Sister Joan Therese: A life of nursing and contemplative devotion

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Joan Therese Anderson, OSB died on Feb. 7, 2026.

She was born on Dec. 18, 1932, to Evon (Andy) Joseph and Sue Minehan Anderson. Her father was born in Sweden and moved to New York with his family when he was 3 years old. Her mother was born in Friendsville, Pennsylvania, and moved with her family to Binghamton, New York, after her father died. Joan Therese joined an older brother, Don. Her younger brother, Bob, was born five years later.

Joan Therese’s mother worked in a shoe factory while her father was employed as a chauffeur for a funeral home. Joan Therese once wrote, “Some of my earliest memories are of Mom kneeling at the side of her bed saying her rosary and of Dad leaving for a funeral at 4 a.m. in his color guard uniform to accompany the bishop.”

The family moved often, but Joan Therese attended the same Catholic school for 12 years. When she was 12 years old, she contracted a mild case of polio that paralyzed her soft palate. Kept out of school for weeks, she found the days long and lonely.

After high school, Joan Therese entered nurse’s training in Buffalo. She spent two semesters at Canisius College as part of the nursing program. She was prefect of the sodality and had the opportunity to attend a sodality convention in Chicago. She had attended daily Mass from the time she was in sixth grade.

Joan Therese had not considered religious life. Rather, she was planning on marriage and having six children. She began to wonder about a religious vocation in high school during visits to the Blessed Sacrament but rejected those thoughts. The desire returned during annual retreats when she was in nurses’ training.

Feeling attracted to the missions, Joan Therese applied to Maryknoll and was hoping to enter. When she did not hear further, she decided to enter the Sisters of Mercy. The next day, she learned that Maryknoll had decided that she should enter a community closer to home because she was the only girl in the family, and her parents were elderly.

She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1953 and found the ensuing years challenging. As a postulant, she taught third grade and hated it. Regardless, she felt happy and settled. As a novice, she worked in the infirmary.

After her first profession on Aug. 25, 1956, Sister Joan Therese was missioned to Saint Jerome Hospital in Batavia, New York, as pediatrics supervisor. She felt unqualified since she had just graduated.

“I prayed every time they paged me that I wouldn’t kill anyone,” she recalled.

With another Sister, she drove three times a week to D’Youville College to earn a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing. She made her final vows while at Saint Jerome, on Aug. 25, 1959.

Sister Joan Therese was asked to be director of the School of Practical Nursing in 1963 while continuing as pediatrics supervisor and attending school. She was asked to go to the University of Buffalo in 1966 to earn her master’s degree in maternal and child health. She enjoyed studying full time and won the award for scholarship.

After completing her degree, she was assigned to Trocaire College, a two-year institution in Buffalo run by the Sisters of Mercy, where she coordinated the first-year nursing program. Then the University of Buffalo asked her to teach labor and delivery. Later, she earned her master’s degree in psychology from the University of Buffalo, taking courses in individual and group therapy, family therapy, crisis counseling and community health. She also took an eight-week course in gestalt therapy. Sister Joan Therese was hired as clinical director of the Diocesan Counseling Center in 1975 and worked there for the next five years.

She first felt a call to contemplative life as a novice, but her superior convinced her that she was too active. She again felt a call while preparing for final profession and was advised it was not for her. Her brother, Don, died in a car accident in March 1968. The Sisters of Mercy had their renewal chapter the same year. Sister Joan Therese asked to go to a House of Prayer. Her request was denied as she was needed to work in the emergency room at Saint Jerome. She hated the actual demand for immediate and accurate decisions and actions.

She attended a renewal program for four weeks in 1971. Two years later, she arranged a three-week experience at Stillpoint House of Prayer in Albany.

Through a mutual friend in 1979, Sister Joan Therese first contacted then-Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Karen Joseph, OSB. She later wrote to the congregation’s prioress general, Sister Audrey Jones, OSB, who allowed her to visit for a few months without any possibility of transfer.

She later asked for and received permission for a two-year stay to discern a request to transfer. She arrived at the Benedictine Sisters’ monastery in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1980. She was received into the novitiate on Sept. 5, 1981, and transferred her vow of obedience and took the vows of stability and conversatio on May 17, 1986.

During her years as a Benedictine, Sister Joan Therese nursed, made altar breads, was a house bookkeeper, and administrator of our health care center. She led a contemplative prayer group and spiritual direction. She presented workshops on communication skills, retirement, grief and aging. She served as subprioress and as a member of the General Council. When the congregation closed the monastery in St. Louis, Sister Joan Therese transferred to the Tucson, Arizona, monastery.

Confronting health problems, Sister Joan Therese transferred to Our Lady of Rickenbach, the congregation’s healthcare facility, in 2017. She is survived by her nieces, nephews and her monastic family. Her funeral liturgy will be Friday, Feb. 13, at Our Lady of Rickenbach with burial following in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Clyde.