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60 Years: Anna Marie Koval, SP
(Sister Mary Ursula)
As Sister Anna Marie Koval reminisces about her life as a Sister of Providence for sixty years, she is grateful to the religious community, her family and friends. She also has been inspired by and owes much to the poor and vulnerable persons whom she served in her ministries as a nurse and as a chaplain.
Today she still works part time as a chaplain at St. Joseph Care Center, Spokane, across the street from Mount St. Joseph/Emilie Court, where she has lived for eight years.
A native of Staples, Minn., as a child she moved with family to Missoula, Mont., where she met the Sisters of Providence who were teachers in grade school and high school and for nurses’ training. She attended St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Academy, St. Patrick School of Nursing and the College (now University) of Great Falls.
After much discernment and prayer, Sister Anna Marie entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, on July 17, 1950. Two years later she made her first vows, receiving Sister Mary Ursula as her name in religion. On July 19, 1955, she made final vows. In the 1960s, after Vatican II, she returned to her given name, becoming Sister Anna Marie Koval.
Sister Anna Marie served as a nurse in hospitals in Idaho, Montana and Washington, including twenty years as a nurse and in pastoral care at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. In 1984, she entered a renewal program for religious sisters in Spokane, followed by enrolling in a program for pastoral education at the Benedictine Nursing Center in Mount Angel, Ore.
Certified as chaplain
She received certification as a chaplain from the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Since she moved to Emilie Court in October 2002, three of her family members have died, including her two sisters, Mary Rielly in November2002, and Therese Donovan in July 2003, and a brother, David Koval in December 2005. Sister Anna Marie continues to be a caregiver who is a senior citizen caring for the senior citizens.
“What I am most grateful for was to travel to Rome for the beatification of Blessed Emilie Gamelin on October 7, 2001, at St. Peter’s Basilica,” she recalled. “What a wonderful pilgrimage!”
Also, in August 2009, while visiting her sister Rose Schafer in Dayton, Ohio, she visited LCWR’s “Women & Spirit” exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Culture in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Truly, this was a wonderful opportunity to see a wax figurine of the Baby Jesus done by Mother Joseph, her writings displayed, and pictures of our missionary sisters on horseback.”
At this time of Jubilee, Sister Anna Marie rejoices. “Providence of God, I believe, I hope in you, I love you and I thank you! Truly my prayers are for my family, Sisters of Providence, and friends. Thank you!”
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