A true servant of God

The Korean War and a chance meeting put Benedictine Sister Stephana Choong on the path to her religious vocation.

“The war broke out in 1950; I was in high school in Incheon, Korea, and lived through those three years of turmoil,” said Sister Stephana, 86, who celebrates her 60th jubilee this year. “When I graduated in 1953, all the universities and colleges in South Korea had burned down, and I searched for a place to study.”

That’s when she met a Catholic U.S. Army chaplain from the Diocese of Duluth, the now-late Father William Zorichak, who was holding Sunday services at her Catholic church for American soldiers stationed in Incheon.

“Father Zorichak happened to be a graduate of St. John’s University in Collegeville, and he suggested I come to the U.S. to study,” Sister Stephana said. “My family was delighted with the idea, and that’s how I came to the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph.”

After earning a biology degree and minors in chemistry and physics, with plans to teach in secondary education, Sister Stephana returned to Korea in 1957.

“While in college, those Benedictine nuns were real role models for me . . . so dedicated and such good teachers,” she said. “I decided to come back to Minnesota in 1959 and become one of them.”

Following her first vows in 1960, Sister Stephana taught science courses at St. Benedict’s Convent in St. Joseph, Cathedral High School in St. Cloud and St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, where she instructed nursing students, before heading to the University of Minnesota in 1970 for graduate studies. After earning a Ph.D. in plant physiology in 1978, she taught at the university’s Morris campus before taking a research scientist position at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.

“I was involved in childhood cancer immunology studies, glucosamine as a biochemical means of enhancing cartilage tissue, and then hematology, making mice reproduce human sickle cells with the goal of developing therapies for sickle cell anemia,” she said.

While teaching and research were her ministries before she retired in 2006, Sister Stephana simultaneously served as a valuable mentor and friend to Korean graduate students at the University of Minnesota, helping them get settled and adjust to life in the Twin Cities. She also helped lead the formation of a Korean parish in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as one of nine founding members of St. Andrew Kim in 1973.

“Sister Stephana provided a home away from home to me and many Korean students,” said Heekyung Youn, 72, a professor emerita in mathematics at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, now living in San Francisco. “And ever since, she’s always been available to discuss any of life’s challenging situations with understanding and unlimited love.”

Youn noted that after St. Andrew Kim purchased its own church building in St. Paul in 1979, Sister Stephana worked tirelessly with fellow parishioners and the pastor at the time, Father Francis Choe (now retired and living in Korea), to clean and improve the space for worship and social gatherings.

“She would often fill the church refrigerator so that church members who lingered around after Sunday Mass could share food,” Youn said. “She was a pillar of the community where we had a sense of belonging, which was important as foreigners.”

Sister Stephana has always selflessly thought of others, Youn said. “When the Hmong arrived in the Twin Cities, she held clothing drives for them,” she said. “When children came to the U.S. from Korea for heart surgeries, she visited them and fed them Korean foods.”

“Sister Stephana is God’s true servant,” Youn said. “She’s been a true example of love and compassion to others.”

There were challenges as well. Recalling that time, Sister Stephana sees similarities to the kind of racism and discrimination that people have called attention to in the Twin Cities since the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American who died while pleading for breath under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

“We experienced major racial tensions when the neighborhood discovered these ‘orientals’ and their church,” she said. “I had eggs thrown at me, people had car tires slashed, and the church was vandalized and marked with ‘white power’ and ‘KKK’ graffiti.”

St. Andrew Kim eventually moved to two other locations in St. Paul; today it shares a church campus with Holy Childhood on Midway Parkway, near the State Fairgrounds.

Sister Stephana said her planned jubilee celebration has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Her heart goes out to all older people who are dying from the virus, she said.

“I am one of them, so as a Benedictine, I personally thank God for giving me this long life to celebrate my jubilee,” she said. “Every day is my celebration.”