December 4, 1933 – October 28, 2022
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Sister Kathleen Elliott (Sister Mary Madonna), who passed away on October 28, 2022, at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 88 years of age.
Sister Kathleen, baptized Mary Kathleen, was born on December 4, 1933, in Las Vegas, Nevada, to parents Lloyd Elmer and Veronica (De Vany) Elliott. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1952 and was received into the novitiate in 1953 as Sister Mary Madonna.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fontbonne College in St. Louis in 1962; a master’s degree in deaf education from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1964; and a master of philosophy in adult Christian community development from Regis University in Denver, Colorado, in 1990.
Sister Kathleen’s mission work began in 1955 in St. Louis as a primary school teacher at St. Edward Grade School, followed by Most Holy Rosary Grade School in 1959. She then taught intermediate students at St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf (SJI) in 1962. Two years later, after receiving her master’s at Smith College, she returned to teach at SJI until 1971.
Sister Kathleen left the classroom for one year to serve as the religious education coordinator for the Diocese of Jefferson City in Jefferson City, Missouri. She then taught at Notre Dame de Lourdes Grade School in Wellston, Missouri.
She returned once more to SJI, though, as the religious education coordinator from 1973 to 1977. For the next two years, Sister Kathleen continued ministering to the hearing impaired, establishing the Ministry to the Hearing Handicapped and providing religious instruction for deaf children in the public schools in the St. Louis Archdiocese.
In 1979, she revisited Jefferson City and served as the religious education coordinator at the St. Joseph Cathedral Parish. She moved to Columbia, Missouri, in 1982 to serve in pastoral ministry and religious education at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. For the next 20 years, Sister Kathleen served in the state of Colorado.
In the Archdiocese of Denver, Sister Kathleen was a pastoral minister at St. Augustine Parish in Brighton (1983-85), Sts. Peter & Paul Parish in Wheat Ridge (1985-88), St. Elizabeth Parish in downtown Denver (1988-1991), and was chaplain at St. John Hospice in Lakewood (2004-2006).
In Colorado Springs Diocese, she was a pastoral minister at Sacred Heart Parish (1991-1996) and chaplain at Mt. St. Francis Nursing Center (2000-2003).
Throughout her mission work, Sister Kathleen also gave workshops in religious education for deaf children nationally and gave a paper at an international convention in Stockholm, Sweden.
Sister Kathleen retired in 2006 in Wheat Ridge, and served as a volunteer. She moved back to St. Louis in 2012, residing at Nazareth Living Center (2012-13, 2016-02) and the Village at Nazareth (2013-16) where she continued to carry out her ministry of prayer and witness.
Sister Kathleen donated her body to science. The Memorial Mass will be held Tuesday, November 15 at 10 a.m. at Nazareth Living Center Chapel in St. Louis. The Mass will also be available to watch via livestream at https://video.ibm.com/channel/csjsl-general.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province, 6400 Minnesota Ave., St. Louis, MO 63111-2899 or donate online.