Sylvania's Portiuncula Chapel offers peace, refuge

Sister Jeremias Stinson reflects on the restoration she accomplished on the Portiuncula Chapel since 1974, when she first noticed it had fallen into disrepair. Its name means little portion in Italian. THE BLADE/LORI KING Enlarge | Buy This Photo

Sister Jeremias Stinson remembers the day she realized she had to be part of efforts to fix up the Portiuncula Chapel on the campus of the Sisters of Saint Francis in Sylvania. A flash thunderstorm rocked the grounds of the 89-acre campus as she was walking through a wooded area. Looking for shelter, the first thing she saw was the chapel.

"It was a very long rain," she said, adding that the time she spent in the chapel gave her the opportunity to see that it was in disarray and in desperate need of tending and repair.

"I saw the lights weren't working. … I put together a plan and I started redoing the inside and outside," she said.

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