Sister Maureen Cannon, OP, a former member of the Dominican Sisters in Elkins Park, passed away on Tuesday, June 11. She was 91 years old.
She joined the Sisters two years after her high school graduation.
“I made retreats here since 7th grade and thought they were the most joyful Sisters I had ever met and I wanted a community that was not solely into teaching,” she said in a previous statement about her life. She continued:
Did I feel called? No. Was it easy? No. I wanted to find the most noble thing I could do with my life during the years that I have here on earth. But, did I want this? Sort of. The question, should I stay, or should I leave, was resolved, like a volcano, when I publicly pronounced the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In the deepest part of my being came the enormous and wonderful realization that this and only this is what I want in life, to be a Dominican Sister, and I made it. It was so overwhelming I could have fainted! Nothing has ever equaled that moment and I am still filled with the same strong sense of overwhelming gratitude.
According to her obituary, she served at retreat houses in New York, Ohio and New Mexico for the next 15 years while studying part-time for her sociology degree. She earned a master’s degree in psychology from the Catholic University of America before returning to Dayton, Ohio to help run The Loretto, a residence for young women, 18 – 22 years old, including those who were recently incarcerated.
“This was my first contact with deprived and powerless people. They helped me realize that for me God was white, American, Catholic, and probably middle class,” she said. “They changed my image of God to a God who was bigger, broader, more magnificent and merciful than I ever imagined.”
There will be Remembrances on Friday, June 28 with the Funeral Mass on Saturday, June 29, both at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Peace in Columbus, Ohio. Interment will be at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Philadelphia.
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Photo: thefloridacatholic.org