Annella Zervas

Did You Know?

• Zervas was fond of reading Geert Groote's The Following of Christ.
• When her mother remarked that there was no Saint Annella, she replied, 'Then I shall have to be the first one!'
• A persistent folk belief holds that snow does not fall on her grave and the ground above it does not freeze.

Early life

The family attended St. Joseph Catholic Church, where Hubert served as choir director and was a Knight of Columbus. The parochial school was staffed by Benedictine monks and sisters. During summer 1915, Zervas told the pastor, Alfred Mayer, that she wished to enter the convent. Mayer encouraged her, and though her parents were reluctant to let her go at such a young age, he advised them not to hinder her. Her father later wrote that they gladly gave back to God the child they had received from Him.

Affliction

In summer 1923, Zervas noticed an itchy reddish-brown patch on her arm, and her body began to swell. By April 1924, her parents were called to her hospital bedside; her mother initially did not recognize her, as her hair was nearly gone and her face was blotchy. In June 1924, she was transferred to the Mayo Clinic, where she was diagnosed with pityriasis rubra pilaris, an inherited disease with no known cure. She was then moved to Worrell Hospital, where nurses found changing her bandages so unpleasant that they asked to be reassigned.

Her skin became so sensitive that lukewarm water felt scalding. Dermatologist Elizabeth Blixt has suggested that erythroderma, a complication causing full-body redness and flaking, may have contributed to her death by disrupting heat regulation and causing electrolyte imbalances. During severe pain, Zervas would say, 'Yes, Lord, send me more pain, but give me strength to bear it.'

Decline and death

In summer 1924, Zervas's parents visited abbess Louise Walz, and when her condition became terminal, Zervas was taken home to Moorhead. A remission occurred in the fall through diet and osteopathic treatments, and her family expected full recovery, but Zervas herself remained resigned to God's will. She told her mother that if the disease left her, God would have taken it, and she wanted only what He willed. In summer 1926, a fit of pain struck her after leaving the confessional, and the disease returned fully. A novena was offered at Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, New York. She died at 3:15 a.m. on August 14, 1926, the Vigil of the Feast of the Assumption. After a requiem Mass in Moorhead, she was buried in the cemetery at St. Benedict's.

Legacy

By 1927, a few cures through Zervas's intercession were reported. In 1929, the St. Paul Daily News claimed hundreds of cures and thousands seeking relief at her grave. By 1930, women asked to have their sick children sleep in her deathbed. In 1932, a woman reported relief from backache after using water from a vine taken from the grave.

By the 1940s, a rumor held that the grass on her grave stays green year-round. Bishop Joseph Busch asked Benedictine priest Alexius Hoffmann to investigate the cultus and any miraculous interventions. In April 1927, Hoffmann reported five cures and submitted a biographical sketch by Zervas's parents. Devotion spread through a booklet by Joseph Kreuter, An Apostle of Suffering in Our Day, first published in the Josephinum Weekly and later as a booklet in multiple editions and translations. Interest waned during the 1960s but revived around 2008. Someone continues to place flowers on her grave regularly.