Number of vocations in Alma, Mich., order on the rise, so is need for more space
By Bill Brewer
Sister Joan Miriam, left, and Sister Karoline Marie To prepare to profess final vows during the Mass of Perpetual Religious Profession. (Photo courtesy Diocese of Saginaw)
The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., continue to experience a spiritual and physical growth spurt, with more than 25 Sisters in their basic formation program. Seven novices made their first profession of temporary vows on Aug. 15, two Sisters renewed their temporary vows on Aug. 14, and two Sisters professed their perpetual vows on Aug. 16.
And the order’s sustained growth is exposing an emerging necessity: the need for expanded facilities at the Alma motherhouse to accommodate all of the Sisters, who now total some 120, having been founded by seven Sisters in 1973 as a re-foundation of the Religious Sisters of Mercy founded by Venerable Catherine McAuley in Ireland in 1831.
The Masses for profession of temporary vows and renewal of vows are held privately at the community’s motherhouse chapel in Alma, Mich. The more solemn public Mass for the profession of perpetual vows was celebrated at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in the Diocese of Saginaw, Mich., on Aug. 16.
Bishop Robert D. Gruss of the Diocese of Saginaw served as celebrant of the Masses. Concelebrants were Bishop John O. Barres of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and visiting priests.
For the two women who professed final vows, their profession was the culmination of eight years of religious formation and professional education in the areas of nursing and bioethics. It is their consecration to Jesus forever in a spousal relationship, signified by the ring they will wear on their finger and grounded in the Mercy Cross they wear with their habit.
During the Mass, each Sister professed her vows—including poverty, chastity, obedience, and service to the poor, sick, and ignorant—while kneeling before the superior general of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. After both Sisters professed their vows, Bishop Gruss prayed a solemn prayer of consecration over them. Mother Mary Christa Nutt then placed a ring signifying their religious profession on the finger of each Sister, reminding them that they are betrothed to the Son of God, Jesus.
Sister Claudia Marie Murray, who serves as a pediatric nurse practitioner and patient navigator for the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic in the Diocese of Knoxville, professed her first vows on Aug. 15.
Sister Joan Miriam professes her vows before the superior general, Mother Mary Christa Nutt. (Photo courtesy Diocese of Saginaw)
Then Sister Joan Miriam Nelson professed her perpetual vows on Aug. 16. Sister Joan Miriam received her nursing degree from Lincoln Memorial University in 2025.
Sister Gianna Marie Savidge, who is the superior of Mary, Mother of Mercy Convent in Knoxville and also is the medical director of the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, participated in the Mass of First Religious Profession and the Mass of Perpetual Religious Profession along with the other Sisters in the order.
Sister Gianna Marie, who professed her perpetual vows on Aug. 16, 2024, noted that the Sisters who took their vows spent much of the summer on retreat and then at the motherhouse preparing for their perpetual profession.
“It’s a really critical time for them, but it’s also a time of deepening communion for all the professed Sisters who grow in their awareness that all of us who are perpetually vowed have made this commitment for time and eternity,” Sister Gianna Marie said. “So, it’s a time of joyous celebration but also renewal in our awareness of our spousal commitment.”
That time of preparation and communion led to the joyous, beautiful celebration of vows, which each Sister takes deeply to heart.
“People will compare it to a wedding, but it’s more than a wedding in the sense that it has the character of being both a temporal and a transcendent reality or like a supernatural reality that’s occurring,” Sister Gianna Marie said.
“It’s perhaps better compared to a priestly ordination, although it’s different than a priestly ordination. The Sisters do prostrate before the altar as part of that ceremony. And we prostrate before the altar because in professing, especially the vow of obedience, we are united in a particular way as religious women to the sacrifice of Christ on the altar, who is the obedient One, and by His obedience redeems the world through His loving obedience to the Father. We are being conformed to the person of Christ through all the vows, but especially the vow of obedience,” she added.
Sister Joan Miriam signs her handwritten vows on the altar at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in the Diocese of Saginaw, Mich., on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the superior general, Mother Mary Christa Nutt, observes. (Photo courtesy Diocese of Saginaw)
Sister Gianna Marie emphasized that the vow of obedience is something the Religious Sisters of Mercy “live out in a very deliberate way in the sense that when we’re asked to go somewhere, we receive that as a true mission and as God’s call in our lives.”
“So, if I’m asked to go to Ireland, even though I’m a doctor and there’s no particular mission for doctors in Ireland, but mostly teaching and evangelizing, I would still willingly go to Ireland trusting that that’s God’s will. Or if I’m asked to study theology as a physician, which many of our Sisters do, that’s part of God’s plan for my life,” she said.
God’s calling is at the heart of every Sister’s life and vocation.
“Our life has a Marian dimension, and that’s very much lived through the vows because that fiat of Our Lady: let it be done unto me according to God’s will. Mary didn’t know that she was going to have to go to Bethlehem and Egypt and the foot of the cross. But through all that adventure of her life she participated in the redemption of the world and we, in our constitutions, are referred to as “associates of Our Lady at the foot of the cross, of Mary, Mother of Mercy,” said the Legacy Clinic medical director.
Bursting at the seams
As more Religious Sisters of Mercy profess vows and begin their service to God and the Church, rooted in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy—whether in medical care, education, or helping those in poverty—there is a growing need for additional space at the Alma motherhouse.
Sister Gianna Marie explained that currently at the motherhouse, the chapel has a capacity to seat about 80 Sisters, which is more than 40 shy of the total number when they are all together.
From left, Sister Marie de Paul Stokes, Sister Joan Miriam Nelson, Sister Gianna Marie Savidge, Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, and Sister Claudia Marie Murray with the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., are joined by Bishop Mark Beckman at a Mass to celebrate World Day of Consecrated Life at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. (Photo Dan McWilliams)
The main gathering space for the Sisters is called the Our Lady of Grace Educational Center. It was formerly a used-car dealership when it was purchased some 20 years ago.
The Sisters in Alma reside in five homes on one street in Alma.
“In terms of our capacity to accommodate the Sisters who come home during the summer and at other times for retreat, in our chapel we’re to the point where we simply can’t accommodate everybody,” Sister Gianna Marie said.
Another concern is ongoing care for aging Sisters and the need for an infirmary.
“We’re caring for them in a makeshift infirmary at this point. We have two Sisters who are in the infirmary right now, and then two Sister nurses who help care for them full time,” Sister Gianna Marie pointed out. “But we recognize the need to expand that. And at this point, we don’t have that ability. So, we are looking to grow or to build an infirmary.”
Sister Claudia Marie noted that the Religious Sisters of Mercy are in a unique position to care for their fellow Sisters because of their medical backgrounds.
“We just lack the physical space to be able to have a safe enough enclosure on one level, with all those things that are needed for those who are in wheelchairs and things like that,” Sister Claudia Marie said. “We just don’t have the physical space to be able to keep them safe altogether right now. The makeshift infirmary was needed quickly, but it is maxed out in its space by having the two Sisters who are currently residing there, and there are several more who need to be there.”
Sister Claudia Marie said it is vital that the aging Sisters continue to participate in liturgical prayer or meals as a community, so access to existing space is a must.
“Everything, as Sister Gianna Marie said, comes from our life of prayer and our common life. We live in homes instead of in institutional kinds of dwellings because we very much seek to create a Home of Mercy: we share meals in common, we share recreation time in common, and it’s about being able to build up that community life. We want the Sisters to be able to live out that part of our life until the Lord calls them home. That’s another part of the infirmary to me that is why we need it so badly,” Sister Claudia Marie said.
As the Religious Sisters of Mercy begin to address their facilities shortcomings in Alma, they understand how blessed they are to have 23 Sisters in temporary vows, four postulants just entering discernment, two first-year novices, and four second-year novices in addition to the seven Sisters who just professed first vows and the two who took their final vows.
The order is ethnically and nationally diverse, with Sisters from Sweden, Scotland, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Lebanon, and South Korea in addition to the United States.
Sister Joan Miriam is pictured with Bishop Gruss at the Mass of Perpetual Religious Profession. (Photo courtesy Diocese of Saginaw)
Sister Gianna Marie and Sister Claudia Marie pointed out that a number of the Sisters are converts to the faith.
“We are always amazed by the stories of these women who find us, because we’re not a huge institute. We’re kind of hidden. When you look at the stories of these women, and how they came to know about us, you will always find God’s hand in it,” Sister Gianna Marie said.
Sister Gianna Marie and Sister Claudia Marie give much credit to priests, who tend to be the main source of referrals to their order. They also credit the order’s foundress, Mother McAuley, for her continuing influence in the order’s growth and charism. The Sisters know that by attracting more Sisters into the order and through any upgrade or expansion of facilities, they are simply furthering Venerable Catherine McAuley’s charism of union and charity in the Church.
“The Religious Sisters of Mercy have been here before in a sense. It’s been a time of renewal of religious life in the Church since Vatican II, and we are so grateful to our refoundresses because they really put themselves out there at a time of critical renewal for religious life, which was not easy for them, I’m sure,” Sister Gianna Marie said.
“The Sisters who founded our community embraced the call of the Church to discover again the charism and the essential elements of religious life and to find a way to … be a vital point of evangelization in the Church,” she added. “We love the sacramental dimension of the Church, which is communicated through love of the priesthood, but we also know that we need to carry Christ’s eucharistic heart out to the people through what we can do as religious Sisters. We can bring him to the poor and the sick as doctors, nurses, psychologists, counselors, teachers, and lawyers.”
Top photo: The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., gather for photos with Bishop Robert D. Gruss of the Diocese of Saginaw, Mich., and Bishop John O. Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., on the steps of the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw on Aug. 16. Seven Sisters, including Sister Claudia Marie Murray, who currently serves in the Diocese of Knoxville, made their first profession of vows on Aug. 15, and two Sisters, including Sister Joan Miriam Nelson, who has served in the Diocese of Knoxville, professed their perpetual vows on Aug. 16.