Sister Innocence Tsung, OSF

Sister Innocence Tsung, OSF, 96, of Dubuque, died on Wednesday, December 24, 2014, at the Clare House.

Huai Wei (Agnes) Tsung was born in Hsin Chuang Dse, Shantung, China, in 1918 to Joseph and Agnes (Pien) Tsung. She was their youngest surviving daughter along with an older sister, Philomena. One or two older brothers and two younger sisters died before Agnes could know them. Agnes grew up in a town where everyone was Catholic and went to church whenever a visiting priest provided Mass.

Although her parents were beginning to arrange a marriage for her, they stopped when she voiced her determination to become a religious. She attended a Catholic school in a nearby town until the Dubuque Franciscans arrived and opened a school in Choutsun, to which she transferred. During a six month period between the end of her classes and the beginning of high school, Agnes taught catechism and prayers to children six to twelve or fourteen years old.

When Sister Dulcissima opened a novitiate in 1934, Agnes wanted to go immediately, but her parents were not ready to let her go because they had no one to take care of them in their old age. Agnes bargained with her niece to take over her responsibility to her parents, and was received in 1939 with the name, Sister Mary Innocence.

Although her childhood was a happy one, her adult years brought many challenges. When the Communists began to take over China, the American and Chinese sisters fled to Tsinan. This was the beginning of three years of being refugees and exiles.   Sister Innocence told of how her parents were questioned about her whereabouts and their response, “We no know. We think she dead.” Not only did Sister never see her parents again, but she could not communicate with them in any way lest the Communists learn she was still alive and punish them. After five months in a concentration camp under the Japanese, the sisters were finally released to leave China and sail for America.

Life in America had its challenges as well, especially the language and culture. Sister struggled with college courses and loneliness. Eventually, she was sent to work with mentally disturbed children at St. Mary’s Home in Dubuque for fifteen years. Next she went to St. Anthony’s Orphanage in Sioux City for a year, and finally served thirty- three years at Villa Maria, run by Catholic Charities. Here she worked with court appointed adolescent girls, teaching them life skills and supervising them. While at the time they often vented their rage and frustrations on her, many came back years later to see her and express their regrets. Sister was known all over Sioux City for her kindness – she served Mass for the priests at Holy Spirit Nursing Home, took cookies to people in the nursing home, mended their clothes, and worked in the Bargain Center.

In 1981 she returned to China for the first time, but her beloved sister died before she got there. On several other occasions she was able to return to visit her niece, nephew, and cousins. Sister retired to Mount St. Francis in 2000 and moved to Holy Family Hall in 2008.

If our wealth is measured by the number of people we have served, Sister Innocence was rich, indeed!

Sister is survived by a great-nephew. She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers and three sisters and her Franciscan sisters with whom she shared 75 years of her life.