Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am grateful to be able to share with you the remarkable life and testimony of Sister Annella Zervas, OSB. She was a woman of deep faith, courage, and trust in God. Her life was characterized by her surrender to God in loving obedience, even when this meant experience of the Cross. She believed that her cross, united to Jesus’ Cross, was fruitful for the salvation of the world.

I first learned about Sister Annella through my sister, who considered her a spiritual friend and often turned to her for intercession. Thus, when I moved to Crookston, I was already inspired by Sister Annella’s trust in God, even in the midst of great suffering.

Sister Annella was one of us, born and raised in Moorhead and dying in Saint Joseph’s parish, and she can serve as a great example for us. She lived a deep but ordinary life of faith. As a child, she used to walk from her home in Moorhead to Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo for daily Mass on her way to school. She experienced an extra-ordinary sickness that, in the end, took her life.

All of us have pain and suffering in our lives, and God’s question to all of us through SisterAnnella is: What will you do with your pain? Sister Annella reveals that when we surrender our suffering to God, it can be transformed into a source of grace, healing, and sanctity. As Saint John Paul II said, “It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption. In that “cosmic” struggle between the spiritual powers of good and evil, spoken of in the Letter to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 6:12), human sufferings, united to the redemptive suffering of Christ, constitute a special support for the powers of good, and open the way to the victory of these salvific powers” (Pope John Paul II, Salvifici doloris, 27, emphasis original).

Sister Annella entered into that cosmic struggle between good and evil from her bedroom in Moorhead. There she tried to unite her suffering to the Cross of Jesus for the redemption of the world. I am sure that her offering continues to benefit us today, and I know that her intercession benefits us. She invites us to remember that suffering, when entrusted to God, becomes a means of healing, sanctity, and an opportunity to trust in His greater plan.

She shows us that suffering is not something to be feared or avoided but an invitation to trust God more deeply. She fully embraced her vocation, prioritizing God’s will and selflessly serving others. Her example is a profound gift, not only to us in the Diocese of Crookston, but to the entire Church.

I am hopeful that Sister Annella will inspire each of us to live our own callings with deeper faith and trust. She was a simple soul who did not do anything great by the world’s standards. But her gift of self to Jesus her bridegroom shows us all how we can seek to give ourselves in the midst of suffering. We are diligently working to gather her story and the testimonies of those who have received favors through her intercession to present them to the Holy See.

I found one particular story inspiring because of its simplicity and hope. A young man on the autism spectrum experienced his first serious heartbreak, which left him in a state of complicated grief and despair—a reaction often intensified for individuals with similar sensitivities. He even contemplated suicide. However, through discovering Sister Annella’s story and her own journey through suffering, he learned that he could transform his pain into something meaningful. Sister Annella taught him that suffering is not a curse, but rather a path to a deeper union with God and an opportunity for transformation.

How might Sister Annella’s testimony inspire you? Could her example encourage you to see your own suffering in a new light? Perhaps God, through Sister Annella’s example and intercession, is reminding you that He loves you uniquely, has a specific purpose for your life, and is even calling you to sanctity.

As we continue to share Sister Annella’s story in the Diocese of Crookston and with the wider Church, I invite you to join us in praying for her beatification and canonization. May her life inspire us to embrace our own unique callings, along with the suffering we encounter, with the same trust and surrender to God’s loving plan.