Ramon Magsaysay awardee St. Paul de Chartres Sr. Eva Fidela Maamo has died at age 85.
Maamo, a surgeon and missionary who dedicated her life to serving the poorest communities, died April 14, according to the Parañaque-based Our Lady of Peace Hospital, which she founded in 1986.
“A life so beautifully lived in service to the poor and in need deserves to be beautifully remembered,” the hospital said.
Born in 1940 in Liloan, Southern Leyte, she trained at Velez College of Medicine in Cebu before joining the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres and committing herself to missionary health care.
Her early work in Lake Sebu in the southern Philippines saw her treating Indigenous patients in a bamboo infirmary, improvising surgeries with limited tools, sometimes using flashlights and coconut water in place of standard equipment.
Returning to Manila in 1980, she expanded her outreach among the urban poor, providing food programs for malnourished children, shelters for abused women and street youth, and livelihood initiatives aimed at restoring dignity and self-reliance.
Her mission extended beyond routine care, as she led medical teams responding to disasters, including the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, and organized resettlement efforts for displaced Aeta communities.
Despite her small stature, colleagues described Maamo as relentless, inspiring volunteers to endure long, exhausting operations by continuing her own work alongside them.
Her missionary work for the poor and marginalized earned her the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1997.
The award foundation said her life embodied compassion translated into action, calling her service to “the least of my brethren” a powerful form of nation-building.
In honoring her, the foundation recognized her example in bringing humane, accessible health care to marginalized Filipinos long deprived of even the most basic medical services.
Maamo’s wake is ongoing at the Foundation of Our Lady of Peace Mission Inc. office at Coastal Road in Barangay San Dionisio, Parañaque City, until April 17.
The hospital said interment details will be announced later.