Sr. EaganA funeral Mass for Sister Teresa Maria Eagan, CSJ, was celebrated Feb. 9 at Nazareth Living Center in south St. Louis County. Sister Teresa died Feb. 1 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 98 years old and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 78 years.
Teresa Marie Eagan was born in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1924, the daughter of Patrick and Marguerite Franey Eagan. She and her brother, James, were surrounded by lots of cousins.
Church and school activities were constants in their lives. Family prayer was important, and she was surprised when she grew up to learn that praying as a family was not that common. She and her brother and cousins attended St. Teresa School, where they were taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on Sept. 15, 1943. She made her final profession on Aug. 15, 1949. Sister Teresa earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Fontbonne College (now University) in St. Louis in 1954 and a master’s degree in library science from Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois, in 1969.
Sister Teresa began a ministry in teaching in 1946, when she was assigned to Notre Dame de Lourdes School in Wellston. In 1952, she went to St. Mary’s School in Bridgeton to teach junior high for the next four years.
In 1956, she was sent to Shawano, Wisconsin, to teach. Three years later, she went to teach at Redemptorist High School in Kansas City, Missouri. She liked working with the students there because she was able to use her Spanish with them.
It was while she was there that she began having trouble with her hearing, and she began treatment for her hearing loss. But as she said told the doctor, “You can see, I haven’t lost my ability to speak.”
She studied library science so that she could have a full ministry. It led to her being school librarian at St. Francis de Sales High School in Denver, Reicher High School in Waco, Texas, and St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City.
In 1976, Sister Teresa was invited to help organize the archives for her community. In 1985, she became a records manager for the Carondelet Community Betterment Foundation, and she later served as an assistant archivist for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Sister Teresa also was a volunteer with Cardinal Ritter Senior Services’ senior day care center. In 2019, she moved to Nazareth Living Center, where she lived out a ministry of prayer and presence.
Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.