HONG KONG (SE): The Maryknoll Sisters announced the passing of Sister Agnes Chou On-yi, after 59 years in the religious life, on June 11 the Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care facility in Ossining, New York, the United States. She was 92-years-old.
Sister Chou was born on 3 October 1928 in Kung Ch’eng, China. She and her family were baptised in 1935, by Maryknoll Father Joseph Regan.
In 1943, at 15-years-old, she entered the Community of the Sister Catechists of the Blessed Mother in Kweilin (Guilin), Kwangsi (Guangxi), and made her first profession there in 1946. Sister Chou was than was sent to Macau to complete her secondary education at St. Rose of Lima Secondary School. However, in 1951 as the communist government expelled missionaries from China, she was unable to return home and went to the Maryknoll Sisters Regional House in Kowloon Tong, Hong Jong.
Sister Chou would enter the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Quezon City, Manila, Philippines, on 2 May 1962, She made her final commitment on 19 March 1970 in Hong Kong. She was then assigned to do catechetical work in Chai Wan and Kung Tong. In 1971, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Chu Hai College in Hong Kong.
She then went to the United States and, from 1972 until 1979, did pastoral work in the Chinatown parish in Chicago, Illinois, with migrants from China and Taiwan. During that time, she applied for American citizenship. She went on to engage in social work in the Chinatown Health Clinic, Chinatown, New York, and pastoral/social work/refugee assistance from 1981 to 1985. From 1985 to 1989 she worked in the Chinatown Head Start and Asian Family Services.
In 1990 Sister Chou returned to Hong Kong and worked in the Catholic Institute for Religion and Society caring for the needs of professional women. She was also able went to visit her family for the first time since she went to Macau in 1951 and made regular visits each year particularly at the Lunar New Year. In later years, failing health made it impossible her return for home visits, but modern technology allowed her to stay in close contact with surviving relatives with phone calls and via WeChat.
While in semi-retirement at the Kowloon Tong House on Boundary Street, Sister Chou used her farming skills to transform the minuscule grounds with flowering plants and vegetables for use in the convent. However, after a series of falls, she assigned to Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care facility.
Sister Agnes requested to be cremated; her ashes will be interred at the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery.
May she rest in peace.
