By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—Madeline Estafen’s life as a Catholic was centered around the Scriptures, and at her funeral Mass Nov. 1, the Scriptures that were read and cited reflected her, even as she had always reflected God.

The first reading from the Song of Songs, usually read at a marriage ceremony, captured her expectant faith. The reading from Philippians acknowledged her difficult five-year battle with breast cancer, but said, “I shall continue to rejoice . . . Christ will be magnified in my body, whether in death or in life.”

Her daughter, Jackie, who spoke at the wake service the night before, said her mother’s love “wasn’t made to be contained.” While she gave her love generously to her husband, Joe, and her daughters, Jackie and Janine, she had more to give, love which those who knew her best say was poured into friendships, teaching, leading “Walk Thru the Bible” seminars, and particularly leading others to deeper faith in God.

“My mother was no Martha Stewart,” Jackie Estafen said. “She didn’t teach us much about cooking or cleaning, but those things, I found, can be learned from a book. What she did instill in us was deep love for the Lord Jesus—a desire to know Him, love Him and serve (Him). What greater gift can any mother give her child? . . . In her life and in her death to Him was the glory forever and ever.”

Mrs. Estafen, 55, died Sunday, Oct. 28, at her home in Duluth with her family and friends there. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in April 1996.

A member of St. Monica’s Church, Duluth, she had been active in the archdiocese for about 25 years and was Woman of the Year from St. Stephen’s Church, Lilburn, when she lived in that parish. She was also a member of St. John Neumann Church, Lilburn for many years.

Financial administrator at St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, from November 1978 to September 1984, she agreed to take that job only if she could also teach religion on a part-time basis. Former students say she introduced them to the Bible as a place to hear God speaking, to know God, that they might learn also to love him.

“In today’s world, we often find ourselves looking for heroes,” said Kathi Stearns, vice chancellor, a former student of hers. “Madeline was my hero. Her God-given talents were used for His glory. Her zeal for teaching God’s word through her life and (Walk Thru the Bible) seminars was contagious. She lived her life, day in and day out, as one of God’s disciples and chief evangelizers.”

Father Greg Goolsby, pastor of St. Monica’s and principal celebrant of the Mass on All Saints Day, said, “Madeline herself said there are so very many ways in which we are nourished and enriched by the Gospel . . . It was this great love of the sacred Scriptures that in the last years of Madeline’s life led her to become a consummate teacher.”

The first Catholic and first woman to be commissioned to present “Walk Thru the Bible” seminars, Mrs. Estafen pioneered a Catholic expression of this well-established teaching model for introducing groups to the key people, places, events and themes in the Old and New Testament. In order to overcome hurdles to her being commissioned by “Walk Thru the Bible,” she earned a master’s degree in religious education from Loyola University.

Yet, speaking at the Magnificat Catholic women’s breakfast in May 1996, she said, “I am not a Scripture scholar. I am someone who has a passion for the Scriptures. What I’d like for you to see in me is one beggar showing another beggar where the bread is.”

The Walk Thru seminar, usually offered in parishes on a Friday night and Saturday morning, utilized her dynamic personality and entertainment skills. She taught using actions, hand motions, rhymes and other memory devices to help people grasp the time line and sweep of the Scriptures. She continued to present the seminars despite her illness, as recently as February 2001. Philip Tuttle, her mentor at Walk Thru and the organization’s vice president, said, “I believe there will be many people in heaven because of her sacrificial ministry.”

At St. Monica’s more than 400 people came to her presentation, Father Goolsby said. “This was her greatest joy in life. It was the thing that sustained her.”

Her husband, who served as head of the archdiocesan finance office from 1976-89, said that she often told him that giving the “Walk Thru the Bible” seminars to Catholics was what she was born to do. Her own three Bibles, he said, were well-worn, heavily underlined, highlighted and covered with her notes.

She joked in her talk at Magnificat that “Catholics are not genetically inferior to Protestants when it comes to learning the Scriptures.” While the Catholic approach to the Scriptures is different, she said, “there is no reason why we can’t learn the Scriptures and have fun doing it.”

Father Goolsby said that it was also through meditating on the Scriptures that Mrs. Estafen, who believed in the Lord’s power to heal the sick, gradually came to terms with the unrelenting progress of her illness.

“She found the way to understand it, to process it and to accept it,” through the power of God’s word, Father Goolsby said.

He advised the full church at her funeral not to question why she died now, when the grace given to her seems so needed. Instead, he said, ask “how many people did this magnificent woman touch, how many people were brought back to the faith of their ancestors because of her teaching?”

Concelebrants of the Mass included Msgr. Paul Reynolds, vicar general in curia and a friend, Msgr. Jim Fennessy, pastor of St. John Neumann, Msgr. Terry Young, a longtime friend who was principal at St. Pius High School when she worked there, and Father Tom Carroll, MS, retired pastor of St. Oliver Plunkett Church, Snellville.

Pam Kramer, a registered nurse who was her close friend, illuminated another aspect of her life. They met in 1981 through a Scripture-based weight loss program Mrs. Estafen started at St. John Neumann Church. “‘See, there is something to say about being chubby,’ I used to tell her. ‘I wouldn’t have met you,’” Kramer said.

In the class “she really taught me how to read and study the Scriptures,” Kramer continued. Later the Estafens sponsored the Kramers on Cursillo weekends and when they adopted a child, “Madeline was there when (Elizabeth) came home. She was (Elizabeth’s) sponsor for confirmation. We are family.”

Their friendship fostered the establishment of the Gwinnett Community Clinic with Dr. Lanny Lesser of Lawrenceville.

Moved by an article about a homeless shelter in Charleston, S.C., Mrs. Estafen asked Kramer to take a field trip there in 1989 to see the model for themselves. Returning, they learned from other advocates that what was truly needed in Gwinnett County was a medical clinic to serve the poor. With Dr. Lesser’s help, they planned and started the clinic, which serves the working poor of Gwinnett County for a fee of $10 a visit. Dealing with those who are ill, rather than preventive care, the nonprofit by-appointment clinic uses the volunteer services of physicians and specialists and Emory Eastside Medical Center, as well as a small staff of four people. It logs 5,000 visits a year, Kramer said. Both Kramer and Dr. Lesser serve at the clinic regularly.

The nurse credited Mrs. Estafen, who helped with the business side of the clinic, with instilling in her the confidence to accomplish the vision. “It would not have been a thought in our minds were it not for Madeline.”

Pat Everett, a longtime friend from the St. John Neumann community, said Mrs. Estafen was “a center-stage personality” and “a shaker and a doer.”

“She had enough personality for 10 of us,” Everett said. “Her personality was one that demanded a response. She had so much personality and passion and excitement for what she was doing.”

Yet during her illness she also, through the prayer support of others and her own reliance on faith, learned “to be still and know” that He is God, Everett said, quoting the psalms.

“To enter into that being still was very hard for her. Finally at the end, she said, ‘Whatever He wants,’ that quiet resignation that He was God.’”

A native of Clinton, Ohio, Mrs. Estafen came from very poor circumstances, her husband said. After her father died when Madeline was 14, her mother raised three children on her own, working two jobs to send her to Catholic schools.

The Estafens met in Catholic high school, but did not date until they were at the University of Akron. They were married for 34 years. Estafen, who is the executive director of the Gwinnett Community Foundation, said the foundation will start a fund in his wife’s memory. It will be used to provide scholarship assistance “to young women like Madeline who are poor from a rural area,” he said.

His wife told him many times, he said, what she wanted as her epitaph: “She was a teacher.”

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughters, Jackie Zurinaga of Roswell, and Janine Kourieh of Duluth, a sister, Janet Porubsky of Tucker and four grandchildren.

Contributions to the fund in her memory may be made to the Gwinnett Community Foundation, 6500 Sugarloaf Parkway, Suite 220, Duluth, GA 30097.