Sister Christa Ann Struewing, OSF
As I observe my 60th Jubilee in 2024, I reflect on my life.
I was born in Carthage, Missouri, on December 26, 1940, the youngest of ten children. Our parents believed that a Catholic education was one of the most valuable gifts and so they took turns driving us about 20 miles to attend the Catholic grade and high schools. After graduating from McAuley Catholic High School in Joplin, Missouri, I enrolled at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas. During my two years there, my interest in religious life grew. While I had known the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis as a youngster in Carthage, my mother re-introduced them when I came home during college breaks. (The Sisters served at Our Lady of the Ozarks Home Nursing Center, Carthage, from 1945-77.)
In 1961, I entered the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in Springfield, Illinois and I made first profession of vows in 1964. After earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1967 from Marillac College (St. Louis, Missouri), I served the next 20 years as a hospital staff nurse, a home health nurse, and a nursing educator. From 1990 until 1995, I served in leadership of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) for the five Wisconsin hospitals. The subsequent 29 years have been spent serving my Sisters as a member of the provincial leadership team along with the leadership of St. Francis Convent. I also have had many years of service on the board of directors of our hospitals and HSHS. I have been blessed to meet our Sisters in Germany, Poland, Japan, India, Taiwan, Haiti, Tanzania, and the Czech Republic. These visits have strengthened me in the common bond of our international community and Franciscan charism.
My journey over these 60 years has brought me to a deeper sense of my calling and my service to those in need.
