Avid teacher, artist took vows 76 years ago
Educator and artist Sister Julie Louise Thevenin of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary died peacefully in her sleep Jan. 26 at Malia O Ka Malu convent in Kaimuki. She was 97 and a religious sister for 76 years.
She loved teaching.
“Working with children has always been a delight,” she wrote last year on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of her religious vows.
“To see children grasp difficult points in learning, problems in math for example, and seeing how they have learned how to do algebra and geometry was always very rewarding,” she said.
“Helping students understand and come to believe in God’s love for them has been a great joy.”
Sister Julie Louise was born on Sept. 18, 1918, in Honolulu to Alfred Joseph Thevenin and Maile Elizabeth Cowan Thevenin. Her birth name was Violet.
Her relationship with the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts began early. Her grandmother was raised by the first Sacred Hearts Sisters to come to the Islands. Her mother and aunts were also raised by the sisters. Sister Julie Louise said that she herself was a boarder at Sacred Hearts Academy from age 3.
She attended the Academy from kindergarten through high school, graduating in 1936. She entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts two years later in 1938.
Sister Julie Louise taught at Sacred Hearts Academy from 1940 to 1959 and kept busy with numerous extra curricular activities on campus. She ran the Girl Scouts program, was responsible for the athletic club, directed the Junior Red Cross, was the advisor for the academy’s Audion yearbook and organized the school’s annual fair.
She lived in Paris for a year, from 1959 to 1960, to study art. She taught at Sacred Hearts Academy in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, from 1963 until 1968 when she moved to Gardena, California, to teach and later serve as principal at Maria Regina School.
Sister Julie Louise returned to Hawaii in 1982 and continued teaching mostly junior high and high school students until her retirement in 1984. Although residing at Regina Pacis Convent across the street from Sacred Hearts Academy, she maintained a lively interest in school activities. A prolific painter, her artwork was regularly showcased and sold at the Academy’s annual gala scholarship fundraisers.
Illness prompted her to retire at her congregation’s central infirmary at Malia O Ka Malu convent in 2014. She was able to attend the diocesan jubilarian celebration for priests and religious last year at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa marking her 75th anniversary of religious profession as a Sister of the Sacred Hearts.
She described her ministry at the time as “prayer, seeking and living God’s will for me.”
She had been hospitalized for a time, but had returned home under hospice care.
Sister Julie Louise was an advocate of peace and justice and spoke out often about what she felt needed to be corrected or addressed. True to the charism of her congregation, she brought all of these concerns to the Lord in eucharistic adoration.
She kept up her contacts with many of her students in Hawaii and on the Mainland.
Sister Julie Louise’s funeral was scheduled for Feb. 8 in the Sacred Hearts Academy Chapel. She was to be buried at Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe.
Sister Julie Louise is survived by nieces, a nephew and numerous cousins and friends. In lieu of flowers please give a donation to the Sacred Hearts Academy Scholarship Fund, 3253 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816.
