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Text Box:      “Mother, I know you are praying for me to be a nun, but I want you to stop!”  At that very young age, Ann Mills already had dreams of marrying a farmer and living in the country.  Little did she know the hot-line her mother had to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!   Fifty two years later, Sr. Ann Miriam is celebrating her Golden Jubilee of her Passionist consecration.      The third oldest of L.K. and Helen Mills, Ann grew up in a loving Catholic family, where prayer was just as much a part of life as was wholesome fun.  Her parents set the example of living their Catholic faith in everyday life, leaving their children a powerful witness and precious heritage.   Although her devoted father died eight years after she entered the monastery, her mother lived to the ripe old age of 101.  Ann’s brothers,

Text Box: Randall, Fr. Joe, Jack and Bill, and her sisters, Kay and Molly, along with their families, have remained close to our community throughout these years.

Text Box:      Ann attended 12 years of Catholic schooling under the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, for which she remains grateful to this day.  After high school, she spent two years at Nazareth College in Bardstown studying medical technology.  After this, her training continued in Louisville at Nazareth College, now Spalding Univeristy.  At this time, she also did her internship at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital (now Caritas).      When it came time for Ann to take her national exams in order to become a medical technologist,

Text Box: her mother spent the entire day in our chapel, praying that her daughter would pass her tests, which she did.  She worked in Louisville for six years before entering our community shortly after her brother, Fr. Joseph Mills, was ordained to the priesthood for the Owensboro Diocese.  Remembering the day her mother had spent praying in our chapel that she would pass her exams, Sr. Ann Miriam teased,  “Mother, you really overdid it that day praying for me!  Look where I’ve ended.”      Entering our com-munity only seven

Text Box: years after our Owensboro mon-astery was founded, Sr. Ann Miriam became part of the “legend” of those early years, along with Sisters Rose Mary and Rita Marie Boteler, Sr. Marie Michael Aull, and Sr. Margaret Mary Matt-ingly.  To persevere through the count-less hardships

Text Box: The Mills family: back l to r :  Kay, Randall, Ann. Middle l to r : Jack, Helen, Bill, L.K., Joe. Front: Molly

Text Box: Ann Mills Lab Technician

Text Box: of those years was a feat in itself.  Sr. Ann Miriam’s refectory (monastery dining room) seat was six inches from the basement furnace.  If she didn’t sit up straight, her back was roasted against the hot furnace.      Along with other new members, Sr. Ann Miriam slept in the tiny cottage that housed the novitiate and the altar bread department.  Once she was so sleepy when the 2 a.m. wooden clapper rang for Matins, she tried to get up out of bed, but

Text Box: couldn’t move her feet.  She thought to herself as she slumped back down on her straw mattress,  “Glory be...My feet worked when I went to bed.  I wonder what’s wrong.”  Gazing down at her feet with only one eye open, she saw the right strap buckled to the left sandal and the left strap to the right sandal. 

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