By Rita McInerney

St. Francis looks down from atop the living room divider, the Bible is open on the table, and the tortillas are in the refrigerator. Sister Martha Herrera and Sister Olivia Cardenas are “on their own” in Atlanta.

Newly arrived from Guadalarja in the Mexican State of Jalisco, the two members of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge speak no English but their command of gestures and accents of love and kindness is fluent.

They have joined the rapidly expanding Hispanic Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Sister Olivia is working out of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish and Sister Martha from Sacred Heart. About two weeks ago they moved into a cheerful, garden-type apartment near the Lindbergh station of MARTA, in an area of the city where the Church wanted a presence, according to Father Brent Bohan of IHM, because of the number of Mexicans living there.

There is an aura of gentle competence about these women in their snowy white garb, the long habit of pre-Vatican II. Soon, if not already, they will don the brown wool habit of the Franciscans and be rid of the daily labor of hand washing and ironing the long dresses. A clothesline of drying towels is glimpsed from the brightly curtained kitchen window.

They say the long habits do not get so dusty and mud-stained here as they did in Mexico where most of the roads they walked were of dirt. Now they get about Atlanta by bus and elevated-subway and study the large map of the city tacked to the dining area wall with the concentration others give to the daily TV listings.

Their furniture, some might call it “early odds and ends,” is comfortable and was begged, borrowed or selected from St. Vincent de Paul. There are two sofas and chairs for the neighbors who visit, welcoming them with torrents of the mother tongue and green plants. Soon, the sisters are confident, the light-filled living room will be a retreat for Bible study and prayer groups they will lead.

Everyone they encounter treats them with kindness they say; Hispanics, native Atlantans, Catholics, Protestants. People are curious about the two white-clad women going briskly about the neighborhood on visits to neighbors, the supermarket, the bank and other stops along the daily routine. And the newcomers are fascinated that Americans are finding them a novelty.

They are certainly not a novelty in Mexico where the congregation was founded in 1897 by Sister Librada Orozco. There are 375 members in 45 communities, most of them in Mexico, although they work in Peru, Rome and now Atlanta.

They volunteered to come here after Father Raimundo Solano of Sacred Heart, a countryman, told their superior of the need for more religious to serve Hispanics here. Sister Martha worked in a small orphanage in Ameca, a city in Jalisco near the Pacific. Sister Olivia worked among poor Indians in Yucatan near the Mayan ruins of Cichen Itzo, and Chichonal, the volcano that erupted in 1982.

Both of the two Franciscans and the five members of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who were featured in the September 19 issue of the Georgia Bulletin are being assisted by volunteers working with Sister Barbara Harrington, G.N.S.H., at Catholic Social Services.

Volunteer Carmin Macias, a member of IHM, goes “where there is a need,” especially among the women in the Mexican neighborhoods around Boulevard and near Grant Park, on both sides of I-20. This is the area where Sister Martha will be making her visitations. Mrs. Macias is showing her around, taking her to homes where most of the women speak no English. “I am friends with a lot of the women. If they need something, a telephone call to be made, a visit to the doctor or hospital, they call me. They need a lot of moral and spiritual support,” Mrs. Macias says, happy that new sisters are here to give support.

Deeply involved as a member of the Hispanic Apostolate Committee, Mrs. Macias has been working with others in the Spanish Encuentro to develop a pastoral plan for Hispanics. There will be visitations, since she has so much experience in this outreach. This will insure her continued close contact with the sisters.

Erlinda Ramirez of St. Thomas More in Decatur and Lourdes Munoz of Corpus Christi in Stone Mountain are other volunteers happy to see the new sisters. Like Mrs. Macias, they have been visiting families, informing them of Masses in Spanish, telling them of Cursillo and Marriage Encounter and helping them cope with the often-strange formalities of doctors’ offices and hospital waiting rooms.

The two Franciscan sisters hide their concern about what has happened in Mexico recently with a cheerful, calm manner. They know the devastation from the powerful earthquake was widespread in Jalisco although television coverage has concentrated in Mexico City. But their duty is here; they are unafraid.

Faith is proving a good companion to these two innocents abroad.