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Sister Miriam Holzman’s white habit was crisp and clean as she settled in beside her microphone on a Wednesday morning in late March, her wire frame glasses tucked into her black veil. A silver pendant depicting the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus gleamed around her neck under the bright lights of a recording studio in Michigan. Behind her, a well-styled bookshelf bore a Bible dictionary, a set of Catholic encyclopedias and several fake plants.
Across the table, Sister John Dominic Rasmussen sat ready to record an upcoming episode of “Dominican Sisters Open Mic,” a new podcast produced by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor. (The women are referred to as sisters, not nuns, who are cloistered.)
In each episode, a host, typically Sister Miriam, 44, interviews a guest, usually another sister, about her life, covering subjects like her education — several of the women have Ph.D.s — or her conversion journey. While the topics themselves might sound weighty, the conversations are often quite wide-ranging, like a dialogue between two, well, sisters.
The show is just one of several efforts the sisters have undertaken in recent years to spread their religious message to a wider audience in “the new public square,” Sister John Dominic, 61, said. In 2010, she was among several sisters who appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in a segment about convent life.
Since the podcast debuted in January, the sisters have found viral success on TikTok, where clips from the show have garnered millions of views and comments from fans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, who find themselves mesmerized by the sisters’ soothing timbres and unrelenting positivity.
In their most popular clip, Sister Miriam and another sister are discussing playing ultimate Frisbee.
“Sister, and you are so good at that,” Sister Miriam says to her guest, complimenting her skills on the field. At the time, she thought she was offering up nothing more than an honest assessment of athleticism, she said.
Online, however, the line took on a life of its own.
Check out an interview with Sister John Dominic below.
