Sister Eva Marchese
Feb 20, 2025
The early Sisters of St. Joseph were often called “Sisters of the neighborhood” because they actively lived and worked within the local communities they served and could integrate themselves into the fabric of the neighborhood. This bonding was often gone as times passed and structures changed. Many Sisters lost this connection as they were moved from place to place to fill needs. Sister Eva Marchese was not one of them.
Sister Eva attended school at St. Martin of Tours parish. When she was in the eight grade, her teacher, Sister Loretta Therese, said:” I bet nobody in this class will attend Mass every day during Lent.” Eva thought maybe she would try it. That Lent she attended 6:30 a.m. Mass every day. She observed the parish Sisters at daily Mass and began to think, “Maybe that is what I should do.”
After graduation Eva attended Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School. There, she met various religious communities and was drawn to the Dominicans. However, on reflection, she decided to stay with St. Joseph who she admired as part of the holy family. Eva was only 16 years old when she graduated from high school so she waited two years before making her application. In 1964, after working for two years as a District Office Clerk for Metropolitan Life, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Sister Eva spent five years in Brentwood and earned a BA in Education from Brentwood College. Then in 1969, she was sent to St. Philip Neri Parish in Northport. She has been there ever since.
At St. Philip’s she taught the 2nd grade and was responsible for the religious education and sacramental programs for all the parish children including those who did not attend the parish school. As she continued to do this, she built relationships with families and served in various capacities in the parish. Meanwhile, she earned a masters degree in education with a sociology minor at Queens College.
In 1993, the five local parishes had their schools consolidated into Trinity Regional School. Sister Eva moved there as a teacher, but her home and her connections remained with the people of St. Philip Neri. She had taught the children of her first classes and now was teaching their grandchildren!
There was a family in the parish with five children, three of whom were deaf. Sister Eva joined their mother every Wednesday night for ten years to attend classes in sign language at the United Cerebral Palsy Center in Commack. The children prospered, one becoming a librarian, another a custodian. Because of her acquired expertise, Sister Eva was invited to work at summer camp with 2nd grade deaf students from the Cleary School.
Sister Eva had also taught her own classes some sign language and they performed in the parish singing while using sign language. Because of this experience, some of them went on to study sign language and become interpreters for deaf communities.
Since her retirement from teaching, Sister Eva has worked in our archives identifying sisters in old photos, some so old that nobody remembers the persons. She enjoys this work and the research it involves.
After spending her whole religious life at St. Philip Neri, Sister Eva is a true “sister of the neighborhood.” Wherever she goes she hears the call. ” Hi, Sister Eva!” or “There’s Sister Eva!” She knows them: she has lived with them; they know her; they are connected, It’s a wonderful expression of who we are and who we are called to be. As Pope Francis put it: “This is what I am asking you, be shepherds with the smell of the sheep.”