Sister Maria Irga

Sister Maria Irga                   ND 5403                    PDF Download

Irga ARNHOLD

Holy Cross Province, Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil

Date and Place of Birth:         December 08, 1935    Bom Jardim, São Leopoldo, RS
Date of Place of Profession:  February 13, 1962      Passo Fundo, RS
Date and Place of Death:       December 18, 2019    Não-Me-Toque, RS
Date and Place of Funeral:    December 19, 2019    Convent Cemetery, Casa Santa Cruz, Passo Fundo

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father!” (Mt 25:34)

Sister M. Irga said her last YES to the Lord at the age of 84, after having received constant care for a long time and having been bedridden for several months.

Her parents, João Arnhold and Veronica Stoffel Arnhold, had 10 children, one of whom became a Lasallian Brother and Irga, a Sister of Notre Dame. She made her First Communion in Chapada, where the family had moved in search of better living conditions.

In 1959, she entered the postulancy of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Passo Fundo, where she also made her novitiate and first religious profession.

For almost 58 years, her ministry was taking care of the kitchen, laundry, vegetable garden, cleaning, ironing, sewing, and caring for the refectory. During these 58 years she dedicated her service in hospitals for 19 years, at Obra Social Santa Julia for 11 years, at the Provincial Center for four years, and the remaining years in different communities. For the past 13 years she lived at the Health Care Center, Casa Betânia, in order to better take care of her health and, at the same time, to help care for the other sister residents for as long as she was able to.

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give – not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”. (2Cor 9:6-7)

Each of us has received different gifts, but all for the common good. May the good God reward all that Sister M. Irga has done for the benefit of her sisters and brothers during her life.  Whatever our mission is, in God’s eyes it is great and according to the measure of our hearts. We are grateful to God for the life and ministry of Sister M. Irga.

We pray for her eternal rest and ask her intercession for us and for more priestly and religious vocations. May she rest in the peace of the Lord of life.