Dominican Sister of Peace Sister Edwina (Evelyn) Devlin, 106, died at Mohun Health Care Center, Columbus, OH on Sunday, November 15, 2020.
Sister Edwina was born in 1914 in Yakima, WA, to Elizabeth Irvin and John Ross Devlin. Her mother died when Edwina was just six years old, and she moved to Steubenville, OH to live with her grandparents. There she was introduced to Dominican Sisters.
After graduating from Catholic Central High School, she entered the community in 1932, made first profession in 1934 and took her final vows in 1937. She served God’s people as a Dominican Sister for 86 years.
Sr. Edwina earned a Bachelor of Science in English from St. Mary of the Springs, now Ohio Dominican University, in Columbus, OH, in 1945. She returned to study in 1960 and earned a Master of Arts in English from Hunter College in New York City. She also studied Spanish and Latin American Studies at Catholic University in Puerto Rico and earned an Advanced Certificate in Religious Education.
She began her ministry as a teacher in elementary and secondary schools in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania. She was one of three Sisters chosen to serve as the Congregation’s first missionaries in Chimbote, Peru. Once there, she taught children during the day, adults in the evening, and provided religious programs for the teachers in the schools.
She was in Chimbote when a devastating earthquake destroyed the convent. Although two visiting Sisters were killed, Sr. Edwina and the other Dominican Sisters remained to help their neighbors. She remained there until 1975 to help rebuild the convent and expand the apostolic work of the Sisters.
Upon returning the US, Sr. Edwina directed RCIA programs in several Ohio parishes and worked as an Ecclesiastical Notary in the Columbus Diocesan Office. She also served the Congregation in the Human Resource Office as the Coordinator for Community Retirement and later volunteered at St. Thomas Parish in Zanesville, OH.
After moving to the Columbus Motherhouse in 2000, Sister Edwina served as a volunteer and began a ministry of correspondence with her former students. She moved to a ministry of prayer and presence at the Mohun Care Center in 2011.
When Sister Edwina was asked the secret to her long and happy life, she explained that “I never worry. I just trust in the Lord. I believe all of us are here to do what God inspires us to do and coming to that realization brings happiness.”
She was preceded in death by her parents John Devlin and Elizabeth Irwin Devlin, her brothers, John, Patrick, and Joseph and her sister, Anamary Devlin.
Funeral services and burial at St. Joseph Cemetery were held privately on November 25, 2020. A Memorial Service will be held at a later date.
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To view a printable PDF copy of Sr. Edwina’s memorial, click here.