CONYERS—Rising with the sun, Sister Irina pulls on her work clothes and heads out to look after her flock of chickens and a dozen roosters, all named after the apostles.

Strutting across the chicken yard is the rooster Matthew, with his bright red comb.

Beside her and inevitably getting her clothes dirty as they demand attention are two Great Pyrenees dogs guarding the birds from predators. There is Siena, as in St. Catherine of Siena, and Carlo, as in the soon-to-be canonized Carlo Acutis.

The time spent among the brush and caring for the seven chicken coops is how she lives out the Catholic practice of “Ora et Labora” (prayer and work).

Her home, neighboring the Our Loving Mother’s Children retreat center, is modest. This work is both her livelihood and a source of prayer as a consecrated hermit. By the time Sister Irina stands among the free-range chickens, she’s spent an hour in prayer with Scripture.

“I’m always able to keep my conversation with God, my interior conversation with God. If anything, it gets louder,” said Sister Irina of Mary about tending the flock. “Work is my prayer.”

She sells the eggs at $5 per dozen to visitors to support herself and helps guests at the retreat center, as necessary.

Here in Rockdale County, the 45-year-old woman has been confirmed in her calling to live a solitary, prayerful life guided by a self-written “Marian rule” and supported by the unexpected responsibilities of caring for more than 100 chickens. She joked she moved from Southern California to a Georgia farm as a city girl who “brought all the wrong shoes to the country.”

Sister Irina was born in Mexico, the youngest of four children. The family emigrated to California when she was 8 years old. Her mother, Adelina, raised and supported the family by cleaning hotel rooms.

The family had a Catholic upbringing, though the faith “stayed at the church” and didn’t deeply trickle into home life, said Sister Irina. Singing in the youth choir for weddings and quinceañeras kept her close to the church, an underappreciated impact at the time.

Her vocational journey has taken some 20 years. It started in her mid 20s during recovery from a health scare. She was once on the cusp of taking vows as a Carmelite sister but felt an inner conflict about it. Instead, she returned to California and found work in the mortgage industry. In her apartment, she created her own convent, keeping a discipline of prayer and work. “My house was my cloister,” she said.

A crucifix hangs behind Sister Irina as she stands inside the House of Divine Will at Our Loving Mother’s Children retreat center. She recently professed first vows as a consecrated hermit. Photo by Julianna Leopold

By 2023, she had learned about Our Loving Mother’s Children, better known as “The Farm” in Conyers, and how the Atlanta Archdiocese was open to this unique vocation. She reached an agreement with the leaders of the nonprofit retreat center to move here and serve as a sacristan, while discerning her desire to live as a hermit.

Sister Irina said she’s extremely grateful to Judy and Michael O’Connor of The Farm for their encouragement.

“Their support for my vocation is very important to me, and I will forever be grateful to them,” she said.

While mistaken for a nun in her habit and veil, Sister Irina isn’t part of a religious order. Instead, she’s living out a lesser-known vocation of a consecrated hermit. Unlike nuns and religious sisters, who live in a community and follow the rule of a specific order, hermits live in solitude, guided by prayer and silence.

As part of her formation, she wrote a two-page personal rule for her life. Working with livestock, she allowed God to guide her daily routine, shaped by the demands of the animals. Sister Irina also took inspiration from the life of the Blessed Mother, who “lived in her little house in Nazareth, went out to do the work she needed to, went back to her prayer life and her quiet life.” 

Her habit reflects her way of life. She sewed it herself with a pink tunic, chosen for its connection to joy, and a blue veil covering her hair honoring the Blessed Mother.

Hermits historically were members of a religious order, but people drawn to this vocation can also profess vows before a bishop. Church law recognizes hermits as members of the faithful who “devote their life to the praise of God and the salvation of the world through a stricter withdrawal from the world, the silence of solitude, and assiduous prayer and penance.”

In May, with her baptismal name Irina Zavala, she recited vows to Bishop John N. Tran, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, at a ceremony at St. Pius X Church, Conyers. With the vows, she promised to live for one year in poverty, chastity and obedience. In 2026, she could recite the vows, but this time they would be solemn and permanent.

To prepare for that moment, she hopes the next year allows her to “grow in fortitude and strengthen my conviction to surrender my life completely to God.”