[Cincinnati, OH] Margaret “Peggy” McCabe of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, age 80, passed away on April 7, 2024.

The daughter of Irish immigrants, McCabe was born May 27, 1943, in Philadelphia. As a child, she was educated in Catholic parish schools and at West Catholic High School. It was there she became acquainted with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdeN), choosing to profess the vows of the order after high school.

McCabe earned a bachelor’s degree in education (1979) and a master’s degree in teaching and counseling (1980), both from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Her teaching career included parish schools in Ilchester and Baltimore, MD. She returned to D.C. as a teacher and assistant principal at St. Francis Xavier Parish School and a religion teacher and counselor at Academy of Notre Dame, K Street.

Called to minister directly with those experiencing homelessness, particularly the mentally ill, McCabe earned a second master’s degree in social work with a specialization in mental health from Catholic University, Washington, D.C. in 1987. She was then hired as a crisis social worker, a role she loved. At 48, she began serving an eight-year term as the crisis program director for Crossing Place, under the umbrella of the Potomac Residence Club in D.C. The work to stabilize people experiencing mental health distress brought her deep joy and confidence that she was doing what God wanted her to do.

Following this ministry, McCabe began serving the Notre Dame de Namur community as administrator of the Villa Julie Residence, a retirement and care facility in Stevenson, MD. She especially enjoyed bringing comfort to the Sisters by praying with them. A lifelong learner, McCabe completed a year-long Clinical Pastoral Education program in 2004. She spent the next five years as a hospital chaplain and family liaison in the Baltimore area. Retiring in 2009, she began volunteering in the SNDdeN development office. She joined Villa Julie as a resident and later transferred to Mount Notre Dame Health Center in Cincinnati.

Funeral Mass for Sister Peggy McCabe will be held in the chapel at the SNDdeN Province facility, 699 E. Columbia Avenue in Cincinnati, on Wednesday, April 17, at 3 p.m. She will be interred at the Mount Notre Dame Cemetery in Reading, OH.

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are an international congregation founded in Amiens, France, in 1804. Sisters are dedicated to changing lives by making known God’s goodness. Throughout the world, they are committed to education and take a stand with impoverished people, especially women and children in the most abandoned places. Sisters of Notre Dame serve across the U.S. and in Belgium, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa and Zimbabwe. See more at sndohio.org.