Embroidery on silk of pandas

Catholic Sisters
Religious women
Missionary activity
Orphans
Embroidery
Chinese artwork
Hunan, China
Missioners
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
Convent Station, NJ

In October 1996 Sister Mary Carita Pendergast, a Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, received this piece of embroidery, framed in glass, from Agnes Chao, a Chinese woman living in Shanghai at the time. Sister Carita had been a missioner in Hunan Province, China from 1933 to 1951. The Sisters of Charity raised the orphaned Agnes from infancy and educated her to the level of a normal school (teacher education) graduate. Agnes then taught in the Sisters’ school in Wuki.
When the Communist government interrogated Sister Carita prior to her expulsion from China in 1951, they turned to Agnes and demanded that she testify to the Sisters’ crimes, which she refused to do even with a gun pointed at her. In 1996 Agnes Chao was a grandmother, working in a factory; the cost of shipping the package to Sister Carita – a token of Agnes’s gratitude and concern – might have been two months’ salary.

Unknown

Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, New Jersey

N/A

ca. 1995

N/A

Permission for reproduction or quotation must be obtained through written application to: Director of Archives, Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, P.O. Box 476, Convent Station, New Jersey. This permission is valid only insofar as he Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, as owner or custodian, has any rights in the matter and does not remove the responsibility of the author, editor, and publisher to guard against the infringement of any rights; including copyright, that may be held by others.

N/A

Embroidery (under glass)

English

Physical object

N/A

N/A