.jpg "Sr.") | Sister Maura of the Alton order of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George knew she was where she belonged when she saw the ‘Our Way of Life’ banner topped with the Bible during her first visit. |
Sister Maura’s youthful appearance and bounce gracefully complements the 19 years she has spent as a Sister at the Alton order of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, located next to Saint Anthony’s Hospital.
A physician’s assistant for the last two years in the hospital’s emergency department, Sister Maura spent seven years as a registered nurse working in many areas throughout the halls of Saint Anthony’s before returning to school at Saint Louis University. “I was asked if I would be interested in continuing my education so that I could help in other areas of the hospital, as well as help take care of the Sisters when they had minor illnesses,” Sister Maura said. “I was happy to do it.”
In the emergency room, Sister Maura said she is there to help medically, but also feels a large part of her role is to provide a caring and compassionate presence. “I need to let people know that at that place, at that moment, their welfare is my biggest concern,” she said.
It also provides a chance for her to evangelize. “It’s certainly not my job to preach to anyone or to judge, but just to let them know by how I treat them that God cares about them,” she said.
When not in the emergency room, Sister Maura helps in the infirmary at the convent, taking care of Sisters who are retired or ill. Sister Maura grew up in a Hispanic community in Texas in a close-knit family. In fact, as a Sister her biggest challenge has been living so far away from her brothers and sisters, visiting every three years. She is the second oldest of six children and the first to leave home.
At the end of her freshman year at college, she felt God calling her. She saw an article in the local newspaper inviting interested young women to various religious orders around the United States. She wrote a letter in response, and received an invitation from the Sisters of St. Francis in Alton. She came to visit - and the rest is history. “I felt so welcome and noticed the joy of the Sisters,” she said. Then she saw the Bible outside the chapel at Saint Anthony’s sitting atop a pedestal draped with a banner saying “Our Way of Life.” “I remember when I was growing up and reading the Bible, thinking if only we could all live like this,” she said. “When I realized that was the way of life here, I knew I was in the right place.”
Sister Maura sings in the Sister’s choir and in her free time, she loves to bake. One of her specialties is her homemade bread that the other Sisters seem to love, and sometimes she surprises them with something new, one of the most recent being homemade pie crusts. “I’m not afraid to try new things in the kitchen – even though I’m baking for 60 people,” she said.
For more information about the Sisters of St. Francis, visitwww.altonfranciscans.org.