Sister Lucia D’Cunha celebrated her 40th anniversary at the 2017 World Day of Consecrated Mass celebrated in Corpus Christi Cathedral on Jan. 29.
Mary Cottingham, South Texas Catholic
Sister Lucia D’Cunha has always felt God’s presence in her life. Her upbringing prepared her for a life of poverty and her charism in education allowed her to serve God as a religious with the Sisters of St. Ann.
Sister Lucia was the fourth of five children born to Assumption and Bevinda D’Cunha in Gujarat, India on Nov. 18, 1951. Her parents were very religious and devoted to God. Her mother was an orphan and her dad had only his mother, whose constant presence in their home was a blessing.
When she received first Communion at the age of six until the present day, Sister Lucia’s spirit has been full. She awakes early everyday to go to Mass. “When I don’t receive communion, I feel that emptiness,” she said.
The children went to school, wore hand me downs and ate what was put on their table. It was a very simple time and the family prayed the rosary together every night, kneeling at the foot of their home altar. Sister Lucia enjoyed peace and joy in her family’s company. Her parents’ faith in God gave her the example to be joyful and thankful even during tough times.
Her father had been a foreman for the railroad and he traveled to different places with his wife always at his side. When her parents were away, their grandmother took over the care of the children.
After taking a voluntary retirement, her father moved the family to Goa, India and extended a two-room family house with his pension. He could not afford to have extra rooms built with stone, so when three monsoons came within a three-month span the house collapsed. Nothing was saved. As the walls were coming down Sister Lucia remembers her mom saying, “let’s pray.” As it happened, the contractors rebuilt the rooms again at no cost to the family.
“It was providential. We gave credit to God and my faith grew stronger,” Sister Lucia said.
Another event that deepened her faith was when thieves broke into their new convenience store. They took everything, but were unable to separate them from their faith; they hoped and they prayed. Neighbors brought food and water and Sister Lucia’s mother said, “see, God will provide.”
“We were happy, because we had God with us,” Sister Lucia said. She felt that if her mom and dad could live this way she could too, and it strengthened her faith even more.
After her schooling Sister Lucia taught at an elementary school. She walked 12 miles every day to teach poor children, getting a stipend of $2 a month, half of which she gave to her mom. Her parents helped her tutor after school and they bartered lessons for pigs, chicken, coconut liquor, homegrown vegetables and fruits.
Her brothers went to work in Bombay, sending money home when they could. When she turned 22, Sister Lucia traveled alone to north central India to Madhya Pradesh to discern at an eight-day religious retreat for young women, but she was lonely and left after only three days. She spent a year with her brothers, who missed her and pleaded with her to stay with them.
After one of her brothers married she went back to live with her parents in Goa. She was given a book on charisms and she picked Sisters of St. Ann–mostly because it was the first congregation listed in alphabetical order and their charism was education. She then wrote to the superior of St. Ann’s convent in Tivim, Goa requesting to join their congregation, which she did on June 22, 1973. Four years later, on Jan. 1, 1977, she made her first profession in Secunderabad, India. On Jan. 1, Sister Lucia celebrated her 40th anniversary of being a religious.
After her first profession she was sent to Bombay to finish her schooling, teach and work in the convent. One day while she was sweeping, she noticed a pain in her stomach. Her doctor found that she had an ovarian cyst and it was growing upward close to her heart. They told her if it touched her heart she would die.
She was sent back to Secunderabad. Her doctor, who happened to be Hindu, told her that she needed to pray to her God, because she would not operate due to the intense heat. There was no air conditioning at the time. Sister Lucia went inside the chapel, praying only, “I need your help, Lord if you want me to do your work, but if you want to take me that’s fine, too.” She went back outside to pouring rain. She had the surgery in the morning and the Hindu doctor told her she must be very close to God.
“The surgery was so successful that I went to teach within a month. I taught four year-olds and I needed no rest,” she said.
Sister Lucia received her bachelor’s degree at St. Theresa College in Eluru in three years. Then went on to receive a bachelor’s of education in Balarum. She can speak and write Konkani, Hindi and English fluently.
When she was taking her final tests for her bachelor’s of education, her superior told her to get a passport–she was sending her to the United States to teach. But first she had to go to Rome and see the Mother General who would decide if she was fit to do mission work. Excited and nervous at the same time, she took the remaining tests and passed with distinction.
She was allowed to visit her parents before leaving India and her parents gave her their blessing saying, “We have offered you to the lord. God bless you.”
She arrived in Rome on Jan. 25, 1987 and received the needed permission from the Mother General to go to America, but when she went to the consulate they did not give her permission to leave. She was told to ask her superior why she had to travel all the way from India to Rome in order to go to America. Every time she answered the consulate’s questions, she was given another question to take back to her superior. After the seventh time her superior gave her a letter from a cardinal in the Vatican to give to the consulate.
The consulate had no respect for the letter and told her that if she did not want to be sent back to India she would have to get permission from the Italian government to stay there. Sister Lucia prayed, “Lord I want to see a police officer who can help me get a sojourner’s permit.”
The consulate officer stamped her permit so many times that she could have stayed in Italy forever. Then her superior told her to buy a ticket for America. “I remember, because it was the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Sienna April 29, 1987. I got the earliest ticket. It was for May 1, 1987,” Sister Lucia said.
She went back to the consulate and showed her the ticket and she told me to bring the ticket back in three months. Sister Lucia recalls saying to herself, “Oh lady I’m not coming back.”
She arrived at St. Francis convent in Pennsylvania on May 1, 1987 and began student teaching and taking college courses. She taught in Pennsylvania for 12 years and in 1998 she arrived in Corpus Christi. Sister Lucia has taught at Christ the King, St. Patrick, Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School and now Holy Family.
“I love this country. This is my mission and I like to be joyful. I love my teaching and I love my students,” she said.