• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Amanda Krow, a nurse who has ministered to the elderly with the Little Sisters of the Poor, is planning to become a member of the women's religious community. (Courtesy Little Sisters of the Poor)

Waiting to join Little Sisters, nurse says God ‘wanted me here’

November 4, 2020
By Mary K. Tilghman
Catholic Review
Filed Under: #IamCatholic, Coronavirus, Feature, Local News, News, Vocations

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn
Amanda Krow, center, has worked with the Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Martin’s Home for the Aged in Catonsville. She is shown with Sister Lawrence Mary Pocock (left) and Mother Joseph Caroline Beutler. (Courtesy Little Sisters of the Poor)

The coronavirus pandemic changed the course of Amanda Krow’s discernment of religious life.

Krow has considered life as a Little Sister of the Poor. If there hadn’t been a COVID-19 quarantine, the parishioner of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore would have left for a pre-postulancy semester of religious studies before spending a month in a Little Sisters community elsewhere.

The registered nurse described what has happened instead as a blessing. Since January, she has both lived and worked at the Little Sisters of the Poor-sponsored St. Martin’s Home for the Aged in Catonsville.

Krow, 27, who grew up in Lancaster, Pa., and in Denton on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, had already earned her bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology when she realized three years ago that she wanted to care for sick humans.

Soon after she moved to Baltimore to earn her master’s degree at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Krow settled in at the basilica parish and joined its young people’s group. She became more involved in parish life, joining in volunteer work, attending Mass and praying more – and thinking differently about her future.

“My whole life was thinking who I was correlated with my job and career,” Krow said. “I never asked myself, what about religious life? Or asked God.”

She turned for guidance to the rector of the basilica, Father James E. Boric. He  knew of Krow’s work as a nurse at Hopkins and her desire to serve the church, and said that the connection to the Little Sisters of the Poor seemed obvious. The sisters were gathering at the Basilica for the order’s 150th anniversary celebration Mass, and Father Boric invited Krow. 

“I just wanted to introduce her to the sisters,” he said. “They really hit it off well.” 

Krow said she was immediately touched when she met the Little Sisters for the first time and learned of their devotion to the elderly, their vow of hospitality and their deep love and joy.

Little Sister of the Poor Catherine Bierster poses with Amanda Krow, a registered nurse who is becoming a Little Sister of the Poor. (Courtesy Little Sisters of the Poor)

Still, she took her time responding to their invitation to visit their home. Once Krow did, she began to volunteer and then took part in prayers and meals. 

Seeing the sisters in action impelled her to join. She was touched by how they accompanied people at the end of their lives.

“It pulled at my heartstrings,” Krow said. 

“I fell in love with the Little Sisters of the Poor right away.,” she said. “I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”

By July 2019, she was convinced she had a vocation.

“I knew that’s where I wanted to be,” she said.

Krow sees God’s plan for her unfolding in several of the steps she has taken: deciding to become a nurse, moving to Baltimore, going to Mass at the basilica and, finally, meeting the Little Sisters of the Poor. 

“He still led me to where I knew my vocation would be.”

She quit her position on the medical surgical floor at Hopkins to accept one at at St. Martin’s. Krow didn’t just get a job. She moved into one of St. Martin’s independent-living apartments, where she got to know her aged neighbors. 

“They’re such a great bunch of people,” Krow said of the residents.

That was in January 2020. Eight weeks later, the pandemic forced the home into a strict lockdown to protect the residents and the staff. Krow said it also means she won’t be able to officially enter the postulancy until 2021.

She hopes to spend an immersive month in a Little Sister’s house in the Bronx; her pre-postulancy studies would be spent at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill., next fall, all part of an eight-year process toward becoming a Little Sister of the Poor.

She doesn’t mind the delay. Krow enjoys working and living among the sisters and the elderly residents of St. Martin’s. There have been challenges – she hasn’t seen her family except for a short visit for her grandfather’s funeral – but there have been joys, too.

And she remembers she might have missed this opportunity if she hadn’t taken the job in January.

“Everything worked out as it should,” she said. “He (God) really wanted me here.”

More Vocations Coverage

Archbishop Lori ordains five transitional deacons

Archbishop Lori to ordain five transitional deacons May 3 

All the pope’s women: How Francis’ legacy is shaping the next chapter of the church

Bishop Adam Parker celebrates 25 years of priesthood

Oldest religious sister in U.S. turns 112; ‘Her presence, her joy’ is real, says prioress

Clericalism was chief target of Pope Francis’ teaching

Copyright © 2020 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Mary K. Tilghman

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Chicago native Cardinal Prevost elected pope, takes name Leo XIV

  • U.S. cardinal’s résumé, demeanor land him on ‘papabile’ lists

  • St. Carlo and timing

  • Who was Pope Leo XIII, the father of social doctrine?

  • Kenyan cardinal claims he wasn’t invited for conclave; Vatican says invite is automatic

| Latest Local News |

Baltimore-area Catholics pray for new pope, express excitement for his leadership

Archbishop Lori surprised, heartened by selection of American pope

Missionary discipleship sees growth after Seek the City initiative

Knights of Columbus honored for pro-life support

Cumberland Knott scholar Joseph Khachan a perfect fit for program’s mission in Western Maryland  

| Latest World News |

Pope Leo to inaugurate his papacy May 18; a look at his May calendar

Report: Some House GOP members object to removing Planned Parenthood funds from Trump bill

New pope calls for Christian witness in world that finds faith ‘absurd’

Full text of first public homily of Pope Leo XIV

Midwest Augustinians celebrate in Pope Leo XIV a brother ‘rooted in the spirit of St. Augustine’

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope Leo to inaugurate his papacy May 18; a look at his May calendar
  • Report: Some House GOP members object to removing Planned Parenthood funds from Trump bill
  • Movie Review: ‘Another Simple Favor’
  • New pope calls for Christian witness in world that finds faith ‘absurd’
  • Full text of first public homily of Pope Leo XIV
  • Midwest Augustinians celebrate in Pope Leo XIV a brother ‘rooted in the spirit of St. Augustine’
  • Pope Leo XIV: A biographical timeline
  • First American pope: White Sox fan, Villanova grad, Peru missionary, Vatican leader
  • Baltimore-area Catholics pray for new pope, express excitement for his leadership

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED