S. Malia Suliana Toke

List of Deceased Sisters

Date of Death 24/03/2017

SISTER MALIA SULIANA TOKE

23 July 1928 - 24 March 2017

Pelenatita Toke, the daughter of Soane Muni TOKE and Valelia ILOAI from the village of Alele, Hihifo district, was born on 23 July 1928. She was the third of a family of ten children.

 On 2 February 1950 in Sofala, Wallis, Pelenatita began her postulancy which lasted six months. Her novitiate began on 16 July of the same year. She was professed at Sofala on 16 July 1952 and received the name of Sister MALIA SULIANA. After profession she was sent to the community of Sofala for two years where she cared for the Church of Lano and helped in the community.

In 1955 Sr Malia Suliana was sent to New Caledonia for four years where she learned French. Perpetual vows were in Tyé on 16 July 1958. She worked in many missions such as Saint Louis, Marie Reine Thabor, Thio, Bondé and Koné.

 She then returned to Wallis in 1959 and worked in teaching. Firstly she taught in Mua and then in Sigave, Futuna for five years. She returned again to Wallis to teach at Malaétoli for two years. At the end of 1966, she was invited by her superiors to leave teaching and prepare to work as a nurse at the Paita dispensary in New Caledonia. Despite the difficulties of taking up a new profession, she accepted this request with humility. On return to Wallis she worked for four years at Sia as nurse, she was then sent to the dispensary at Mua (Wallis) for four years and to Hihifo for five months.

Sr Malia Suliana returned to Sia where she worked for twenty years before her professional retirement in 1989. For the next two years she was given the responsibility of caring for the community of the Senior Sisters at Notre Dame, Sofala, Wallis.

In 1992, she was called to do her spiritual renewal for six months in Rome and she spent some time of rest with the family of her brother Susitino Toke in France. She returned to Wallis in 1993 and that same year she asked her superiors for permission to care for her mother who was very old. After the death of her mother in February 1994, Sr Malia Suliana returned to Futuna where she worked for the next eight years.

 Returning to Wallis, Sr Malia Suliana was appointed to Malaétoli for seven years where she cared for the school children and the boarders.

In 2009, she was appointed to Sofala, Notre Dame, for a true time of rest.

 In April 2016, she began to experience a loss of physical strength and the inability to move around, but she remained lucid and recognised all those who came to visit her and even her family who came from Noumea and from Wallis to help.

 We will never forget the goodness, which was always shown in her smile, reflected in the personality of Sister Malia Suliana. She always sought relationships of friendship and peace despite the little problems of community life. She was a woman of deep prayer.

 God called her at about 4.30 in the afternoon of 24 March, the vigil of the feast of the Annunciation.

 Thank-you Sister Malia Suliana for the witness of your missionary and religious life and also for all the service you have given to the people and especially to our sisters.

 “I AM THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD, MAY IT BE DONE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD.”

Sister Malia Pelenatita Galuofenua, Community leader