Maryknoll Sisters

Sister Rose Guercio, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister on February 12th, 2017. She was born in Astoria, NY and joined Maryknoll Sisters in 1947. She earned her R.N. from St. Mary’s School of Nursing, Rochester, Minnesota. Sister Rose was assigned to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1955, and supervised medical wards in a government hospitals until government regulations caused the Sisters departure.

Sister Rose was assigned to Korea in 1959 and her ministry was at the Maryknoll Hospital at Pusan. She was clinic supervisor and assistant administrator. Sister Rose then studied at Yonsei University in Seoul and from 1969-71, she worked at the Maryknoll Fathers Okchon Clinic in Chung Puk Do supervising and administering the clinic and initiating maternal/child health care programs. As an “exemplary health worker,”  Sister Rose was awarded a Civil Merit Medal.

For Sister Rose, “As a nurse the caring aspect of my work rather than the curing aspect became much more important.”

From 1972 until 1979, Sister Rose went to Jeung Pyeong where her main concern was to develop preventive health services. Sister Rose was Director-Founder of a pioneering Medical Insurance Cooperative, enrolling families with an affordable fee. The governor of Jeung Pyeong made her an honorary citizen of the province. “Not only has she given an example to all in the local community of her love and concern for our people but in the medical profession, Sister Rose has given freely of her time and energy.”

From 1979 – 1984, Sister Rose served as Assistant Treasurer at Maryknoll, N.Y. She returned to Korea in 1984 and became involved with work for the Korean Bishops’ Conference at the National Catholic Justice and Peace Commission. In 1994, Sister Rose worked at the Maryknoll Sisters Center and returned to korea in 1999 where she served as the International Coordinator of the Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice. Sister Rose retired in 2006 and is now residing at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

Sister Patricia Maher, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister on February 12th, 2017. She was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sister Patricia Maher entered Maryknoll in 1947. After earning her Bachelor of Education at Maryknoll Teachers College, she set out for the Philippines, where she taught for eight years at the high school high level, followed by five years as principal and head of teacher training.

Then, in the late 1960’s, Sister Pat returned to the U.S. to serve first as the Director of Community Roles at the Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and later as the Director of the Maryknoll Center Development Department.

In 1974, Sister Pat began her new mission to El Salvador, where, in addition to youth work with the Urban Leadership Training Center, she dedicated herself to extensive pastoral service among the poor. As she worked, however, Sister Pat quickly recognized the significant and dangerous nature of her mission. El Salvador’s current regime considered any gatherings highly suspicious, and this rendered human development work, even reading and writing instruction, difficult at best. Sister Pat found herself serving a people constantly terrorized by the American-backed government. In response to the desperate urgency for change, which was everywhere apparent, Sister Patricia worked fearlessly to bring the people’s terrible situation – and America’s responsibility – to light, on her return from El Salvador. Her words were punctuated by the shocking martyrdom of her Maryknoll replacement there in 1980.

Sister Pat spent the next twelve years working in the Harrisburg Diocese, serving its families and Spanish-speaking members. She then continued her missionary work for another twelve years in Bangledesh, Bolivia, and the Arlington Diocese, where she ministered to the Spanish-speaking population until her retirement in 2008 in Monorovia, California.  She is currently residing at the Maryknoll Sister Center.

Sister Pat Noble, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister on February 12th, 2017. She was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, entered Maryknoll in 1947 with a B.A. in English from Villa Maria.  In 1950, Sister Pat received her first mission assignment to Hawaii, where she would spend the next eleven years dedicated to teaching Middle and High School English.

Sister Pat next shifted her educational ministry to the College level and to the Philippines, where she spent the next four years as a Professor of English Literature.  On her temporary return to the U.S., Sister Pat earned her Masters in English Literature at St. Louis University before embarking again on educational ministry in the Philippines.

In 1972, Sister Pat offered nine years of Congregational Service in Supportive Services, Data Processing, and Central Service Education at the Maryknoll Center.  Sister Pat was assigned as the Rogers Library Administrator and later the official Librarian, after she received her Master of Library Science Degree from the Pratt Institute in 1982.

Five years later, Sister Pat joined Maryknoll’s retirement community in Monrovia, California, where she volunteered at the County Arboretum.  Sister Pat was also cited for the extensive service she gave to the Peace and Justice Center of Southern California in the organization of their library collection.

Since 2006, she has been an active and prayerful member of the Rogers Community at the Maryknoll Center.

Sister Nancy Thomas, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee on February 12th, 2017.

Sister Nancy is a member of Women in Black, a protest movement that circles the globe, including many cities in the U.S., to be united with women who suffer the effects of war and violence. They hold protest demonstrations every week for one hour on one of the busiest streets of Gilroy, California where Sister Nancy joins them dressed in black a symbol of their mourning and protest. She is also a volunteer with Emergency Housing Consortium of Santa Clara Valley, serving in the Emergency Shelter in Gilroy. The homeless are housed in the National Guard Armory from November until March from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., receive supper and breakfast, take showers, relax. She is a member of the task force for building a permanent Shelter, put on hold because of the economic crisis. Until recently Sister Nancy also worked with Community Solutions, advocating for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, accompanying the survivor to the hospital and courts. From June, 2005 to 2009, she served on the Maryknoll Sisters Western U.S. Regional Leadership Team. Assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Western U.S. Region, she began as a CCD Coordinator and Director of Religious Education in 1981.

Born in Washington D.C., Sister Nancy entered Maryknoll in 1947 and was assigned to Hawaii in 1952 where she taught in elementary school and served as principal for two decades. She was named the Director of the Promotion Office for mission education and fund raising at Maryknoll, NY. Assigned to Bolivia in 1975, she worked in the Rural Pastoral Institute in Riberalta, Pando Vicariate. In Cristo Rey parish, Cochabamba, she continued pastoral work in a poor barrio.

Sister Marilyn Ingraham, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee on February 12th, 2017. Sister Marilyn Ingraham has been a Maryknoll Sister for nearly 70 years.  The seeds for her life of service were planted many years before that, however, while she was yet a teenager.

When Sister Marilyn was only 13, her mother died in childbirth, leaving her husband to care for their brood of 10 children by himself.  Sister Marilyn’s only sister, Jean, helped with the cooking.  A while later, while reading stories about the lives of the saints, Sister Marilyn began thinking about a religious vocation. She found their lives of doing good and helping others an inspiration and thought she might become a nun, but she wanted to be a nun who had fun.

Her vocation began to solidify when, as part of her high school religious studies, she read Maryknoll Magazine. Even though she had never met a Maryknoll sister, she decided to join.

Sister Marilyn’s novitiate began at the Venard, a farmhouse in Pennsylvania where the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers operated a junior seminary.  There she and other Maryknoll Sisters helped out by cooking and cleaning for the seminarians.

As the taking of her final vows at Maryknoll approached in 1953, Sister Marilyn began dreaming of being sent overseas to the Philippines, China or Japan.  God, apparently, had other plans, because for the next two years, she taught first and second grade children in St. Louis, MO.

Then, in 1954, her call to foreign mission came. She was headed not to Asia but to South America, where she taught elementary school children in Peru from 1959-1969, then taught developmentally disabled children in Bolvia from 1969-1971.

Sister Marilyn then returned to the United States, teaching in Hatch, NM from 1972-1973, in San Diego, CA, from 1973-1974, and in Brockton, MA, from 1974-1984.

Then it was back, albeit briefly, to Bolivia, where she served as coordinator of Casa Rosario, the Maryknoll Sisters House for a summer, before embarking on four years of teaching in the Providence, RI, public schools.  Later, she taught and tutored Hispanic children at Holy Trinity Parish, Brooklyn, NY, from 1992-1997, also helping some students with their immigration problems from time to time.

Sister Marilyn now resides with several other Maryknoll Sisters in Yonkers, NY, and participates in the Maryknoll Affiliates NYC Subway group. She also dabbles in watercolor painting, volunteers at Maryknoll Home Care and, driven by a long-held commitment to peace and justice, write to Congress and other regarding social justice issues.

Sister Marilyn Evans, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee on February 12th, 2017. She is from Minneapolis, MN, a Montessori Early Education specialist, believes that education is a family affair.  Maybe that is why she’s just at home with elderly missioners as she has been with preschoolers.

A Maryknoll Sister for nearly 70 years, Sister Marilyn served for many years as coordinator of the Montessori Education Center at Maryknoll School, Honolulu, HI.  She then took three years off to serve as a social work assistant at Maryknoll Sisters Nursing Home ( now known as Maryknoll Home Care) where she worked with elderly and infirm members of her congregation.

Then, in 1991, came the request from Maryknoll Bishop Quinn Weitzel, MM, to serve in America Samoa. The bishop had visited the Education Center in Hawaii and been impressed with what was being accomplished and how the students were responding.  It seemed a perfect fit for the children in America Samoa, he thought, so he asked Sister Marilyn to begin a Montessori program for the school they had already set up there.

So would begin more than 20 years of ministry which, while sometimes challenging, would bring a great deal of satisfaction and joy to Sister Marilyn’s heart. “They have such beautiful customs and culture,” she recalled while chatting with one of our staff upon her return the United States in 2013. “It was so interesting to learn their culture and meet them that way. To meet their ideals and understanding and even have them learn about our culture, as well, particularly our high respect for children.”

During her more than two decades on the Island, she not only contributed to the lives of children but also provided the specialized training necessary for anyone who wanted to teach in a Montessorry school. Over time, several schools opened.  At first, the Sisters ran the schools; then, finally, as is always the plan of any Maryknoll missioner, the local people were ready and released to run the schools on their own.

Now retired and living at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Monrovia, CA, Sister Marilyn hopes to find avenues in which to exercise her gifts and experience and her love for children in the local area, near Los Angeles, or help in any other way that she can.

Sister Margaret Tryon, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee on February 12th, 2017. Sister Margaret Tryon entered Maryknoll on October 30, 1947 at Valley Park, Missouri from the Parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in Croydon, PA.

From 1950-1952, Sister Margaret studied at the New York State University of Applied Arts and Sciences and earned an Associate Degree in Food Service Administration.  In 1952, Sister Margaret worked in Bethany Kitchen.

Her first overseas assignment was in 1953 to Hawaii, where she taught in elementary schools before going to Micronesia where she taught on the Island of Majuro.

From 1971-72, Sister Margaret was at the Center in Central Services as Food Service Liaison.  Upon her return to Majuro, Sister Margaret taught one-half day; performed in-service teacher training for Micronesians, along with a radio ministry until 1978.  From 1978-1985, Sister Margaret worked in Hawaii in Pastoral ministry and Catechetics.

Later, Sister Margaret gave Center Service at Rogers Library from 1976-78.   After renewal, Sister Margaret returned to Hawaii and was involved in Pastoral Ministry from 1978-81 and Catechetics from 1981-85 in Hawaii.

Sister Margaret returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center and helped in Congregational Services until illness in her family necessitated her presence from 1990- 1992.

From 1993-1996, Sister Margaret did pastoral with women in Hawaii.

Sister Margaret resides at the Center and her Prayer Ministry is Central Pacific.

Sister Margaret Hennessey, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister on February 12th, 2017. Sister Margaret, known to all as Peg, forms part of a pastoral/medical team that works with the poor and homeless and those afflicted with HIV/AIDS in Lima, Peru.

Sister Peg Hennessey of Flushing, NY entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1947, having graduated from Bishop McDonnell High School in Brooklyn, NY. After earning her R.N. at St.Catherine’s Hospital School of Nursing, Sister Peg was assigned to Bolivia in 1953 where she worked in a parish clinic in Cochabamba for three years. She then went to the jungle mission of Riberalta, Beni, Bolivia, where she worked in the Sisters’ hospital. In 1960 she was assigned to the town of Azangaro in the Altiplano of Peru, where she did home visiting and worked in an out-patient clinic. After 3 years, the town of Juli, Peru, received her. There she did catechetical work. Sister Peg also did nursing in a government clinic. It was there that she saw the need for health education. She then began to teach in the newly formed Rural Life Institute. Sister returned to the U.S. where she earned a B.A. in Community Service. Returning to Peru, she continued her nursing and health education as well as the training of Rural Life Promoters in the town of Ilave, another Altiplano area. 1976 found Sister Peg in Lima, Peru, where she was instrumental in founding the Peruvian Missionary Society with Fr. Tom Garrity, M.M. She continued her formation work for the next 4 years in Villa El Salvador while becoming active in nursing those afflicted with tuberculosis. In 1984 Sister moved to the pueblo of Pachacamac in Lima where she again worked with those with tuberculosis, the #1 cause of death both among the poor of Lima and among women of childbearing age. She considered that tuberculosis was caused as much by poverty as by germs. “While living in Pachacamac some of my neighbors were afflicted with AIDS and I started to learn more about this recent disease. Over the last few years this has led to my participation on a team that visits HIV/AIDS patients both at home and in the hospital. Some of the team members also prepare monthly retreat days for the patients. I continue to care for people with TB.” It was here that Sr. Peg began Health-Life and Hope, a group that tried to help members overcome ignorance, isolation and despair.

Currently, Sr. Margaret has returned to the Sisters Center where she in an active member of the Chi Rho community.

Sister Kathleen Higgins, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee on February 12th, 2017. She was born in Brooklyn, entered Maryknoll in 1947.  After earning her B.E. at Maryknoll Teachers College, she taught primary school in New York’s Chinatown for five years before setting out on foreign mission to Chile.

On her arrival, Sister Kathleen first dedicated herself to a year of language study.  She then continued her education ministry in primary and secondary school until 1967, when her ministry shifted to pastoral work.

Sister returned to Chile after a six-month furlough and immediately immersed herself in teaching and catechesis.  Full of love for the Chilean people, she served as Coordinator of Religious Education for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade children.  In addition to this she moderated the parish youth group, taught English and Religion, and even acted as Middle School Principal for a time.

Then, in 1972, Sister Kathleen returned to the Center, where she worked in Information Services and Direct Mail until 1974.  She next spent a year working in New Jersey with the Cuban population before going again to Chile to devote herself to another almost ten years of pastoral and catechetical work, including ministry to women and youth.  During her final two years in South America, Sister Kathleen gave her love and energy in the slums, ministering to the poor and marginalized through soup kitchens, sewing groups, and many other types of service.

Since 1984, Sister has worked in various U.S. mission centers, first at the Center and the Seminary, then in NYC, San Jose, Redwood City, Los Angeles, and finally Monrovia, where she remains today.  Throughout these years she has served in pastoral, teaching, and catechetical work:  serving in numerous ways, from homeless shelters and RCIA programs to Bible groups and ESL classes.  Today she is an active and loving member of the Monrovia community.

Sister Jean Fallon, M.M. celebrated her 70^th Jubilee as a Maryknoll Sister on February 12th, 2017. She was born in Seattle, WA, on May 7, 1930, Sister Jean Fallon entered Maryknoll sisters from St. Joseph’s Parish, Seattle, at their motherhouse, Maryknoll, NY, on September 6, 1947.  She made her first profession on March 7, 1950, receiving the religious name Sister M. Therese Martin, and her final vows on March 7, 1953, in Saiin, Japan.

Her first assignment was as a parish catechetical worker in Kyoto, Japan, where she served from 1951-1953. She then continued the same work at a parishes in Saiin, Japan, from 1953-1955; Ostu from 1955-1962, Takano from 1962-1965, and Yokkaichi from 1965-1969.

Sister Jean then returned to Kyoto where she was an English teacher as well as parish worker there, as well as in Tsu and Mie Ken from 1969-1971.  She was then appointed to the congregation’s Regional Governing Board, working as well in communications, retreat work, as a bookkeeper and English teacher from 1971-1973. She also worked in Christian community formation in 1973.

Sister Jean then returned to the United States, where she served on the congregation’s World Awareness Team for the western States from 1974-1979.

Later in 1979, she returned to Japan, where she first became involved in justice and peace ministry, conducting exposure programs for religious, while also serving as a media work translator and English teacher, from 1979-2000.

She then returned to the United States, where she worked as an associate of Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY, from 2001-2006.  She continues to be active in speaking and demonstrating on peace and justice issues in the New York Metropolitan area, as well as serving short-term with Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization working for peace in the most deeply war-torn areas of the world.