By Rob Herbst, The Catholic Week
MOBILE – When Sister Damiana Pickett professed her first religious vows Sept. 8 in Kraków, Poland, it marked another step in a journey of faith that has included conversion, disappointment, perseverance and a call to serve those in need.
The 38-year-old Greenville, Mississippi, native, who once rejected Christianity and did not enter the Catholic Church until age 27, will profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience with the Congregation of Albertine Sisters Serving the Poor.
For Sister Damiana, formerly Zola Pickett, the path to religious life has hardly been a straight one.
She was raised in a Protestant family and remembers enjoying church as a young girl, particularly singing hymns and learning Bible stories in Sunday school. But by about age 11, she began wrestling with questions about her faith and said she could not find the answers she was seeking.

She eventually rejected Christianity during her teenage and young adult years, a period she said was increasingly affected by alcohol and drug abuse.
That changed Oct. 15, 2015.
Sister Damiana described that night as her “road to Damascus” moment.
“God gave a small whisper of grace into my heart that blinded my understanding with this intense light: He has loved me tremendously from the beginning of time, through every difficulty of my life, and He is always patiently waiting for His children to return to Him,” she said in an email interview.
While she keeps the words she experienced that night between herself and God, Sister Damiana said she came away with one unmistakable realization.
“God wanted me to belong completely to Him,” she said. “I had no idea what that looked like or how to achieve this, but I blindly resolved to try.”
She began attending RCIA (now OCIA) at St. James the Greater Parish in Tupelo, where she credits Father Lincoln Dall with patiently helping her find answers to questions about God, Christian life and prayer.
At the Easter Vigil in 2016, she was confirmed and received her first Holy Communion.
“It was the best moment of my life,” she said. “I truly can’t imagine how my life would be if I had not entered the Church.”
Her journey eventually brought her to the Archdiocese of Mobile.
Sister Damiana moved to Mobile in January 2019 to seriously discern religious life with a community in the archdiocese. She eventually found a parish home at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Chickasaw.
But in 2021, she said she was discouraged from applying to enter the community she had been discerning with after it was determined she was unlikely to do well in its formation program.
The setback left her questioning what she believed God had placed in her heart.
She credits St. Thomas pastor Father William Saucier with helping her through the disappointment.
“Father William Saucier was incredibly supportive during this time, listening to my pain but always encouraging me to start again,” she said. “Without his support, I don’t think I would have had the courage to go ‘back to square one’ and start contacting other religious communities.”
She did just that.
In January 2022, Sister Damiana entered formation with a contemplative community in Minnesota and said she was happy there. But an encounter with a homeless woman led her to question whether God was calling her elsewhere.
With her superior’s blessing, she began looking for communities whose apostolates involved direct service to those experiencing homelessness.
Her search led her to the Albertine Sisters.
Founded in Kraków in 1891 by St. Brother Albert Chmielowski and Blessed Sister Bernardyna Jabłońska, the Congregation of Albertine Sisters Serving the Poor is an international congregation of pontifical right and part of the Third Order Franciscan tradition.
Its charism, Sister Damiana explained, is to see the suffering Christ in each person and “to pour out our lives doing good for all.”
The sisters serve in shelters and soup kitchens for the homeless and poor, assisted living homes for people with physical or intellectual disabilities and homes for retired priests. They also perform mission work in Bolivia, Argentina and Ukraine. The congregation has three houses in the United States, including its American motherhouse in Hammond, Indiana, near Chicago.
Sister Damiana said reading about the congregation and its founder immediately struck a chord.
“I immediately felt like Saint Brother Albert understood my desires very deeply,” she said.
She contacted the congregation’s American motherhouse and was welcomed for a visit. During the Easter octave in 2023, she left the contemplative community to continue following where she believed God was leading her.
That journey ultimately took her to Kraków and two years in the novitiate.
Her religious name also reflects her desire to serve those who may be overlooked.
In 2020, Sister Damiana worked as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home and was among the few CNAs who volunteered to work with COVID-positive residents when needed.
During that time, St. Damien of Molokai, who ministered to people with leprosy in Hawaii, became a personal patron.
After joining the Albertines, she said she began reflecting on how the “leprosy” of sin can isolate people from God, others and even themselves.
“When I entered the novitiate and was able to choose my religious name, I knew it had to be Damiana,” she said.
During her first profession, Sister Damiana made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that will be binding for one year. She described poverty as sharing everything she is and has while keeping nothing for herself; chastity as loving God with an undivided heart and seeking Him and His kingdom; and obedience as seeking God’s will while setting aside her own preferences.
“In a certain sense, my religious life is only beginning on the day of my first vows,” she said. “My past two years of novitiate have been a time of preparation to live by these promises.”
Sister Damiana will remain in Kraków following her first profession. When she renews her vows next year, she could receive a new assignment.
For those discerning their own vocation, Sister Damiana recommends daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, the Rosary and making time for silence with God – even if only for five minutes.
But she has a particular message for those whose vocational journey has included the kind of disappointment she experienced.
“Don’t give up on God’s plan for you,” Sister Damiana said. “Our God turns bottomless oceans into dry land for us to walk across. Don’t listen to your fears; trust in God and let Him show you the path which He has set out for you.”
As her own path leads to the altar in Kraków, Sister Damiana is also asking for prayers.
“Please pray for me, my superiors, and all my sisters, that we may be beacons of hope and instruments of the Holy Spirit for the people we encounter in our lives and ministries.”