MOTHER TERESA OF PUERTO RICO

Sometimes I forget that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory and while our next saint to be hails from there, she did a lot of work in mainland USA. 

ISOLINA FERRE AGUAYO was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1914. She belonged to a Christian family with substantial financial resources. Among these relatives was her brother, Luis A. Ferré, founder of the Ponce Museum of Art, the New Progressive Party, and later governor of Puerto Rico (PR). She was also the aunt of writer Rosario Ferré and businessman Antonio Luis Ferré, founder of the newspaper El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico. 

Although Isolina was part of a well-off family, both economically and socially, she chose a somewhat different path. A dream of serving others was brewing within her. Her interest led her to drop out of college, and at 21, she moved to the United States, where she joined the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity.

 Sister Isolina stood out for her humanitarian work. She worked in poor communities in the United States. By the late 1950s, she had settled in New York City. There, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Joseph's College for Women (1957) and a Master of Arts degree with a specialization in Sociology from Fordham University (1961). She also served on the faculty of Blessed Trinity College in Philadelphia (1959–1962). Upon graduation, she returned to New York. There, she directed the Dr. White Community Center in Brooklyn, which provided education and various community services. Sister Isolina focused primarily on intervention between rival gangs, particularly among Black and Puerto Ricans.

 Her humane perspective allowed her to work hand in hand with communities plagued by crime, addiction, and poverty. Her strategy was to restore self-respect and dignity to their inhabitants, following the belief that if we are all children of God, we are also brothers and sisters and, therefore, equal. Sister Isolina treated everyone as equals: rich and poor, wise and ignorant, black and white.

 Upon returning to Puerto Rico in 1968, after years of steady work in the United States, she began a new life in the land of her birth. She was assigned to Ponce Beach, a neighborhood in her hometown where the residents were predominantly poor and where crime had risen to alarming levels. Here, she began a community regeneration project that took the community's interests and needs into consideration. In other words, to improve the community's social and economic situation, residents must be given the necessary tools to achieve their own improvement.

Over the years, she wanted to bring this concept of community action to other communities on the island. This is how the Sor Isolina Ferré Centers emerged . There are five in Ponce and other towns in Puerto Rico, such as Guayama and San Juan. The mission of these centers was to revitalize the low-income communities where they are located through education and social, economic, and spiritual support.

In Ponce, she also founded Trinity College of Puerto Rico, an educational institution that prepares low-income youth for short-term careers; and the Artesanías Tabaiba cultural center, also located in the Tabaiba district of Ponce Beach, where artists gather to create works about the island, which are sold to raise funds.

For her humanitarian work, Sister Isolina Ferré has received numerous honors and awards. More than ten educational institutions have awarded her honorary doctorates, including the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Germán, Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, NY, the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Yale University in Connecticut, St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, and Loyola University in New Orleans.

In the 1980s, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Puerto Rican National Coalition, the Alonso Manso Cross from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, the Alexis Tocqueville Award from Fondos Unidos, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award from Johns Hopkins University, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton.

Sister Isolina Ferré passed away on August 3, 2000. Currently, the Centers operate forty community programs and provide assistance to more than 12,000 people annually

Sister Isolina, with the help of nuns from her congregation, missionaries from other churches, and private donations, created counseling and educational programs in Ponce and Cabo Rojo, including an industrial sewing school, childcare, sports-related activities, and photography workshops, among others. She created an official community publication called "El Playero."