Age 76
Sister Ray Maria was a gifted ministry leader and former principal of St. Patrick Catholic School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After belonging to the cloistered community of the Monastery of the Poor Clares, she realized that she did not have a vocation to cloistered life. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in Belmont, North Carolina, at the age of 29.
Ray Maria loved classical music, played several instruments and had a beautiful singing voice. In her teen years, she was a competitive swimmer and state swimming champion.
She taught elementary and middle school in Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina, and enjoyed awakening interest in the sciences for her students. In 1997 she began a program leading to a master’s in theology and a doctorate in Christian spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She taught theology at the University of Portland in Oregon, for five years when the Sisters of Mercy asked her to assume responsibility for mission advancement for her community. She later worked in staff formation for the former South Central community.
Most recently she ministered at St. Mary’s Health Care System in Athens, Georgia, where she worked with the administration to assist in living out the spiritual mission of the hospital.