Sister Xavier Ann

Born 1856 in County Wicklow Ireland as Breannait Caitrín Bryne to an upper middle class Doctor Thomas Bryne. As with many rich and middle class Irish Catholic children of the time she was sent to a Catholic convent school in England for education at a young age.

While still a teen she felt called to novitiate with the Sisters of Charity. Taking her solemn vows as Sister Xavier Ann in 1877 She with a few other sisters and novites came to Leavenworth at the behest of Americans Vicars wishing to expand parishes and serve more of the people. Once there she attended to the endless stream of lost souls in need.

After an encounter with Mother Praxedes Carty and a novena, where Mother Mary the Immaculate showed her the path of her destiny, she requested a transfer of service to the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross in 1880. Service with the Loretto community was revelatory as for the first time she felt not only that she lived a godly life but that every aspect of their way of life was more in-tune with both the spirit of the Lord and those that she served as his hands on earth. She tiled the earth and learned to hunt game with local hunters. She went down into shafts with minors and breathed of the same air they did.

Some of those minors taught her and other Sisters to shoot for personal defence as Sisters of Loretto felt that anywhere that man finds himself so should they be there to help.

Like Jesus they saw that no man was too far lost, no evil too great to not be redeemed. And it was not those that life has blessed that were in need but those that are forsaken and downtrodden it was their duty to alleviate the suffering of.

Little more than a year into this reinvigorated service . one of the regular novinas she held resulted in a vision in which the the most blessed mother said that as a chosen handmaiden of his holiness Xavier Ann would be given responsibility for a vessel of Gods goodwill to man and with its voice , given by god, it would guide her to help those most lost of souls. And this vessel would shine with the light of its holiness. Yet also the vessel would be a symbol of the humbleness of faith. She was awed by this blessing and vowed to care for the vessel. It was exactly 9 days after her 9th day of novina that she was at the birth of a pure white donkey. She felt the spirit of God fill her and knew instantly and without a doubt that this was the vessel she had been entrusted with.

Now with Balaam , as she named the donkey, in tow (and almost always by her side) She took up service as a roaming nun in solitude. Not unknown for sisters to do in the great expanse of the west so as to have the greatest impact to the most. The spirit of the lord seemed to flow through her into the soil of the earth like a lightning bolt constantly as she let Balaam lead the way without fail. Some that Balaam led to had simple needs of extra hands to harvest or another beast of burden to pull a wagon. Others needed help with unspeakable things encroaching their meager land or with intangible matters of soul. Yet no matter how inconceivable the situation Sister Xavier Ann found the spirit that resided in her found a way to assist them. People and creatures of all types and stripes that she came across in her travels with her donkey.

Following his lead as the path of God is what eventually lead to Sister Xavier Ann finding herself in Brimstone.