Sister Catherine O’Brien
1921-2009
As Father Roland Calvert mentioned in his homily at her funeral, even in sickness Sister Catherine O’Brien received the Eucharist. On good days she attended Mass in chapel; on days when she was not so well, she went to the solarium and watched the Mass on TV, grateful to those who brought the Eucharist to her. Father said, “There’s something fitting about the fact that her death occurred on the first day of the Sacred Triduum last week. Holy Thursday is the day the Church celebrates the institution of the Holy Eucharist.” In this year of 2009 Holy Thursday fell on April 9.
Sister Catherine was also a person who was highly appreciative of friendship. At the end of her autobiography, she wrote:
I am grateful to all the Adrian Dominicans I’ve come in contact with over the years, and am looking ahead to being reunited with all relatives and friends, Adrian and others, who have gone before me and enlightened my life spiritually and physically.
Besides her parents, these relatives included her cousin, Sister Mary Brian Barry, who died in 1970. The friends included Sister Ruth Ann Stiglitz, who died in 1994.
On March 2, 1921, a daughter was born to Edward John and Catherine Ann (Tully) O’Brien, in Providence, Rhode Island, and baptized Doris Catherine. Both parents were of Irish ancestry and came from large families. In her autobiography, Sister Catherine wrote:
I was an only child because my mother almost died, as well as myself. I was a breech baby. My mother asked the Blessed Mother if she could keep me a while, and then she could take me back. My mother is sure that is how my vocation came about.
Sister Catherine, however, also gave credit for her vocation to Sister Mary Brian and the Notre Dame Sisters who taught at the schools she attended in Providence: Blessed Sacrament and St. Theresa Elementary Schools, and St. Mary Academy from which she graduated in June 1939.
Doris admired Sister Mary Brian, and she entered the Adrian Dominicans on February 2, 1940, from St. Ann Parish in Cranston, Rhode Island, at the age of eighteen. She received the habit and her religious name, Sister Catherine Edward, on August 7, and professed her first vows on August 12, 1941.
Almost immediately after profession, she was sent to Florida, where she taught second and third grades at St. Ann School in West Palm Beach for five years and lived at Rosarian Academy. Sister Betty Waldron, who was a member of that class, rated Sister Catherine as a good teacher and said that she was not the only vocation from that class.
Sister Catherine had been studying during the summers at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian and at Barry College (now University) in Miami. In June 1946 Barry College awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in Latin and mathematics.
A Rhode Island native who never quite lost her eastern accent, Sister Catherine had adapted to the Florida temperature in her five years there. In what she called “a drastic change of weather,” she was then assigned to Mother of Divine Grace in Cheektowaga, New York, teaching primary children. She remained there for three years, with Sister Mary Brian as superior and principal. She wrote, “A book could be written about those three years,” but she actually said nothing about those years other than that her father died in October 1948, and her mother was left alone.
In 1949 Sister Catherine was brought back to the Midwest for eight years, and taught third and fifth graders at St. Laurence School in Chicago. During those years her mother met and married Earl Houlihan, called “Slim.” “I was very happy because my mother would not be alone.” Another happy occasion for Sister Catherine was the reception in August 1957 of a master’s degree in education from De Paul University in Chicago.
From 1957 on, all of her ministry was in Florida. She spent six years in St. Petersburg: four years at St. Jude where she taught on both elementary and secondary levels, and two years at Holy Family. In 1963 she was assigned to St. Matthew in Jacksonville as a junior high teacher. It was in that same year that Earl Houlihan died, and again her mother was alone. Her mother had been living in California, but returned to Florida. Sister Catherine wrote:
Sister Rita Gleason brought her to live and work at Rosarian. She was very happy and made many friends. I was then sent to St. Patrick, Miami Beach, to the high school. That was between 1965 and 1970, the years when all the people and students came from Cuba. During those years my mother had a stroke, so she came down to Miami to the hospital. After she was better, she moved to Miami Beach in an apartment across the street from the school.
In the summers, Sister Jo Hukle, her mother, my mother, and I spent quite a bit of time together. We became the best of friends. Many days we left our two mothers together, and they enjoyed each other’s company.
At St. Patrick School in Miami Beach Sister Catherine taught Latin, religion, English, and home economics to high school students. She wrote, “Sadly, the high school was closed in 1970 and, of course, we all had to find ministries and other places to live. It was a very sad year.”
She continued, “I had to find a place for my mother and myself, so I ended up back at St. Jude and got my mother an apartment directly across from the convent.” The two years she spent with junior high students at St. Jude School in St. Petersburg were her last years in teaching. She was at St. Jude for twelve years, but the last ten years were as librarian for two years and as a media center specialist for eight years. During that time her mother was ill, so Sister Catherine lived with her and cared for her until her death in 1981. She wrote: “After she died I knew I had to leave the area. It was just too hard. Every time I met her friends they would all talk about her. She was a wonderful person!”
She spent three years, 1982 to 1985, as co-director of the Archdiocesan Catechetical Center in Miami. Sister Betty Waldron, who was coming to minister in Miami, contacted her and asked that they live together. Sister Catherine agreed. She knew Sister Betty well as they had lived together once before, and Sister Betty had been in her second grade class at St. Ann. In 1985 both found ministries at St. Peter in Naples, a parish that Sister Catherine described as “a senior citizen parish.” Sister Betty served as pastoral minister and Sister Catherine as Director of Religious Education. Then both sisters moved to Englewood where both served at St. Raphael Parish. Two years later Sister Catherine retired, and they lived in Lake Worth. About their companionship Sister Catherine wrote, “Sister Betty is very easy to live with and we seem to be compatible in many areas.”
In 1991 Sister Betty decided to become a hospital chaplain since she had training and was certified in that capacity, and she took a position at St. Mary Hospital in West Palm Beach. Sister Catherine volunteered her services at Hospice. When Sister Betty had surgery on her shoulder and could no longer minister at the hospital, the two moved back to Englewood where they remained for ten years and volunteered their services. Sister Catherine wrote, “After she was better, she volunteered at Hospice, as I did. We renewed old friendships at St. Raphael.”
Sister Catherine returned to Adrian, to the Dominican Life Center/Maria, in November 2004. When God took her to eternity on April 9, 2009, she was eighty-eight years of age.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Catherine in St. Catherine Chapel on April 13. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, extended sympathy to Sister Betty Waldron and to all of Sister Catherine’s Dominican friends who had assembled to bid her farewell. Sister Joan summarized Sister Catherine’s life and ministry, and spoke of her time at Maria.
Over the years, Sister Catherine lost some functions but, almost to the end, she was able to continue to receive the Eucharist. As she grew older, her eyes gave her problems and her memory failed her. She had very delicate skin and it often gave way to tears in the skin so she needed bandages on her arms.
She was always a very pleasant and thoughtful person. She had a warm spot in her heart for cats, and enjoyed a few stuffed ones to keep her company.
Sister Betty Waldron said in part:
Sister Catherine was my second grade teacher at St. Ann. I believe St. Ann was her first mission, and she practiced her teaching skills on her class, which also included Sister Carol Coston.
It was many years later that Sister Catherine and I ended up living together and ministering at the same parishes. We have been living together for over twenty years. . . . In 2004, after many struggles, it was time for Sister Catherine to come to Adrian.
She was kind, compatible, caring. She had a great sense of humor, was fun loving, and a great swimmer, like her mother who swam the English channel.
I would like to thank Sister Joan Sustersic, her chaplain Elizabeth Heard, the nursing staff, and the sisters for taking care of Sister Catherine.
A testimonial was received from Sister Ann Englert, a distant cousin of Sister Catherine. She wrote:
My memories of Sister Catherine O’Brien are not adult ones, but rather childhood memories. In my years as an Adrian Dominican, I was never stationed near her and only saw her a handful of times. However, I vividly remember her kindness to me as a child.
Doris, as we used to know her, would often come on home visits with my aunt, Sister Brian Barry. Often while the adults visited, Doris spent time with me, the youngest in the family. I remember that she taught me how to sing “Anchors Aweigh” and how to sing and act out “I’m a Little Teapot” to my delight and the delight of the adults. While some of our habited visitors could seem intimidating to a young child, Doris never was. She was fun and she was kind, and I always looked forward to her visits. I can’t help but think of Jesus’ words, “Let the little children come unto me.” On one of the most beautiful days of the liturgical calendar, He called Doris, who loved the little children, home to Him.
A high school classmate, Marie Renza of Providence, Rhode Island, sent a short note.
I think and remember how many years have passed since I knew Sister Catherine. We met at St. Mary of the Visitation [St. Mary Academy] in 1935—graduated together in 1939. She went on to the Dominicans and I went on to college. Both of us had wonderful lives. I can’t believe she’s gone! I’m having some Masses said for her.
Cheryl Pyle of Pensacola, Florida wrote:
Her fiftieth anniversary and celebration in Englewood at St. Raphael Church was one of the most memorable. At the celebration Mass we insisted that she walk down the aisle as would a bride. She beamed that beautiful Irish smile, and we all were graced with her presence and her selflessness in giving her life to the work of Our Lord. Sister Catherine’s friends abound. I wish I could be with you today to celebrate this wonderful, strong, caring person.
Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist at Sister Catherine’s funeral on April 14. Father said in part:
In the first reading, the author of Wisdom assures us that “the souls of the just are in the hands of God,” and they are at peace. . . . Our faith tells us that Sister Catherine is indeed in God’s hands. Paul, in the second reading, continues that theme of God’s love. Absolutely nothing, he says, “can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord. . . . Sister Catherine built her life on the foundation of God’s love and returns to the One who is the source of all love.
There was much about life that she enjoyed greatly: swimming, shopping, cats, people. She had “joy in living,” and enjoyed the time that God gave her. Someone who uses every present moment well is really living the Paschal Mystery.
Father described heaven as “a great homecoming.” There, in the hands of God, Sister Catherine receives the promised reward and rejoins her beloved family and friends.