Diocesan News

Dominican Sister at Transfiguration Renews Vows on Feast Day of Our Lady of Altagracia

Sister Yárelin Ventura, shown here with Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros, renewed her vows on Jan. 21 — the feast day for Our Lady of Altagracia — at Transfiguration Parish in Williamsburg. Bishop Cisneros officiated the ceremony. Sister Yárelin’s community, the Institute of the Sisters Daughters of Altagracia, draws its name from Our Lady of Altagracia, a major Marian devotion in the Dominican Republic. (Photos: Courtesy of Transfiguration Parish)

WILLIAMSBURG — Sister Yárelin Ventura renewed her vows on Jan. 21 after arriving in the United States from the Dominican Republic two months earlier. 

The ceremony and a celebratory Mass led by Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros were held at Transfiguration Parish in Williamsburg, where she is now residing and in service. 

Sister Yárelin arrived from the Dominican Republic in late November, along with two other members of the Institute of the Sisters Daughters of Altagracia: Sisters Damiana Anglada and Idelma Hernandez.

The sisters came to Fort Greene to help administer religious education and youth programs at Transfiguration and Mary of Nazareth Parish. Both parishes have robust Dominican populations, and their respective pastors — Father Jeremias Castillo and Father Henry Torres — also have Dominican heritage. 

Sister Yárelin has not yet taken her permanent vows. Until she does so, she renews her vows each year. This is the third year she has done so. Speaking through an interpreter, she shared her joy in reaching this milestone in her vocation journey.

Sister Yárelin Ventura, shown here with Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros, renewed her vows on Jan. 21 — the feast day for Our Lady of Altagracia — at Transfiguration Parish in Williamsburg. Bishop Cisneros officiated the ceremony. Sister Yárelin’s community, the Institute of the Sisters Daughters of Altagracia, draws its name from Our Lady of Altagracia, a major Marian devotion in the Dominican Republic. (Photos: Courtesy of Transfiguration Parish)

“I am grateful,” she said, “for the goodness and love of God who has looked upon my smallness to be his and to give myself to others through my institute of the Sisters Hijas de la Altagracia.”

In an earlier interview with The Tablet, Sister Yárelin explained that the three sisters want to serve the Brooklyn parishes by teaching the youth “that Jesus is life.” In doing so, thety want to “share the life and the love of Jesus with them.”

Transfiguration celebrated a milestone last fall with its 150th anniversary and the sisters’ community celebrated its 65th anniversary in the Dominican Republic.

The community, formed in 1959, draws its name from Our Lady of Altagracia (High Grace), which is an important Marian devotion in the their homeland. 

Later, on the same day that Sister Yárelin renewed her vows, she joined Sisters Damiana and Idelma, along with Bishop Cisneros and Fathers Castillo and Torres, to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights with over 700 people from at least a dozen parishes.