DANVILLE -- The summer festival at the Villa Sacred Heart has been put on for more than 30 years by the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, but it was an inaugural event for some of the nuns there this year.
That's because this year's festival marked the first time the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine de Ricci from Elkins Park near Philadelphia and the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Elysburg took part in the festival.
Sister Mary Justin, previously of the Elkins Park congregation, spent her afternoon working the prize tent, and was surprised by a visit by some friends from Philadelphia, friends she's seen only once since moving to Danville.
"I'm very happy here," Sister Mary Justin, who has been serving the church for 58 years, said. "It has been a great adjustment, but that's part of religious life. You have to take what comes."
Sister Mary Justin is one of nearly 30 nuns who have joined the other sisters at the Villa Sacred Heart. Sister Jeanne Ambre said her help at the festival, and the help of some of the other new arrivals, has aided the settling-in process.
"It was delightful so many wanted to help," she said.
Other sisters could be seen running game stands, selling food and flowers or listening to the music of the Danville Community Band.
The Elysburg move, completed about five months ago, was prompted by dwindling numbers of the Carmelite nuns, who haven't had a new nun profess vows in more than 20 years. The Dominican sisters moved to Danville in September 2007 in an effort to stay together as a growing number of sisters require personal care.
Statistics show that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10 percent to just under a million between 2005 and 2006, according to reports from the Vatican.
The trend is reflected in the ranks of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, though festival organizer Sister Susan Pontz says it's a fact they prefer not to focus on.
"We do believe that God continues to call people," she said.
The annual summer festival raises money for the ministries of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius and stays within the local community. But Pontz said the fundraising aspect of the festival is secondary to the fellowship it fosters.
The Villa Sacred Heart is the mother house to the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, but its sisters minister as far away as San Antonio, Texas, in Pontz's case, as well as in South Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, New York and Connecticut.
The festival is a kind of homecoming.
"It's just a way to get us all together again," Pontz said.
n E-mail comments to aorourke@dailyitem.com.
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