Sister credits St. Benedict for reaching 100 years old

Centenarian still does what she can every day to care, bless others around her

Published: April 28, 2016

By Maryanne Meyerriecks
Fort Smith Correspondent

Karen Schwartz

Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders shows Sister Rose Ashour, OSB, the proclamation he issued in honor of her 100th birthday April 17 at St. Scholastica Monastery.

Karen Schwartz

Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders shows Sister Rose Ashour, OSB, the proclamation he issued in honor of her 100th birthday April 17 at St. Scholastica Monastery.

FORT SMITH — On her 100th birthday April 17, Sister Rose Ashour, OSB shared her secret for a long, happy life.

The Rule of Benedict, written 1,500 years ago by St. Benedict of Nursia, has guided her through 80 years of monastic life — 40 spent at St. Scholastica Monastery and 40 at its daughter house, Our Lady of Peace Monastery in Columbia, Mo.

“St. Benedict’s rule is simple and balanced,” Sister Rose said.

Even at 100, the Liturgy of the Hours and daily Eucharist punctuate her day. She recites the prayers of the Mass by heart and when, occasionally, she uses a phrase from the pre-2011 Roman Missal, her lifelong fidelity to daily prayer is even more evident.

The rhythm of work gave Sister Rose’s life balance and purpose. She taught elementary school for 39 years in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri and still corresponds with some of her former students. In her later years she worked in parish ministry, homebound ministry and pastoral care. Her many nieces and nephews recalled that even when Sister Rose was home on vacation, she rarely sat still.

“She was a very faithful woman,” niece Katy Rodriguez said. “She cared for Grandma (Sister Rose’s mother, who died at the age of 109). She was always in the kitchen cooking, always pushing a broom.”

In retirement Sister Rose still does what she can to help others. Until a few years ago, she worked in the monastery periodical room organizing the magazines and newspapers. She pays nightly visits to pray with a sister who is bedridden. She takes an active interest in her monastic community and attends most community events.

“Sister Rose is both attentive and genuine to ‘living in the moment’ wherever the moment is leading,” Sister Barbara Bock, OSB said. “She is both gentle and direct, alert and never overly serious, knowing that every moment in life is precious and designed to be encountered and delighted in.”

She is an active participant in most infirmary activities, including twice weekly senior exercise classes, arts and crafts and music. She can sing all the verses of the Arkansas state song by memory and, during the Christmas season, “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night” in German).

Sister Rose’s love of nature is evident in the hand-carved animals on her dresser, and in an anthology of her poetry, assembled by a niece. She always takes time to visit with the birds in the infirmary aviary, and especially enjoys visits with the two monastery cats.

One hundred friends and relatives from several states came to celebrate Sister Rose’s birthday April 16. Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders issued a proclamation in her honor, and all the sisters compiled a scrapbook filled with memories. Sister Rose received a blessing from Pope Francis, which she read aloud to the guests.

Prioress Sister Maria DeAngeli, OSB, told guests that every night when she goes upstairs to give Sister Rose a blessing, she is blessed and wished a good night in return.

“We congratulate her on her faithfulness and cheerfulness,” Sister Maria said. “She is an example for us all.”

After dinner, Sister Rose’s guests went downstairs to watch her vocation story on video, recorded when she was 97. Sister Rose heard God’s call to be a Benedictine sister in eighth grade, but the following year tragedy struck her home. Her father was killed in a car wreck, and her mother was left with nine children, the youngest only five months old.

“My dad had owned a general store in Subiaco,” she said, “and there was no one to run the store. One of my uncles sent my cousin, who wasn’t interested in farming, to help my mother with the store. Eventually another cousin came to work there too.”

Despite the turmoil, she felt her father continually praying for her vocation in heaven, and two years later, when she was 16, she joined St. Scholastica.

“I think I was meant to be a Benedictine,” she said.