Sister Mary Teresita Wong, MM

Born: January 3, 1907
Entered: July 21, 1929
Died: February 13, 1935

Sister Mary Teresita Wong died on February 13, 1935 at the Maryknoll Sisters Sanitorium in Monrovia California.

Phyllis Wong was born in 1907 in Hong Kong to a very prominent physician trained in England, Dr. Peter Wong-Quincy and Rose Yeung from Canton, China. She had three brothers. Her schooling included three years in the Italian Convent grammar school in Hong Kong and Holy Family School in Shanghai. She worked as a stenographer in Hong Kong before entering Maryknoll in 1929. She was received into the Maryknoll Congregation on April 30, 1930.

Mother Mary Joseph, in a letter to Sister Teresita’s mother Rose in 1930, described her in this way: “She is an angel, truly, so pure, so sweet, so united to God. …You have given to your little daughter the beauty and rightness of your own loving soul, and you should not be surprised at her longing to consecrate herself to God.”

Sisters funeral was held in Monrovia, California on February 16, 1935 with Fr. Leo Tibesar, MM giving the homily to those assembled.

Sister Teresita was buried in Hong Kong. A group of friends and relatives met the “Empress of Russia” in Hong Kong to pay tribute to Sister Mary Teresita whose remains were brought to Hong Kong for internment. Before she died Sister was fortified by a visit from Mother Mary Joseph. Sister was ill for some time before her death. In Hong Kong Maryknoll Fathers Gilleran, Daly and Toomey celebrated the Mass. Mrs. Quincy Wong laid her daughter to rest in God’s Acre at Happy Valley, Hong Kong.