Filipina actress and environmentalist, is now known as "Sister Lourdes", after joining a Carmelite convent.
According to a Facebook page created by her friends, she had become a sought-after resource speaker and lecturer for environmental education, “lending her expertise to a broad range of issues related to ecology and conservation, such as Ecological Waste Management, Sustainable Development, Ecology and Spirituality, The Integrity of Creation, Sustainable Consumer Lifestyles, Women and the Environment, and Women and the Environment.”
She was designated one of Time Magazine's "Asian Heroes" in 2003, and she was honored with The Outstanding Women in Nation's Service (TOWNS) Award for environmental advocacy in 2004.
Chin Chin is most known for playing "Maria Clara" the pretty, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in national hero Jose Rizal's opus, Noli Me Tangere, in 1992, one of her first roles as an actress.
Years into her career in show business, her acting prowess and dazzling beauty garnered her a series of prized local acting honors.
She was named "Best Actress" in the first Asian Television award in 1996 and Best Supporting Actress in 1998.
She was also a model who appeared on magazine covers.
She took up advocacies such as environmental protection as her reputation grew greater in the performing world.
She lost her mother in a fire in their home in Quezon City's Loyola Heights district when she was at the height of her acting career and environmental activism.
She sustained injuries as a result of the incident.
A fire flared out in the same property four years later, in 2010.
A multi-award-winning Filipina actress has became a full-fledged Carmelite nun after a nearly three-decade career in acting and modeling.
Sister Lourdes Gutierrez of the Order of the Carmelite Nuns now addresses Chin Chin Gutierrez, who is 50 years old.
She had been a novitiate at the Carmelite Monastery in Quezon City for the last ten years.
But, after a successful career in performing for several years, what caused Chin-Chin, actual name Maria Carminia Lourdes Cynthia Gutierrez, to abandon show business and follow the monastic path of a nun?
She describes her decision as a "awakening" in her new life as a nun.
She had never married throughout her decades-long career in show business.
“‘You are about to enter someplace fascinating and lovely.
So, when you're trying to pass the class, focus on that.'
For some reason, I understood what he was saying, and I believe that was the beginning of my awakening,” she explained.
