PARK SLOPE — Sister Nancy Gilchriest has ties to St. Saviour High School that go back nearly 50 years. She belongs to the Class of 1979, returned to teach math there after college, and has frequently come back to attend concerts, plays, and reunions.
But when she visited St. Saviour High School in Park Slope on Feb. 2 to walk the halls, visit classrooms, and meet fellow alumni, her status had changed significantly.
A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Nancy was recently elected to serve as the provincial leader of the sisters’ Atlantic-Midwest province — a role that puts her in charge of 300 sisters across a vast territory that includes the entire East Coast, Chicago, and parts of Canada.
She was officially installed as the provincial leader on Dec. 8.
Sister Nancy, who grew up in Park Slope and now lives in Woodhaven, said St. Saviour High School gave her a solid foundation.
The all-girls high school was a family tradition for the Gilchriests. Sister Nancy’s mother, Angela Brady, was a 1943 graduate, and Sister Nancy’s two older sisters, Cecelia (Class of ’76) and Claudia (Class of ’77), are both graduates.
Sister Nancy recalled that it was during her time as a teacher there in the 1980s that she felt God’s call to the religious life. St. Saviour High School was founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1917, and Sister Nancy admired the kindness and dedication to duty of the sisters she came across.
“I always wanted to teach at St. Saviour High School,” she said, explaining that she became a math teacher there after graduating from St. Joseph’s College in 1983. “[Teaching] was all I could have imagined and more. But there was one thing missing.”
Through prayer, she determined her calling was to enter religious life, and left St. Saviour in 1985. She returned in 1994 to teach math, this time not as Ms. Gilchriest but as Sister Nancy, and stayed until 2000, when other duties called her away.
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“So, in these hallowed halls, when I meet someone, and they say, ‘I know you,’ I always say, ‘What did you call me, Ms. Gilchrest or Sister Nancy?’” she said. “Because that way, I know how they knew me.”
On Feb. 2, she walked through the hallowed halls of her old high school with her sister Claudia (Cecelia passed away in 2023) and had fun reminiscing, looking through old yearbooks, and visiting classrooms.
Claudia recalled that the three sisters loved being together at St. Saviour. When Cecelia was a senior, Claudia was a junior, and Nancy was a freshman.
“It was fun. We were in a play together. Cecelia had been in Encore, which was the drama group. Then I joined because Cecelia was in it, and Nancy joined because Cecelia and I were in it,” she said.
At one point during her visit, Sister Nancy was treated to a mini concert in the school library as current students sang for her. Touched by the beauty of their harmonies, she had tears in her eyes.
As much as Sister Nancy loves St. Saviour High School, everyone there loves her too, said Rita Draghi, director of alumni.
“Talk about a woman who embodied the spirit of this place. She was someone you could always go to. The girls adored her,” she said.
As she takes on her new leadership role in the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Nancy said she enjoys looking back on her past.
“It brought back so many wonderful memories,” she said.