Remembering Sister Maria Agnes
On Thanksgiving last year, Sr. Maria Agnes was joking around with us that she would pose for her obituary photo. Here, she’s posing like St. Therese looking up to heaven!
Sister Maria Agnes of the Good Shepherd, O.P. passed away peacefully in her sleep at 11:45pm on Saturday, March 18, 2023. While she had been slowly declining and had to be moved to a nursing home to receive 24-hour care, her death was nonetheless a surprise. Her “Good Shepherd” called her to himself on the eve of Laetare Sunday, and as we sang the entrance antiphon the next morning, we couldn’t help thinking of Sister as we sang, “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, all you who love her! Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her.”
Sr. Maria Agnes was born Nelya S. Karasig on January 2, 1931 in Malolos, Bulacan, in the Philippines. Her parents, Jose Domingo Karasig and Cornelia Santiago Karasig, were both writers and Sister inherited from them a love for the written word. She also had a strong gift for music, being trained as a concert pianist. She converted to the Catholic faith while in college and felt drawn to the religious life. She graduated from the University of the Philippines, Quezon City, with a degree in liberal arts before entering the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in 1954, a community of teaching Sisters in the Philippines. She made first profession of vows on July 15, 1956 and final profession on May 31, 1961. During her time in the congregation she taught high school English, Spanish and religion and was a college instructor in theology, Spanish and music.
In August of 1973 she transferred here to the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit, NJ in order to fulfill her long-held desire for the contemplative life. She made solemn vows in the monastery on March 19, 1977. Just a few months later, in August of 1977, she returned to the Philippines with four other nuns to found a monastery of Dominican nuns there. She supported the foundation for several years before returning to here to the monastery in Summit, feeling called to make this her permanent home. On November 3, 1994, she became an American citizen. In 2003 the Cainta community elected her their prioress and she returned to the Philippines for three years to lead the sisters in living out their vocation.
In the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit, Sr. Maria Agnes served as librarian, archivist, chantress and organist, as well as doing a myriad of odd jobs with great generosity. She used to joke that she had a “P.H.D.” (Piled High and Deep!) in several sewing and cooking assignments which she had held for more than enough years to earn a real Ph.D. She had an incredible memory, playing all of her piano pieces from memory, including many she learned in childhood, and had an amazing ability to recall people she met decades ago with the precise date and circumstances of their meeting! Very gifted intellectually, she loved to learn and study, and was always eager to ask questions whenever lecturers came to us. Even towards the end of her life as she became more and more physically limited, she wanted to help the other sisters, whether preparing vegetables in the kitchen or folding laundry as she was able. She suffered from severe spinal stenosis which caused her to become increasingly bent over, and in constant pain. She offered this continual suffering up for the souls in purgatory and all the many other intentions which she carried in her heart. She would say that the doctors always wanted to make her completely pain-free, but we have to suffer in this life - we can’t be completely without pain, with nothing to offer to God.
Paul Ippolito Summit Memorial handled all of the arrangements for her funeral, as they have done gratis for us for many, many years. May God reward them for their faithful generosity to our community!
Below, you can watch a couple of videos of Sr. Maria Agnes playing the piano, the first a fun duet, and the second a classical piece. She was incredibly gifted!