The U.S. Catholic bishops voted Nov. 12 at their fall meeting to support the local advancement of the sainthood causes of two women: Benedictine Sister Annella Zervas and Gertrude Agnes Barber, a laywoman. The two women died 74 years apart — Annella in 1926 after suffering horribly from a rare skin condition, and Barber in 2000, after becoming a national leader and advocate in her field. Postulators for both causes are currently gathering information locally about the two women with plans to prepare a "positio" for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican.
Listen: Sr. Joan Chittister talks with Sr. Valerie Luckey, a 36-year-old who entered the Erie Benedictines in 2016. The two provide a look at where tradition sparks and a new, engaging future emerges.
Listen: The much smaller and aging corps of women religious may suggest that this way of religious life is over. "Wrong," says Sr. Joan Chittister, in episode 3 of her podcast, "Risking the Questions."
The Life - Our sister panelists consider: When have you engaged with people whose life experiences are vastly different from your own, and how did these interactions transform your long-held ideas about life?
Eight Missionary Sisters of the Gospel, ages 79 to 98, live at Chêne de Mambré, a béguinage in Angers, France. Twenty-six residents ages 70 to 100, most of them laypeople, live there as well.
Founded in 1999 with Passionist Fr. Thomas Berry, this Vermont community strives to be earth conscious and demonstrate an appreciation and reverence of God's creations.
