Watercolor portrait of Sister Thea Bowman
Available Sizes:
8x10, 5x7, 4x6
This is a print of an original painting by Saint Script and is printed on archival fine art paper.
Please allow 3-5 business days for this item to ship.
Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman was born in Mississippi in 1937 to Methodist parents. She was the granddaughter of enslaved peoples & was taught from a young age to love her Black heritage. At the age of 9, Thea asked her parents if she could convert to Catholicism after meeting the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
At the age of 15, Thea told her parents she wanted to become a sister herself. She was met with opposition, but was so certain of her call to religious life that she went on a hunger strike, forcing her parents to reconsider. She entered the St. Rose Convent in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at the age of 16!
Sr. Thea shared the love of God through education. With song, dance, poetry, drama, & story, she was able to connect to her students in a profound way. She gave her students the freedom to be proud of who they were & where they came from.
After spending 16 years as an educator, Sr. Thea took her ministry work full-time. With her Spirit-filled personality she traveled the country speaking on racial justice & cultural awareness in the Church.
Sr. Thea was most passionate about sharing the joy a& beauty of being a Black Catholic. She often said, “Black is beautiful.” In 1989 she spoke in front of the USCCB stating,
“What does it mean to be black and Catholic? It means that I come to my church fully functioning. That doesn’t frighten you, does it? I come to my church fully functioning. I bring myself, my black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become, I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience, my culture, my African American song & dance & gesture & movement & teaching & preaching & healing & responsibility as gift to the Church.”
Sister Thea died in 1990 at the age of 52 of breast cancer.