Isle-born Maryknoller worked among the poor in Central America
This article is based on a Jan. 15 letter by Maryknoll Sister Janet S. Hockman “to sisters, family and friends.”
Big Island-born, Maui-raised Maryknoll Sister Beatrice Carvalho, who spent decades as a missioner in Central America and who also, for a while, brought her radiant smile and educational skill back to Hawaii, died at the Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care facility in Maryknoll, N.Y., on Jan. 10. She was 96, and a Maryknoll Sister for 76 years.
In her final years, Sister Beatrice could be found each morning sitting by her desk, facing the wall where a large crucifix hung. It was her prayer time and space into which others were graciously welcomed; no one left without receiving an intentional “thank you.”
Beatrice Dorothy Carvalho was born June 22, 1924, in Hawi on the Big Island to Margret Silva, a local-born Portuguese, and Eugene Carvalho who was from Puerto Rico. She had three sisters and four brothers. When Beatrice was a young child, the family moved to Wailuku, Maui, and into St. Anthony Parish.
She attended St. Anthony Grade and High School, where the Maryknoll Sisters taught, graduating in 1942.
It was as a high school freshman that Beatrice became interested in becoming a missionary. She read about the work and felt drawn to serve the poor. In her application to join Maryknoll, she noted the “lovely spirit of the sisters.”
Beatrice met Maryknoll’s Mother Mary Joseph during one of her visits to Hawaii and communication between the two developed a tender familiarity.
She joined Maryknoll in New York on Sept. 6, 1944. Upon becoming a novice in March of 1945, she was given the name Sister Rose Damien. She made her first vows in 1947 and her final vows in 1950, both at the New York motherhouse.
Also in 1950, Sister Rose Damien graduated from Maryknoll Teachers College in New York with a bachelor’s degree in education and received her first mission assignment to Central America, where she would give 30 years of generous service in Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico.
In Nicaragua, she was a first-grade teacher in a Maryknoll School. In Panama she taught catechetics to patients in a leprosy hospital, helped open a new Maryknoll house, and served as the director of a secondary school. For six of her Panama years, she was regional superior.
Assigned in 1961 to Mexico, Sister Beatrice was the principal of a primary and high school for girls and later taught English in a Jesuit school.
In 1971, Sister Beatrice asked for a temporary return to Hawaii when her mother became ill. After a year, she was assigned to the Central Pacific Region and returned to her alma mater, St. Anthony School, to teach Spanish, English and religion, and to serve as a class counselor and chairwoman of the school’s guidance department.
From 1980-1985, Sister Beatrice went back to the New York motherhouse to do administrative work.
In 1986, she returned to Central America, this time for 15 years in Guatemala caring for the residents of Mezquital, a squatters district on the outskirts of Guatemala City. There Sister Beatrice helped establish catechetical programs for public school youth and parish sacramental programs.
She then went to Chicago to be co-director of the orientation program for new Maryknoll candidates from 2001 to 2005.
Sister Beatrice retired to Monrovia, California, in 2006, returning to Maryknoll, N.Y. in 2012. In Monrovia and in New York, she remained connected with Central America through her many personal contacts and her ministry of prayer.
Her stories of mission experiences were always accompanied by her radiant smile, deep joy and great gratitude, and were always expressive of experiences of God in all. As her name implies (“bringer of joy”), Sister Beatrice has been a blessing with her even disposition, peaceful quietness of soul, and lovely aloha hospitality.
On her desk was a card which read: “God is saying to me: “Be still and know that I am LOVE!” I can repeat this slowly and often, and then hear God say: Be still and know LOVE! … and then hear God say: BE LOVE!”
Her funeral was Jan. 15 at Maryknoll, N.Y.
Condolences may be sent to Dennis and Charlotte Carvalho, 7728 Queensland Lane North, Maple Grove, MN 55311.
