ORLANDO  |  The Diocese of Orlando recognizes five religious sisters as they celebrate their jubilee anniversaries. Since they arrived in the diocese to present day, they bring a diversity of gifts from education to serving immigrants and caring for the disabled, leaving us richer for their contributions.

The following are brief biographies of the jubilarians.

70 YEARS

Sister Gail Grimes
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur

More than 50 years ago, Sister Gail Grimes and a small group of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur traveled to Apopka to work with the African American farmworker community. They came to listen, not with a box of ready-made answers.

Coming from a South Philadelphia neighborhood, Sister Grimes wanted to “do something with people who were being treated so badly.” She said, “I did not start by telling people what to do.” Instead, she “tried to listen.”

She learned a lot by attending community meetings. One meeting addressed the loss of a county administered healthcare grant. She and the sisters first thought “we don’t know anything about healthcare.” However, recalled Sister Grimes, they recognized they could tap into contacts and organizational skills from the larger community of sisters. With a lot of research and guidance, an incorporated community health center came into being. In the same way, a credit union for people unable to get bank loans for home ownership was created.

From the beginning of her service, Sister Grimes believed spirituality and social justice worked hand in hand. Regarding the people she served she said, “It was very clear to me that they were very spiritual in their approach to life and their trust in God.”

In the 1980s, with the passage of new laws, the rights of immigrant farmworkers became a focus for the sisters. In response, they learned the law, worked with attorneys, and began classes to train community members in navigating the law. Then, with the help of grant money, they incorporated a permanent advocacy office.

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur currently serve in 22 states in the United States and 16 countries worldwide. Part of their mission involves “the transformation of the attitudes, structures and systems that cause profound suffering.”

Locally, the concrete realization of that mission became the Hope CommUnity Center which offers dozens of programs from education to social services for 20,000 people annually.

Although officially retired, Sister Grimes remains busy and involved. “A sense of humor and celebration has helped us through many hard times. God meant us to be happy,” said Sister Grimes of her 70 years of service.

Sister Frances M. Sampson
Sisters for Christian Community

Her calling to serve began as a student at Barry University in Miami when Frances Sampson heard God’s invitation to “a life of witnessing, a life of charity, and a life of giving.”

It became a lifelong commitment to help people, including those with disabilities. It was a commitment joyfully performed by a selfless woman with her own physical limitations.

Sister Sampson began her career as a teacher at Good Shepherd School in Orlando, and for the next 26 years she guided students at all grade levels. In 1977, she was commissioned as one of the few Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and served as a minister to the sick. She initially became involved with Sun-Up (Special Unlimited United People) after responding to an ad for a faith formation teacher. She would go on to direct the organization for 30 years, fulfilling their mission to serve people of all ages with mental and physical limitations.

She fondly recalled the monthly Masses for children and their parents. “The kids were trained as altar servers and readers. They brought up the gifts,” she said proudly.

The Sisters for Christian Community motto is, “That all may be one.” It is a commitment to work towards full participation for everyone as a member of the Body of Christ. Her work is a living witness to this ideal.

Full participation is also the mark of her idea of service. From helping parents of children with disabilities to taking many handicapped people into her home, she became genuinely engaged in people’s lives. For two years in Jacksonville, she also served as resident director of Harbor House, a safe harbor for women and children where they found shelter, counseling, and support.

When asked what she remembers most vividly about her 70-year calling from God, Sister Sampson answered simply with one word: “Service.”

65 Years

Sister Deling Fernando
Sister of Providence

She is petite, but mighty. Sister Deling Fernando’s passion for helping others has left its mark both in the United States and abroad. Sister Fernando started her journey of service at the age of 8, in Laoag City in the Philippines when she came upon two starving children. Finding their parents asleep, she mixed some left-over rice with water and coconut oil and fed them. It was an event that inspired a lifelong calling to serve God and His people.

This year, Sister Fernando marks 65 years of service as a religious sister. In 1957, she left her home in the Philippines and was accepted into the university of the Sisters of Providence in Spokane, Washington. There she became the first Filipino to enter the novitiate with a secret hope of establishing her order back in her native country.

With master’s degrees in education and theology, she spent two decades serving rural parishes throughout Montana, Idaho and Washington, often serving as a school principal in impoverished areas. Eventually, her dream of bringing her order to the Philippines led five sisters to do just that.

Her travels continued when Sister Fernando came to Florida, reuniting with her brother, Father Bernard Fernando at Holy Redeemer Parish in Kissimmee. There, she was responsible for Baptism and Marriage preparation. In 1995, she returned to the Philippines to serve as a provincial, principal and vocation director.

When Sister Fernando returned to Florida, she worked at parishes in St. Cloud and Orlando, serving as director of faith formation and adult spiritual enrichment. She said she officially retired in 2018, but her full calendar of activities says otherwise. Her continuing service at Holy Redeemer also attests to her reluctance to slow down.

Sister Fernando summarizes her mission and purpose: “To have God alive in peoples’ hearts.” She thrills when she hears someone say: “Thank you sister for helping make me aware that God loves me so much.” Especially meaningful for her are the concluding words of dismissal at the end of Mass: “Go in peace and serve the Lord.”

60 Years

Sister Patricia Sipan
Sister of Notre Dame

Born in Cleveland and the eldest of two girls, Sister Patricia Sipan met the Sisters of Notre Dame in fifth grade. They were the teachers there, and “their happiness” attracted the young student to the order.

In the eighth grade, a sister approached her asking if she wanted to become a religious sister, but her father thought she was too young. He agreed, if she still wanted to follow a religious vocation as a junior in high school, she could “try it out.” So that’s what she did.

“We went to high school, but we also had a prayer life and a community life,” she recalled. “Then just continued, and continued, and continued,” she laughed.

She entered in 1965 and professed vows in 1967. Sister Sipan earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Notre Dame College in Cleveland, and a master’s degree from University of Dayton, also in Ohio. Teaching mostly primary and intermediate grades, she taught at various Catholic grade schools over the years, including physical education, throughout the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, and later the Diocese of Orlando teaching at St. Mary Magdalen School in Altamonte Springs and St. Joseph School in Winter Haven.

With a desire to work in religious education and pastoral ministry, she studied and went to Resurrection Parish in Winter Garden 22 years ago. There she still serves as the director of faith formation, in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), and is a regional advocate for the tribunal. Her favorite part about teaching is “the personal interaction and seeing their faith grow, whether it is teens or adults.”

She is also involved with lay associates of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Florida.

“There’s an energy that comes from my spirituality,” she said. “Our community charism is proclaiming God’s goodness and provident care. I can’t live that unless I have reflection time- to reflect on the Word, on how God has manifested His goodness and love through my daily experiences and challenges. Mass and Liturgy of the Word are guideposts.”

To someone discerning a vocation to the order today, she said she would tell them, “Try it. Experience it and if it fits, God’s saying, ‘I want you here.’”

50 Years

Sister Maria Diem Nguyen
Sister of Incarnation-Consecration-Mission 

Sister Maria Diem Nguyen was born in Bao Loc, Vietnam in 1955. One of seven children, she felt she might have a calling to religious life around the age of 14 when some ICM Sisters came to serve at her home parish.

Over the years, she continued to pray for her vocation. When South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975, she fled Vietnam with her family, and they joined other South Vietnamese people in a U.S. refugee camp in Guam.

Much to her surprise, her father told her some ICM Sisters were present and asked her if she wanted to meet them. She agreed and met the sisters who introduced her to Father Michael Nguyen, the order’s founder. The meeting affirmed her decision, and she joined the ICM community.

She felt this order was the right one for her because the more she interacted with the ICM Sisters she found them to be simple and down-to-earth, traits very compatible with her own personality.

Most of her work over her 50 years of service involved being close to the working class and working among them in various food service environments.

“What I love most about being a religious is living a prayerful life and serving others,” she said.