AbbyMcGuire

Sr. Margaret Buchta and Izumi Huang Fujiwara ‘26, photo by Abby McGuire ‘25

Religious sisters are some of the first icons of women empowerment. For centuries, becoming a religious sister was a way out of the system of marriage, and these women were given the opportunity to be advocates and academics. Becoming a religious sister wasn’t entrapment, it was truly the freest way a woman could live. 

The Servants of Mary are no different. In many ways, they were pioneers of women’s empowerment, with their story spanning several different countries and continents. 

Their story starts with Saint Juliana, the founder of the Third Order of the Servants of Mary. In Italy during the mid 1200s, this young woman took the initiative to lead and inspire other women to take up the cause and try a different way of life. Fast forward to 1845, where Marie Guyot took initiative to help young women succeed by establishing the Cuves school in France and forming a community of sisters. 

After the school’s enrollment dropped and Marie Guyot died, her sisters kept pursuing their calling to educate and serve the underrepresented. Needing a new community to serve, Sister Philomena Juiliana Morel took the lead, and the sisters moved to England. 

It’s important to recognize the historical context of this move. France was recovering from the French Revolution, and jobs were scarce, especially for women. The Sisters had essentially no support and had to do everything themselves. This pattern of self sufficiency continued when, in 1871, they were asked to come to America and help establish convents and schools. 

When they moved to Omaha and established the motherhouse, they also built a 130-acre farm, orchard and garden from the ground up. Farm work is hard labor, and it has the connotation of being a “masculine” job. But this is how the Sisters supported themselves, and it helped them maintain autonomy. While working an entire farm, they also volunteered to teach at several schools in the Omaha area, like Holy Name and St. Pius even though they were living in radical poverty. 

Although working a farm, pursuing degrees in higher education and working as teachers seems like a lot, the Sisters decided they could handle more, and they established Marian High School, opening doors to students in 1955. They put everything they had into caring for it, even doubling as custodians because they couldn’t afford to pay cleaners. 

Now that the Servants of Mary are moving out of the convent to a local care center, Sr. Jackie Thorn wants Marian girls to continue empowering one another. Thorn has been serving as a Campus Minister at Marian for the past ten years, and prior to that she was a teacher and principal. 

“I think it’s important that women can realize that they can do anything that they put their mind to and that they should empower each other. Sometimes we aren’t good about supporting other women, especially if we don’t agree with them. We should support the fact that a woman is doing it…and if we don’t agree with them, we can help them find what they should be doing…We have to be supportive of each other in the things that are good and that are full of God,” Thorn said. 

President Michele Ernst calls the Servants of Mary “women of impact.” And that’s exactly what they are. They created a supportive, forward thinking environment for young women where they were able to prosper and succeed. They were told they were made to be more than mothers, and that their voices should be heard. This is continued today, where the Sisters are Marian girls’ biggest supporters.