SNELLVILLE—A Sister of the Visitation will make her solemn profession of vows at a Mass on Tuesday, May 13, at the Monastery of the Visitation. The community invites the public to come to the Mass, which will be celebrated by Bishop Luis R. Zarama at 10:30 a.m.

Sister Maria Gabriela Capuano, VHM, joined the monastic community over five years ago. She is 70 years old and has experienced polio and muscular dystrophy in her life, and “she is a dynamo,” said Mother Jane Frances Williams, VHM, the superior of the monastery.

Sister Maria Gabriela is a native of Colombia, South America, who has lived in Florida and New York, the mother superior said. She worked as a realtor and in the banking industry with her husband, who has passed away, and helped to raise the five children of an older sister, who died. She serves as the sacristan in the Monastery of the Visitation, a community of 12 sisters.

“We are very happy” she came to the monastery and found her new vocation here, Mother Jane Frances said.

Bishop Zarama, also a native of Colombia, celebrated the Mass where she made her first vows.

The Visitation order was founded in 1610 by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal and has always been welcoming of women from a wide range of life circumstances, including those who are older, with physical limitations and widowed. St. Jane Frances was herself a widow who had raised four children, founding the order after her husband died.

There are 150 Visitation monasteries around the world, the superior said. She also is a widow, who raised nine children and worked as a registered nurse before entering monastic life.

The monastery is located at 2055 Ridgedale Drive in Snellville. For more information, contact 770-972-1060.