By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Nov 20, 2021: The Pauline family has mourned their first two Indian members, who died within two days.
Sister Scholastica D’Souza, the first Indian to join the Daughters of St Paul, died November 18, aged 88.
A day earlier, Sister Maria Lucia Bernice Bouche of the Pious Disciples died after suffering from heart and metabolic problems for several years. She was 86.
While Sister Boucha died in Rome where she had spent decades, D’Souza passed away in Mumbai, the base of their Indian congregations.
A condolence message from the Daughters of St Paul’s headquarters in Rome, says Sister D’Souza’s “sole objective had been to do good through the good press, to reach everyone, and to not waste even a moment. She often said with conviction that everything is apostolate.”
Several Daughters of St Paul nuns told Matters India that they had learned a lot from their first Indian member.
Sister Rose Mary was impressed with their Indian pioneer’s simplicity, childlike attitude, and love for the congregation, especially the Indian province
Sister Theresina Thenasseril says Sister D’Souza’s “sweetness and gentle smile, through which her spirit of littleness shone, touched the hearts of her sisters as well as those who encountered her. Her way of narrating stories was special. We will miss her.”
Sister Anjana hails Sister D’Souza as “indeed a beautiful first flower in the garden of our Indian province. We are proud of you and salute you for all that you have done for the growth of our life and mission. You will continue to remain bloomed in the history of Indian daughters of St Paul.”
Sister D’Souza was born Philomena August 28, 1933, in Vile Parle, Mumbai, where the Daughters of St Paul had a convent across her house. The convent building was a former hospital where D’Souza was born. The nuns had come to India in 1951 at the invitation of Archbishop Valerian Gracias of Bombay, who later became India’s first cardinal.
Sister D’Souza used to narrate how she became a Daughter of St Paul. On her birthday after matriculation, she went to the convent to share the birthday sweets with the nuns. Sister Paola Cordero, one of the pioneers, gave her novena to St Paul and invited her to visit them again. A week later, Philomena decided to join the congregation.
Three years later she was sent to Rome for her novitiate. After the two-year novitiate, she returned to India and was appointed the bindery manager.
Sister D’Souza’s entrance helped the Italian pioneers in India, who were new to English, to quickly learn the language and begin their mission of spreading the Word of God and visit to families in their neighborhood.
“She also risked life during the Second World War. Thank you Sister Lucia for your holiness – little proclaimed and much lived among us Paulines,” said the priest who had observed her closely working in the kitchen of the Society of St Paul congregation in Rome.
Sister Bouche was born on September 14, 1935, in Rangoon (now Yangon), capital of Burma (Myanmar).
Father Stefano , a general councilor of says Sister Bouche is a symbol of millions of refugees, who are now forced to search refuge and security in other nations.
The nun had acknowledged her vocation to her coming to India as a refugee during the Second World War. “I think my vocation is special. I was a refugee and if I had stayed in my country, perhaps I would never have met the Pauline Family,” she said on her silver jubilee in the congregation.
She fled to India as an 9-year-old with mother and brother. After a day on the train they had to walk as railway lines were destroyed. They survived on what they found in the forest. After walking for some time, they found a hut where her mother died.
She and her brother were rescued by two Naga people who placed them in different barracks. She had not seen her brother since then and suspected that he was killed by the Naga head hunters.
Some British officers found her in the camp and took her to Allahabad. The first church she visited in India was under the Pauline priests. She was placed with the Canossian nuns where she spent 12 years. She used to visit the Paulines.
She was then introduced to the Pious Disciples and was impressed with their hard life and joined the congregation in 1955.
A year later, she went to Rome for novitiate training and made her first profession in 1958.
She spent most of her life as a cook in their convents and St Paul house in Mumbai and in Allahabad.
In 1975 she went to Rome again and for a few years served as a cook in a Society of St Paul house.
In 2003 she visited Myanmar and visited the cathedral where she was baptized.