Julianna Devoy

Sister Juliana Devoy (7 February 1937 – 14 December 2020) was an American-born Catholic nun, missionary, and social activist, residing in Macau. She joined the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and conducted missionary work in Southeast Asia, eventually settling in Macau where she spent the rest of her life. She was active in efforts to reform Macau's laws governing domestic violence. She founded and managed the Good Shepherd Center, a charitable institution in Macau, which provided support to women in crisis. She was the recipient of several honors, including the Medal of Altruistic Merit from the Macau government in 2013.

Biography Juliana Devoy was born on 7 February 1937 in Norfolk, Nebraska in the United States of America. Her father was in the American Air Force, and she had six siblings. She spoke English and Cantonese. She graduated high school in 1954, and spent a year at the California State University studying social services, but did not continue her education at the time, later receiving a master's degree in theology at the age of 60. She died in Macau at the age of 83, on 14 December 2020.

Work Devoy joined a Catholic order of nuns, the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, in Los Angeles on 12 September 1954, after receiving a brochure about them at her school.

In 1988, Devoy moved to Macau, and in 1990, she founded the Good Shepherd Center, a charitable refuge for women in crisis, and particularly to serve those affected by domestic violence and human trafficking. Devoy was active in efforts to reform domestic violence laws in Macau, and lobbied for a bill which was eventually passed in 2016. The bill altered domestic violence from a 'semi-public' crime (i.e. placing responsibility on the victims to prosecute) to a 'public crime' (making it the responsibility of the government to prosecute). In 2014, Devoy presented a speech on the law concerning domestic violence in Macau before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, urging them to press for reforms.

In 2013, the Macau government awarded her with the Medal of Altruistic Merit for her work. She also received a medal of philanthropic merit from the Portuguese government in 1997, and the Good Shepherd Crisis Center, which she founded and managed, won a business award in Macau in the non-profit organizations category in 2013.