60-year Jubilarian - Sister Martha Ann Norwood

Intermountain Catholic

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Sister Martha Ann Norwood

SALT LAKE CITY — Holy Cross Sister Martha Ann Norwood will celebrate her 60th anniversary as a religious on Aug. 15, 2011. She attributes her strong Catholic faith to growing up in Utah and having always to explain and defend her faith in a mostly Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community.

Sr. Martha Ann was born and raised in Chicago but moved to Provo in 1942, "so my father could work at Geneva Steel," she said. "We lived in Provo for four years until Geneva Steel closed."

The Norwood family moved to Salt Lake City in 1946, when Sr. Martha was in the eighth grade. She started attending Saint Mary of the Wasatch. Her family became members of Sacred Heart Parish and remained there until her mother’s death at the age of 104 in 2001. Her father died in 1978.

"I attended Saint Mary of the Wasatch through my senior year and then for two years of college," said Sr. Martha Ann. "I left for Notre Dame, Ind., to join the Holy Cross Sisters in June of 1949. I made my first vows in 1951. I was taught by Holy Cross sisters at St. Mary of the Wasatch and was greatly influenced by them.

"I think it was coming to Utah that also influenced my decision to become a sister," she said. "We left a very strong Catholic community in Chicago and moved into a Mormon community. When you leave the security of your faith it is very difficult. I just learned to appreciate my faith more having always to defend it and talk about it. I learned to appreciate what I had. A lot of times we would take the neighbors to church with us."

Sr. Martha Ann became a teacher and taught seventh and eighth grade from 1951 to 1986 in many schools throughout California, Seattle, Boise and Salt Lake City. "I taught seventh and eighth grade all over California for four to five years in each place," she said. "In 1986, I took a one-year sabbatical and went to Gonzaga University in Spokane to study under the CREDO program. This was a program for personal renewal for religious."

Following her sabbatical, Sr. Martha Ann moved to Tucson, Ariz., where the Holy Cross Community owns a nursing home. "I spent time there working in pastoral care from 1986 to 1995," she said. "My mother became ill in 1995, and my sister in Salt Lake City needed help, so I moved back to Utah. I started working at Saint Joseph Villa in pastoral care, taking care of the elderly, and worked there until I retired in 2004."

Sr. Martha Ann then spent her time volunteering, visiting terminally ill patients at Care Source Hospice Center in Salt Lake City. She also started two scripture study classes at Saint Martin de Porres Parish in Taylorsville, where she attends, and became the coordinator for the RCIA program.

Sr. Martha Ann said being a religious has been a lifestyle that has led her to know and love the Lord. "I was called by the Lord and chose to be a religious because it was a way to learn to deepen my faith," she said. "By teaching school for 35 years, it’s been an instrument to hopefully bring others to the faith."