Land of the Rising Nun
Slim and seemingly frail, and with the elegance of an empress, she had the robust resolve that would make her venture into nightclub row in her habit to organize Masses for Filipino entertainers in Osaka. Once, she even rescued a Filipina who had broken her back fleeing from a prostitution den and arranged her escape from her would-be captors, Sound of Music-style.
Sister Remedios Carmen V. Locsin entered the convent at age 19, and never looked back. In her nearly 82 years on earth, 62 years were spent as a sister of the Religious of the Assumption. Forty-five years of those she devoted to being a missionary in Japan, first as a teacher and eventually heeding the call of another nun to minister to Filipinas in distress.
Sister Remy was a sister of National Artist Leandro V. Locsin and an aunt of former Foreign Affairs Secretary, now ambassador to the United Kingdom Teddyboy Locsin.
On the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption Tuesday, a compilation of her memoirs titled A Missionary’s Journey: Selected Stories of Filipino Migrants in Japan was launched at the Assumption College (AC) in Makati, with Sister Lerma Victoria Pangantihon, r.a., the provincial superior; Dr. Angela Regala, AC president, and Marlu Villanueva Balmaceda. Marlu produced the first edition and completed the second edition of the book, as was the “dying wish” of Sister Remy.
Sister Remedios was a familiar face in the Assumption Herran campus when I was in grade school — a gentle, regal, smiling nun with chinita eyes. Later, when I was a trustee of the Assumption Alumnae Association (AAA) and she was one of the advisers, I remember her telling me that young ladies, according to her mentor Mother Esperanza, shouldn’t go out of the house in “flats,” but “in kitten heels” and with a hint of color on their lips. Yes, she was not cloistered at all.
The first edition of the book was published in 2017. The stories she wrote were about Filipinos, mainly women, who had migrated to Japan as entertainers in the ‘80s and ‘90s. She ministered to those who were in distress — those who had brushes with the law, those with mental health issues, and cases of domestic violence. To assist their needs, she built quite an enviable support network involving religious communities, government agencies, and private individuals.
“And all this she did quietly and gently, relying always on prayer,” says Marlu.
Sister Remy arrived in Japan as a missionary in 1974. She studied Japanese and fell in love with the Japanese people. In 1984 she was a full-time grade school teacher. Then one day, a Japanese sister went to see her and told her sadly that many Filipino women were victims of human trafficking. After getting permission from her superiors, she decided to do something about it.
In the book’s preface, Sister Remy, who admitted she was sent to a school that had a reputation for being only for the rich, compared herself to the migrants she ministered to in Japan, from Osaka to Takayasu.
“Like the migrant women, I also had to leave something behind. I had to leave my ‘comfort zone.’ And that was the beginning of my journey, the journey of transformation and a journey of the unknown.”
One of her outreach activities that she wrote about in the first edition took her to nightclub row in the red-light district of Osaka. I was reminded of Sister Act starring Whoopi Goldberg. As part of her sleuthing (she loved detective stories as a child), she visited one of the churches frequented by Filipino migrants.
She was perplexed that the American priest in the church said the Filipinas who attended his Mass “slept throughout most of it.”
Sister Remy attended the Mass herself and did some digging. It turned out the Filipino churchgoers worked until the crack of dawn and did sleep until after the 10 a.m. Mass.
And lo and behold! “Permission was granted to have the Mass at the nightclub. I was dressed in my full habit when the American priest and I entered the club at 1 p.m. I noted that the street was very quiet. All the nightclubs and the snack bars were still closed.” The Mass was held at a small lounge that was bursting at the seams with participants.
When the priest and Sister Remy left at 4 p.m., “I got the shock of my life to find the street bright and bustling… Neon lights were lit so we both appeared lit up, too!” recalled Sister Remy. The priest joked they were a strange sight — “a priest and a sister in her religious habit who went night-clubbing.”
What a walk of faith, indeed!
***
After a couple of years in the Philippines to be near her ailing sister, Sister Remy returned to Japan in 2017 to resume her mission. She was met by a different community of migrants in Takamatsu. Most of the women were happily married with supportive husbands and children.
“However, many still struggle because of the challenges of culture and language. They also tend to seek for spiritual support to help them with the loneliness of living in a foreign country,” Marlu says of this second group Sister Remy ministered to. “It may have brought some degree of comfort to Sister Remedios that she witnessed — during her lifetime — this positive shift in the situation of Filipino migrants in Japan.”
This new generation of women looked up to her as their “mother.” Marlu met with Sister Remedios to discuss the outline of the second book, which would contain only happy stories and many pictures of this second generation. Her health swiftly deteriorated after that meeting and by Dec. 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Marlu was in the ICU of the Makati Medical Center listening to the ailing missionary’s list of must-dos. They discussed the cover of maple trees. Before Marlu left, Sister Remy told her, “The book is now yours.” Less than two months later, on Jan. 21 this year, Sister Remy passed away.
Her book, completed posthumously, was launched on the Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, which also happened to be the birth anniversary of her brother Lindy Locsin. Lindy’s son Andy and his wife Mailin were also present at the book launch and the Mass that followed.
In the preface to the second edition of the book, her nephew Ambassador Teddyboy Locsin wrote, “She lived as living should be — for others though few do it.”
Sister Remedios’ legacy still rises in the land of her birth, and in the land she chose to call home. *
(Books are available at the PCFC,Assumption San Lorenzo. Please contact Myrna at 09267242935 or Chie at 88132458.)
(You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)
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