A Good Shepherd nun who concocted congregation's beloved ube jam in Baguio City has passed away, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines news service said Saturday.
Sister Fidelis Atienza died at the Religious of the Good Shepherd in Quezon City after 66 years of vocation that also took her to Cebu, Tagaytay, Hong Kong, France and Rome. She was 102. Her cause of death was not revealed.
The purple yam dessert at Good Shepherd in Baguio City is a staple pasalubong from the resort city. Aside from it, Atienza also made crispies out of host cuttings, the forerunner of today's angel cookies, CBCP News said.
“She dedicated each moment of her day praying for the needs of the Church and the Congregation,” the Religious of the Good Shepherd was quoted as saying.
“She would ask her caregivers to bring her to the oratory day in and day out, spending most of her hours in quiet communion with the Good Shepherd whom she adored all her life," it said.
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Good Shepherd's ube jam, which Atienza formulated in 1976, helped send youth beneficiaries to school. The RGS said she was the dessert's "original mastermind."
Atienza entered the Noviciate of the Good Shepherd in Los Angeles, California in 1951. She made her first profession in 1954, and her final profession three years later, according to CBCP News.
She was transferred to the Good Shepherd Community in Quezon City in 2020, before her 101st birthday.
“The children in the compound were very fond of their oldest playmate; she was a delight and a source of joy to everyone whom she met,” the congregation said. “Her hands were never weary, she would be seen cutting and collecting plastic wastes and turning them into eco-bricks until her shoulders ache from using scissors."
The wake will be private.
