Sister Ines Maria

Sister Ines Maria         ND 7104              ⇒ PDF Download
Inês Maria SLAVIERO

Holy Cross Province, Passo Fundo, RS, Brasil

Date and Place of Birth            July 12, 1959 Sertão, RS – Brasil
Date and Place of Profession February 2, 1985        Passo Fundo, RS
Date and Place of Death          August  25, 2014         Passo Fundo, RS
Date and Place of Funeral      August 26, 2014          Convent Cemetery, Passo Fundo, RS

“Be firm and steafast  the Lord will be with you wherever you go”! Jos 1,6
This was Sister Inês Maria’s motto during her 29 years of religious life.

Inês Maria Slaviero was the oldest of the children – seven sisters and one brother. Her parents Leonilda and Vitalino Slaviero were farmers and as a young child Inês had the care of her younger sisters and her brother. As a child she received the sacraments of Baptism and confirmation in her local community. They lived very far from the local Christian community and she would walk with her sister Dirce Slaviero, now our Novice Directress. Seeing her two aunts religious, Sister Maria Severina and Sister Maria Ofélia, awakend in her the desire to follow their examples, but she was affraid to leave the family as she was taking care of her younger sisters and brother.

In 1979 she began to show more interest in the life of Sisters of Notre Dame in Ibirubá, RS. Then she entered the postulancy and Novitiate in Passo Fundo. In 1985, she pronounced her first vows in the chapel of Colégio Notre Dame, in Passo Fundo, RS.

After she graduating from elementary school, she attended a course in nursing at the University in Passo Fundo. When she was already in her ministry as a nurse, she qualified for a degree as a postgraduate in aministration of nursing and courses on spirituality.

She worked as a nurse in several  hospitals in the State of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. During the last years, she ministered as a nurse in our home for the elderly sisters called Casa Betânia in Não Me Toque and also took care of her mother who was living there.

While working in our Hospital São Sebastião in Espumoso, she also was the directress of our aspirants for six years. She cared for their human and spiritual formation, and she loved them very much. Four of  the aspirants during that time are now our sisters.

One of them gave her testimony: “For two years I lived with Sr. M. Inês in Espumoso. She had a joyful spirit, she would care for each of us with much tenderness and love. Her formation was one wich looked to different aspects She taught us how to clean the house, how to deal with people. She was able to balance the challenges of young people with the maturity which was required for religious life… With love we remember her as a sister who made all efforts that we would have joyful communities, she never lost her hope for a better future”.

In March this year she was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and Sister Ines Maria was quickly taken from us. The great desire she expressed was “I want to live!” After having received the sacrament of the annointing of the sick and much suffering,she went home to our Good God. We now have one more intercessor in heaven, looking for the needs of our Congregregation and those of the World.

RIP