Two of Sister Mary Savio’s four major surgical procedures have been successfully completed. After four hours in surgery on Friday, her doctor decided to defer the remaining two until next week and give her several days to recover. After months of illness, investigation and treatment, there is much for which to thank God. There is also more surgery ahead, and almost half of the $92,000 required for her medical care still has to be found.
There is good news to report about Sister Mary Savio. After a late start on Friday, 25 September, she spent approximately four hours in surgery and successfully underwent the first two of the four procedures planned for this latest stage of her treatment. Her doctor then decided that enough had been attempted for one day and that the remaining two procedures should wait until next week, giving her the weekend to recover.
That is not a failure to complete the operation. Four substantial interventions were planned for four separate medical problems. After completing two of them, the surgeon judged it better not to ask more of Sister’s body until she had recovered some strength. Those awaiting news on Friday may therefore be grateful for what was achieved rather than anxious about what was postponed. Two procedures are safely behind her. Two remain.
It is the latest chapter in what has already been an exhausting year. Earlier in 2026 Sister Mary Savio was suffering severe pain and was eventually diagnosed with intracranial hypertension and compression around the C1–C2 area which was affecting venous drainage from her head. Specialist treatment was available in Germany, but the expense of obtaining it internationally was not covered by insurance. Her family and religious community turned to benefactors for help.¹
In June she travelled to Germany and underwent surgery on both sides of her neck to relieve the compression of the jugular veins. The operation was completed without surgical complication and, according to the subsequent appeal, brought real relief.¹ After the pain and uncertainty that preceded it, there was good reason to hope that a corner had finally been turned.
Within the following three months, however, new problems appeared. Sister developed worsening abdominal and back pain and began losing a significant amount of weight. Further investigation revealed four conditions requiring further surgery: damage requiring replacement of the L5 disc in her lower spine; May-Thurner syndrome, involving compression of a major pelvic vein; Nutcracker syndrome, involving compression of the vein draining the left kidney; and superior mesenteric artery syndrome, in which compression of the small intestine was making eating painful and contributing to her weight loss.¹
That medical history explains both the length of Friday’s surgery and the doctor’s decision to stop after four hours. It also explains the daunting cost. The present treatment and associated care have been estimated at $92,000. At the latest published count, $48,101 had been raised from 321 donations.¹ Those figures represent remarkable generosity, especially when friends and benefactors had already helped meet the cost of Sister’s German surgery only a few months earlier. But they also leave a substantial sum still to be found.
For Catholics there should be nothing unusual about answering such a need. St Paul’s command to “bear ye one another’s burdens” is not an attractive slogan for occasions when charity is convenient. Sometimes the burden is quite literally a bill which a family or religious community cannot carry alone. A few people can give a great deal; many can give something; and the weight becomes bearable because it is no longer borne by one household.
Sister Mary Savio has herself spent her religious life giving to others. Queen of All Saints Online Academy lists her as its First Communicant Instructor, entrusting to her the preparation of children for their first reception of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.² There is a fitting reciprocity in the faithful now helping to carry one who has devoted herself to the formation of the young. Religious profession does not exempt anyone from sickness or pain. Indeed, illness can be peculiarly hard upon someone accustomed to a life ordered around service, because suddenly she must permit others to serve her.
The spiritual response has therefore accompanied the practical one from the beginning. The Sisters are praying a novena to St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, culminating around her traditional feast on 3 October, for the success of Sister Mary Savio’s remaining procedures and for her full recovery. St Thérèse is an apt intercessor. Her final illness stripped away almost every appearance of usefulness and left her dependent upon others, yet it did not leave her spiritually inactive. The Little Way was precisely the discovery that what appears small, hidden or powerless can be offered to God with immense love.
That lesson matters during the days ahead. Sister can do very little now except recover and submit herself once again to the skill of her doctors. Her community and family cannot undergo the procedures for her. Most of us cannot materially change the medical situation at all. But helplessness and uselessness are not the same thing. The Church has always known what to do when human action reaches its limit: pray, offer the Holy Sacrifice, invoke the saints, make some sacrifice, and entrust what cannot be controlled to Providence.
Nor is prayer an alternative to medicine, as though faith began where clinical skill ended. The surgeon’s knowledge, the judgement required to stop after four hours, the nurses who watch over a recovering patient and the medical technology by which these conditions can be treated all belong to the natural means placed at our disposal. We pray that those means will succeed because Catholics have never been embarrassed to ask God to bless the work of human hands.
There remains also the financial need. Those able to contribute can donate directly to Sister Mary Savio’s medical appeal at https://gofund.me/953537258. There is no need to suppose that a small contribution is hardly worth making. Our Lord settled that question when He watched the widow put two mites into the treasury. Christian generosity is not measured by whether the gift impresses anybody.
Those who cannot give financially should not apologise for it. Join the novena. Remember Sister at Mass. Pray a Rosary for her recovery. Spend a few minutes before the Blessed Sacrament. Offer some inconvenience or suffering of your own. Pray also for her medical team, for the Sisters caring for her, and for her family, who have had to watch this long succession of medical difficulties unfold.
There is still uncertainty ahead. The remaining two procedures have to be completed, recovery will take time, and the financial appeal has not yet reached its goal. None of that diminishes what happened on Friday. After four hours in theatre, two serious procedures were successfully completed and Sister was able to begin recovering for the next stage.
We should therefore do what Catholics ought to do before immediately presenting God with the next petition: give thanks for the answer already received. Then we may return confidently to asking for what remains.
Deo gratias.
¹ Help Sister Mary Savio Receive Surgery — direct donation appeal; medical history, the four conditions requiring treatment, $92,000 target and fundraising progress.
² Queen of All Saints Online Academy — Our Staff — lists Sister Mary Savio as First Communicant Instructor.
³ Sisters of St Thomas Aquinas — GoFundMe Charity Profile — beneficiary information and earlier fundraising relating to Sister Mary Savio’s treatment.
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