Sr. Jacinta (Mary Florence) was born and raised in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. She earned her R.N. in 1956 from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and entered MMS in 1958. For her first 13 years of mission assignment Sr. Jacinta was in India. She worked as a nurse-midwife and staff nurse at MMS Holy Family Hospitals in Mandar, Bombay and New Delhi.
Sr. Jacinta then worked in nursing homes in Canada for three years before moving to Italy. She spent a cherished year in Rome, providing nursing care to MMS Founding Mother Anna Dengel for the year before she passed on.
Continuing her passion for the elderly, Sr. Jacinta cared for the older MMS in Philadelphia, earned a certificate in gerontology in 1982 and then moved to Florida from 1986 – 2008. She worked as a visitor and respite provider for the homebound elderly and as a volunteer in hospice care, in Tampa, Holiday and St. Petersburg.
When she returned to Philadelphia Sr. Jacinta worked in the MMS Mission Development Center for 11 years. Despite medical challenges, she volunteered weekly without fail; she was genuine and optimistic with a delightful penchant to call things as she saw them. Sister Jacinta was fiercely independent and taught herself to lip read when she lost her hearing. She was devoted to her family and will be greatly missed by all.