Sisters mark 70 years of profession of vows

 

Sister Mary Stella Barrientes, IWBS
 

---

Three sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament celebrated 70 years in consecrated life on March 29. Observing this landmark of service to the Lord and his Church are Sister Mary Stella Barrientes, Sister Mary Christina Bradley and Sister Mary Lucy Garcia. 

Sister Mary Stella was baptized Maria Valdomera and was born in Port Isabel, Texas, on Feb. 27, 1914, to Pedro Barrientes and Romana Valent Barrientes. The family of 14 children included three sets of twins. After graduation from high school, she kept books for the family business then worked as a secretary at Brownsville City Hall for five years. 

After entering the convent, she continued her education at Del Mar College, Incarnate Word College in San Antonio and Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. She professed first vows in 1948 and began a lengthy teaching career in south Texas. 

Sister Mary Stella taught at Sacred Heart and Cathedral Schools in Corpus Christi, at Our Lady of Victory School in Beeville and Immaculate Conception School in Goliad.  In the Brownsville Diocese, she taught at Incarnate Word Academy, Villa Maria High School, Immaculate Conception School and at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Port Isabel.  She also served in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Villa Maria.

During her years of teaching, Sister Mary Stella shared her talents in art and dance, especially in the annual Villa Maria/Incarnate Word Academy production of A Little Bit of Mexico, a cultural program that introduced Charro Days in Brownsville each year. Sister Mary Stella’s class of dancers always delighted the audience and stole the show with their agile dance steps, costumes and expressions.

In addition to her teaching ministry in Catholic schools, Sister Mary Stella taught in the diocesan Pastoral Institute, conducted reading and art workshops and gave first aid classes for the American Red Cross. Her volunteer work with the Red Cross also included entertaining handicapped children.  She sponsored the Sodality and the Legion of Mary, and coordinated CCD and the Catholic Youth Organization. In 1995, Sister Mary Stella was honored for teaching religion in Brownsville for 25 years.

“My desire has always been to teach children about God and to bring the good news of salvation in all areas of my ministry. While I was teaching in the ESL Program in Brownsville, children from different parts of Mexico came to learn better communication in the English language, and they showed a great love of music and art in their final presentations.” 

Sister found great joy in sharing her arts and crafts and love of culture with her students and with the other sisters. She continued dancing at community functions well into her later years. This year, on Feb. 28, Sister Mary Stella marked her 104th birthday, and still celebrated the joy of the dance in her smiling eyes. She has often exclaimed in wonder, “It doesn’t feel that I have lived this long!”

Sister Mary Christina Bradley, IWBS

Sister Christina was baptized Ann Marie after her birth in Manhattan, New York. She grew up in the Bronx, one of eight children born to Patrick Bradley and Margaret O’Callaghan Bradley. At age 14 she followed her great aunt and an older cousin in their vocations as Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. She entered the Corpus Christi community and went through formation with her older sister, Sister Margaret Patrice, and professed their first vows in 1948. 

 “It was during my formation years that God’s plan for me began to unfold,” Sister Christina said. “I began to appreciate the importance of a deep prayer life, of what it meant to live in community and how a commitment to ongoing conversion sometimes involves growing pains.”

Eventually, the two Bradley sisters were joined by another sibling, Sister Marian Bradley, in the Incarnate Word community.

Sister Christina earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, and the Montessori International Diploma from the Montessori Institute in Washington, D.C. She began teaching in parish schools in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, served as principal of Cathedral School, and for many years was Director of the Incarnate Word Montessori School. 

 In the early 1960s, several parents asked the Incarnate Word Sisters to begin a Montessori school, so Sister Christina traveled to Washington, D.C. for the specialized training in the Montessori method of education.  In 1965, she was one of the founders of the first Montessori school at Incarnate Word in Corpus Christi. She and Sister Stanislaus Peña, both trained and certified by the Association Montessori International, began the school by opening two classrooms in the basement of Incarnate Word Convent on Alameda Street for three to five-year-olds. In addition to directing and teaching the IWA Montessori classes, she also trained many Montessori teachers in the South Texas area and welcomed other Montessori schools to observe classes at IWA. 

In 2015 Sister Christina was honored at the 50th anniversary of the Montessori school for her 37 years of dedicated service. Today the Montessori School is thriving, with classes extending from three-year-olds to fifth-grade students.  A new building for Montessori classes will open this year on the IWA campus.   

Sister Christina has said that one of her greatest pleasures was working with the youngest Montessori students, who “were a source of joy and kept me young at heart. No wonder Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.’”

In her ministry within the congregation, sister has served on various committees, has been the Director of Formation and has served as Sister-in-Charge of the Motherhouse. Throughout the years, she has served as an elected delegate to General Chapters of the Congregation. In every assignment, she is gentle and encouraging and full of good humor. In her retirement, she is still active, whether it be with art projects, prayer or helping out with community projects and activities. 

Sister Mary Lucy Garcia, IWBS

Sister Mary Lucy was born on June 15, 1927, in Brownsville to Juvencio J. Garcia and Anita Gavito Garcia. She was one of six children. She was taught by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word, graduating at age 15 from Villa Maria High School in Brownsville. She worked for three years before entering the Incarnate Word congregation in 1946.

Sister Mary Lucy earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, as well as masters degrees from St. Louis University and the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sister taught at Incarnate Word High School in Corpus Christi and Villa Maria High School and in Catholic schools in the dioceses of Brownsville and Corpus Christi. She also taught at Mary Immaculate College and Christopher College in Corpus Christi.

From 1991-1997, she volunteered to help the Incarnate Word Sisters of Mexico at St. Xavier High School in Nakuru, Kenya, where she served as headmistress of the school. During her tenure as headmistress, St. Xavier achieved high honors among the Kenyan schools, scoring in the top 100 high schools in the country. 

In her years of ministry outside of teaching, Sister Mary Lucy spent one year in McKinney, Texas, where she helped initiate the first Job Corps program for women. She worked in campus ministry at Del Mar College and at the University of Corpus Christi and served in pastoral ministry at St. Joseph Parish in Alice. 

During her retirement, she devoted her time to prayer and giving adult Bible Study Classes at the motherhouse and in various parishes.  

 Within the congregation, Sister Mary Lucy participated in all the activities of the community, including as choir director at the motherhouse; as sister-in-charge; as a volunteer on various commissions and committees; and actively participated as a delegate to the general chapters, held every four years to elect leadership and set direction for the future. She translated in both English and Spanish at the international reunions and translated documents and letters for the leadership in the process of reconfiguration of the Incarnate Word Congregations throughout the world. 

Sister Mary Lucy has loved and proclaimed Jesus and the Incarnate Word in her prayer and worship, her community living, her teaching, pastoral work, mission work and catechesis. In her retirement at the motherhouse, she continues to serve the Incarnate Word and her sisters in her sharing in community and her dedicated prayer for the needs of the community and the Church. 

“I am extremely grateful for a life intimate with God and for the many lives I have touched and in whom I have encountered Jesus,” Sister Mary Lucy said. “I thank God for the grace of perseverance. A vocation to religious life is a call from God.  If we persevere, it is God’s gift to us, because our human nature can get in the way, but with God all things are possible.”

These three sisters, along with five others, will be honored at the congregation’s Jubilee Celebration set for Saturday, April 14, with Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick Church in Corpus Christi. Bishop Michael Mulvey will preside, and a reception for the eight IWBS jubilarians will follow at the IWA Dougherty Center, 450 Chamberlain.