Sister Madeline (Agnes Martin) Dervin, OP (1931 – 2015)

Her vision reaches out to the heartland for all people (Proverbs 31:31)

Sister Madeline Mary Dervin, born on October 13, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York, was the first and only girl of the three children born to Walter and Charlotte (Sadler) Dervin. Her Irish father was a New York policeman stationed in Manhattan and her mother’s family that had lived in Florida for generations were of German, French and Cherokee extraction.

When her father retired after working twenty years on the police force, the family moved to Florida and Madeline began her high school years at St. Ann in West Palm Beach. In her autobiography, Sister Madeline wrote:

What impressed me, especially in my Junior and Senior years, was [the Sisters’] dedication to the poor and their sense of mission even in the middle of West Palm Beach, Florida. It was in the years of segregation and the black people did not come into St. Ann Church for Sunday Mass or weekday Mass. There was a little chapel in their part of town that was dedicated to Blessed Martin de Porres. I would go over with the sisters every Saturday afternoon and we would clean the little chapel and set it up for Sunday Mass. So that’s when my sense of mission started. We would always say, “We’re being sent out on mission.”

In the middle of her senior year, Sister Madeline and her classmates made a retreat directed by a Jesuit priest who asked them, “Well, you’re almost finished with high school. Have you begun to think about what you are going to do?” Sister Madeline told him that over the years she had thought, on and off, about being a nun, and the priest told her the same thing her grandmother told her years ago, “Pray, and if this is to be your life, you’ll know; God will let you know if it is your vocation.” This conversation and the memory of her conversation with her grandmother was a turning point for Madeline.

She and two other girls entered the postulate on February 2, 1949, and completed their senior year in Florida under the guidance and direction of Sister Brigetta Donough, the principal of Rosarian. Her novitiate year was spent in Adrian, where she received her religious name, Sister Agnes Martin, and the following year made first profession in August 5, 1950.

Sister Madeline’s first assignment after profession was St. Matthew School in Chicago, where she taught seventy second graders for one year. She described herself as being too young and inexperienced to know it should have been overwhelming.

In 1951, Sister Madeline was assigned to Escuela Parroquial in San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic. The school had opened the year before and everything was taught in Spanish except daily English classes that were taught for fifteen or twenty minutes. Madeline 1 was assigned to teach sixth or seventh grade math. In her biography Madeline described how she prepared for classes.

I had all my little cheat sheets with little words in Spanish written on cards. “Good morning my name is Sister Agnes. I am your teacher; we’re going to do some coloring today. Here are the papers, here are the crayons, please stay in your seat and if you need something or you have to go to the bathroom raise your hand.”

After four years in San Juan de la Maguana, Sister Madeline was assigned to Santa Catalina in Las Matas in 1955. Both La Maguana and Las Matas were in the Dominican Republic. In her biography, Sister Madeline asked and answered this question, “What was the difference between the missions?”

In San Juan de la Maguana we were in a parish school; in Las Matas de Farfan we were about thirty miles northwest [of San Juan], very close to the Haitian border and we did rural pastoral work. We did teacher formation because there was a Concordat with the Dominican government that allowed religion to be taught in the public schools.

In 1962 Madeline was assigned to St. Helen School in Vero Beach, Florida. Her return to the States was not easy because she was so lonesome for the Dominican Republic where she had ministered for the eleven years. The next year she was assigned to teach history, math, and Spanish to high school students at Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach for two years.

In 1965, Sister Madeline returned to Santo Domingo for one year, and then was assigned to be superior and principal of Sacred Heart School in Santurce, Puerto Rico, for two years. After returning to Santo Domingo for another four months, Sister Madeline was assigned to Escuela Parroquial Guadalupe in Callao, Peru. She was school principal for the first five years and the next four years she provided pastoral services for a labor team. This was her last ministry in the Overseas Missions.

In 1978, Sister Madeline provided outreach programs at La Casa Center in Detroit for one year and then began full-time study in Wayne State University’s social work program. After receiving her MSW in 1981, she ministered in Detroit’s Latino Outreach Community Service for the next two years.

In 1983, Sister Madeline returned to Florida, where she ministered for sixteen years as a social worker/family counselor in the areas of maternal/ child health and child abuse prevention. In her Annals, she provided more details about her ten-year ministry in Stuart, Florida.

I minister to indigent women and their children in the Martin County Public Health Unit [where] I am the only Social Worker on the staff. Many of our patients at our Indian Town site are migrant workers many of whom are Guatemalans. [They are] very poor and oppressed and have come seeking asylum from the civil strife in their country.

My daily ministry provides me with opportunities and it challenges me to live out our vision statements about the poor, women and racism. I strive to incorporate my co-workers in this process when they visit.

In September 1999, Sister Madeline began her ministry in health outreach programs at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California. Initially, her focus was to take hospital services to the families of farm workers in the Watsonville area, located in the southern part of Santa Cruz County. The hospital had been providing services to the workers with a van equipped to provide annual breast exams and mammograms as part of California’s Early Detection Program. But by the time Sister Madeline arrived, the van needed costly upgrades and the program had been cancelled.

Enter Sister Madeline with her “can do” attitude. “Reinventing Outreach,” an article in the newsletter Focus on Health, described Madeline’s plan to reactivate the program. “Now, we’ve arrived at a plan that enables us to collaborate with seven local community organizations in not only reactivating the program but extending these services to women in more areas of our county.”

With the aid of the collaborating agencies vans to transport the women, the free breast exam and mammogram program, known as Women Helping Women, was back on track.

Sister Madeline also participated in the Hospital’s Tattoo Removal Program. This ministry included scheduling appointments and meetings with civic leaders to explain the program, and visiting jails to explain the program and give brochures to those who would benefit the most.

During the wake and remembrance service, Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, Prioress of Adrian Crossroads Mission Chapter, said,

Madeline’s struggle for justice and the rights of people led her to rock the boat ever so gently to overcome unjust situations on behalf of her clients and co-workers. Non-English speaking people should not be turned away for services because they don’t have an interpreter. There is no one in this room who could deny that Madeline’s years of sisterhood to us have been a quiet power and an abiding grace.

After retiring in 2009, Sister Madeline continued her ministry of presence with the residents at Dominican Oaks for four years and then she returned to Adrian in 2013. Sister Madeline died on March 11, 2015, at the age of eighty-three.

Sister Rose Ann Schlitt based her homily on the readings (Ruth 1:12-18; Ps 27; John 20:11-18) Sister Madeline had selected. She began by reflecting our need to “turn around” in order to see Jesus. She said:

[In the Gospel, Mary] is unable to recognize [Jesus]. Isn’t it true that profound emotions can have this blinding effect on us? How easy it is to miss the Lord when our focus is on ourselves! Perhaps we have had this experience too.

Madeline speaks of her “turning around” as messenger of the gospel in several different ways: she said, “I discovered that the people taught me more about God’s great love for us than I ever would have learned in studies or deep theology courses. I’m speaking specifically of the Trujillo years in the Dominican Republic, the reality of which I didn’t have a clue at first. This experience gave me a lifelong option for the poor and the oppressed in my ministerial services during these sixty-five years as a Dominican Sister.”

In Peru, a totally different culture and reality, the challenge deepened and grew within her. [Sister Madeline] identified it this way, “to try to truly perceive and live the Gospel through the eyes of the poor.” It is also true, however, that together with those on the margins she had to face many challenges and painful consequences in her journey as missioner.

Madeline/”Magdalena” has much in common with Mary Magdalen, especially in her strong and tender love that enabled both to hear their name.