Feagan, Sister Christine (1947-)
Biography
Christine Feagan was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan to parents Marie Micallef Feagan and Clifford Feagan. The family moved to Lena, Illinois when Feagan was young and later moved again to Freeport, Illinois when Feagan was a teenager. She attended a Catholic high school and joined the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, a Dominican religious order based in Wisconsin, after graduating. She made her first religious profession in 1967 and made her final vows in 1976.
Feagan received a Bachelor of Arts in French from Edgewood College and a Master of Arts in French from Illinois State University. She taught French, and later Spanish, for 12 years at high schools in Bloomington, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Freeport, Illinois. In 1979, Feagan was approached by a superior with an opportunity to serve in youth ministry in Bolivia; she served in Bolivia for 15 years.
Feagan returned to the United States in 1994 and worked at a parish in Chicago, Illinois. After struggling to reenter into the teaching profession and American culture, Feagan was invited by Father Bernard Grady, whom she had previously met in Bolivia, to work at St. Mary Catholic Church (now unified with St. Henry Catholic Church and operating under the St. Francis of Assisi Parish) in Marshalltown, Iowa as the Director of Hispanic Ministry. She began working there in 1999.
As Director of Hispanic Ministry, Feagan worked to offer services based off the needs of the Latino community in Marshalltown. Therse services included English classes, interpretation and translation services, immigration legal services, naturalization classes, economic assistance, and religious classes. During this time, St. Mary was the only church in Marshalltown that offered masses and religious services in Spanish. Feagan retired from her position as Director of Hispanic Ministry at St. Mary Catholic Church in 2023.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Sister Christine Feagan and related materials, 1999 - 2023
The oral history interview with Sister Christine Feagan covers Feagan’s work as the Director of Hispanic Ministry at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marshalltown, Iowa. A transcript of the interview is included in the collection. Supplemental materials include newspaper clippings from the Times-Republican, a Marshalltown-based newspaper, and immigration guides. The articles cover Feagan’s involvement in the Latino community in Marshalltown, opinion columns on immigration, and stories of Latino immigrants in the area. The guides provide information to immigrants and refugees and information for those that help immigrants and refugees settle into life in Iowa. Also included is a press release written by Feagan after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at the Swift meatpacking plant in Marshalltown in 2006.