Honoring Sister Marguerite

On Wednesday, September 13, 2017 the Sisters of the Holy Spirit & Mary Immaculate gathered, after supper, to honor Sister Marguerite Connors for her years of ministry as Archivist for the Congregation, July 2011 – September 2017.

In her remarks, Sister Geraldine Klein, Congregational Leader, spoke about the incredible amount of updating and organizing Sister Marguerite has done since she accepted the responsibility for the management of our Archives.

Some of the most notable accomplishments, which Sister Geraldine highlighted, included getting the help of a friend from Fort Worth in digitizing the records of all of the Sisters since the founding of the Congregation.  She also organized in digital form, the location of the burial sites of all of our deceased Sisters in our Congregational Cemetery.  Now the location of individual graves can be found by a simple click on the computer.

Sister Marguerite also did detailed research to find the location of the burial site of the former Sister Aloysius McMullen.  Sister Aloysius was a member of the Congregation during its very early years.  She served, very briefly, as General Superior before leaving the Congregation (1907-1909).  She continued to live on the East Side of San Antonio and was buried without any grave marker in the San Antonio San Fernando #2 Cemetery.

With the help of the Archdiocesan Cemetery Office, Sister Marguerite was able to locate exactly where Sister Aloysius was buried.  She had a headstone prepared and put in place, and she planned a beautiful ritual blessing of the site and marker.  A large number of the Sisters attend the blessing.

Sister Marguerite spent countless hours re-organizing files, putting them in smaller, more manageable boxes.  She also spent countless hours assisting researchers who wanted to do research on the history of our Congregation.  And she located and prepared information for family members of our deceased Sisters whenever they requested such information.

Sister Veronica Cahill, Assistant to the Congregational Leader presented Sister Marguerite with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  Sister Geraldine Klein, Congregational Leader presented Sister with a personal gift.

-Photographs and report by Sister Miriam Mitchell