Sister Anne Correale, MM

Born: September 27, 1930
Entered: September 4, 1948
Died: April 4, 2024

In this season of Easter joy, as we walk with the resurrected Jesus, our Sister Anne Correale slipped quietly away at 7:25 in the morning of April 4, 2024 in our Maryknoll Home Care at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, New York. She had a recent fall and did well with the needed surgery; it seemed she was getting better, so her death at that moment surprised her family, friends and the nursing staff who have been so faithful to Anne over these past years. As always, we meet the God of surprises. Anne was ninety-four years old when she died and had been a Maryknoll Sister for seventy-six years.

Anne Veronica Correale was born in Troy, New York to Leo and Lillian Kelly Correale on September 27, 1930. Her brother Robert has pre-deceased her; her sister Claire, and her sister-in-law Jeanne remain. Anne’s mother died in 1937 when Anne was seven, a loss that was always with her. Her father married Virginia Correale in 1947 and their daughter and husband are with us here today, Deborah and Arthur Goldstein.  Peter, Anne’s half-brother, lives in a group home.

Anne attended grammar school at Holy Names Academy in Albany, New York, graduating in 1944; she studied at Catholic Central High school in Troy completing her study in 1948. Anne had heard about Maryknoll in high school and felt a strong call to serve God as a religious missioner. She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Maryknoll, New York that same year on September 4, 1948. She received the religious name of Sister Jonathan, reverting later in life to her baptismal name. Following her first vows on March 7, 1951, Anne completed her Bachelor Degree in education at Maryknoll Teachers College in 1954, the same year as she pronounced her final vows on March 7 at Maryknoll, New York.

Mission life for Anne began with her assignment to Hawai’i in 1954. She taught various subjects and various grades in Kalihi-kai, then on Maui in Wailuku, and later in Waialua on Oahu. She was a gifted teacher and responded equally well to the needs of the very little ones in grade 2 as well as to the bigger ones in grade 6. She was very artistic and she put this talent to excellent use in classrooms and community. But, as seemed to be the case for Anne throughout her life, she felt called to a new kind of service—studying for a certificate as a licensed practical nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu, completing her study in 1976. She loved every phase of nursing, finding a new sense of herself in caregiving.

Called back for Congregational Service, Anne was a nurse at our Bethany Care Center for two years; she was highly valued there for her nursing skills as well as her organization as Bethany was moved to the Maryknoll Sisters Center during her time there. There was in Anne a “fierce bossiness,” as one friend called it. It created tension for Anne within herself and sometimes in community life—she knew it and struggled, and with God’s grace, she could be at peace with it.

Anne applied to the Indonesian region and was assigned there in 1979. During the long delay in getting a visa, Anne generously served with the public health service based at Mariandale in Ossining, New York for two years, finally leaving for Bandung, Indonesia in 1982.

Anne’s greatest contribution in Indonesia was her work as the outreach nurse for St. Joseph, the local hospital for the poor. After each well-baby clinic day, Anne followed up with home visits to the families who needed food supplements or medicine, and the people knew her as a kind and compassionate companion for a family with a sick child. She also sought out families in the area who were too poor to come to the clinic and cared for them.

Another call to Congregational Service brought Anne to Treasury as supervisor of the mail desk and also to communications from 1989 through 1992. In all of Anne’s times in service here, she and her sister Claire would visit with Peter in Troy.

Knowing that a visa to return to Indonesia was not likely, and feeling the call to serve the very poor once again, Anne applied to Bangladesh. As she wrote: the sisters there “are planning to begin work with women who are drug-addicted and the sisters feel I can be of service in this work.” From 1994-1996, Anne was part of the small community in Dhaka. However, Anne found the very fundamentalist strain of Islam in Bangladesh stressful and after three years, she asked to return to the Center. She was assigned to the Rogers Community in November 1997.

Anne served in various ministries at the Center.  She was sacristan as well as being a hospice volunteer through the local hospital. As she gradually needed more support, Anne transferred to the Chi Rho community in 2015, and then to Eden in 2021.

We welcome Father Joe LaMar, MM who will celebrate our liturgy of remembrance and gratitude.