Milwaukee, Wis., Sep 3, 2007 / 10:32 am
A 41-year-old coffee shop owner in Waukesha, Wisconsin, has decided to take vows as a consecrated virgin.
Eileen Belongea learned about this vocation in 1999 while visiting one of her sisters, who is a nun with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in southern Illinois.
"The Lord has given me the grace of virginity," she told the Associated Press. "It is he who has preserved it my whole life, and I offer it back to him. Through God's consecration, through the hands of the bishop, I'll receive the strength and the grace that I will need."
Bolongea owns the Brewers Two Cafe at Meadowbrook Marketplace, as well as two other coffee shops, with her twin sister. She says others find her choice intriguing and want to learn more about it.