BRAINTREE -- In 2024, 10 years after coming to the U.S. from her native India, Sister Disciple of the Divine Master Nympha Crasta was feeling torn.

Sister Nympha, 62, has spent decades teaching young people about the faith and helping young women discern a vocation to religious life. In the Archdiocese of Boston, she has cared for retired priests at Regina Cleri, and staffed the Bethany Chapel and religious gift shop at the archdiocese's Pastoral Center in Braintree. The Sister Disciples in the U.S. and in India both said they needed her services.

"There was a back and forth," she said. "I wanted to discern exactly what the Lord wanted."

Far more women are discerning vocations like Sister Nympha's in India than the U.S. In India, there are 150 Sister Disciples in 22 communities. In the U.S., there are only 36, in four communities. Sister Nympha decided she was needed more stateside and informed her Mother General in Rome that she wanted to become a U.S. citizen and continue her ministry here.

"I feel so much that the people of the United States are so kind, so gentle, and they were such a vulnerable people," she said. "When I told some of them, my friends, they were extremely happy, as I was happy to apply for citizenship."

On May 14, Sister Nympha became "part of our great nation" in a ceremony at Faneuil Hall, alongside people from 62 countries. Her fellow sisters, some from as far as California and Ireland, were there. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch took her out to lunch. Father Robert O'Grady of The Pilot gave her a cake, complete with an edible U.S. flag.

"I'm very proud of it," she said. "I'm happy, extremely happy, and also becoming a part of this country, that is an overwhelming joy for me."

To become a citizen, Sister Nympha filled out an application and was interviewed. When asked why she wanted to be a citizen, she said, "Because I love this country, the people of America, and also my presence is very much needed here."

She was told that to become a U.S. citizen, she would have to renounce her Indian citizenship.

"Whether India or America, wherever we are, we serve the Lord," she told the interviewer.

In her time serving Boston, Sister Nympha has made many friends. After Mass on May 27, they greeted the newly minted citizen in the Pastoral Center gift shop.

"She is full of the joy of the Lord, that's the best way I can describe her," said Mary Ellen Cassani, who volunteers with Sister Nympha.

Visitors tell her about what's going on in their lives and families. They lament that their children and grandchildren no longer go to church. Sister Nympha tells the visitors to pray.

"We bring message, people come and share their problems, whatever they are going through," she said. "So sharing the Word of God with them also is a great part of our ministry here with the people."

Sister Nympha was born outside Mangaluru, a city roughly the size of Boston in Southwest India. Her baptismal name comes from a disciple of St. Paul mentioned in the Book of Colossians, who operated a church out of her home. Sister Nympha and her 10 older siblings were raised with strong Catholic faith in a predominantly Hindu town.

"I am so proud to be a Catholic, and I'm always grateful to my parents," she said.

Growing up in a house with 10 brothers and sisters was "fantastic." She worked and played on the family farm, which raised cattle, buffalo, ducks, goats, chickens, and pigs. Sister Nympha would come home from Catholic school each day to draw water from the well to heat over a wood fire for bathing. She picked grass by hand to feed the cows, which she would also milk. Outside the farm, she was a national-level athlete. Her favorite sports were kho kho, an ancient Indian game resembling tag; throwball, a version of volleyball that also originated in India; and running.

"I never thought I would become a nun," she said. "I always had a desire to become a sports teacher."

At Mass, she would pray before the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, asking her to lay out a path for her life. A Sister Disciple of the Divine Master came to Sister Nympha's village and invited her to spend three days at their convent, located 10 hours away. Inside the chapel, she saw the words from Isaiah 41:10: "Do not be afraid. I am with you." It was then that she realized that God was calling her to religious life.

Though her siblings didn't want her to leave, her parents supported her vocation. She professed her vows at 24 and went to work in the home of the bishop of Chennai. From there, she went to Puducherry to serve as a nurse for sisters and retired priests. She would dress their wounds, look after them when they were sick, give them checkups, and even wash their bodies after they died. It was a reminder of her own mortality.

"It's service-minded," she said. "You feel it's such a fragile body. Then we realize what we are, whatever as long as we are healthy, moving."

She would return to that role during the three years she spent at Regina Cleri, the Archdiocese of Boston's residence for retired priests. Hearing the priests' laughter ring out in the dining room and their singing the doxology while celebrating Mass in the chapel, was an "overwhelming joy."

"I learned a lot from them, how much they help each other, care for each other," she said. "Just how fragile they are."

She accompanied many of them in their last days, keeping watch in overnight vigils and praying the rosary over them. She has seen many of them take their last breaths.

"I would say that is the spirit of the congregation we have, because our role is like Mother Mary being at the side of Jesus," she said.

Sister Nympha doesn't know if she will spend the rest of her life in the U.S. She has no plans for the future, except to serve for as long as she is able.