Top Ten Favorite Celluloid Sisters | Sojourners

Top Ten Favorite Celluloid Sisters

 ++ Join us in showing our appreciation for Catholic women religious (aka nuns or "sisters") on Thank-a-Nun Day, May 9. Click HERE to send a thank-you note online. ++

Silly and serious, strict and kind, profoundly faithful and sometimes hilarious — Catholic nuns are evergreen characters on the big (and the small) screens. Here's a list of some of our favorite portrayals of Catholic women religious from film and television.

1. Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) in Dead Man Walking

http://youtu.be/ih8z1jMnPbc

2. Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) in The Sound of Music

http://youtu.be/EoCPuhhE6dw

3. Sister Bertille (Sally Field) in The Flying Nun

http://youtu.be/FncIQW1SyXc

4. Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) in Doubt

http://youtu.be/6Iy23LVFG1w

5. Mother Superior (Ellen Burstyn) and Sister Sunday (Marley Shelton) in The Mighty Macs

http://youtu.be/HC_uTuXzWEY

6. Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) in The Bells of St. Mary's

http://youtu.be/7MctafuXLho

7. Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) and Sister Mary Patrick (Kathy Najimy) in Sister Act

http://youtu.be/37hkxf5RaXc

8. Sister Luke (Audrey Hepburn) in The Nun's Story

http://youtu.be/4Man0DywvP8

9. Sister Agnes (Meg Tilly) in Agnes of God

http://youtu.be/aYlgM4bPjL0

10. Sister Mary Stigmata aka "The Penguin (Kathleen Freeman) in The Blues Brothers

http://youtu.be/ujxDA9VsQG4

+Contains coarse language, but Sister Stigmata sets Jake and Elwood straight+

Cathleen Falsani is Web Editor and Director of New Media for Sojourners. Follow Cathleen on Twitter @GodGrrl.