Sister Catherine Erisman, MM

Born: June 7, 1930
Entered: September 2, 1954
Died: April 23, 2025

Easter “Alleluias” were still being sung when on April 23, 2025, at 2:35 a.m. our dear Sister Catherine Erisman joined the heavenly choir as she transitioned to her new life. Katie was 94 years old and had celebrated 70 years as a Maryknoll Sister in 2024.

Catherine Jane Erisman was born on June 7, 1930, in Framingham, MA, one of the four daughters of William and Mary P. O’Connell Erisman. She was lovingly welcomed into the family as evidenced by these words from a poem written by her father at her birth:

On the morning of June seventh,
Just after half past four
Our old friend Mr. Stork flew ‘round
And hopped at our front door.
He left another baby girl-
Brought her straight from Heaven.

“Doc” Shaughnessy reports her weight
At seven pounds eleven.
She’s fine and fat and healthy,
Tho for “eats” she causes Cain,
And we’re as happy as we can be
Over little Katherine Jane.

Katie and her loving family remained close throughout her life and she is survived by her sister, Ann, and an extended family of nieces and nephews.

In September of 1948, after graduating from Greenfield High School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, Katie began studies at Boston Children’s Hospital School of Nursing, and she graduated in October 1951. After working at this same hospital for one year, she began studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and attained her B.S. in Nursing in June 1954. In September 1954, Katie entered the Maryknoll Sisters and at her reception was given the name Sister Mary Ward. Katie’s first profession was on March 7, 1957, and shortly thereafter she was assigned to what was then the Africa Region (Tanganyika-Tanzania). Katie deeply loved Tanzania, and wrote shortly after arriving in Morogoro: “I know I will love it here – I do already and more each day.”  Her love for Tanzania continued the end of her life.

At the time Katie arrived in Tanzania, the Maryknoll Sisters were beginning secondary schools for girls; teachers were needed and she, while well prepared for health ministry with her BS in Nursing, was assigned to be a teacher first at Marian College in Morogoro, then Rosary College in Mwanza and then Rugambwa Secondary School in Bukoba where she was also Headmistress from 1965 to 1968. During these years, Katie pronounced her final vows in 1963. In 1969, as religious schools were being nationalized, Katie entered government service and taught at Machame Girls’ Secondary School, and in 1975 became one of the founding members of Nangwa Girls’ School, the experimental school which President Julius Nyerere asked the Maryknoll Sisters to begin.

Katie shone as an educator and was a gifted teacher of mathematics. She also acted as school nurse in each of these schools, and used her extraordinary musical talents to teach and to delight students and friends.

After more than 20 years as an educator, Katie returned to Maryknoll, NY, to work in Congregational Health Services and soon was named Congregation Health Director. After completing that commitment, Katie’s calling to work among refugees became apparent and her first venture into that field was six months with Save the Children in Sudan. This experience only whetted her appetite for work with refugees, and at the request of Maryknoll Sisters in Africa, she spent a year researching the refugee situation and needs and possibilities for mission among them, visiting the refugee camps in western Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia. The results of that research led her to Somalia where, together with a team of Maryknoll Sisters, she served as a nurse in eight refugee camps from 1987 to 1989.

In 1990, Katie helped staff the World Section House in Nairobi for two years and then went to Mwanza where she was a member of the HIV/AIDS Program of the Archdiocese. But by then refugee work was calling once again and she served eight years, first as Administrator and then as Tanzania Country Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). Most of the ministry of JRS during those years was with Rwandan and Burundian refugees as this program was established to serve those victims of the genocide who were living in camps in western Tanzania. Katie used her gifts of administration and organization to set up all that was needed for staff and volunteers to minister to those displaced individuals and their families.

Katie returned to Maryknoll as Coordinator of the Rogers Community in 2004 and after three years, returned to Tanzania and participated in the Mwanza Diocesan HIV & AIDS Program while writing the history of the Maryknoll Sisters in Tanzania. The result is a very detailed and comprehensive 150-page history, well written and invaluable to the story of Maryknoll Sisters. In 2013, Katie was once again called upon to be Rogers Community Coordinator after which she became “semi-retired”, offering her countless gifts in many different ways.

In a word, Katie was an amazing woman. Although she was a well-trained and educated nurse, she became an excellent teacher. In 2003, as she was leaving Tanzania for Mission Service at Maryknoll, many of her former students gathered to say farewell. In the printed program on that occasion there was written:

Dear Sr. Catherine,

All your former students and our families are very happy to get this occasion to bid you farewell. Forty-six years of dedicated service in this country have brought a lot of progress and let this occasion be a living testimony of your contribution to the progress of this nation.  The legacy will endure.  …

Kwa heri ya kuonana, Mama yetu mpendwa.  (Goodbye until we meet again, our dearly beloved mother.)

Her skills as a nurse were put to good use in refugee camps and in Congregational Health Services, and “dedicated”, “caring” and “unending generosity” were words used to describe her during these years of service.

She was a great organizer and administrator as well. The Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Eastern Africa wrote of her: “Her spirit of patience, generosity and self-sacrifice amidst changing times and changing personnel was remarkable.” Everyone who wrote about Katie mentioned her organizational skills, her dependability, and her intelligence.

And what can we say to describe her piano playing! She had an unusual musical ability to not only read music well, but also to hear a tune and instantly provide an amazing accompaniment. She used her talent very generously in the schools in which she taught, and for liturgies at the Maryknoll Sisters Center. Any time and any place there was a piano and a gathering, Katie could be depended upon to accompany and entertain.

With her health failing, Katie was assigned to the Eden Community on July 1, 2024, so that she could receive the assistance she needed from the staff of Maryknoll Sisters Home Care, who attended to her so beautifully during this last year of her life.

Today we celebrate the gift that Katie was for us and for the world, together with members of her family who are able to be with us, along with others who are joining us via livestream. According to her wishes, Katie’s body has been donated to the New York Medical College where students will benefit from her generous gift.

We welcome our presider, Maryknoll Father John Lange, MM.