JONESBORO — Sister Virginia Baltz is finally home after taking her final vows for the second time in 70 years.
Sister Virginia, who was 69 years old at the time, professed her perpetual vows as an Oli vetan Benedictine sister at Holy Angels Con vent in a Aug. 15 ceremony. It was about 45 years after she first joined a religious community.
When she was 16 she entered the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Mo.
“I just always wanted to be a sister, I don’t know. I never wanted to do anything else,” Sister Virginia said. “I guess I admired them for their prayerfulness and their work in the school.”
Sister Virginia said she also received encouragement from her family, who always prayed the rosary after supper and encouraged family members to be active in their Catholic faith. The oldest of 13 children, Sister Virginia was also joined in the religious life by her brother, Father David Baltz, MCCJ, who is now a missionary in Uganda.
Once in the convent, Sister Virginia said she kept busy. She became a full-time teacher, an organist and also had to learn changes in liturgy once the Church switched from Latin to English.
“It was a strenuous time,” Sister Virginia said. “I overextended myself.”
Sister Virginia was with the community for 13 years until health reasons forced her to leave. It was 1967 and she was 29 years old.
“It was most difficult to leave — I did not want to,” she said. “I fought it for a while, but the doctor told me I had to.”
In the following years, Sister Virginia, who has a degree in elementary education, said she continued to teach both in public and Catholic schools in the St. Louis area.
However, Sister Virginia said she soon decided she needed to try a new career. She decided to try accounting and worked for three different companies as an assistant. It was a job she described as “go-fer work.”
“It was an 8 to 5 job and that was what I was looking for,” Sister Virginia said. “I never gave up teaching for the parish. I always taught in the parish school of religion.”
Sister Virginia said, even with her new career, her co-workers always knew of her time in the convent.
“No matter where I went, people knew and, by the second day, they would say, ’You were the one that used to be a nun, huh?’” Sister Virginia said. “I always felt I belonged back in the convent.”
With her health restored, Sister Virginia asked to rejoin the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Mo. However, she was denied three times. It was after the third refusal around 2002 that Sister Virginia learned of a parish secretary opening at St. Paul Church in Pocahontas.
Her parents were both originally from Pocahontas before moving to St. Louis for jobs, and three of her sisters settled in Pocahontas to marry and raise their families.
She applied for the position and was interviewed by the pastor, the late Father David Jacobs. She accepted the position the next day.
Within 14 months of her move to Poca hontas, Sister Virginia joined Holy Angels Convent.
“God just takes you and puts you where he wants you,” Sister Virginia said. “Let gratitude be the heart of your prayer. I feel that is the theme of my life.”
Sister Virginia said she does love her new home where she is supervisor of the Holy Angels infirmary. She said she loves “praying with the sisters and the chapel” as well as the sisters’ “monastic spirit.”
“I guess sometimes it’s so outstanding that it brings you to tears. It’s like ’God, I can’t believe you gave me this chance again to serve you,’” Sister Virginia said. “I can never thank God enough, if I live to be 100, for letting me live a religious life again and at this convent.”
