Sisters serving Oklahoma date back nearly two centuries

Like so many elements of Catholic life in America, the subject of nuns and sisters in holy orders are often misunderstood by those both inside and outside the faith.

This misunderstanding can be compounded by portrayals in the secular media. Movies and television have given us “The Singing Nun” and “The Flying Nun” in the 1960s. Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, people should know there is important, no, holy work being done by religious sisters dating back over a century in Oklahoma.

The vocation or calling of these sisters serving the Lord is divided generally into contemplative and apostolic missions to Oklahoma Catholics. While they may be dressed in similar black habits, the orders are either cloistered, or confined; or working in the community.

The cloistered sisters are generally called nuns and are in contemplative communities, dedicated to prayers for the faithful. The apostolic orders work in the public, helping the poor and needy.

Sister Barbara Joseph leads the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus. Saint Therese is also known as The Little Flower, as she loved flowers and saw herself as “the little flower of Jesus.” The Carmelites in Oklahoma City minister to the community through the food pantry and meditation and prayer.  

“The vocation or calling of our Lord depends on the charism or mission of the different orders I felt my calling as a young girl,” Sister Barbara said. “I was devoted to Saint Therese.”

The first order of religious sisters in Oklahoma was the Sisters of Mercy. Founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, this order came to Oklahoma pre-statehood, ministering to the poor and the rich, visiting in the homes and hospitals. Called “walking nuns” in Ireland, the order is tied to the establishment of Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma and Mount Saint Mary Catholic High School in Oklahoma City.

In the new century, Bishop Kelley brought nuns to Oklahoma to teach in the school at Hartshorne. Soon this group of 12 nuns moved as Carmelite Sisters of Saint Therese to Oklahoma City to eventually establish a school in the brick buildings on Classen Boulevard under the leadership of their Superior Mother Agnes Teresa. This is the location known to many as Villa Teresa.

Perhaps the most familiar face among this order today is Sister Barbara, who operates Sister BJ’s Food Pantry in downtown Oklahoma City. Since the Carmelites are “apostolic,” their work takes place in the community.

The Discalced Carmelite Nuns are a contemplative order. “Discalced” means barefoot, denoting poverty and humility. Bishop Kelley brought the founders to Oklahoma in December 1938. It was none other than Mother Teresa and her niece Sister Stephen Kane, who travelled from the Bronx in New York to establish a community for his young diocese.

Being from New York, the two reportedly wondered if they’d encounter “cowboys and Indians” in the wild west of Oklahoma. When they arrived on Dec. 17, 1938, they heard wild whoops and hollers as the train pulled into the station in Oklahoma City. Alas, the noise came from friends and relatives greeting college students returning home for the Christmas holidays.  

Mother Teresa and Sister Stephen stayed with the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus while they made plans for their own home. They purchased and converted a large house at the corner of 18th and Ollie.

On April 12, 1939, the monastery was inaugurated and dedicated to Saint Joseph.

The nuns faced hard times but sacrificed and saved to pay the mortgage. It’s said that they even mended their worn tunics with Gold Medal flour sacks.

The order worked relentlessly and paid off the mortgage, moving to a property which was farmland, at 4200 N. Meridian, where Sister Catherine Thomas wrote “My Beloved, The Story of a Carmelite Nun.”

In October 1986 the community moved to its present location at 2370 Morgan Road, near Piedmont.

The stories each sister shares about their vocation (calling) are as unique as the women who lived them. Sister Donna Maria of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite nun, converted to Catholicism in college and soon after heard the quiet voice of God calling her.

“A vocation to the religious life is a gift of pure love from God,” she said. “It is a continuation or fuller expression of one’s baptism in which we are called to holiness. In baptism each person is called to the mission of Christ and given the capacity to grow in the love and service of the Lord.

“God waited patiently, lovingly, nudging me until I was ready to accept his gift.”

In his apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata, Saint John Paul II outlined the sacrifice, poverty and chastity involved in evangelization in this world. His words seem to echo the theme of Sister Donna Maria of Jesus, that we are called to holiness in baptism and given opportunity in the consecrated life.

He wrote: 
“The evangelical counsels are thus above all a gift of the Holy Trinity. The consecrated life proclaims what the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, brings about by his love, his goodness and his beauty. In fact, ‘the religious state reveals the transcendence of the Kingdom of God and its requirements over all earthly things. To all people it shows wonderfully at work within the Church the surpassing greatness of the force of Christ the King and the boundless power of the Holy Spirit.

“The first duty of the consecrated life is to make visible the marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called. They bear witness to these marvels not so much in words as by the eloquent language of a transfigured life, capable of amazing the world. To people's astonishment they respond by proclaiming the wonders of grace accomplished by the Lord in those whom he loves. To the degree that consecrated persons let themselves be guided by the Spirit to the heights of perfection they can exclaim: 

“I see the beauty of your grace, I contemplate its radiance, I reflect its light; I am caught up in its ineffable splendor; I am taken outside myself as I think of myself; I see how I was and what I have become. O wonder! I am vigilant, I am full of respect for myself, of reverence and of fear, as I would be were I before you; I do not know what to do, I am seized by fear, I do not know where to sit, where to go, where to put these members which are yours; in what deeds, in what works shall I use them, these amazing divine marvels!’ The consecrated life thus becomes one of the tangible seals which the Trinity impresses upon history, so that people can sense with longing the attraction of divine beauty.”

Religious sisters pursue this mission, whether in devout prayers for the world or acts of sacrifice in the world.

Sister Barbara Joseph is the superior of the convent attached to the Saint Ann Retirement Center.

“We have lots of things that keep us busy in the consecrated life,” she said. “Sister Veronica is employed at the Center of Family Love in Okarche, a wonderful place for persons with special needs. And of course we minister to the retirees at Saint Ann.

“And the vocations are thriving. I believe there’s going to be some discernment houses in Oklahoma City.”

Sister points to a new Dominican order in Nashville as well as expanding support in the archdiocese. 

Father Jerome Krug, assistant vocations director for the archdiocese, said that while there is a well-developed effort to promote discernment for young men called to the priesthood, this work is done by the religious communities for young women called to the consecrated life.

“It’s a sad reality that the number of religious sisters has dropped dramatically,” said Father Krug. “Yet, there is hope. We’ve partnered with the religious communities for the last two years to develop a retreat for those who are interested called Talitha Koum.”

“The consecrated life is joyful life,” Sister Barbara said. “We love our Church and the Lord calls us all to be disciples. He gives us mercy and unconditional love. He loves us so much!” 

What comes next and how can the Catholic people help? The most important thing anyone can do, Sister Barbara said, is “Pray. Just pray.”

Joe Hutchison is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.


Photo: Sr. Barbara Joseph C.S.T., superior, Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus. Photo Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Archives.