Hawaii Catholic Herald
Maryknoll Sister Anne Correale, who began her mission life in Hawaii and remained here for two decades — first as an educator, then completing a certificate in nursing — died on April 4 in New York at age 94. Sister Anne was recovering from surgery at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll when she unexpectedly passed away.
Sister Correale was born in Troy, New York, on Sept. 30, 1930. She heard about the Maryknoll Sisters while in high school and felt called to serve God as a religious missioner. After graduating in 1948, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters in Maryknoll, New York; her religious name was Sister Jonathan (she reverted later in life to her baptismal name).
She earned a bachelor’s degree in education at Maryknoll Teachers College in 1954 and pronounced her final vows the same year — three years to the day after professing her first vows.
Sister Correale’s first assignment was to Hawaii in 1954. She was an elementary school teacher for many years on Oahu, in Kalihi Kai and Waialua, and in Wailuku, Maui.
“She was very artistic and she put this talent to excellent use in classrooms and community,” according to a release from the Maryknoll Congregational Leadership Team announcing Sister Correale’s death.
While in Hawaii, Sister Correale felt called to a different type of service. She studied for and received a certificate as a licensed practical nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu in 1976, which marked the start of the second phase of her missionary life.
She was called back to New York for congressional service and was a nurse at the Maryknoll Sisters’ Bethany Care Center until she applied for a mission to Indonesia. She arrived in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1982, and was appreciated for her diligent work as an outreach nurse at St. Joseph, the local hospital for the poor.
After seven years Sister Correale returned to New York but soon felt the pull of overseas service again. She was approved to work in Dhaka, Bangladesh, staying for a few years in the 1990s. She returned to New York in 1997 where she spent the rest of her days in various roles at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.
