Four sisters from a Minnesota farm family who all became sisters would be story enough.

But the McDonald sisters, who joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in the 1940s and ’50s, did not lead lives revolving around rosaries and retreats. Brigid, Jane, Rita and Kate went full force into the peace and justice movement. They made a habit out of protest actions that started during the Vietnam War.

They chained themselves to Honeywell in Minneapolis during the Vietnam War to protest the company’s involvement in making weapons. They spent time in jail. They were regulars at the weekly peace protest on the Lake Street Bridge.

And their story is center stage at History Theatre. All four “Sisters of Peace” are expected to be at the world premiere Saturday.

“We’re humbled and honored,” Jane McDonald said. “It’s a little unnerving, to say the least.”

She’s quick to add that the focus of “Sisters of Peace” is “the peace and justice movement channeled through our experiences.”

But sister Sister Brigid contends “it’s about us in the peace movement.” The two younger sister sisters banter about the focus of the play, and Brigid says that’s nothing new. “We used to argue even when we agreed,” she says.

In separate phone interviews last week, it’s obvious which of the two is the jokester. Brigid describes herself as “goofy” and “lighthearted.” “If there’s no fun in it,” she says, “I’m not going to do it.”

Jane says the Vietnam War opened her eyes. That war was televised, and after that, wars were sanitized, she says. She talks of body bags, profound grief, coffins and rage.

“We didn’t start the justice and peace movement, but the timing was so right,” Jane says. “We were in a place to agree and chant with them.”

But a sense of humor permeates even the heaviest memories for both sisters. Jane says that though they were handcuffed when they were arrested (“several times”), they could still fold their hands to pray.

The four nuns were “always a kind of phenomenon,” Brigid says. When they visited the family farm in Hollywood Township near Watertown, people wanted to see them. (“We’re really from Hollywood,” Jane jokes. “You can tell from looking at us.”)

“People were kind of shocked,” Brigid says when one by one they joined the convent. “We weren’t real pious-type young persons.”

The family was part of a Catholic community in Carver County and said the rosary after supper, Jane says, but “there wasn’t a whole lot of recruitment” from religious orders.

The sisters didn’t talk about becoming nuns, Brigid says. It just sort of happened a couple of years apart for each of them. “We didn’t tell each other we were going.”

Rita, the oldest, is 96. She and Kate live in a memory care facility. Though they have memory struggles, “from the neck down, they’re fine,” Brigid says. “We’re all up there now,” she adds of their ages. “We’re a little less active.”

All four live in the Twin Cities. They moved to various “missions” as Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Brigid taught first grade for 30 years, living in Stillwater, White Bear Lake, Colorado and Honduras. The sister sisters rarely shared an address.

The sisters were interviewed extensively for the play, Brigid says. The stories are authentic, but the dialogue was embellished some.

She calls playwright Doris Baizley and St. Paul’s History Theatre creative and easy to work with. “If we’d say something, they’d respect it and change it if they could,” Brigid says. Some of the language in the play was a bit more colorful than what they’d use, and the McDonald sisters expect to have a lot of relatives seeing the show.

Though they’ve dedicated much of their life to promoting peace, the sisters “grew up in the shadow of war,” Jane says. Their father was in World War I, brothers were in World War II and the Korean War. “We’re blessed our brothers came home alive.”

“Our dad said, ‘The military took my sons and the convent is taking my daughters,’ ” Jane says.

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