Carmelite nun was handy with a set of carpenter's tools

When the sisters of Carmel of the Assumption first moved into the Lawson Heights home known as the “Murphy mansion,” they had some difficulty with the particulars of the older building.

“The floors in the chapel were crooked and we all got bad knees from kneeling,” said Sister Marie Elizabeth. “So Sister Mary Paul got some two-by-fours and made a false floor to fix our part of the chapel.”

In addition to what friends said was a magnetic personality, Sister Mary Paul Cutri was also handy with the carpenter’s tools.

“Anytime we needed something involving wood and a saw, she was game,” said Sister Mary Wild, Prioress at Carmel of the Assumption.

Sister Mary Paul (Cutri) of Jesus and the Holy Cross OCD died March 12, 2020. She was 86.

Cutri was born July 28, 1933, in Erie, daughter of the late James Cutri and Philomena (Ferraro) Cutri. She entered the Carmelite Monastery of Loretto in 1955 and was among the sisters who came to open the Carmel of the Assumption in 1961 in Latrobe.

Sister Marie Elizabeth has known Cutri for the past six decades.

“She was a very intense, studious person who was very happy in her religious life,” Sister Marie said. “She was definitely focused on what God had called her to do. If you wanted good advice on how to live the life, she was always helpful.”

Cutri was also passionate about sharing her order’s tenets with the world at large, writing the 2010 book “Sounding Solitude.”

“She wanted to share with others about prayer, and getting to know the Lord better by being quiet and listening to him,” Wild said.

Cutri also took the lead in helping re-establish the Secular Carmelites, a group of laypeople interested in Carmelite history and spirituality.

“When the monastery first opened, there were a few laypeople here, but it petered out,” Wild said. “Around 1980, there was interest again, and she was teaching them about Carmel and about prayer.”

In her free time, Cutri enjoyed gardening and reading.

But she was also just as happy with a handful of carpentry tools.

“She sort of learned it little by little everyone time we had a project in the priory,” Wild said. “When a work crew would be here, she’d learn bits of it from them and she did a lot of small projects like replacing shelves or making small tables.”

Sister Marie Elizabeth said Cutri had a way of putting people at ease.

“The minute you met her, it seemed like you had something in common,” she said. “She had a good ear and a listening heart.”

Cutri is survived by her nieces, Kelly Ott and Tracy Coburn of Florida, and a number of great-nieces and nephews and their children.

Friends will be received from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Carmel of the Assumption, 5206 Center Drive, Latrobe. A burial Mass will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Carmelite Monastery, with interment to following at the monastery’s cemetery.

Donations can be made to Carmel of the Assumption, at the above address.