Aging in American Convents

During fieldwork this summer in a Franciscan convent in the midwestern United States, I met two Sisters who had returned to the convent after many decades of hard work. They returned to the place where they come as teenagers when they made a commitment to leave their families and to serve God as religious sisters. When they joined the community, they took the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. This community of a few hundred women became their family, and this convent became their home. It is the place where they have returned every summer since the day they joined the community, it is the place where they retire, and it is the place where their bodies will one day rest