Franciscan Sister Marietta Culhane, former pastoral life director, dies at 94

A funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Marietta Culhane will be offered 11 a.m. Jan. 10 at Assisi House in Aston, Pa. Sister Marietta died Jan. 6. She was 94 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 71 years. 

Sister Marietta was born Mary Lucy Culhane in Chicago. She entered the Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia in 1951 and professed her first vows in 1953. She earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Villanova University, a master’s degree in English from St. Bonaventure University in New York, and a doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. 

Sister Marietta ministered for 31 years in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. She began teaching elementary school at the Shrine of the Little Flower for one year. She taught high school for the next 11 years – a year at The Catholic High School of Baltimore and 10 years at Towson Catholic High School. During that time, she also served as the Archdiocesan Supervisor of Math. She later served as the Dean of Instruction at Essex Community College and as an ethics consultant. 

Sister Marietta ministered at St. Mary in Cumberland 1989-91 as pastoral associate. She then was the regional pastoral associate for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s western vicariate 1991-94. She was pastoral life director of St. Mary of the Annunciation in Lonaconing 1991-2004. She served as pastoral life director of St. Anthony Shrine in Emmitsburg and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Thurmont 2007-2011 and then later served there as a volunteer.

Elsewhere, she served in Pennsylvania and Delaware. She also conducted more than 250 math workshops in 18 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; authored a National Science Foundation Institute on math at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; and received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal from Pope John Paul II in 2004. 

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