Funeral ceremonies of Mother Maria Teresa Jasionowicz were held at St. Genovefa Church in Paris on Wednesday, August 2. The former Superior General of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth passed away on July 27 in a hospital in Paris at the age of 93. The funeral was attended by the current Superior General of the Nazareth Sisters Mother Angela Marie Mazzeo.
The funeral ceremonies began with a farewell to the late Mother Maria Teresa and a prayer before the coffin was closed in the funeral chapel at the Cochin Hospital in Paris. This was followed by a rosary prayer half an hour before Mass at St. Genovefa Church in Paris.
The Mass was presided over by the long-time administrator of the Polish Seminary in Paris and vice-rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in France, Most Rev. Fr. Krystian Gawron. In his homily, the celebrant referred to the Gospel about the encounter between the Risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene. “Jesus of Nazareth in the heavenly garden in the Father’s house comes out to Maria Teresa and calls her by name saying: Maria Teresa – and she certainly responds with emotion: Rabbuni,” said Fr. Krystian Gawron.
Mother Maria Teresa’s entire life was in line with the Congregation’s charism, in which families have a special place. “With anticipatory service, she reached out to every family with an open heart. She chose a particular aspect of the Nazareth vocation. Like Jesus, she was able to serve people out of love,” Fr. Gawron stressed in reference to the late Mother.
From an early age, difficult experiences accompanied Mother Maria Teresa Jasionowicz. “On the steppes of Kazakhstan, clinging to the tail of a camel, semi-conscious, she reached people. In Tehran she slept under the stairs,” recalled Fr. Gawron, mentioning some of the threads of Mother Maria Teresa’s life after her deportation to the East.
During the ceremony, the sisters of the late Mother spoke. Before Mass, the superior of the Nazareth community in Paris, Sr. Nazaria Kukwa, presented the most important themes of the late Mother’s life, and after Mass, the superior of the European province of Jesus the Good Shepherd, Sr. Dorota Podwalska, thanked all those involved in the ceremony and those who came to the event, and quoted excerpts from the Mother Maria Teresa’s own words.
Memories of the late Mother Maria Teresa were shared by her nephew. He thanked the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth for creating an environment in which Mother Maria Teresa could pursue her vocation. He stressed that she took care to maintain good family relationships. “Despite her enormous workload, my aunt remembered every important family event,” he said. – The nephew pointed out. “Our dear aunt was an icon, a lantern of sunshine illuminating us with all good things. She inspired a family in which our Catholic faith is at the center of everything that happens. She showed a style of work that was truly Christian – in word and every action,” he stressed.
At the end, the coffin with the body was taken to the Paris cemetery in Bagneux and placed in the tomb of the Sisters of the Holy Family. The final farewell was attended by the Nazareth Sisters and family members, among others.
Mother Maria Teresa Jasionowicz was born on April 21, 1930 in Jezupol, in what was then the Stanislavl Province. As a child, she and her family were deported to Kazakhstan by the NKVD. They managed to escape with General Anders’ army. They left first for Lebanon and then settled in England in 1948. In 1950, in England, Mother Maria Teresa entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, of which she became Superior General in 1992.
From 1983 to 1992, she served as superior of a community in Paris. Preoccupied with the problems of an increasingly threatened family, in 1995 she initiated the Association of the Holy Family in Paris, with the goal of the moral and spiritual rebirth of the family.
Mother Maria Teresa studied Theology and the Canon Law, and worked for years in the Islands and Italy. She met several times with Pope John Paul II. She contributed to the beatification of the Nazareth Sisters – the Martyrs of Novogrodek. Since 2001, Mother Maria Teresa Jasionowicz worked in Paris at the Nazareth Sisters’ convent in rue Vaugirard. In 2004, she became the superior of the community. Continuing her duty of caring for the spiritual and physical needs of the sisters and helping with the tasks of running the Foyer for female students, she always took a keen interest in the families of the Association of the Holy Family. Till the end, she remained committed to the life of the community.
She is the author of the memoirs titled. “I remember… and I remember not”. Among other awards, she was awarded the “Pro Patria” medal, which she accepted as an honor to the work of the Congregation.
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Fot. A. Matejko / PolskiFr
