By Nancy Teskey, snjm

January 30, 2007

"You have called me – I cannot tell why.

You will justify me – I cannot tell how.

You will glorify me – I cannot tell when."

Prayer of Amy Carmichael, India, 1867-1951

Sister Baptista’s glory came last Friday morning. And her story of being called, from its beginnings to last Friday holds much that causes us to marvel at the breadth of her abilities and at the intentional way she made choices in life. She tells us of her beginnings in her own words:

"I was born at home in Napa on November 17, 1915. I had an older sister, Marie, and my younger sister, Doris, was born in 1918. My saga began at the feet of my mother when I learned the name of God and was taught to kneel by my bedside at night to ask, ‘God, bless my mama and daddy, Irish and Muggins my sisters, Blackie our dog, and Meme.’" (her grandmother)

Her vocation seems to have come early in life, since at the tender age of seven, while in the second grade, she felt the call to religious life. "Sister Pia was a beautiful young sister to whom I became very attached. It was her loving concern for each of us that made me desire, even at this early age, to be a sister and learn to love God as she did." Her relationship with Sister Pia lasted over sixty years until Sister Pia’s death when Baptista mused that the only other person in her life she had known that long was her sister, Marie.

As she grew up in Napa, her father, who had became a Catholic to marry her mother, found it difficult to maintain financial security in the face of religious prejudice that cost him his position as engineer for the reservoir and powerhouse. His job had allowed the family to live on the grounds of the Waterworks rent-free; losing it meant a move to town for the family and many job changes for Mr. Dean. In the end he found suitable work only in the East Bay and in 1927 the family moved to Oakland where the girls were enrolled in St. Francis De Sales School. On day one in this new 7^th grade leaving her beloved Napa, her friends and grandmother, and the wonderful Dominican Sisters of San Raphael was too much to handle. She ran away from school that first day, eyes overflowing with tears, returned home, only to have her mother leave her washtub to return her to school.

Over the next six years family finances remained fragile, at best. Her solace was to seek out the peace and comfort of St. Francis de Sales church, six blocks away. But, God forbid, anyone at home would think her pious and devout, especially her sisters. Thus she was secretive about her visits and time there. Toward the end of high school, when most young women entered religious life, she hoped to go off to college rather than enter and cause the kind of pain she knew would descend upon her family. But she was conflicted about this choice. She decided to seek help in a novena for light. At the end of the nine days she found peace with the thought that ambitions for scholarship were not what God asked. Rather she sat and wrote Mother Redempta for permission to enter the novitiate.

She left home without her father’s farewell or blessing, a sorrow that remained with her for many years. So deep ran this pain that she bargained with God that her life of service would be dedicated to his return to his faith, sadly this never became a reality. It was many years later that she found a way to reconcile this pain with her God. In the meantime, the agony of bitter disappointment hollowed out in her a place that she filled with compassion for those she found in sorrow or difficulty.

After teaching elementary school for six years at St. Joseph’s and Marylrose, she spent 12 years in high school teaching in Oakland and Santa Monica. She delighted in both levels of teaching saying she thought she would have accepted teaching at any level. In 1953 she began her graduate studies in genetics at USF. Her study of butterfly life cycles in various parts of California startled many a motorist who saw a black clad nun with a net gracefully darting through fields all over the state. Two year’s later she completed her master’s degree. This time of study was followed by work at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco to obtain her license in Medical Technology. The number of veterans returning from WWII and Korea had caused an increased number of patients in hospitals needing care. This increased patient load would transform the fields of nursing and biological science at CHN in the 50’s and Sister’s studies were the foundation needed to establish the program in medical technology at the College.

Sister Baptista was on the faculty at the College from 1955, just as the move from the Lake to Mountain Boulevard was being planned, until 1983 where she taught classes, mainly in the Medical Laboratory Technology Program, while simultaneously holding various administrative positions at the College. She was Director of the Residence Halls from 1959-1961 and Dean of Students from 1961-1969. She was also a licensed Laboratory Technologist who faithfully attended yearly meetings of the State Department of Public Health and Directors of Clinical Laboratories as well as the 1975 San Francisco International Meeting of Medical Technology. Her students remember with affection and respect her countless hours of advising, planning, and execution of activities, class lectures, fieldtrips and service. In the letter announcing her Professor Emerita status Sister Lois states, "Your formidable energy accomplished, at any given time, the work of two or more. You established the program in medical technology and brought it and the College a recognition for excellence."

Sister Baptista taught courses in hematology, medical bacteriology, microbiology, immunology, genetics and entomology during the academic year. Her enthusiasm and devotion to the growth of young minds in science was evidenced by the summer workshops she ran in entomology for grade school youngsters and the summer training programs in Microbiology for high ability Secondary School Students. All of these summer programs were financed by the National Science Foundation in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

She was the ultimate multi-tasker. I lived with her when I first moved to the College in the late 60’s. She very soon had me and many other "young" sisters doing inventory at Capwell’s or Goldman’s department stores each January. Often on one of my forays down the hall to the bathroom during the night I would see her emerging from the dining room with the smells of a baking delight wafting along behind her. She apparently slept little, except in the bathtub, where many a night Sr. Madeleine Maria awoke her to send her to bed. Later, in our small community, her prayers were a delight, as were her meal creations. Have you ever heard of potato chip cookies? Neither had we. She only told us what they were AFTER we ate them. She was Vocation Director for the Holy Names Sisters and for the Diocese of Oakland during the 70’s. Her leadership skills kept her in the thick of things as Regional Chair of the National Sisters Vocation Conference and Executive Board member for Region XIV.

The drive and energy of the woman who stopped teaching in the 1980’s had to be channeled into more of God’s work. Hence what had begun as a sideline task (one of the multis) in the 70’s became much more her focus in the 80’s, her work with senior citizens in convalescent centers as an ombudsman. In 1989 the State Lieutenant Governor, Leo McCarthy, recognized her as one of Oakland’s Private Industry Council honorees for her work not only in convalescent care centers, but also at St. Mary’s Community Center where she was the coordinator from 1981-1989. Her work with the elderly was driven by her determination to make life better for them after watching how little stimulation and concern had been dealt her mother when in a rest home at the end of her life. Baptista’s work with the poor most likely stemmed from the dire circumstances her family had endured after her father lost his engineering job in Napa. She reached out as a leader and a presence to any person with a disability, whether it be mental, physical, or financial , often visiting those in prison or in housing for addicts. In 1994 she was awarded a Trustee of the Year Award by the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging for her creation of the People’s Concern Committee at St. Mary’s Garden in Oakland. In their ceremony they remarked on her contributions to a group that "helps educate and train low-income women" and on her active fund-raising for the city’s poor. Her past induced her to act, and her activism kept her alive and contributing to the welfare of others well into her early 80’s.

One of our Sisters remarked, "Sister Baptista was a very special person to so many people and such an important part of their lives. My own mother was a good friend of Baptista – they are probably planning a rummage sale or an inventory project right now."

Sr. Baptista was remarkable in so many varied ways. Few of us have her whole picture. She kept good counsel on her life and person. Yet she reached out to help so many of us. We have sorely missed her sharp wit and intelligent visage for some time. Now we send her to the God she bargained with and subsequently submitted to with grace and complete abandon.

Oh God, you listen to our hearts and enter into our pain, bless us and all who are in need with the comfort and quiet of your gentle presence, now and always. Amen