a decade later.

The history of the Buffalo province states:

“ … Mother Alexander believed that while the acquisition of new establishments, support for the existing ones, and the education of the sisters constituted tangible signs of growth, the core of success in any given apostolate depended on the intensity of the spiritual life of the individual sister and the province as a whole … By word and example, she endeavored to communicate the spirit of love … never tired of stressing the importance of graciousness, hospitality, gratitude, and unselfishness. To her, the Felician spirit meant above all a spirit of grateful joy.”
 
Mother Alexander looked toward future growth and under her leadership established the first foreign mission in Brazil in 1950. Felician missionaries served in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Araruama, and Sao Paulo. These missions became a commissariat, and when her post as provincial superior in Buffalo ended in 1953, Mother Alexander was named first commissary. 

Mother Alexander’s adroit leadership skills and concern for the sisters led the Congregation to name her superior general in 1958 and again in 1965.