This article originally appeared in the summer 2025 issue of The Vincentian, the quarterly newsletter of the Congregation of the Mission Western Province.
Anne Godar Julius can’t remember a time when she wasn’t surrounded by priests of the Congregation of the Mission.
In 1958, Margaret and Charles Godar moved their growing family to a seven-acre property in south St. Louis County within walking distance of the Catholic school.
“St. Catherine Labouré was a Vincentian parish,” says Anne, the fourth of seven children. “We were taught by the Daughters of Charity, and the spirit of service to others was ingrained in us at a very early age. We got an extra dose of it from my mom, who helped start the parish’s Louisettes for middle-school girls.”
Margaret didn’t drive, so it wasn’t uncommon for the parish priest to walk to the Godar’s home and chat about some charitable project or another. “We’d look out the window, and there was Fr. Bruns talking to my mom about a food drive or a coat drive while she was hanging out laundry on the clothesline.”
The Godars became good friends with the family a few doors up, the Muellers, including Gary Mueller, who later joined the Vincentians and currently serves as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Los Angeles.
Anne recalls spending time at St. Vincent’s parish in South St. Louis on Saturdays, securing Catholic supplies and religious articles to bring back to St. Catherine’s for the parishioners after Sunday Masses.
“The Vincentians have just been a part of our family,” Anne says.
Shortly after the Congregation of the Mission began its mission in Kenya in 1981, Margaret and Anne got on board to support the effort with a donation to sponsor a stained-glass window in the Damascus House chapel in Nairobi.
The Godar siblings are grateful for the example their mother set as they look fondly on being rooted in the spirit of Vincentian service and raised in the shadow of devoted priests whom they admire to this day.
From her deep desire to ensure the future vitality of the Vincentian community, Anne Julius has named the Congregation of the Mission in her estate plans.
“I feel grateful and blessed that they’ve been part of my whole life,” she says. “And there’s such a need, especially among their older priests in residence. If there is anything I can do to help, I want to do so.”
Caption: Jeanne Godar Kriss recently visited the stained-glass window her mother Margaret sponsored in the family’s name. Mrs. Godar loved Mary and chose a rendering of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.