On August 4, 2024, the Eastern American Area celebrated Sister Fernanda Moreira’s 100th birthday, the actual anniversary of her birth.Eucharist was followed by festivities and tributes to this incredible centenarian.
Fernanda is from Vila Cova in the district of Braga, Portugal, where she attended school and served as a “church girl” whose role was to say the responses during daily Mass. It was during this time that the parish women sponsored her to attend a retreat in Fatima where she met other young women, some of whom would be entering the RSHM. These connections, as well as meeting the RSHM superior there, led her to enter the community in 1943, making her first profession in Guimares, Portugal, in 1945.
From this point on, Fernanda lived the internationality that is so central to RSHM identity and mission. Although she once said that it was a challenge to learn the language of the country where she was missioned, “I found myself able to speak not only Portuguese, but also English, Spanish and Italian.” How gifted she is!
As a young sister in Portugal, Fernanda expected to be sent to the Mother House, but was asked instead to go to Rome. She had no idea of all the places she would eventually live — Rome, Kingston, Barcelona, Umtali, and Tarrytown. In Barcelona, she cooked for the students and community, and in Umtali she assisted the school nurse.
It was in Rome however that Fernanda spent the most time, from 1950 to 1962 and from 1983 to 1995. She made her final profession there in 1950. As the communities formed and reformed to accommodate the growing needs of the schools and their boarders, Fernanda lived at both Istituto Marymount and Marymount International School. She loved being a “house mother” for the younger students and enjoyed chaperoning school trips.
Fernanda is an accomplished cook. According to one sister, her chicken and rice dish is incredible. She has also been known to come into the kitchen and rescue dinner for their small community when the sister preparing it was too far behind schedule! To this day, she often prepares soup for her supper at Marymount Convent.
Fernanda loves to sing and was often heard singing “Amazing Grace” and the chorus “I will raise him up” from “I Am the Bread of Life” while she worked. She also states that she especially loves “Abba Father” which has special meaning for her because of a retreat experience that she associates with this hymn.
When Fernanda returned to Tarrytown in 1995, she did not slow down. In 1999, she read the Prayer of the Faithful in Portuguese at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City at the 150th anniversary celebration of the founding of the RSHM. She did the same at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre on an anniversary of the RSHM arrival in the U.S. in 1877. And, at the age of 90, she was still volunteering as a Eucharistic Minister at Phelps Memorial Hospital. In her leisure time, Fernanda now enjoys shopping, music, and walking in nature.
When Fernanda was asked to reflect on her years as an RSHM, she stated: “I have been blessed in my years of ministry, enthusiastic about the gifts I have been able to share, helping people when I can, saying words of encouragement, offering a smile and being grateful for their gifts. I thank God for being able to respond to the various calls received.” And we, too, thank God for Fernanda’s response, for her generosity, wisdom, and joy.