Snowbirds and RV enthusiasts Larry and Maria Pennefather are wintering in Cullman, to the amusement of family, friends and fellow campers who have never had the opportunity to visit North Alabama.

“Maria had a RV before I met her, a much smaller one; and she traveled with that,” said Larry. “She had some experience with it. I had none.”

The Pennefather’s are celebrating their second anniversary in April.

“After we got married, we took a couple of weekend trips,” said Larry. That’s when Maria approached him and asked “How do you feel about going full-time?”

Maria said, “I gave him all of the information.”

Larry’s response was “it’s doable. That is how we started.”

Maria said they pray about any big decisions so they began a 54-day rosary novena trying to discern if they should go forward with their plan. A rosary is a series of verbal prayers prayed while meditating on an event that occurred in the life of Christ. Half of the novena was prayed in petition, the other half in thanksgiving.

Larry laughs and says his nephew calls it the nuclear bomb prayer since it is so powerful.

The Pennefather’s bought an Allegro Phaeton made by Tiffan in Red Bay, Ala., in November 2005.

“We bought the coach up in Philadelphia,”where the couple is from, said Larry. There were warranty problems so the Pennefather’s had to think about traveling to Alabama.

While neither one knew anything about Alabama, Maria at least knew that Mother Angelica, the founder of the international Eternal Word Television Network was in Alabama.

“Before we go to Red Bay, let’s go see Mother Angelica,” said Maria.

Once the couple determined that Mother Angelica’s network was in Birmingham and her monastery was in Hanceville, they laid out a plan.

“When we looked how to get from Hanceville to Red Bay, we noticed that there was a campground in Cullman,” said Maria. “Warren and Shirley Hale run the Cullman Campground. They have treated us wonderfully at the campground.”

Red Bay is in Northern Alabama on the Mississippi border.

Daily Mass attendants, they began to go to the monastery on the weekend and Sacred Heart Catholic Church during the week. That was in March 2006.

“At that point, we knew nothing about the Abbey (St. Bernard’s), but we had gone to the Ave Maria grotto,” said Larry. “I understood there was a prep school there.”

The couple just didn’t realize they had Mass at the Abbey.

The Pennefathers found the parish community at Sacred Heart so friendly, including Fr. Kevin (McGrath), that they decided “We’re going to winter here,” said Maria.

“They (the parishioners) were just wonderful to us,” said Maria.

“It’s a big laugh with our RV friends,” said Larry. “They go to Arizona or to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas that has a huge RV park or to Florida.”

The Pennefather’s arrived in Cullman a second time following more repairs to their RV on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception -- a holy day of obligation for Catholic’s honoring Jesus’ mother who was born without Original Sin.

That is when they learned about the Mass at the Abbey and the Bendictine convent.

Maria said the people here call her and Larry “our snow birds” when introducing them.

Our friends still can’t belive we’re not heading to Florida, said Larry.

Larry writes a newsletter, said Maria. In it he refers to Cullman as a veritable Shangri-La for Catholics.

“People here take it all for granted,” said Larry.

The Pennefather’s can be found most week nights at St. Bernard’s Abbey 5 p.m. Mass.

Larry has a booming voice. Abbot Cletus Meagher said, “It’s nice to see that people come to Cullman and come to join us for prayer. I have met them. He has one powerful voice.”

Larry worked in radio news early in his career but spent the last 20 years as a financial adviser and money manager.

Maria retired a year ago and worked as a marriage and family therapist.

“I did a lot with premarried couples throughout the Philadelphia archdiocese. Fr. John (O’Donnell from Sacred Heart) is from Philadelphia. St. Christopher’s is the neighboring parish to St. Albert’s which is my church,” said Maria.

Larry is having shoulder surgery today at the Cullman Surgery Center and will face another surgery in June at UAB Medical Center.

The Pennefather’s trust God and believe he wants them here for some reason.

Maria said they touched a man they had met in Red Bay. He and his wife came up here and spent a week with us at the campground, said Maria.

The Pennefather’s suspected the couple was no longer practicing their faith. They took them to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville. In the upper Church, the Pennefather’s watched as the couple prayed before the El Nino statue dedicated to the child Jesus and the Blessed Mother statue.

The couple wept, said Maria.

The next day the wife called to say her husband had died of a stroke.

“I feel that was the reason for being detained the last time we were here,” said Maria.

“God has a plan and we’re just being open to God’s will.”