Providing spiritual support to Order of Malta chaplains is the goal of a new Michigan Area apostolate, “Seven Dames and Fasting Knights.”

The apostolate is modeled on the Seven Sisters Apostolate and its male counterpart, the Fasting Brothers. The Seven Sisters was started in June 2011 by Janette Howe, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was inspired to pray more frequently and intentionally for her pastor, Fr. Joseph Johnson – a chaplain of the Order – and organized groups of seven women, each praying for their respective pastors and their intentions.

As the name suggests, a Seven Sisters group is composed of seven women who commit to pray a Holy Hour for their priests and their intentions. Each woman takes a different day of the week, so that the priest is prayed for every day. Ideally, the Holy Hour is prayed in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, either in an Adoration Chapel or in front of a Tabernacle. This generous commitment of one hour per week of prayer is asked for a period of one year, but can remain open-ended. 

The Fasting Brothers offer their fasts in conjunction with the Seven Sisters’ prayers. A Fasting Brothers group is composed of six men, with each man taking a different day of the week (Sundays excepted) on which to fast. As with the Seven Sisters, the Fasting Brothers’ commitment is for at least one year. Each man chooses what type of fast he will offer – e.g., no food all day, only bread and water, not eating until 3 p.m. – whatever he discerns from the Holy Spirit.

The prayers and fasting are offered for the priests’ intentions, sanctification, spiritual and temporal needs, ever-deepening devotion to Our Lady, and increased devotion to St. Joseph, model of fortitude and purity.

The women’s group is coordinated by an “Anchoress,” and an “Anchor” coordinates the fasting for the men.  To keep the focus on spiritual support, only the Anchoress and Anchor are known to the priests being prayed and fasted for, to convey any special intentions the priests may have to their respective groups. The other group members remain anonymous.

While ideally each group of women and men support one priest with their prayers and fasting, in this initial phase, the Michigan Area’s Seven Dames and Fasting Knights are praying and fasting for all three Area chaplains: Archbishop Allen Vigneron, GCChC; Msgr. Michael LeFevre, ChM; and Fr. John Maksym, Chaplain in Formation.

The apostolate was launched on September 7, the Feast of Our Lady of Victory (see “Michigan Area joins Maltese-American community at 16th Annual ‘Festa il-Vitorja’ in Detroit”).

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