Maryknoll Sisters

Maryknoll, NY: Sister Vivian Votruba died on March 22, 2018 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY. She was 98 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 77 years.

Vivian was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 3, 1920 to Irma (Cosgrove) Votruba and August Votruba. She had two brothers, John and William, all have predeceased her.

In 1937, Vivian graduated from Villa Sancta Scholastica High School in Duluth, Minnesota. From 1937-1940, she attended the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN to begin the process of earning her Bachelor of Science Degree. On July 2, 1940 she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Maryknoll, New York from St. Clement’s Parish, in the diocese of Duluth, MN.  At her Reception into the Congregation she retained her baptismal name of Vivian becoming Sister Mary Vivian. She made her First Profession of Vows on March 7, 1943 and her Final Profession of Vows on March 7, 1946.

From 1942-1943, Sister Vivian studied at Mount St. Vincent College in New York City and finished earning her Bachelor of Science Degree.  From 1943-1944, she attended classes at Maryknoll Teachers College in Maryknoll, New York.  She then went to Marquette School of Medicine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she earned a Degree as a Doctor of Medicine in 1947. Sister Vivian spent the next year doing her medical internship at Misericordia Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1948, Sister Vivian received her first overseas mission assignment to Bolivia where she did language study at CalaCala and began her medical ministry at the Maryknoll Hospital in Riberalta, Bolivia. For the next several years, Sister Vivian’s medical work took her to many places around the world: Azangaro, Peru in 1960; Biafra, in Nigeria, Africa, working with refugees in 1969; and back to Peru in Ica and Ciudad de Dios (outside of Lima) in 1970.

In 1982, Sister Vivian returned to Maryknoll, New York to serve in the Congregation’s Development Department’s World Awareness Program until 1985. She then served among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico before returning to Tacna, Peru in 1985. In 1991, Sister Vivian was assigned to Rosedale, Mississippi for three years to do pastoral work.  In 1995, she was assigned to Pogradec, Albania where she did medical and pastoral work, administrative work, and worked with women in need. In 1996, she was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters semi-retirement home in Monrovia, California where she did volunteer work.  In 2002, she returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, New York where she was an active volunteer doing clerical work in the Outpatient Clinic and accompanying elderly Sisters to their doctor’s visits.  From 2006-2008, Sister Vivian served as Co-Coordinator for the Chi-Rho Community at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

A Vespers service will be held for Sister Vivian on Monday, March 26, 2018 at 4:15 p.m. in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. A funeral Mass will follow on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. also in the Main Chapel at the Center. Interment will follow in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the Center grounds.

Maryknoll, NY: Maryknoll Sister, Sr. Aiko Oyabu, died on March 11, 2018 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY. She was 84 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 54 years.

Aiko was born in Amino, Takeno-Gun, Kyoto, Japan on October 28, 1933 to Wai (Mizukami) Oyabu and  Masuji Oyabu. She had five sisters, and two brothers. All have predeceased her except her sisters, Tomiko Nakajima, Mitsuyo Ikeda, and Harumi Yoshinari and her brothers, Magoshiro Oyabu and Hiroki Oyabu.

In 1952, Aiko graduated from St. Joseph Nissei High School, in Nishi Maizuru, Japan. She then attended Heian Junior College in Kyoto and graduated in 1954 with an Associate of Arts Degree.  Aiko then taught as a grade school teacher in a School at Novera, Kyoto for eight years before entering the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in the Philippine Islands on June 1, 1963.

At her Reception into the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation, Aiko received the religious name Sister Maria Assumpta.  She made her First Profession of Vows on March 16, 1966 in the Philippines. Then she was assigned to the Maryknoll Girls School in Yokkaichi, Japan to teach English and Christian Ethics in 1972. On January 2, 1972, she made her Final Vows in Japan and studied at Sophia University from 1973-1974. Sister Aiko then studied at Seisen Women’s College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature in 1977. Following graduation from Seisen she returned to teach in Yokkaichi until 1983 when she was assigned to Bolivia.

Sister Aiko’s ministry in Bolivia took her to Riberalta where she did pastoral work and helped form Basic Christian Communities from 1984 to 1987. She was then assigned to Capinota in the mountains of Bolivia and Cochabamba, where she was involved in formation of Basic Christian Communities, pastoral work, home visiting and youth work until 1992. In that year, she returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY where she worked in the Congregation’s Development Office until 1994. In 1995, she returned to Kyoto, Japan and Kamakura, working with immigrants from Bolivia and Peru and visiting Peruvians in prison until  1997. That same year she returned to Kyoto working with immigrants from Bolivia and Peru and with physically and mentally handicapped people until 2004.  In 2006, Sister Aiko retired to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York and joined the Chi Rho Community working as a volunteer, visiting the elderly and infirm Sisters.

A Vespers service will be held for Sister Aiko on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 4:15 p.m. in the Main Chapel at Maryknoll Sisters Center.  A Funeral Mass will follow on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. also in the Main Chapel at the Center. Interment will follow in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the Center grounds.