Sister’s Move Marks the End of an Era
September 17, 2025
Sister Sandy Rodemyer, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is leaving Des Moines, ending 160 years of the BVM presence in the Diocese of Des Moines. She is moving to Mount Carmel Bluffs in Dubuque at the end of this month.
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The BVM community came to Iowa in 1843 after Bishop Mathias Loras invited them to Dubuque to teach.
From 1865, when the first BVM sisters came to teach at St. Ambrose Grade School at the invitation of the pastor, to today, more than 1,100 sisters served the Diocese of Des Moines.
They also served in Des Moines at St. Michael School, later known as Visitation, and St. John School until Holy Family School merged Visitation, St. John, and St. Ambrose schools.
The sisters were invited to teach in St. Francis parish grade school and high school in Council Bluffs in 1871. By 1873, they had opened St. Francis Academy, a boarding school.
In Des Moines, the sisters purchased the estate of WH Welch, located in a suburb called Greenwood Park in 1884. The home, christened Villa Maria, served as both school and convent until brick school buildings were built. St. Joseph Academy opened in 1885 and remained open until the merger of the academy and Dowling High School to create a coeducational high school in 1972.
BVM sisters also served at Christ the King Catholic School in Des Moines from 1980 until 1995.
As schools merged or closed, the sisters found other ways to live out their charism of “being freed and helping others to enjoy freedom in God’s steadfast love” through their core values of freedom, education, charity, and justice.
Some of those roles included serving the diocesan Schools Office, Family Life Office, and the Communications Office; in parish ministry; Drake campus ministry; a Drake Education Specialist counselor; at Mercy Medical Center as chaplain and volunteer visitors; the Beacon of Life Women Shelter; in Church Women United; teaching music; cooking at Orchard Place; assistant manager at Mercy Park apartments; prison ministry; the Iowa School for the Deaf; in senior day care centers; and nursing homes.
About 123 women entered the BVM community from Council Bluffs and Des Moines. Of those, 30 returned to serve their home Diocese.
Of those who entered from the Des Moines Diocese, four are living in Dubuque: Sisters Barbara Brooks, Kathleen Mullin, Carol Marie Baum, and Sandy Rodemyer.
Sister Sandy Rodemyer
Sister Sandy was raised in Des Moines in St. Augustin Parish and attended St. Joseph Academy.
“I always wanted to serve in my home Diocese, so I was thrilled to be assigned to teach at St. Albert High School for six years,” she said.
She was invited to teach in Iowa City and went there for three years. But she found herself yearning to return to Des Moines to serve with Bishop Maurice Dingman, whom she greatly admired. She joined the faculty of Dowling High School in 1974 and served there for 18 years.
She volunteered for 23 years in the Residents Encounter Christ retreat program at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women at Mitchellville. She served as the director of the Des Moines Area Religious Council Emergency Food Pantry for 12 years.
In nominating Sister Sandy for the Dowling Catholic Distinguished Alumni award in 2021, Kimberly Bowman, wrote: “She has kept the BVM sisterhood alive in the hearts and minds of those of us fortunate to have had them as our teachers. She has been a lifelong ambassador for social justice for all.”
