Eleven pipers piping: The eleven faithful Apostles

Tradition holds that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostles went out to the corners of the earth to spread the good news.

Nearly 700 Sisters of Notre Dame have taken a new approach to spreading good news in life and after death. For more than 20 years, the sisters have been the subjects of a study of “Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders “with Dr. David Snowdon of the University of Kentucky. As a final gift to science, after each woman’s death her brain will be donated for examination. The research Snowdon has already compiled has contributed significantly to the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. According to the AP article on the study:

One reason the nuns are such a valuable research tool is that as members of the same religious order, they all had decades of similar medical treatment, diets, reproductive histories and preventive care. Almost nine out of 10 had been teachers.

In the general population, finding such a uniform pool of test subjects is difficult.

Sister Treanor, a 93-year-old former school principal who is one of the last of the volunteers at a Wilton convent, looks at her participation as service, not sacrifice.

"I've tried to do good while I'm alive, and I liked the idea that I could do something good after death," she said.

From their faith in their God and in science, we will all benefit.