Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Mary Agnes Saffer (formerly Sister Bernard Agnes) died July 29 at the age of 87 in Mother Margaret Hall at the order’s Cincinnati motherhouse.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Aug. 4 in Mother Margaret Hall Chapel.

A Cincinnati native, Sister Mary Agnes earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from the College of Mount St. Joseph in 1943; a master’s degree in music theory from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, in 1965, and a master’s in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame in 1975.

She entered religious life in 1945 and was a Sister of Charity for 63 years. She served in the dioceses of Cincinnati, Detroit and Cleveland in music education; and in the dioceses of Gaylord, Michigan, Denver, Savannah and Covington in parish religious education and pastoral ministry. She was the music minister at the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse until her retirement.

Sister Mary Agnes taught music at St. Matthew in Norwood; St. Bernard in Springfield; and at the College of Mount St. Joseph. In Colorado and later worked in two Glenmary missions in Georgia. In 1983 she moved to Hazzard, Kentucky, to work as a pastoral assistant for three years. She returned to the motherhouse in Cincinnati in 1985 to be the organist for the Immaculate Conception Chapel.

Sister Mary Agnes is survived by her brother, Bernard Saffer.