RUMA — Sister Antoinette "Toni" Cusimano, an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, died July 21 at the community's center in Ruma. She had been an Adorer for all but 20 of her 79 years.
A Chicago native born to immigrants from Sicily, she was a teacher, missionary, pastoral minister and healer. The first of two children born to Vito and Rose (Modica) Cusimano, Sister Antoinette earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Saint Louis University in 1968 and a master's degree in education from Southeast Missouri State University. She later was certified as a practitioner of the ancient art of healing touch.
She taught elementary school in various Catholic schools in Illinois. She was a missionary in Liberia for 15 years, working in the school and parish in Gardnersville, and doing evangelization, catechesis, pastoral ministry and adult leadership training in the village of Klay.
Sister Antoinette called her 15 years in Liberia "the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life." But the end of her time there in 1990, as the civil war heated up, was dangerous. She told the story of being stopped by the militia in Liberia and told to give soldiers a ride. She told them she did not allow guns in her car and that they would have to put them in the trunk. They did.
After coming home, she served in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois as a pastoral associate for three years at St. Joseph Parish in Springfield. She then worked four years at a shelter for abused women in Tucson, Ariz. For five years, she provided home care with an agency run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis.
Sister Antoinette was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Frank, aunts and uncles. She is survived by her sister-in-law Pamela (Van) Korbitt, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and members of the ASC community.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated July 24 at the Ruma Center Chapel with Msgr. Dan Jurek presiding. Burial was in the Ruma community cemetery.
Memorials in Sister Antoinette's honor may be sent to the Adorers' U.S. Region Mission Center at 4233 Sulphur Ave., St. Louis, MO 63109 or made via the www.adorers.org website.