When I watched Sr. Eva Maamo’s most recent interview last December, I was surprised by how little she had aged since I visited her 16 years ago. She was the same peaceful, petite, soft-spoken woman I remembered her to be.
She was the only Filipina religious sister who was a medical doctor. She passed away on April 14, 2026, at the age of 85, at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Parañaque City, Manila -- a hospital which she had built for the poor.
I recall that when she won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1997, which is often called the Nobel Peace Prize of Asia, we were all surprised that a nun like her existed. Sr. Eva was also a trained surgeon. What made her example even more admirable was how she used her expertise to serve underprivileged Filipinos. When I heard she passed away, I realized I had never looked into the details of her remarkable life. So I began to dig.
My most significant discovery is the story of how she operated on a dying woman on a bamboo table with limited surgical tools, using only a flashlight for lighting. Since they could not give the patient an IV with dextrose, Sr. Eva relied on coconut water to keep her hydrated. The patient survived.
This story became emblematic of Sr. Eva’s vision: No human being should die because they are poor or live in areas far from medical care. To bring this vision to life, Sr. Eva trained hundreds of health workers called “barefoot doctors” to educate and care for indigenous and neglected villages.
In Sitio Gala, an indigenous settlement of Aetas, formed after the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption, the incidence of disease decreased by a third just one year after the first 17 barefoot doctors completed their training. To this day, these community health workers continue to serve their communities as a way of keeping Sr. Eva’s work -- and their patients -- alive.
These volunteers embody Sr. Eva’s commitment to both solidarity and subsidiarity. Instead of relying solely on medical professionals from outside the community, she trained women and men within the community.
Catholic social doctrine in action
From her meek exterior, one would not guess that this quiet soul was capable of the tenacity, courage, and focus required to train that many healthcare workers across the Philippines – she trained 274 in total – and from less privileged backgrounds.
That was not her only achievement. She also established and managed a medical foundation to fund her outreach projects, built and ran a hospital for urban poor patients, and continued to provide free in-person medical check-ups and surgeries to the communities she adopted. Many of her unbaptized patients asked to be baptized because of the goodness they saw in this humble nun-surgeon.
The fruitfulness of her ministry is a clear sign of the depth and authenticity of her faith. Her life confirms what our Lord tells us in the gospels, “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” (cf. Jn. 15)
Furthermore, Sr. Eva is a witness to how friendship with Jesus propels us to serve others with everything we are. She models how, as disciples, our common vocation to imitate our Savior must include placing all our skills and talents at the service of others, especially those who are in greatest need.
Sr. Eva reminds us that, from the perspective of our faith, our professional work must go beyond the self: there is joy and meaning to be found in serving the dignity of every person, especially the most vulnerable. Her story, therefore, invites us to ponder with courage and honesty, “Are our professional lives building a more just and dignified world?”
Finally, her example shows us that one’s vocation might take on less-conventional forms. She could have become a nun without earning a medical degree, but while discerning her vocation, she felt an inner nudge to listen to her parents’ advice to become a doctor before joining the convent. Of 11,000 Filipino religious sisters, Sr. Eva is the only one who was a trained surgeon. If she hadn’t discerned her calling with profound openness to the Spirit, her ministry would not have had its broad reach.
In Sr. Eva, we see how expansive and transformative one’s faith can be. With a heart listening intently to the voice of her Savior, she found the courage and perseverance to serve others in unimaginable, groundbreaking ways.
