Before the sun rises each morning, the residents of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph convent are awake to attend morning Mass. Each resident is a former active and working nun.
Now retired, the sisters range in age from their mid 70s to late 90s and spend their days on the vast land of the convent relaxing and in prayer.
Living among them, it might be surprising to find Anh Tran, a 33-year-old Vietnamese nun.
Along with one other Vietnamese student, Anh will live at Mount Saint Joseph as she pursues a degree in theology from the Brescia University, a Catholic University in downtown Owensboro founded by the Ursuline sisters.
Both Vietnamese nuns were provided the opportunity to come to America on a full scholarship and to be hosted by the sisters.
“When I live here the sisters support us,” Anh says. “I receive good care and love and support here.”
Despite the age difference, Anh says she fits into the community of sisters helping with small tasks and spending time with the older, more disabled nuns.
When she was 11, Anh made the choice to leave her family, live at a convent and begin her path to becoming a nun. Inspired by a teacher who was a nun, Anh joined the Sisters of the Holy Cross of Da Lat Diocese, Vietnam, when she was 21.
“The first time I came to the convent my brothers and sisters missed me and cried a lot.” Anh says. “I think Jesus Christ strengthened me at that time to tell them that I would stay at the convent.”
“I let God gradually into my heart,” she says.
Despite a lack of support for Catholicism in Vietnam, Anh found being a nun as her calling in life and sees her opportunity to learn in America as a chance to improve the Catholic Church of Vietnam.
“After this I’ll return to my country and help in my convent and serve Vietnamese church,” she says. “I understand that when my convent sent me to America to study, when I return home, I must do beautiful things for the convent.”
