When Sr. Nancy Murray, OP took to the stage in Mount Saint Mary College’s Whittaker Hall on Wednesday, March 23, it was an encore a decade in the making.
Ten years ago, Sr. Murray performed her wonderful one-woman show, The Life of Catherine of Siena: A Woman for Our Times, at the Mount. Students, employees, and the public attended, as did members of the Dominican Sisters of Hope, the order that founded the college in 1959.
With some familiar faces and some new, the Mount audience was once again moved by Sr. Murray’s portrayal St. Catherine of Siena’s colorful, passionate, and enthusiastic work in spreading her love of Jesus Christ.
Acting runs in her family: Sr. Murray, a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, is actor Bill Murray’s sister.
Born Caterina Benincasa, St. Catherine was the 24th child in her family in Siena, Italy, in 1347. She later became a lay member of the Dominican Order, caring for terminally ill patients and providing spiritual direction to men and women in search of God. Though she lacked a formal education, St. Catherine of Siena is known as the Doctor of the Church.
St. Catherine was born on March 25, making 2022 her 675th birthday, Sr. Murray noted.
The show was sponsored by the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI). Directed by Charles Zola, assistant to the President for Mission Integration and associate professor of Philosophy, CDI promotes the Mount’s heritage of St. Dominic, advances the Dominican charism of study and service, provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues, and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue. The Institute welcomes persons of varied faiths and acknowledges different religious traditions as essential to the college’s intellectual and spiritual life.
The Life of Catherine of Siena is certainly appreciated for its theatrical merits, but there is more to Sr. Murray’s performance than acting, Zola said.
“It may seem that this is a dramatic performance, but it really is also an act of preaching,” he explained. “The popular conception of preaching is what priests or ministers do from the pulpit. But in the Dominican tradition, there are many ways of preaching – through art, through teaching, and though study.”