Sister Martha Harrington

(Sister Therese Martin)

Martha Harrington was raised on a farm in Coles County, in central Illinois. She and her twin, Bill, are second and third born in a family of four: two boys, two girls.

Catholics were a religious minority in their locale, so Martha’s formal religious education was limited to two weeks in the summer when Sisters came to catechize children of the area. It was at her First Communion that Martha felt the call to become a Sister. There was a flicker of doubt because, to her, the Sisters she knew seemed “perfect and strict”.

Her desire to be a nurse became Martha’s focus after high school. When she attended Mercy School of Nursing, Urbana, Illinois, run by the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, she found the Sisters “so personal, so down-to-earth, so human” that she thought she could be one of them.

Martha was happy in nursing. She liked the medical-surgical floor and oncology. When a doctor asked her to be his office nurse, she happily accepted but was given a start when a Sister called her “a traitor” (to the hospital). After a while, she thought again of religious life. “I had to do something; my friends were trying to marry me off.”

Sister Jane of the Sacred Heart (Sr. Florence Houde) was a close friend and mentor, even introducing Martha to the General Superior who was visiting. Martha also was encouraged by her cousin Father Barnabas Harrington, OSB.

When she entered in her early 20s, Martha was considered an “older” vocation among the teen-agers who were her companions. Her devotion to St. Therese, the Little Flower, was recognized when she was given the name of Sister Therese Martin; Martin is the saint’s last name. Her father asked her to take back her baptismal name when that possibility presented itself after Vatican Council II. In doing so, Sister Martha realized that Scripture would again be quoted to her: Martha, Martha, you are busy about so many things. “It fits me better, anyway,” she adds.

Sister Martha found a “vocation within a vocation” when she matriculated at Washington Theological Union and became a chaplain. Pastoral care is Sister Martha true calling in ministry.

The family spirit is strong in Sister Martha. As a pastoral minister, she always tried to make the families of the residents feel welcome. When she was given credit for things that the rest of the staff had helped achieve, Sister highlights their accomplishments. She helped residents share their feelings. After 34 years at Our Lady of Victory Nursing Home in Bourbonnais Sister Martha is enjoying the time she has in retirement, especially taking pleasure in reading the writings of the congregation’s history and spirituality. Sister Martha has been busy about many things over the years, and now it is good that she has time and quiet to praise and thank God for her life, her call, and her commitment as a Servant of the Holy Heart of Mary.

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