Nun Wins $1 Million on a Fling and a Prayer

A nun who has lived for 54 years under a vow of poverty became a millionaire Saturday in the lottery’s Big Spin game, pledging to use the money to support a financially strapped retirement home.

With members of the Sisters of St. Francis order cheering her on in the television studio audience, Sister Josephine Contris, 71, turned down a sure $40,000 to take a chance for the $1-million prize.

“I didn’t want to accept the $40,000. I wanted to take the chance so I did, and I’m ending up a millionaire--I mean, the community is,” she said.

Sister Josephine, assigned to the Mt. Alverno Convent in Redwood City, said she will turn the money over to her order with a request that it be used to support its Marian Residence retirement home in Santa Maria.

A lucky scratch card purchased in Redwood City gave Sister Josephine a chance to play the televised Big Spin game.

In the game’s first phase, she picked two numbers that gave her the choice of accepting $40,000 or trying for more by spinning the wheel.

At the wheel, prizes ranged from $30,000 to $1 million, lottery spokesman Bob Taylor said.

Several members of her order urged her to try for the big prize.

“The sisters always tell me I’m always lucky, so they told me: ‘Go for it. Don’t just take the $40,000. Go for the million dollars because you’re lucky.’ ”

She hopes that the money will be used to support the retirement home in Santa Maria, a community on California’s central coast. Twenty-seven nuns and a number of other people live at the home.

The home, where Sister Josephine expects to retire someday, has fallen on hard times, she said.

“For so many years we didn’t get any money for anything. Most of us are pretty well along in years, so we need to have something to take care of us,” she said.