Sister Maria Thyne, MM

Born: March 11, 1908
Entered: April 5, 1927
Died: March 6, 1959

This morning during our Community Mass, we were all startled to receive a phone call from Sister Thomas Ann, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, announcing that Sister Maria had quietly passed away.

Sister Maria (Edith Thyne) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 11,1908. She entered Maryknoll April 5, 1927 and made her first profession of Vows on October 28, 1929. After completing high school studies at the Venard she was assigned to study nursing at Providence Hospital in Seattle Washington. Upon graduation from Nursing School in 1933, Sister joined the staff at our Monrovia Sanatorium for one year, and in 1934 went to Manchuria. Sister was repatriated to the Motherhouse after the outbreak of hostilities in World War II, arriving home in August 1942.

The following year she was assigned to the Pacific Coast Region, and in 1946 she returned to Fushun. Later the same year the Sisters were forced to leave because of hostilities and Sister then went to Hong Kong and later to Kweilin and Laipo. In March 1951, she returned to the Motherhouse and for the past year was a devoted member of the staff of our Bethany infirmary. Sister Maria’s selfless devotedness to her patients has been commented upon by all who knew her.

The past four months of comparative inactivity were a naturally difficult time for her who had always been well and very active in the interest of the sick. However, Sister, realizing the probable seriousness of her illness, accepted as a special gift from God this period in which she lovingly prepared for her going Home.

Sister’s Requiem Mass was sung in the Bethany Chapel on Monday morning, March 9, and the interment was in the new cemetery where she was the first to rest near Mother Mary Joseph.

Please have the usual suffrages offered for Sister Maria’s precious soul. I know that as she was so generous in her service of others, you will be generous in your prayers for her.