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74-Year-Young Nun's Heavenly Touch Builds
Multimillion-Dollar Massage Empire
ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 25, 2004 - At 74, Sister
Rosalind Gefre certainly has the magic touch. Her massage ministry, once
considered controversial in the early 1980s, now boasts five
professional schools and five clinics in Minnesota and North Dakota with
total revenues expected to reach $3.1 million this year. Last year's
revenues were $2.8 million, and that was up from $2.1 million in 2002.
To date, more than 2,000 people have graduated from schools bearing her
name where they can take 38 courses in everything from sports massage
and foot reflexology to spirituality and massage.
All of this might seem quite remarkable for a woman
who was raised on a farm, dropped out of school in the eighth grade,
joined a convent at age 18 and had her first massage business raided by
the vice squad when she was 54.
But Sister Rosalind attributes her business acumen
to a higher power. "I saw massage as Jesus talking to people. We feel
very much that God is on our side," she recently told the St. Paul
Pioneer Press.
In fact, she even sees God's hand in the publicity
she received in 1983 when the vice squad briefly closed down her first
storefront massage business on St. Paul's Grand Avenue. The story of the
nun who was busted by the vice squad made headlines all over the world,
turning Sister Rosalind into an unlikely poster girl for the art of
therapeutic massage.
Today, the healthy glow of Sister Rosalind's
business, Sister Rosalind Gefre Schools and Clinics of Massage, and her
new nonprofit entity, Sister Rosalind Christian Ministries, is mirrored
in the increasing popularity of massage among ordinary people. According
to a study funded by the American Massage Therapy Association, one in
five Americans had a massage last year. Experts say massage is
increasingly popular among aging baby boomers and others who are coping
with stressful life situations.
Some of Sister Rosalind's biggest fans can be found
in the stands at the St. Paul Saints games, where the sister and her
students have been giving massages for more than a decade.
From August 26 to September 6 at the Minnesota
State Fair, Sister Rosalind's students will be giving free massages at
the St. Paul Saints booth located on the second floor of the Grand
Stand.
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