Retirement's not an option at age 96 for Benedictine nun
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Sister Mary Damian: 96 and going strong
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Sister Mary Damian Thaner is proud of her latest students, Sister Agnes Mahwera and Sister Veyce Matonya. They came from Tanzania to study early childhood education, but first needed to master a college class on English as a second language.
"Any question we had about idiom or vocabulary, she was ready to answer. That is why we call her 'The Computer,' " said Sister Veyce, a Sister of Charity of the Immaculate Conception.
"Sister Mary Damian is like a young person."
Sister Mary Damian is 96 years old. Officially retired since 1985, the Benedictine sister still tutors foreign students and leads a Bible study at LIFE Pittsburgh, a North Side center for the elderly.
"I don't feel old," she said. "The only thing that makes me feel old is when I think that I was born in 1915 and this is 2011. That frightens me."
Ministry at such advanced age is unusual, but not unique, said Sister Jan Bader, executive director of the National Religious Retirement Office, which raises money to support elderly nuns and monks. The median age of sisters in the United States is 71, and the vast majority are still years from retirement.
"Because we live in community we don't have the same difficulties with shopping and daily activities that take so much energy from those who live alone or with just one other person," she said.
Sister Mary Damian was the third of 10 children born to a North Side truck driver and his wife. Her extended family included many sisters and priests, and she always felt a pull to serve God as a sister. But after high school she studied shorthand and typing at Duff's Business Institute before answering that sense of call in 1935.
"I knew I was here to do God's will. That was my first purpose," she said.
Entering the convent back then meant renouncing family ties.
"I knew it would be strict, and I made up my mind that I would endure," she said. "When my father died I wasn't allowed to go home. I went to the funeral, but not home. The homesickness was horrible, but I took everything as a challenge. This is where I wanted to be."
When she became a novice, she and the others processed into church in bridal gowns, symbolizing marriage to Christ. In the sacristy they donned the robes and veils of their new life.
First Published March 21, 2011 12:00 am
