OSV News

A hidden chapter of Christ's Passion has come to light through the mystical revelations of Servant of God Sr. Leonia Nastal, a Polish nun whose spiritual diary offers harrowing details of Jesus' imprisonment before the crucifixion.

Scalabrinian Sr. Idalina Bordignon is director of the Center for Attention to Returned Migrants, a joint effort of the Catholic Church and several government and nongovernmental agencies. As deported migrants disembark from flights, which arrive every day from the U.S. and once or twice a week from Mexico, they receive food, a quick medical check and the equivalent of $100.

Missionary Sisters of Santo Domingo in the municipality of Kimbanseke in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, fell victim to the attack on March 18. The attackers smashed the wall of the congregation's residence to gain entry.

The communities at Assumption Abbey, the Monastery of St. Joseph, home to the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, and Nazareth Hermitage all left their properties in the early afternoon of March 19 as wildfires inched dangerously close.

Thousands of migrants are heading back to South America after new U.S. immigration policies, including the cancellation of the CBP One program, have made it harder for them to seek asylum in the U.S.

As the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine reached a tragic threshold of three years Feb. 24, religious sisters are bringing rays of sunshine to those who don't know how to smile anymore, including children whose carefree childhood disappeared, and farmers, whose fields are mined and useless.

In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the death of Sister Stang, who is considered by many as a "Martyr of the Amazon," a relic containing blood-soaked soil from the site of her murder was enshrined at the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island in Rome on Jan. 10.

The migrant ministry of Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Rose Patrice Kuhn can be excruciating. But the anguish was especially acute the day after President Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second term as U.S. president, said Sister Rose.

Two Nigerian women religious who were kidnapped Jan. 7 as they returned home from a meeting in Ogboji, a town in Anambra state in Nigeria, were freed Jan. 13 with no conditions, their congregation said.

Servant of God Sr. Blandina Segale — an Italian immigrant who ministered during the days of the Wild West — is close to being named "Venerable," said Allen Sánchez, the petitioner of her cause, at a Jan. 3 press conference.

Basilan Sisters and some 80 children in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia narrowly avoided being killed in a deadly Dec. 6 strike by Russia, as they celebrated a liturgy marking the feast of St. Nicholas.

Charity Sr. Anna Donelli was placed under house arrest after a nearly four-month investigation by prosecutors revealed she allegedly used her prison ministry to connect local mafia bosses with inmates.

The Holy See has suppressed the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, a month after its residents were dismissed from the Carmelite order and religious life. The decree, issued Nov. 28 by the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, stated that the monastery "is extinct."

The U.S. Catholic bishops voted Nov. 12 at their fall meeting to support the local advancement of the sainthood causes of two women: Benedictine Sister Annella Zervas and Gertrude Agnes Barber, a laywoman. The two women died 74 years apart —  Annella in 1926 after suffering horribly from a rare skin condition, and Barber in 2000, after becoming a national leader and advocate in her field. Postulators for both causes are currently gathering information locally about the two women with plans to prepare a "positio" for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. 

The nuns and youth are trained to combat human trafficking, child marriage, and forced marriage.

Derry-born Sister Clare Crockett was a promising actress with little interest in religion when she went on a Holy Week retreat in Spain in 2000 that changed her life. The then 18-year-old self-confessed "wild child" felt a profound call to religious life, and entered the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.

Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, is the medical director of St. Mary's Legacy Clinic, a ministry of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Throughout America and the world, thousands of religious sisters are daily witnessing to the environmental care commitment urged by Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si', and its 2023 sequel, Laudate Deum. It's a congregational concern that, for many of them, often predates the pontiff's writings — but the merging of their own environmental priorities with official papal pronouncements has helpfully amplified sisterly endeavors.

When three Loreto Sisters from Ireland arrived in Rumbek, South Sudan, in 2006, only 13 girls were in secondary education in the capital of Lakes State. The sisters opened the first secondary school for girls in 2008 with 35 students. Eighteen years later over 500 girls have graduated from Loreto Rumbek and many are now completing a post-secondary education.

The silver coffin of St. Teresa of Ávila was opened in Alba de Tormes Aug. 28 only to confirm her body has remained incorrupt since her death in 1582. The opening of her tomb marks the beginning of a study of her relics, which will be carried out by Italian doctors and scientists — with the approval of the Vatican.