BRIDGETON, Mo. — A funeral Mass was celebrated August 1 in the The Sarah Community chapel in Bridgeton, MO, for Sr. Mary Catherine Ann Dahmen, a Franciscan Sister of Mary for 56 years who provided housekeeping and dietary help for the sisters. Sister Mary Catherine Ann died July 28, 2013 at The Sarah Community. She was 103. Her burial was in Resurrection Cemetery, St. Louis, MO.
Born on Easter Sunday in 1910, in Springfield Township, Wis., she left school after the sixth grade to help her mother care for the home and the children. She worked as a housekeeper until her father’s illness in 1952 brought her home to be with her mother. She then worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., where she met the Sisters of St. Mary. She entered the community in 1957 and received the name Sr. Mary Catherine Ann. She professed final vows on February 11, 1965. (In 1987, the Sisters of St. Mary of St. Louis and the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville, Mo., reunited as the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.)