At their plenary assembly in Baltimore this week, the U.S. bishops will discuss opening the beatification cause of two 20th century women - one a Minnesota religious sister who cheerfully endured the sufferings of a debilitating skin disease, and the other a lay woman in Pennsylvania who dedicated her career to creating educational and social opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.
The bishops’ consultative vote to advance the women’s beatification causes is the next step in the potential canonization process for the two servants of God.
Sister Annella Zervas
Sister Annella Zervas was a 20th century Benedictine nun from Minnesota who endured the sufferings of a debilitating skin disease with cheerful acceptance.
The story of her life is recounted in a biography by Rev. Joseph Kreuter, OSB, who calls her an “apostle of suffering.”
Sister Mary Anella Zervas was born in Moorhead, Minnesota on April 7, 1900, one of six children in a German immigrant family. She was a virtuous child, raised by faithful parents.
When she was just 15 years old, she entered the Benedictine convent at St. Joseph, Minnesota, where she became a music instructor.
Letters from her early years in the convent show that Zervas found a deep inner joy from her vocation, but also an intense homesickness at times made her consider leaving.
Still, she persevered and made her perpetual vows in 1922.
About a year later, Zervas came down with an unusual skin disease, which caused her intense itching and excruciating pain.
Specialists were unable to treat the condition, which grew steadily worse over the next several years.
Zervas’ face and hands began bleeding, and her appearance became so disfigured that her family failed to recognize her when they visited. Her limbs began to swell and ooze pus, and she had to leave community life and return home, where her mother cared for her.
Although her pain was constant and intense, Zervas was remarkably joyful, resigned to God’s will and patiently accepting of the suffering that she was enduring.
She would pray “Yes, Lord, send me more pain, but give me strength to bear it.”
At one point, it seemed that Zervas’ condition was improving, and she began to hope that she could return to community life. But her illness then came back even worse than before, shattering her hopes of recovery.
During her years of anguish, Zervas was also afflicted by insomnia and mental distress. She developed festering ulcers across her body, as well as a constant fever.
In the months that followed, Zervas grew weaker and weaker. She died August 14, 1926.
In his sketch of her life, Kreuter recounts that she had become so emaciated, she weighed less than 40 pounds at the time of her death.
In October 2023, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, announced that he was formally initiating a process of studying Zervas’ life, the first step toward the possible opening of a beatification cause.
“Sister Annella’s life calls each one of us to a deeper trust in God and his divine providence,” Cozzens wrote at the time. “She is worthy of imitation.”
Dr. Gertrude Barber
Dr. Gertrude Agnes Barber was a teacher and special education coordinator who pioneered efforts to create educational opportunities for children with special needs.
Barber was born September 16, 1911, in Erie, Pennsylvania. She grew up in a large Irish, Catholic family, one of 10 children.
Barber’s father died of influenza in 1919. Her mother resisted pressure to place her children in an orphanage, committing instead to raise and educate them on her own.
Barber became a teacher in the local school district and, after earning a master’s degree in psychology, was named special education coordinator for the district.
At the time, the education system was not able to accommodate the needs of children with intellectual disabilities. Parents were forced to try to educate their children with special needs at home - typically without the support and resources they needed - or else send them to live at an institution.
Barber believed children with disabilities deserved better. Motivated by her Catholic faith, she worked to create more welcoming environments for both children and adults with special needs.
In 1952, she rented out a room at the local YWCA, where she held a first-of-its kind class for children with intellectual disabilities.
In the years that followed, she created community programs for adults with disabilities and founded what would go on to become the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center, which today offers education, support, and resources to adults and children with autism, intellectual disabilities, and behavioral health challenges.
Barber later worked to draw attention to the needs of children and adults with disabilities at a national level.
In reflecting on her own work through the Barber Center, she said she saw her mission as providing a sense of hope to families whose members have disabilities.
She also advocated for changes in the way society views people with special needs.
“We become richer, more compassionate, more understanding and probably a little more humble as we interact with persons with disabilities,” she once wrote. “We need more awareness of all persons with disabilities – they are an asset to the community.”
Barber died in 2000.
In 2019, Bishop Lawrence Persico announced that he was initiating an investigation into her life, in preparation for the possibility of opening her beatification cause.
“I am particularly pleased that the good work of Dr. Barber, motivated by her Catholic faith and undertaken on behalf of those in need, will now be known more fully by those throughout our region and beyond,” he said.
