Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary Mary Candelaria Pinuela Perania, who lived a full life as an educator, principal, religious superior, coordinator of Dominican lay associates and more died on March 1, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, at St. Francis Hospice. She was 67 and a religious sister for 45 years.
She served many years in Hawaii, arriving here from the Philippines in 1979, and in California. She became an American citizen in 2011.
“My goal in life is to serve the Lord unreservedly,” Sister Candelaria wrote in 2002 while at Holy Angels Convent in Colma, Calif. “I learned that if I offer my life to God fully, I am happier and more energized to do anything for him.”
Her funeral is April 7 at St. John the Baptist Church in Honolulu. The Dominican Sisters will have a private viewing with morning prayers at 9:30 a.m., followed by a 10 a.m. public viewing and Mass at 11 a.m. Her burial is 2 p.m. at Diamond Head Memorial Park.
Sister Mary Candelaria was born on Feb. 7, 1948, to Maria Pinuela and Joaquin Perania in San Isidro, Zarraga, Iloilo City in the Philippines, the 10th of 11 children. Her father was a farmer and her mother a housekeeper. As a child, she earned the nicknamed “Cadillac” because of her fascination with their neighbor’s car. Whenever she heard it, she would run outside and say “That’s my car.”
Sister Candelaria entered the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines in 1970. After receiving an elementary education degree from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo, she taught for two years in the Philippines.
She came to Hawaii in 1979 to work as a classroom teacher at Holy Cross School in Kalaheo, Kauai. The following year, she and three other sisters made their perpetual professions at St. Joseph Church in Makawao, Maui, before auxiliary Bishop of Honolulu Joseph A. Ferrario.
Subsequent assignments included St. Charles School in San Francisco, Holy Angels School in Colma, St. John the Baptist School in Kalihi, St. Joseph School in Makawao and the Dominican’s House of Aloha in Waianae.
In 2003, Sister Candelaria received her master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of San Francisco. A few years after, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Of this period in her life, Dominican Sister Estelita Jamelo, who helped with her caregiving, said: “Even though she was sick, she was still jolly. She liked driving around the coast by the sea as well as window shopping at Tanforan Mall” in San Bruno.
With chemotherapy and other treatments, Sister Candelaria’s cancer went into remission. In 2006, she accepted the position of acting principal at St. Joseph School in Makawao.
“Sister Candelaria loved teaching and easily made friends with the young and old,” Sister Estelita said. “Even when her strength was failing, she still wanted to go to the classroom.”
Sister Candelaria became a U.S. citizen in 2011. Her devotion to the Blessed Mother and her rosary were accompanied near the end of her life with the constant singing of a favorite song, the Dominican antiphon “O Spem Miram,” which goes “O wonderful hope, which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death, promising after your departure to be helpful to your brethren! Fulfill, O Father, what you have promised, and help us by your prayers.”
Sister Candelaria Perania is survived by four sisters in the Philippines, Felicitas Perania, Estelita Pilla, Violeta Matutino and Decina Betinala Perocho. Her last text message was to her niece, Johnna Luz Detorio of Maryland.
