Women religious make history

by Therese Horvat
Special to The Leaven

Throughout the history of the United States, consecrated women religious (Sisters) have made significant contributions to the Catholic Church, the people it serves and the country.

During this March Women’s History Month and anticipating October’s Jubilee of Consecrated Life, The Leaven is shining a spotlight on five women religious who have responded to their vocational calls with extraordinary zeal and commitment.

Their very lives, in fact, resonate with this Jubilee Year’s theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.”

They are five among thousands of vowed women religious who have had a long-lasting impact on individuals, parishes, education, social services, health care, social justice and, indeed, the very face of Catholic life in this country.

Across the years, these women have bucked the trends of their times and assumed major leadership roles. They have been pioneers and entrepreneurs. They have established institutions and introduced practices that responded to the needs of the times and fostered and perpetuated Catholic values. Religious Sisters have long advocated for justice, served the vulnerable and worked to accomplish systemic change — often decades ahead of their time.

They have withstood the challenges of different forms of prejudice, scarce resources and other seemingly insurmountable circumstances. Catholic Sisters have modeled trust in divine providence, profound charity, resilience, Christian service and a collaborative spirit.

Some have been canonized saints and others are on the path to sainthood. Many have received national and international recognition for their service.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton  

Across her short life span of 46 years, Elizabeth Ann Seton was a wife, a mother, a widow; an Episcopalian, then a Catholic; a vowed woman religious and then the foundress of the first community for women religious in the United States. Canonized in 1975, she was the first native-born U.S. citizen to be named a saint.

Born in New York City in 1774, Elizabeth grew up in a prominent Episcopalian family where she learned to love and serve others. During a trip to Italy for her husband’s health, she discovered Catholicism and was later received into the church in March 1805. Widowed at age 29, Elizabeth had five children under 8 years old. She faced financial hardships and anti-Catholic sentiment over the next three years.

Her encounter with a Sulpician priest was a turning point in Elizabeth’s evolution as a religious leader and educator. With provisions made for raising her children, she embraced ministry opportunities in Maryland in 1808, where she laid the foundation for what developed into this country’s Catholic educational system.

Elizabeth was the first vowed member of the new community of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. The community made its home on donated land near Emmitsburg, Maryland. In February 1810, the women opened the first free Catholic school in the United States, staffed by Sisters and serving needy girls. St. Joseph’s Academy, a tuition-based boarding school, followed.

In July 1813, Elizabeth and 17 Sisters professed vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and service of the poor under rules adapted from those of the Daughters of Charity of France. Mother Seton led the community until her death in 1821. These Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph managed the first Catholic orphanage in the United States in Philadelphia. They opened another mission near Emmitsburg to provide infirmary and domestic services for the college and seminary. In New York, they began the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum.

Mother Seton is said to have lived an ordinary life in an extraordinary manner. She abandoned herself to the will of God. She was known for her compassion and desire to serve others and for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Mother. Six congregations of women religious and their many ministries around the world trace their roots to her heritage.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini  

Short in stature, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini had an expansive view of spreading the Gospel worldwide. Born in northern Italy in 1850, from an early age she wanted to enter religious life and serve the missions in China. Her health and other issues delayed her aspirations until 1880 when she founded a new religious community, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Sisters ministered in Italy and were asked to travel to the United States in 1889 to serve the increasing numbers of Italian immigrants living in dire conditions, unfamiliar with the faith and facing discrimination. Mother Cabrini was not fluent in English nor was she familiar with the culture and politics of New York.

But she had boundless energy and a strong desire to serve God whatever the circumstances. She organized catechism and schooling for children of Italian immigrants. Then, she established an orphanage, schools and a hospital.

Requests for her community’s assistance with serving immigrants and their families arrived from other parts of the country and from Europe and Central and South America. Across her years of service, Mother Cabrini established 67 hospitals, orphanages and schools. She never made it to China, but her missionary heart took her to Denver where she opened a school for children of Italian immigrants and founded an orphanage, both of which served into the 1960s; to Chicago where she bought a farm to supply fresh food to serve patients in the Sisters’ hospitals; to Seattle where she began ministries and became a U.S. citizen; and to other U.S. cities and states and even to Nicaragua.

She was recognized as a shrewd businessperson and as a leader who demonstrated vision, practicality and tenacity. She engaged people of all means to assist her mission efforts with financial and other support. Ahead of her time, Mother Cabrini espoused a well-rounded philosophy of education and helped shape this country’s social and health care systems in the early 20th century. She was a woman of faith who was devoted to caring for the poor, immigrants, orphans, women and children.

Mother Cabrini died in 1917. She was canonized in 1946, the first U.S. citizen to be named a saint. In 1950, she received the title “patron of immigrants.” In 2020, the Colorado Legislature designated a new state holiday, Frances Xavier Cabrini Day, observed on the first Monday of October, to honor her humanitarian efforts.

Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman  

With her dynamic personality, world-class voice and brilliant mind, Sister Thea Bowman was a powerful witness for Black Catholics in the United States and abroad.

Born into a Christian family in Mississippi and descended from slaves, Bertha asked her parents at age 9 if she could convert to Catholicism. By age 15, she knew she wanted to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who taught her and impressed her with their faith in action. She was their first Black member.

As a high school teacher in her native Mississippi, Sister Thea instilled Black students with a sense of pride in being both Black and Catholic. This was a recurring theme as her sphere of influence expanded when Sister Thea accepted the invitation of the bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, to become a consultant for intercultural awareness.

This role led to presentations across the country in which she blended preaching and singing from Black traditions with prayer and storytelling directed toward breaking down racial and cultural barriers. Following the Second Vatican Council, Sister Thea adopted clothing reflective of her African ancestry. Into the 1980s, she continued her witness with outreach in the United States and Africa. She was a college professor, an evangelizer and a bridge-builder.

In June 1989, Sister Thea shared her message at a meeting of U.S. bishops. In this landmark moment in the history of the U.S. church, she probed what it meant to be Black and Catholic. She told the bishops that despite the civil rights movement of the 1960s and socio-educational gains of the 1970s, Blacks in the 1980s were still struggling, “still trying to find home in the homeland and home in the church.” The presentation epitomized her efforts to advance the cause of ministry to Black Catholics.

The year after this presentation, Sister Thea, 52, died of breast cancer. Inscribed with her name on her family gravestone are the words, “She tried.”

The Diocese of Jackson started promoting her cause for canonization in November 2018. Following the December 2024 dedication of a life-sized bronze statue of Sister Thea on the cathedral grounds, the Mississippi Catholic newspaper wrote that this servant of God “was a beacon of light and hope in her time and . . .  continues to challenge us to bring that light and hope to a world so in need of it.”

 Sister Carol Keehan

While her predecessors in communities of women religious developed Catholic hospitals into the largest private health care system ever known in the United States, Sister Carol Keehan was instrumental in garnering support for passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act that extended access to health services to millions of previously uninsured persons.

A native of Washington, D.C., and a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Sister Carol became a registered nurse and advanced into hospital management and leadership roles. She grew well-versed in matters pertaining to governance, insurance and health care delivery and brought practical and extensive experience to her Catholic Health Association of United States (CHA) leadership position.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act was accomplished while Sister Carol was serving as president and CEO of the CHA, a position she held from 2005 to 2019. An article in the Global Sisters Report (Jan. 7, 2019) described her as a pragmatic leader who got things done; as a policy wonk, consensus builder and moral leader; and as having a commitment to those on the peripheries. During her tenure with CHA, she also strived to ensure that Catholic health care in the United States remain strong and viable in an increasingly challenging environment.

Her talents were called into service on multiple other fronts as well. In 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI traveled to the United States, Sister Carol led his medical team. When a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, CHA under her leadership organized a fundraising drive to help rebuild the archdiocesan hospital in Port-au-Prince. Sister Carol later led the Health Task Force of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission established by Pope Francis in March 2020. She continues to serve on multiple boards of directors and consults for hospitals operated by her religious community in Israel and Lebanon. Sister Carol is currently the local community superior for the Daughters’ residence in Bladensburg, Maryland. This year, she will mark her 60th anniversary as a Daughter of Charity.

In 2010, Time magazine listed Sister Carol among its 100 Most Influential People. And in 2022, the Catholic Extension Society presented her with its first-ever Spirit of Francis Award for leveraging “her relentless energy and tireless commitment to aid the underserved throughout decades of service.

Sister Norma Pimentel   

During a presentation in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, in November 2019, Sister Norma Pimentel encouraged, “We must be fierce as lions to do God’s will. But we also must be gentle souls as we reach out to those who need our compassion” (catholiccharitiestrenton.org). That spirit has characterized her ministry working with migrants at the Texas- Mexico border.

Describing herself as an “American by chance,” Sister Norma was born in Brownsville, Texas, to two Mexican citizens seeking residency. As a child, she grew up between Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico. In 1978, she joined the Missionaries of Jesus, a religious community that helps migrants navigate the legal process for entering the United States and provides housing and meals.

For 10 years, Sister Norma worked at Casa Oscar Romero, a shelter that served Central Americans fleeing war-torn countries. She was next a counselor and assistant director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley that encompasses four counties at the border. In 2004, she became executive director of this multifaceted social service organization.

It was in 2014 with the surge of migrants and particularly unaccompanied minors that Sister Norma’s commitment intensified. She visited detention facilities where migrants were apprehended and processed. She told Global Sisters Report that seeing the children in cells in these centers “triggered in me a profound sense of commitment and dedication to make sure that I become that voice for them, that I can be that force that can defend and protect life, especially the immigrants’” (Aug. 17, 2019). Sister Norma coordinated a humanitarian response in McAllen, Texas, that continues to assist migrant families and youth provisionally cleared by U.S. Border Patrol.

Sustained by her faith and prayer, Sister Norma advocates for restoring the dignity of people seeking to cross the border. She believes that the United States must be safe and the borders protected with knowledge of who enters the country and response to criminals. But Sister Norma cautions against generalization, dehumanization and politicization of migrants who are asking for a chance for better lives.

In naming Sister Norma among its 100 Most Influential People in 2020, Time magazine described her as being on the front lines of mercy for three decades and as someone who has preached community, acceptance and love. In addition to her Catholic Charities’ position, Sister Norma currently serves as associate to the vicar for religious in the Diocese of Brownsville.

(Note: This article is the result of research of multiple online resources, including national shrines commemorating the two canonized saints; religious communities of the five women religious highlighted; and various religious and other news sources.)