MBTI Type: INFP

Sister Frances manages to be both highly emotional and sufficiently detached from other people’s feelings; she can sit with and tend them in their grief without becoming overwhelmed by their pain. But she also gets upset on people’s behalf regularly, when she sees them being mistreated, neglected, abandoned, or abused. That’s when she is the most vocal, and willing to stand up to people—she uses her inferior Te to be demanding and confrontational when the situation calls for it. She has told people to calm down, go away, and be quiet, or to get in line and wait their turn. Frances is also more free-thinking than the other sisters; she is curious about life outside the convent and the ministry, even though she chose to be a nun for herself, because it felt like the right thing to do. She asks permission to read magazines in order to know what her young mothers might be interested in, so she can talk to them on a level they understand. Frances is also intuitive—she often phrases things in metaphors. When Sister Julienne is harmed in a train crash, the crushed Sister Frances admits she feels like the roof has collapsed and we will “all be washed away and drowned.” She likes change and is interested and curious about the future; Frances leaps into action to make things happen much of the time, including agreeing that they should teach very young girls about their monthly periods and “the facts of life.” She finds it hysterically funny, the sorts of questions the girls ask them that are unrelated to the topic at hand (“do dogs go to heaven?” “Yes,” Frances tells them; dogs have souls, and they go to heaven). Frances shows some Si in that she likes to be organized, she doesn’t mind routines, and she is highly responsible with the details of her job, but also shows some low thinking in how she overworks herself in trying to do everything that isn’t hers to do. Frances actually gets sick several times, because she’s taking on too much and isn’t aware of running herself down.

Enneagram: 6w5 so/sp

Sister Frances starts out very insecure as a midwife; she’s afraid that she will mess up or hurt one of the patients, and she defers to authority almost all the time—consulting the nuns and midwives whenever she tackles anything hard. But over time, she becomes more self-confident and takes matters more into her own hands. She still admits that she’s often afraid and wishes she could trust herself more, but as she gains experience, she allows herself to be more assertive with her patients. Sister Frances wants what’s best for them and often intervenes on their behalf, even becoming combative with the local authorities when her patients need help and aren’t receiving it. She has no real ego to speak of, but is generous and deferential most of the time. But she also wants to do things right and properly and gets upset when others aren’t also considerate of others. Frances has a sweet and sincere nature; she is self-deprecating and that easily makes the patients like her, because she’s just an ordinary person. (When a fashionable girl asks her if a new haircut would suit her face, Frances laughs and says as a nun, she’s not the right person to ask.) Frances has a 5 wing because she doesn’t shy away from what’s painful or hard; she’s able to go through the hardness of life, to see the sorrows, and not avoid it so much as learn all she can about it, so she can experience with others (she doesn’t reframe, avoid, or become impatient with sadness). She strives often to seem competent and efficient.

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