Pioneer Pauline Sister dies at 84

KOTA KINABALU – One of the pioneer Pauline Sisters in Malaysia died of pneumonia in St John of God Hospital Pasay City Philippines on 1 Feb 2018.  She was 84.

Born on 3 May 1933 in Iloilo, Lilia del Rosario entered the congregation of the Daughters of St Paul in Pasay City in 1956 after finishing secondary school.  She made her first profession in 1960, taking the name of Sister Rosaria.  After her final profession in 1965, she was sent to the newly opened community in Brickfields Kuala Lumpur (1965-1967).  After two years she was sent to Jesselton/Kota Kinabalu (1967-1969), and posted again to West Malaysia, this time in Petaling Jaya (the community moved from Brickfields to Petaling Jaya in 1969) where she stayed until 1972.

The Daughters of St Paul has two phases of foundation in Sabah (North Borneo before 1963); the first from 1961-1971 and the second from 1989 onwards.

“I stayed six years and seven months in Malaysia and I thank God for the many blessings I have received in the mission which strengthened my Pauline vocation,” Sr Rosaria wrote in the souvenir magazine commemorating the golden jubilee of the congregation in Malaysia in 2015.

Back in the Philippines she served in Iloilo, Pasay City, Bacolod, Zamboanga, and Naga.

When diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, she was transferred to the wing reserved for the sick and the elderly sisters in Pasay City.  But her illness did not rob her of her smile, her kindness and her attitude of gratitude toward everyone.

In late January 2018, she went down with pneumonia which made it necessary for her to be admitted to the hospital and it was there that she ended her earthly pilgrimage and entered into eternal rest on Thursday night at 11:50 pm.