Amanda Schrauth processes to retrieve the offerings during her consecration Mass, with her attendants LuAnn Schrauth and Janelle Fulbright.
Bishop Michael Warfel presides over the consecration Mass of Amanda Schrauth at St. Ann’s Cathedral on January 1, 2018. Schrauth is a member of St. Leo Parish in Lewistown.
By Kristen McGuire
When Amanda Schrauth was in the third grade, she wrote a short paragraph for her teacher about her future plans. “I am never getting married, and I will not be a mother,” she stated. Amused, her mother saved the essay for her wedding day.
Amanda wore a white dress and made a promise on January 1, and her proud mother LuAnn Schrauth served as an attendant as she became a consecrated virgin, offering a life of prayer and sacrifice for the sake of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings. In essence, she married Jesus. And the members of the diocese are now her family.
“My calling as a consecrated virgin is to pray for the people of the diocese. That’s my job right now,” says Schrauth, age 26. A consecrated virgin is not the same as a member of a religious order. Schrauth did explore several women’s orders, and even entered the novitiate for one. But, somehow, she sensed it was not her path. “I could have stayed there and been happy. But I knew it wasn’t where God wanted me to be.”
Although she left the convent, she stumbled upon the concept of consecrated virgins while in formation there. Throughout her college years, she began to feel more and more drawn to her calling. After her parents moved from their native Wisconsin to Montana, she joined them in Lewistown. She gathered her courage and approached her pastor, Fr. Samuel Spiering, about her discernment of a vocation. “I didn’t know anything about consecrated virgins,” he recalls. “So, we learned together.”
On the way home from World Youth Day in Poland in 2016, she attended the annual convention of the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins (see box). It was like a homecoming for her. When she returned to Montana, she asked Fr. Spiering if she could petition the bishop. After due prayer and consideration, Bishop Warfel accepted her petition.
The diocese is not responsible for her livelihood. To this end, she is completing a masters degree in theology and currently works as a special education paraprofessional. Her thesis is on women mystics in the Middle Ages, a throwback to the roots of her vocation. She will remain in the world, like Catherine of Siena.
Saint Catherine was only 16 when she became a Dominican tertiary. “I might be the youngest consecrated virgin in the country,” confides Schrauth. That is good news for the Diocese.
What is a Consecrated Virgin?
According to Canon 604.1 of the Code of Canon Law, a consecrated virgin is “consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, [is] mystically betrothed to Christ, the Son of God, and [is] dedicated to the service of the Church.” For more information on consecrated virgins, visit the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins at consecratedvirgins.org.
Please help us continue
