‘Little piece of Croatia’ bidding farewell to sisters after 50 years

The 700 families or so that make up Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish are preparing to say goodbye to the religious nuns who have served them for 50 years.

They are the Daughters of Mercy of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi, but at the Croatian parish they are simply known as Sister Lea and Sister Agneta.

“We are proud of our work, our accomplishments, and the sisters that came before us,” Sister Lea Brusac told The B.C. Catholic through translator and parishioner Biba Lupetin.

“Now that we are leaving, people are coming and witnessing to us their life experiences and how the sisters helped them in their spiritual life and establishing faith and strength in them.”

The order was founded in 1920 in Blato, Croatia, by Blessed Marija Petković, who took the name Marija of the Crucified Jesus. Her focus was on serving poor, sick, and abandoned children after the First World War.

The order expanded around the globe and currently has about 320 members serving poor, sick, and otherwise marginalized people across Croatia as well as in orphanages and parishes in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Cuba, and Congo.

Vancouver’s Croatian parish was founded in 1961 to serve immigrants who had fled Europe, some without hopes or plans to ever return. Father Budimir Ambroz, their first pastor, helped these “people in exile” rally to renew and preserve their faith and keep a sense of pride in their culture and traditions.

The Daughters of Mercy arrived in the parish 10 years later, in 1971, and have been serving immigrant families in that “little piece of Croatia” in Vancouver ever since.

They say the community helps teach a young generation of Croatian Canadians about the nobility of their people, the faith of their ancestors, their history, and their culture. Back in their homeland an estimated 91 per cent of Croatians are Christians, with the majority (86 per cent) professing to be Catholics.

Since they arrived here 50 years ago, the Croatian sisters have been teaching catechism, serving as sacristans, and helping families in need.

“Our charisma is to do the works of mercy, to praise God our Father, and to keep going with working with kids, visit the sick, and help the poor,” said Sister Agneta Juka, who can also be found playing the organ, leading the choir, or decorating the church with roses plucked from her own garden across the street.

“We were also giving lessons in the Croatian language, to keep Croatian traditions, Croatian dances, Croatian songs, and little plays with kids, so that together with the priests we keep the spiritual and cultural together,” she said.

Sister Brusac arrived to Vancouver in 2011 and Sister Juka in 2017, and they say it is with mixed feelings that they are withdrawing from Canada.

Their congregation has fewer members than it used to, which is why the motherhouse in Croatia is calling them home, withdrawing the congregation from Vancouver for good. While Sisters Brusac and Juka are sad to leave the tight-knit community behind, they are excited to reconnect with other Croatian nuns and with their families; Sister Brusac has four brothers and one sister back home.

It is their careful conservation of two pillars of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish – the spiritual and the cultural – that the sisters will be most remembered for.

“In nearly 50 years of activity in this parish and the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Sisters of the Daughters of Mercy have left a deep mark of service and devotion in a special way, in the service of the sick and dying as well as in the service in parish catechesis,” pastor Father Slaven Milanovic-Litre, OFM, told The B.C. Catholic.

He said it’s unlikely another congregation of sisters will come in to fill the void, as the reason they are leaving is a lack of spiritual vocations.

Lupetin is a friend of the sisters and a member of a lay group planning to carry on their work and charism after they are gone.

“We will keep doing what they were doing,” she said. “It will not be hard, because we will do our best, but we will miss them dearly. We will do our best to keep what they were doing – faith celebrations, culture – and we will keep in touch with media. Today’s technology makes it easier.”

The lay group is aiming to keep the sisters’ charism alive and perpetuate the love for Blessed Petković by celebrating her feast day every year.

Lupetin said the two sisters and two parish priests were like the heads of one big parish family, and the community will be sad to see them go.

Though the sisters are moving thousands of miles away, she is sure it’s not the last time many parishioners will see them. “When parishioners go back to Croatia, young and old, they go to visit the sisters who are there.”

The parish will host a farewell celebration for Sisters Brusac and Juka before they leave Canada Aug. 30.