by The Leaven
OLATHE — Santa Marta here believes in giving the best faith-centered care possible. Hospitality and service shape every decision it makes, with pastoral care and spiritual support available around the clock.
But they don’t do this work alone. Santa Marta seeks out partnerships with people and organizations who share the same devotion to service. Sister Sobha and her sisterhood, the Sisters of St. Anne in India, are some of those partners.
Recently, Santa Marta welcomed the Mother Superior of St. Anne’s congregation, Sister Anthony. This marked her third visit to Santa Marta since the community first opened its doors in 2005.
For Sister Anthony, the decision to send Sister Sobha to Santa Marta wasn’t difficult.
“At St. Anne, our mission is giving help to the helpless,” Sister Anthony said. In Santa Marta, she saw a community guided by the same belief that faith is lived through compassion, service and care for one another.
Sister Sobha has become woven into the Santa Marta family, a steady and beloved presence whose devotion mirrors the values she carried with her from St. Anne.
“Santa Marta is my home now,” Sister Sobha said.
For Sister Anthony, her faith intensified over the years through loss.
“My father passed away when I was 10 years old. He passed away in the hands of a nun,” Sister Anthony said. “I thought after she passed, that, maybe, I had to take her place in the congregation.”
A childhood moment of grief became a lifelong calling that would eventually place her at the head of an entire congregation. Today, as Mother Superior, Sister Anthony oversees an order that cares for just under 800 students, some of whom she teaches herself. She sends Sisters out to answer God’s mission in all corners of the globe, with Santa Marta holding a place of its own among them.
Faith has never been an abstract idea for Santa Marta or St. Anne’s congregation. It’s a promise they’ve carried through decades, across oceans, and through life’s hardest moments.
Sister Sobha’s presence at Santa Marta and Sister Anthony’s visit this August are proof that this promise is still being kept — the same promise of love, care and compassion that Santa Marta was built on 20 years ago.
