Lilies of the Field

The Lilies of the Field is a 1962 novel by William Edmund Barrett, who based his depiction of the sisters, partly upon the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of St. Walburga, originally located in Boulder Colorado. The novel was filmed as Lilies of the Field in 1963. Its lead actor, Sidney Poitier, won an Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Homer Smith. Plot Homer Smith, just out of the US Army, buys a station wagon in Seattle, equips it for sleeping in and sets out to see the West. Having learned many skills in the army, he picks up jobs as an itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades. One morning, Smith comes to a derelict-looking farm in a valley west of the Rocky Mountains. He sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly. The women, who speak German but very little English, appear to be Catholic nuns. He offers to do a small repair job and stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning. The next day, Smith tries to persuade the Mother superior to pay him, but it is clear that Old Mother—as he now calls her—is convinced he has been sent by God to build a church.