The Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Ind., elected Sister Anita Louise Lowe as their 14th prioress on June 4.
Sister Lowe will begin a six-year term of office with a formal installation ceremony at Monastery Immaculate Conception on July 13. She succeeds Sister Barbara Lynn Schmitz, who has served as prioress since 2013.
Sister Lowe, 54, is a native of Louisville and attended St. Lawrence Church prior to entering the monastery in 1987. She made her first profession of vows in 1989 and her perpetual vows in 1995.
She has been the director of liturgy at the monastery for the last 11 years.
Prior to that, she served in education, vocation and communications ministries.
She served as the coordinator for special projects in the Archdiocese of Louisville Vocation Office from 1998 to 2008.
In the Benedictine community in Ferdinand, she has served as assistant director of communications, public relations manager, assistant director of vocations and director of vocations.
She has also served as an English and French teacher.
Sister Lowe is a graduate of Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky., where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with a French minor and a secondary education certificate. She also holds a master’s degree in theology with a concentration in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame.
The prioress of the Sisters of St. Benedict is the religious community’s spiritual leader, chief administrator and official representative to the church and civic community.
