"Sister Theresa Joseph Lung : a unique religious life in China and the United States" / Sally Witt and Kathleen M. Washy

Published in American Catholic Studies, Volume 136, Number 4, Winter 2025

Also available through Boston College Libraries

Abstract: 

In 1926, four Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Pennsylvania, departed for China to establish a missionary ministry in Hunan province. While the congregation hoped for many novices, only one Chinese woman, Lung Kwong Chih, or Teresa, entered the community. Teresa came to the motherhouse in the United States in 1933 and, as Sister Theresa Joseph, made final profession six years later. As the congregation’s only novice from outside the country, her entire formation was unique. Difficulties stemming from that uniqueness and the way her companion missionaries perceived it led to her request for a dispensation from vows in 1948, shortly before Communist forces took control of China. More than thirty years later, still living in China, Teresa opened a correspondence with the sisters and expressed her desire to return. By then world forces, religious life, the congregation, and Teresa herself had all experienced change and development. Her return to religious life was itself unique, as was her manner of living it in the final years of her life.