Sr. Nancy Murray to bring St. Catherine to SLC

Friday, Nov. 25, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — The life of one of the Catholic Church’s most notable saints will come alive in Salt Lake City on Dec. 11 as Adrian Dominican Sister Nancy Murray presents her one-person play “Catherine of Siena: A Woman of Our Times” to Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center.

“What would a 14th-century woman have to say to our 21st-century, oh-so-modern people?” Sr. Nancy asked. “And I guess we find out that there is a lot of the human condition that is the same; as much as technology and advanced and sophisticated as we’ve become, when it comes to learning a love of God and having a direction in your life, and going for something. … Catherine had people who loved her and hated her, wanted to be around her, were jealous of her, and some of those same things still speak to people.” 

Sr. Nancy has performed the play on five continents and in 17 countries since 2000, she said; the ministry was begun by Sr. Nancy’s former college drama teacher, Dominican Sister Kathy Harkins. Sr. Nancy took over the ministry after Sr. Kathy’s death.

Before beginning to portray one of the Dominican order’s best-known saints, Sr. Nancy taught grade school, high school and at the university level, and having run a summer program for inner-city children, and served as a pastoral associate.

Although Sr. Nancy holds a degree in theater, she said she thought she would be giving up her drama talent when she entered the Dominican Order, but “it’s interesting how God knows the gifts he gave you and he wants you to use them. … He didn’t want me to give it up, I guess.”  

She looks at acting as a form of preaching, she said; she believes the life of St. Catherine teaches that “each person really has their own path to walk, their own journey and God is with them. He has given you enough. What you have within you is going to be enough.”

Like St. Catherine, Sr. Nancy comes from a large family; among her eight brothers and sisters are four who are professional actors, including Bill Murray. They tease each other about their performances, she said.

In the play, rather than focusing on the fact that St. Catherine is a saint, a mystic and a Doctor of the Church, Sr. Nancy is “trying to embody her,” said Paul White, moderator of the local lay Dominican chapter, who saw her perform earlier this year. “There are some silly little stories that come out. … It’s a nice picture of who this saint is.” 

Although saints are often perceived as perfect, pious people, St. Catherine of Siena rebelled against her family, who wanted her to get married; and rather than entering a convent, she joined the lay Dominicans, White said. As a woman in that era, and as young as she was, “She bucked a lot of trends,” he added. “There’s a lot there that … we can pick up from her.”

White said he hopes that those who attend the play also get a sense of what lay Dominicans today “are wanting to do in our lives and in the world by following St. Dominic.”