EWTN Global Catholic Network will air four episodes of the classic television show starring Academy Award-Winning Actress Loretta Young.

These shows include “The Road to Lourdes,” which hasn’t been seen in its entirety since 1959, as well as three shows in which Young, who died in 2000, portrays the lovable Sister Ann.

Young’s daughter-in-law, Linda Lewis, tells why the actress’ estate decided to grant EWTN the rights to air “The Road to Lourdes” at this time.

“I woke up one morning and, in my head, I heard the words, ‘the road,’” Lewis said. “I thought, ‘The road? Why am I thinking about a road?’ I put on the coffee and forgot about it.”

Fortunately, the words kept coming back to her. So Lewis looked into her mother-in-law’s archives and found “The Road to Lourdes.” But she still didn’t understand why she was seemingly being guided to release this particular program, one of the only hour-long episodes in the normally half-hour series.

“Then, I found out this is the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Lourdes,” Lewis said. “[I believe Loretta] want[ed] me to get the show out!”

Lewis said this show, which kicked off the 1960 season of Young’s popular television series, was one of the actress’ favorites. However, its content was reportedly responsible for the series losing one of its biggest advertisers.  “They pulled their sponsorship because of the Catholic message,” Lewis said. “Loretta had to put her own money into it.”

“The Road to Lourdes” is somewhat darker than most of Young’s weekly shows. In it, she portrays a terminally-ill woman who is going down the wrong path until she experiences a radical conversion at Lourdes.

“This is a great addition to our programming,” said EWTN President Michael P. Warsaw. “The uplifting message that faith in Jesus Christ can save even the most hardened of souls made it a show EWTN thought was important to air, especially during Lourdes’ anniversary year.”

The Sister Ann stories will be very familiar to fans of Young’s show, which included more than 300 episodes and won three Emmys. However, Young’s oldest son, Chris Lewis, said that fans may not know that Sister Ann was based on a real person, someone Young met at a California hospital while recuperating from an illness.

“At St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, she met a nun by the name of Sister Mary Rose,” Chris said. “She was the go-to person at the hospital. Mom would hold onto people like that and like them because they could get things done. They were friends for the rest of her life. That nun was a character! I don’t know if they are true stories, but the character is based on this Sister Mary Rose, who she met in 1958 or ’57.”

Young was a huge motion picture star in the 1930s and 40s. At that time, television was a new medium that was looked down upon by the big studios. Young took a big risk in deciding to star in, and eventually produce, her own television show.

“The movie studios didn’t like her making TV shows,” Chris said. “They said, ‘If you do this, you will never make a movie again.’”

Fortunately, Young didn’t cave in to the pressure. Like Lucille Ball, she would become one of the first women in television to have her own show – and the first to have a television show that was not a situation comedy.
“Mom had a lot of input into the content of the show,” Chris continued. “She said, ‘My whole goal is to get one good idea into the mainstream of American life every week.’”

Son Chris said the networks constantly complained that the shows were “too Catholic, too religious.” But Young was a big enough star to challenge the studios, and the American public rewarded her with a nine-year run.

As she was nearing the end of her life, Chris asked his mother what she wanted the American public to know about her that they didn’t know already. She told him: “The only thing that’s important to me now would be to let people know how difficult it was to be a movie star and a Catholic. That is the thing I’m proudest of.”

“The Road to Lourdes” will air 10 p.m. ET Wednesday July 23 and 5 a.m. ET Saturday July 26. Episodes of “Sister Ann” will run 3 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. July 11 and December 22.

DVDs of these shows and copies of Young’s biography, “Forever Young,” are available from EWTN Religious Catalogue, www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com.