Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Laura Nettles, Georgia Christensen and Sue Ernster traveled through Mississippi on a pilgrimage inspired by the witness of Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman.
"To make a pilgrimage is to surrender to a place until it changes you," shares Sister Laura. "We knew that to honor her holiness meant finally confronting the painful truths she had always compelled us to see."
They started their journey along the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi, where 14-year-old Emmett Till’s body was found after he was tortured and murdered by people who were never held accountable. The sisters visited places connected to the civil rights movement, including sites in Jackson, Canton and Memphis connected to the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr.
“At each stop, we prayed. We lamented. We lingered longer than was comfortable,” shares Sister Laura.
The pilgrimage concluded in Jackson, Mississippi, at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. There, the Diocese of Jackson officially closed the diocesan phase of Sister Thea’s cause for canonization.
Learn more about Sister Laura’s experience at Global Sisters Report.