{"id":21196,"date":"2025-05-23T07:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T11:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=21196"},"modified":"2025-05-23T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T11:31:13","slug":"112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html","title":{"rendered":"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21199\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21199\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21199\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21199\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York Times \/ YouTube | Inset: Piscatella family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>112 years is a long time on earth and one nun is offering her insight on what makes life worth living. Sister Francis Dominici Piscatella of Long Island reached the prestigious distinction of being the world\u2019s oldest nun in April. Sister Piscatella has served the Catholic Church for 94 glorious years, living through some of the most memorable events of human history: both world wars, the assassination of JFK, 9\/11, and the Covid-19 pandemic, to name a few. At 2 years old, she lost her forearm in an accident with a passing train while she was living in Central Islip. But Piscatella\u2019s mother didn\u2019t allow her to feel sorry for herself. \u201cI was the second oldest of seven children,\u201d she told <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/19\/us-news\/long-island-nun-the-worlds-oldest-at-112-shares-four-words-of-advice-after-a-lifetime-of-service\/\"><em>The New York Post<\/em><\/a>. \u201cMy mother wouldn\u2019t let them help me because \u2018you\u2019re not always going to have your sisters, so you better just shape up and do things for yourself.\u2019 That\u2019s what I did. Nobody really ever had to help with anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, she\u2019s sharing her advice after a life time of service and learning. \u201cTeach until you die,\u201d she said. Teaching comes naturally to someone who has been a teacher for decades like Piscatella, who joined the Dominican order right out of high school. At first, she had trouble securing a position due to having only one arm. Her friend and roommate of 45 years, Sister Francis Kammer, shared how a position finally opened up after a nun left her teaching position. \u201cThe priest said, \u2018Well, can she teach?\u2019 And the sister said, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s a great teacher.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Then she stays.\u2019 And she never looked back,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Piscatella taught a number of subjects while also working administrative positions. \u201cWell, I don\u2019t want to brag, but I was a pretty good student in everything. I was a good teacher because I was teaching myself too. I was knocking it into my own head,\u201d she said. She is grateful she can \u201cstill think\u201d after suffering a brain bleed 11 years ago that doctors feared would leave her unable to walk and talk ever again. Piscatella, however, recovered and has been setting an example for her friends on what it looks like to \u201caccept the will of God.\u201d \u201cHer whole life, I never heard her complain about anything,\u201d said Kammer. \u201cFor some reason, God doesn\u2019t want me yet,\u201d she said \u201cI feel normal. I never gave my age a thought, it just happened to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>112 years is a long time on earth and one nun is offering her insight on what makes life worth living. Sister Francis Dominici Piscatella of Long Island reached the prestigious distinction of being the world\u2019s oldest nun in April. Sister Piscatella has served the Catholic Church for 94 glorious years, living through some of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":21199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At 112, the world\u2019s oldest nun shares her secret to life: teach until you die, trust God\u2019s will, and never stop learning or serving.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At 112, the world\u2019s oldest nun shares her secret to life: teach until you die, trust God\u2019s will, and never stop learning or serving.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T11:31:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom","description":"At 112, the world\u2019s oldest nun shares her secret to life: teach until you die, trust God\u2019s will, and never stop learning or serving.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom","og_description":"At 112, the world\u2019s oldest nun shares her secret to life: teach until you die, trust God\u2019s will, and never stop learning or serving.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2025-05-23T11:31:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html","name":"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-23T11:31:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-23T11:31:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"At 112, the world\u2019s oldest nun shares her secret to life: teach until you die, trust God\u2019s will, and never stop learning or serving.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/05\/Sister-Piscatella_credit-Ney-York-Times-YouTube-Inset-Piscatella-family.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"New York Times \/ YouTube | Inset: Piscatella family"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/05\/112-year-old-nun-shares-4-words-of-wisdom.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"112-Year-Old Nun Shares 4 Words of Wisdom"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21202,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21196\/revisions\/21202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}