SR. FAY JOSEPHINE PELE

The oldest of eleven children, Sr. Fay Josephine was originally born in Tacoma, WA, while her father was finishing his studies at Seattle University. Her family moved to Samoa when she was three months old, where she grew up.

Her parish, Saints Peter and Paul, was the family’s second home, as everyone was involved with various church activities through the week, including teaching religious education, youth activities, meetings, prayer services, choir and band practice.

Sr. Fay was taught by the sisters at the Catholic schools she attended. When she was in sixth grade, she felt the call to become a nun just like the sisters who taught her. She first met the Daughters of St. Paul when two sisters from Honolulu visited her school and home parish. She met the sisters a second time years later at World Youth Day in Denver. She entered the Daughters of Saint Paul at their convent in Boston when she was 23 years old.

“I love being a Daughter of Saint Paul because I am called to continue the mission of Jesus who Is our Way, Truth and Life in the world. To spread his message of love, mercy and compassion as he himself showed us during his public ministry, to the point of giving up his life for us through his passion, death and resurrection.”

Sister Fay is passionate about music, especially singing. She loves to listen to the Daughters of St. Paul albums, some of her own native music from Samoa (especially the fast dancing songs), and praise and worship music.

In carrying out the Pauline mission, Sr. Fay often incorporates singing, in her talks at catechetical conferences, at the vocation talks she gives, by cantoring at liturgies, or by singing at concerts. Music is a gift that she is grateful for and wants to use in every possible way for evangelization, spreading God's message of love for us through songs.

As a second year novice, Sister Fay started singing with the sisters during a Christmas concert in Boston in 2000.

“What I enjoy about singing with the choir is that I get to meet so many people: To witness how much they love the Lord, or to hear in conversations after a performance how they are searching for the Lord, or to receive emails from those who have heard our albums. Hearing from the people whom we are called to minister to—their powerful stories of conversion, coming back to the Lord and the desire to have God in their life through music—makes me want to sing 24/7.”