Maryknoll, NY: Sister Catherine “Katie” Erisman, M.M. died on april 23, 2025 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 94 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 71 years.
On June 7, 1930, Catherine Jane Erisman was born in Framingham, MA to William and Mary P. O’Connell Erisman. She had three sisters; her sister Ann Garrahan, nieces, and nephews survive her.
From 1944-1948 Sister Katie attended Greenfield High School in Greenfield, MA. Katie began studies at Boston Children’s Hospital School of Nursing, and she graduated in October 1951. After working at this same hospital for one year, she began studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and attained her B.S. in Nursing in June 1954.
She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Maryknoll, NY from Sr. Joseph’s Parish in Needham, MA. She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on March 7, 1957 in Maryknoll, NY and her Final Vows on March 7, 1963 in Africa.
Shortly after professing her First Vows in 1957, she received her first mission assignment to Morogoro, Tanzania. Although being well prepared for health ministry with her BS in Nursing, she was assigned to be a teacher, first at Marian College in Morogoro, then Rosary College in Mwanza and then Rugambwa Secondary School in Bukoba where she was also Headmistress from 1965 to 1968. In 1969, as religious schools were being nationalized, Katie entered government service and taught at Machame Girls’ Secondary School, and in 1975, became one of the founding members of Nangwa Girls’ School, an experimental school.
After more than 20 years as an educator, she returned to Maryknoll, NY, to work in Congregational Health Services and was named Congregation Health Director. Completing that commitment, she had a calling to work among refugees and worked six months with Save the Children in Sudan. At the request of Maryknoll Sisters in Africa, she researched the refugee situation, needs and possibilities for mission among them. She visited the refugee camps in western Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia. The results of that research led her to Somalia where, together with a team of Maryknoll Sisters, she served as a nurse in eight refugee camps from 1987 to 1989.
In 1990, Katie helped staff the World Section House in Nairobi for two years and then went to Mwanza where she was a member of the HIV & AIDS Program of the Archdiocese. Refugee work called once again and she served eight years, first as Administrator and then as Tanzania Country Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in 1995-2002. During those years with JRS was with Rwandan and Burundian refugees as this program was established to serve those victims of the genocide who were living in camps in western Tanzania. Katie used her gifts of administration and organization to set up all that was needed for staff and volunteers to minister to those displaced individuals and their families.
Sister Katie returned the Maryknoll, NY in 2004 and in 2007 returned to Tanzania and participated in the Mwanza Diocesan HIV & AIDS Program while writing the history of the Maryknoll Sisters in Tanzania. In 2013 she returned to Maryknoll Sisters Center as Rogers Community Coordinator until 2015. Then, she semi-retired but offered her countless gifts in many ways. She was an amazing woman.
In 2024, when her health started to fail, Katie was assigned to the Eden Community. There she received the care she needed from the home care staff. Sister Katie has so generously donated her body to science.
Funeral Services:
A Vespers Service was held for Sister Catherine Erisman on May 13, 2025 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.
A Mass of Resurrection was held on May 14, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.