Gentle Pioneer Called to Eternal Life

PASAY CITY, Philippines – Daughter of St Paul Sr Maria Bernarda Branzuela was called to eternal life on 28 September 2024 here.  She was 95.

Born in Sogod Cebu, Philippines, she entered the Daughters of St Paul in 1953. She made her first profession in 1957 and took her final vows six years later. Jovial yet gentle, she was a sister who passed on to her fellow sisters a deep love for the Word and a great desire to make it run to reach the hearts of everyone.

After her perpetual profession in 1962, she was sent to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) where the Pauline presence had been initiated a year earlier.  She spread the Gospel and books on human and Christian formation together with the other sisters there.    They courageously overcome the many difficulties encountered, especially in the villages, due to local languages and the scarcity of transportation and means of communication.  With bags full of books, they visited the different parts of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.  Periodically, they went to remote villages, visiting Christians and non-Christians alike.

In 1971, she returned to the Philippines to continue her itinerant mission in the dioceses of Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Naga, Vigan, Cebu, Tacloban, Zamboanga and Tuguegarao.  Her smile touched people’s hearts wherever she went.  Due to poor health, she had been assigned to the central house in Pasay City in the last fifteen years, where she helped in the bindery and mini-media departments as her health permitted.

On Sept 20, Sr Bernarda was hospitalized due to pneumonia.  Further diagnostic tests revealed a massive cardioembolic stroke that led to her encounter with the Lord eight days later.  Hers was a life poured out generously in an act of pure love. 

A tireless apostle, she had cultivated a yearning for an intensely contemplative life.  Perhaps this was the inspiration she confided to Fr Alberione, who wrote her on 5 Aug 1964: What is necessary is the cloister of the heart, detaching it from all earthly things and immersing it in God through prayer, with greater determination to engage one’s whole being.  Our work should always be for souls.  Do always the will of God. – Anna Yap fsp