| Sister
Evangela releases book of poetry
This Sunday, April 29, at 3 p.m. Sister Evangela Bossert will give a reading of her newly released book “  The
Golden Bean.” The collection includes poetry and a Benedictine fairy tale.
“The Golden Bean” is published by Rosebud Paperbooks and emerged with the support of her friend Jameson O’Ryan, a writer and professor of English at Spokane Community College. The volume was illustrated by Olivia Bigley, a 17-year-old artist from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sister Evangela became interested in becoming a Benedictine during a college course in church history at Kansas City University. She felt torn as to whether she should study English or History and took a break to decide, also taking advantage of an opportunity to train as an x-ray technologist and earn money to pay for her education. In addition, she took night classes in art. She passed the exam to be an x-ray technologist and then began night school at the university to finish her degree — in English. While training to be an English teacher, she worked as an x-ray instructor. During a retreat, she confided to her retreat director, a Jesuit from Seattle University, that she wanted to become a Benedictine but did not want to stay in the Midwest, where all the Benedictine communities were quite large. He suggested St. Gertrude’s. She came out on a train by herself and in 1963, at the age of 33, made her First Profession. “I am excited at our openness to all kinds of possibilities for ministry,” she says. “We have stayed with the original nursing and teaching wherever that’s possible but we are open to the possibilities.” After spending the first part of her career teaching middle and high school English and History, she returned to Idaho State University for a master’s degree in English and then a Ph.D. in English. The reading “The Golden Bean” takes place this Sunday at 3 p.m. and light refreshments will be served. Monastery of St. Gertrude, 465 Keuterville Road, Cottonwood, Idaho. Location: Multi-Purpose Room, First Floor of the Main Monastery Building. Enter through the Geranium (Main) Entrance. For more information call 208-962-5065 or email creative@stgertrudes.org. |
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