By Amy Vanecek Camacho
While visiting friends in Minnesota in 2012, I first learned about Servant of God Annella Zervas, OSB. Our friends’ Divine Will prayer group had begun joining Patrick Norton to pray the Rosary at the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto on the College of Saint Benedict campus, the very place where Patrick believes he experienced an apparition of Sister Annella. This Divine Will prayer group became the first official group to publicly support Patrick by praying for the opening of Sister Annella’s cause for canonization. During this time, I first met Patrick and his wife, Sandy.
Related: How Patrick Norton Resparked Devotion to Sister Annella Zervas
At the time, my daughter Ava was just eleven years old, she is now almost twenty-two. From the beginning, Ava was captivated by Sister Annella’s life story. We are a Catholic family, and Ava has always loved music, so learning about a young sister who taught music, who also faithfully answered her call to religious life, and lived with such a profound love for the Eucharist, despite enduring great suffering before her early death, really touched and impacted Ava.
As Ava moved through her teenage years, Sister Annella remained present in her life. Together, we continued praying for Sister’s cause and made several trips from Texas back to Minnesota to visit and pray at the grotto. I believe Ava’s connection to Sister Annella helped keep her close to God during some very formative years, strengthening her Catholic faith and, most importantly, her relationship with our Lord, and her continuing to lean into the intercession of Our Lady.
Related: Meeting Sister Annella Enriched My Service as a FOCUS Missionary, Now I’m a Priest
Over the years, I have visited the grotto ten or eleven times, and Ava has joined me on at least half of those visits. Ava often shares that she feels Christ’s presence through the friendship of Sister Annella, especially in the darkest moments of her life. This was particularly true during Ava’s high school and college years, when she faced significant physical and emotional challenges within her Division I program. During that difficult season, Ava believes her Catholic faith, and Sister Annella’s intercession, carried her through, and ultimately led her to transfer to a healthier, Catholic inspired program, from which she later graduated. As a mother, I am forever grateful that Ava experienced Sister Annella’s friendship, and her loving guidance toward Christ and the Church, when she needed it most.
Today, at age twenty two, Ava continues to believe that Sister Annella interceded for her, and helped her learn how to serve others while sharing her love for God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Catholic faith. Ava is now in her first years as an English teacher, and as a high school coach. She often says she is simply doing what she feels called to do, she strives to be present to young female athletes, to support and encourage them, and to remind them that faith in the Lord will carry them through life’s challenges, just as Sister Annella witnessed in her own life, by surrendering every hardship to Christ, and to God’s will.
We were thrilled when Bishop Cozzens announced he would be opening Sister Annella’s cause, and Ava and I felt, even more clearly, a call to share Sister Annella’s story here in Texas, and we are actively doing so. Perhaps you feel called as well, how did you first hear of Sister Annella? Is there a young person in your life with whom you could share Sister Annella’s story, to show them what to do when something hurts, or when something feels difficult?
Related: Help Advance the Cause: Become a Guild Member
In that same spirit, we are especially excited to welcome Patrick Norton to Texas in early summer 2026 to help share Sister Annella’s life. He will speak of her relationship with Jesus, her love for the Holy Eucharist, and her suffering, all offered for Christ, and for the whole world.
About the Author
Amy Vanecek Camacho is a Texas-based Catholic wife, mother, and professional. She has been married to her husband, Reuben, for twenty-five years. She is the proud mother of four children: Ava, Isa, Gavin, and Aidan. Amy serves as Vice President of Operations at Elston Johnson and Associates. She is passionate about building relationships with diocesan and parish communities across Texas to share the story of Servant of God Annella Zervas, OSB. She invites others to learn from Sister Annella’s life and support her cause. Those interested in promoting Sister Annella’s story in Texas are warmly encouraged to contact the Sister Annella Guild to collaborate with Amy in spreading awareness and advancing Sister Annella’s cause.