Maryknoll Sisters

Sister Helen Werner, M.M. from Fowler, MI will be celebrating her 80th Jubilee this year.

Sister Helen entered Maryknoll from Fowler, MI on June 7, 1938, with a dream that started ten years before when she was eight and her older sister Dorothy (Sister Celine Marie) joined Maryknoll. This started Sister Helen’s missionary journey.

After graduation from Maryknoll Teachers College, Sister Helen was assigned to Panama in 1944 to teach school to the children of Jamaican immigrants for ten years in Panama City. She became very aware of the poverty and dehumanizing conditions of the inner city, a consciousness that never left her.

In 1954. Sister Helen applied to enter the Maryknoll cloister. For over thirty years, she was part of the Maryknoll cloister in New York, offering prayers and other support for the missionary activities of her brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Responding to a request from the Maryknoll Sisters in Guatemala, the Contemplative Community decided to go to El Quiche, an area badly affected by the violence that swept Guatemala in the 1980’s. Sister Helen was one of the three Sisters assigned to the small village of Lemoa.

The Maryknoll Sisters arrived in Guatemala on January 6, 1986, and had the opportunity to visit the Sisters and their ministries before going to Cochabamba, Bolivia, for language study. Their foundation in Lemoa was on August 15, 1986, when the Sisters of the Region came to join the people and the bishop to celebrate with them

Writing of her experiences at the end of her first year there, Sister Helen said, “The period I am in now has been the most satisfying time for me. It has brought me in touch with the simple faith and trust of the poor. What they suffer and what they share becomes a part of my prayer and enables me to grow in solidarity with them.”

Now, more than twenty years later, Sister Helen is still accompanying the people of El Quiche in their celebrations, in family deaths and anniversaries, in weddings, and in their prayers.

In Lemoa, the Maryknoll Sisters offer what hospitality they can. Sister Helen does outreach to sponsors for some students in the poor families the Maryknoll Sisters know. The students are eager to continue their education after primary school but have no means to do so.

Presently, Sister Helen helps fifteen students go to school. Through this, a beautiful relationship has developed, not only with the students but also with their families.

Sister Anne Karen Brannick, M.M. from Freeport, IL will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Anne is a native of Freeport, Illinois, and since her entrance into Maryknoll in 1943, she has given more than fifty years of ministry and service to her congregation and the people of Hawaii.

An earnest woman, Sister Anne Karen set out with quiet optimism to her first mission assignment in 1946, where she would devote herself during the next eighteen years.

On her arrival in Hawaii, Sister Anne Karen immersed herself wholeheartedly in social work through the diocesan social services office, serving with gentle devotion in numerous areas, especially foster homes. Sister Anne also acted as the Executive Administrative Assistant at Catholic Social Services before becoming the Maryknoll Superior for the Hawaii/Marshall Islands Region.

After two years of family ministry, Sister Anne Karen worked for another two in Monrovia, California. She served at the admissions office of Maryknoll’s Tuberculosis Hospital. Sister Anne Karen then returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY, where she worked for nine years at the reception desk and switchboard.

In 1983, Sister Anne Karen became the librarian at Rogers Library. Over 20 years in this post, Sister Anne oversaw research and periodicals and then acted as administrator.

In 2012, Sister Ann Karen was assigned to the Retirement Community at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York.

Sister Ann Carol Brielmaier, M.M. from St. Louis, MO will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Ann Carol Brielmaier, a native of St. Louis, entered Maryknoll in 1943.  A cheerful but reserved young woman with an earnest desire to spread the love of God, she soon found herself setting out for South China and forty-two years of foreign mission.

On arriving in 1947, Sister Ann Carol spent a year studying Cantonese in Wuchow before immersing herself in mission work.  She taught English, sewing, and Gregorian chant to Chinese Sisters at a Maryknoll-associated Novitiate until the Communist government placed her under house arrest in 1949.

It was not until 1951 that Sister Ann Carol and her companions were released into Hong Kong, but that very year, despite all that she had experienced, Sister Ann Carol succeeded in earning her B.A. in Geography and English at Hong Kong University.

In 1955, Sister Ann Carol taught sixth grade for a year before going to the Philippines to continue her studies. The next year, however, she was back in Hong Kong, serving first as the Principal of a girls’ high school and then as the Director of a girls’ hostel.  Sister Ann Carol taught and served as Principal by turns in secondary schools for the next twelve years, returning to the Maryknoll Center at the end of this period to offer Congregational Service as the Hospitality Coordinator.

Sister Ann Carol then spent four years as the Director of a Pastoral Center in Macau, where she sought to help the poor in their struggle to acquire necessary assistance from charities and governmental agencies.

In 1994, Sister Ann Carol returned to the U.S. to work in Maryknoll’s West Coast Promotion Office until her retirement in 2000.  She was an active and cheerful member of the Monrovia Community.

In 2012, Sister Carol Ann returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center for a joyful retirement.

Sister Rose Bernadette Gallagher, M.M. from Providence, RI will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sr. Rose Bernadette Gallagher was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She entered the Maryknoll Sisters in 1943. Sister Rose has served in the Chinese mainland, in Hong Kong, and in Thailand. Over more than sixty years, her ministries have included education, community development and women’s issues. Sister Rose was also Director of the Women’s Desk in Bangkok, Thailand for ten years.

From 1975-1977, Sister Rose worked at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in the Development Department.  She was shortly after assigned to Thailand where she remained until 2005.

In 2006, Sister Rose went to the Sudan for a short period of time and is now at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York, working in our Global Concerns Office, keeping up with the problem of the trafficking of women throughout the world, and attends meetings at the UN related to Women’s Advocacy

Sister Anne Teresa Kamachi, M.M. from Freeport, IL will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Ann Teresa Kamachi, MM, most recently with Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns, has been a Maryknoll Sister for over 70 years. She entered Maryknoll Sisters in 1943 from Manzanar, a Japanese-American internment camp in California, where she first encountered the Sisters at work.

Born in Shelton, WA, Sister Ann, who holds a BS in nursing from Providence Hospital, Seattle, WA, first served at a tuberculosis hospital run by Maryknoll in Monrovia, CA, from 1950-53. She then worked as a clinical instructor and nurse supervisor at Maryknoll Hospital, Kansas City, MO, from 1956-65, returning again to Monrovia, where she continued to practice nursing until 1968. That year, Sister Ann returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY, where she served as a nurse at Bethany House, the nursing home for the most elderly and infirm members of the congregation.

Sister Ann then worked from 1969-74 at the New England Medical Center Hospital, Boston, and as a private duty nurse in Boston’s Chinatown. In 1975, she was sent to Hawaii, where she worked in Honolulu, first with natural family planning from 1975-79, then in pastoral ministry from 1980-82.  Sister Ann then returned to the Center, where she worked in congregational services from 1982-1985. In 1986, she went again to Honolulu, HI, where she did hospice work at St. Francis Hospital from 1986-92 and pastoral ministry at Tripler Hospital from 1987-1992.  From 1991-2006, she was a Eucharistic minister at both St. Francis and Tripler Hospitals . She  has resided since 2007 at Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York.

Sister Cecilia LeBlanc, M.M. from Roxbury, MA will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Cecilia LeBlanc joined Maryknoll from St. Patrick’s Parish, Roxbury, MA in 1943. Her first assignment was to feed the hungry at the Maryknoll Fathers seminary, Mountain View, CA! In 1948 she went to Monrovia, CA where the Maryknoll Sisters administered a tuberculosis sanitarium, opened originally for the Japanese people who had been in concentration camps during WWII. While she worked in dietetics, and visited patients, she had the unique blessing of living with the Maryknoll Sisters Foundress, Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, and almost every evening she would drop in for a chat with her. On days off she was often included in car excursions with her—“I feel I came to know our Foundress in a very special way.”

In 1957, Sister Cecilia received an assignment to Africa where she spent thirteen years in Tanzania and Zambia. In Kowak she remembers a wood-burning cast iron stove in the kitchen which had Modern Mistress written across the oven door. Even while studying the Luo language she began visiting villages. Her ministries included catechetical work, teaching and school administration. In Isango Middle School she not only taught but “mothered” many of the young students. Away from their families, they experienced loneliness in a boarding school with many tribes. In Zambia she taught in Isoka Boys’ Secondary School.

Joining the Eastern U.S. Region in 1975, Sister Cecilia began thirteen years of teaching junior and senior high school classes in Stratford and Laconia, NH. She is presently a member of the Chi Rho Community at Maryknoll Sisters Center, Ossining, NY.

Sister Dolores Rosso, M.M. from Philadelphia, PA will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Dolores entered Maryknoll in 1943 from Philadelphia, PA. She has a B.Ed. from Maryknoll Teachers College and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Hawaii. In her third career she was appointed Director of the Maryknoll Sisters Archives in NY and for seven years assisted in the preparation of the move to the seminary building of the combined Maryknoll Mission Archives. She earned certificates in various aspects of archives documentation, preservation, storage, etc.

On her return to Hawaii she became Executive Director of the Spiritual Life Center, an ecumenical center for retreats, workshops and other activities, with a Contemplative Outreach Program.

After serving for a year as Regional Archivist, she was asked to return to New York as a member of the Planning Committee for both a General Assembly and an historic Congregational Gathering held in 1997.

Back in Hawaii, she was unanimously elected as Coordinator of the Regional Leadership Team for three years. Then got back to her work on the Central Pacific Region’s Archives related to education “which was our reason for being here from the beginning.” She was also asked to write the History of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hawaii.

“To keep my mind alert and following a long dormant desire, I have taken classes in Hawaiian language. Great teacher, great handouts, no tests, no required homework – no stress.”

On May 1, 2010, Sister Dolores was welcomed to the Chi Rho community in the Maryknoll Sisters Center, N.Y.

Sister Marian Dolores Schumacher, M.M. from Winona, MN will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sister Marian Dolores Schumacher has spent more than fifty years living out her loving dedication to God in teaching and pastoral work throughout Hawaii and Bolivia. A native of Winona, Minnesota, she entered Maryknoll in 1943 and was assigned to Hawaii six years later, immediately after receiving her Bachelor of Education at Maryknoll Teachers College.

In Hawaii, from 1949 to 1964, Sister Marian lovingly taught elementary, middle, and high school at St. Augustine and St. Ann Schools. She then became the Principal of St. Ann’s before transferring to St. John’s, from which she could also work towards her Masters Degree in Elementary Education at the University of Hawaii. In 1976, Sister Marian returned to St. Ann’s, where she taught first sixth and then fourth grade until 1984.

Sister Marian was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in 1984. During the three years that followed, Sister Marian offered congregational service in the Treasury Department and then the Mail Desk.

Then, in 1987, Sister Marian was assigned to Bolivia, where she eagerly dedicated herself to pastoral work, especially home visits, for several years. Though she returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center for a brief period of Congregational Service in 1993, she quickly found herself back in Bolivia, to remain until her retirement to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in 2004.

Sister Anne Sullivan, M.M. from Milwaukee, WI will be celebrating her 75th Jubilee this year.

Sr. Anne Sullivan entered Maryknoll from St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Milwaukee, WI. She began contemplating the religious life in her sophomore year of high school where she met a Maryknoll priest who was assigned as a teacher. She said, “Through Father John, I came to know and love the foreign mission work of Maryknoll.”

While working as a postal clerk in the U.S Government Post Office in Detroit, she applied to Maryknoll, and shortly after receiving a letter of acceptance from Mother Mary Joseph (foundress of Maryknoll Sisters), she entered the congregation in September 1943. Sister Anne made profession of vows in March 1946, and graduated from Maryknoll Teachers College with a Bachelor’s degree in education in 1949.

She was first assigned to New York Chinatown where she taught kindergarten at Transfiguration School for 4 years. She later spent 16 years in Hawaii teaching in secondary schools.

In the early 1970s, she served in education ministry in Guatemala. She taught ESL, music, and supervised primary school teachers. In addition to teaching, she was also involved with formation of Christian communities through prayer groups and home visiting.

Sister Anne returned to Maryknoll Sisters Center, New York in 1977. Since then she has served in various offices including reception, health care, and development. She is currently an active member in Maryknoll Sisters Eden Community.

Sister Mary Boyce, M.M. from Flushing, NY will be celebrating her 70th Jubilee this year.

Born in Flushing, NY, Sister Mary entered Maryknoll in 1948. When she received her first mission assignment to the Philippines in 1954, she understood that she would spend her entire life in the Far East. Later the time overseas was changed to ten year periods with renewal programs. She spent twenty-three years in the Philippines teaching in primary and secondary schools, and in pastoral/social work. After earning a Masters in Social Work from Catholic University, Washington, D.C., she established the Family Life Department at the Social Action Center for the Tagum Prelature. For two years she was part of a Maryknoll team of Sisters, priests and lay missioners animating Basic Ecclesial Communities in Venezuela.

In Concord, CA she began as a teacher-counselor for the physically challenged in the East Bay. Presently she collaborates with three parishes as a member of a Mission Outreach Committee; a transition team member and Co-Spiritual Director for St. Vincent de Paul’s Society; in bible reflection and prayer groups of small Christian communities; and continues to collaborate with housing for the homeless. Sister Mary received her Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA, and is a member of the Dominican Institute of the Arts. In 2007 she wrote a true story of twelve Maryknoll Sisters, including herself, and five Filipino men who spent sixteen hours in the shark-infested Mindanao deep sea after their boat capsized. Filipino fishermen rescued them.

For the past three decades, Sister Mary Boyce has been in California involved in ministries ranging from working in an emergency food bank to founding the Stockton Family Shelter to keep homeless families together during a time of emergency and find solutions and alternatives to their problems. She also worked with Western Social Services for immigrants.

Sister Mary Boyce writes and illustrates children’s books. Describing her creative, colorful “Fly Away Flowers” series, she shares that the suggestions from her three and a half year old grandniece, Emily Rose, made the story “theirs.”

In 2013, she was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center where she remains an active volunteer.