Fourteen young women recently professed perpetual vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience as Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia
Congregation in Nashville. Among those who made their perpetual profession was
Sister Mary Agatha Hester, a former parishioner of St. Anthony Mission in King
George in the Diocese of Arlington.
Sister Mary Agatha is the daughter of Col. Wes and Nancy Hester.
She is a graduate of King George High School and the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville, where she earned a bachelor’s in Middle Eastern Studies, and
Aquinas College in Nashville, where she earned a master’s in Elementary
Education. She currently is teaching at St. Mary School in Jackson, Tenn.
The Mass for the Rite of Perpetual Religious Profession was
celebrated at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville. Oklahoma
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley was the celebrant. The homilist was Dominican Father
James Sullivan.
In addition to the sisters making perpetual profession of vows,
nine young women professed their first vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
In 1860, the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia was
established in Nashville, where its motherhouse is located. The Sisters of St.
Cecilia are dedicated to the apostolate of Catholic education. The community
serves in 41 schools throughout the United States, including St. Thomas Aquinas
Regional School in Woodbridge and Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High
School in Dumfries.
