Laurie Malashanko is one of just a few hundred women in the United States who have vowed to remain lifelong virgins in service to the Catholic Church.

In June, Malashanko, along with Theresa Jordan and Karen Ervin of Michigan, took vows to become consecrated virgins members of an order of Catholic women who dedicate themselves to God in lifelong virginity in a solemn, wedding-like ceremony overseen by Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron. It was the first time the Archdiocese of Detroit had ever performed such a ceremony.