Houston's Weekend Planning Guide

It was 1962 when William Barrett wrote his novel "The Lilies of the Field". The novel was based on a true story involving the Sisters of Walburga.

This is how the story goes:

Homer Smith, just out of the US Army, buys a station wagon in Seattle, equips it for sleeping in and sets out to see the West. Having learned many skills in the army, he picks up jobs as an itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades.

One morning, he comes to a derelict-looking farm in a valley west of the Rocky Mountains. He sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly. The women, who speak German but very little English, appear to be Catholic nuns. He offers to do a small repair job. He stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning. Next day, Smith tries to persuade the mother superior to pay him, but it is clear that Old Mother, as he now calls her, is convinced that Smith has been sent by God to build them a church.

The nuns – Mother Maria Marthe, sisters Gertrud, Albertine, Elizabeth and Agnes - have no money, subsist on little food and have no materials to build their church, Nevertheless, Smith, although a Baptist, agrees to stay on to help them with other small jobs, but realizes that he is unlikely to be paid for his labor.

Miller Outdoor Theatre
6000 Hermann Park Drive
Houston, Texas 77030
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Phone: 281-FREE-FUN or 281-373-3386