Sister Margaret Marie Greenwell felt called to do something special with her life. She’s glad she chose the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph to make that happen. Sister Margaret Marie was born Mary Helen Greenwell in New Haven, Ky., an area of central Kentucky that is so heavily Catholic it is referred to as…

Thankfully for the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, the U.S. Navy lost a recruit in 1961. A woman offering some skin treatment to Evelyn Gomez that year told her that she had returned from a tour in the Navy and received much valuable training. Evelyn thought joining the Navy sounded like a wise career…

Sister Judith Nell Riney grew up just a short hike from Mount Saint Joseph, in an extended family that included several Ursuline Sisters. So it isn’t surprising that she says: “I always had the idea of a religious vocation in the back of my mind.” But one person was very surprised – her boyfriend, when…

There’s a song that contains the lyric, “There’s a longing in my heart for God,” which summed up how Ursuline Sister Angela Fitzpatrick felt while growing up. “I was always yearning for something more,” she said. “I felt God near me and calling me.” Fifty years ago this week, Sister Angela took the first step…

Ursuline Sister Marie Goretti Browning was taught by Ursuline Sisters and Sisters of Loretto. Two of her brothers were Passionist priests and her sister, Jane, joined the Ursulines and changed her name to Sister Clarita. But it was none of these people who showed the woman born Isabel Browning that her future should be with…

Young Irma Wiesner was very impressed with the older girl who came over to play whenever she visited her aunt in Scipio, Kan. Her name was Helen Hermreck, and she attended Catholic school in Scipio, where she was taught by the Ursuline Sisters of Paola. “We would talk about religion and how much she loved…

When Sister Ann Patrice Cecil was growing up on a farm her father managed along the outskirts of Owensboro, Ky., the two constants in her life were faith in God and an appreciation of the land. “I was fascinated by watching things grow,” she said. “In the evening as a young child, I would stand…

Sister Eva Boone’s earliest memories are of her farm home in Howardstown – a small community “nestled in a valley surrounded by the beautiful knobs of central Kentucky.” The knobs – the wooded, cone-shaped hills so distinctive to Nelson and surrounding counties – provided a physical and spiritual setting for Sister Eva’s childhood. “I believe…

Ursuline Sister Mary Angela Matthews had a feeling God was calling her. “I was going to do something special for God, but I didn’t know what,” she said. Her lack of clarity was easily explainable – she’d only just made her first Communion. Through her academic years of being taught by the Ursuline Sisters in…

Sister Marietta Wethington’s mother never asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. “My mother was a very spiritual woman and she encouraged spirituality in us,” Sister Marietta said. “She taught me to pray about my vocation. She said, ‘Ask what God wants you to be.’” Since the days when she was…