Religious Women Jubilarians

85 YEARS Sister Faith Roth, SSSF

Sister Faith Roth was born in Elgin, Nebraska and earned a bachelor’s degree from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She then earned a master’s degree from St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. She entered the School Sisters of St. Francis and taught at Corpus Christi School in Colorado Springs from 1948-1963. From 1963-1970, she taught at St. Patrick School in Fremont, Nebraska. She taught at West Catholic Elementary School in Fordyce, Nebraska from 1970-1988 and continued to minister in Fordyce in pastoral care, elder care and as a parish volunteer. Sister Faith is 103 years old and resides in Milwaukee. 

80 YEARS Sister Kathleen Tighe, SL

Sister Kathleen Tighe was born in 1927 in Elizabeth, Colorado. Her family soon moved to Denver, where she attended Blessed Sacrament School. They then moved to Los Angeles, where she graduated from high school in 1943. She entered the Sisters of Loretto on April 25, 1944, following five of her siblings into religious life. She taught in schools in Illinois, Missouri and Denver before being assigned to St. Mary’s School in Colorado Springs in 1953. In 1958, Sister Kathleen earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Webster University in St. Louis. She then served as an administrator at two high schools in Missouri before earning a master’s degree in education from DePaul University in Chicago. She later worked as a piano teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and Holy Family Parish in South Pasadena. In the early 1990s, Sister Kathleen created the Loretto Spirituality Network, an extended community that prayed and celebrated together. Today, she resides at the Loretto Living Center in Nerinx, Kentucky. 

75 YEARS Sister Mary Clarice Lousberg, SCL

Sister Mary Clarice Lousberg grew up on a wheat farm near Fleming, Colorado, and graduated from St. Anthony High School in Sterling. She attended St. Joseph Hospital and School of Nursing in Denver and entered the Sisters of Charity of  Leavenworth. She ministered as a nurse, administrator and patient representative at hospitals in Montana, Wyoming, California, Kansas and Colorado. 

75 YEARS Sister Helena Zecha, OSB

Sister Helena Zecha grew up in Colorado Springs and attended St. Mary’s High School. She entered the Order of St. Benedict at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. She taught at schools in Missouri and Kansas in addition to teaching in Walsenburg, Antonito, Denver and Colorado Springs. She also served as Director of Transportation for Benet Hill Monastery, which included handling the records, maintenance and purchase of all the community’s vehicles. Her hobbies are cross stitching, crochet, reading, jigsaw puzzles and following her favorite sports teams. 

70 YEARS Sister Miriam Grace Erramouspe, CSC

Sister Miriam Grace Erramouspe was born on Feb. 23, 1928, in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  The third of 10 children, she grew up with four brothers and five sisters on the family’s sheep ranch.  She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from St. Mary of the Wasatch in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1951. 
 She entered the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana on Sept. 7, 1951.  In her application to the novitiate, she wrote, “I feel that I’ll find happiness in this kind of life and save my soul and the souls of others.”  Upon reception of the holy habit on year later, she became Sister Miriam Grace.  Sister Miriam Grace was a respected teacher and principal for over 30 years following her profession of vows in 1954.  She primarily taught third through eighth grade in Holy Cross-sponsored elementary and secondary schools throughout California, Arizona, Idaho and Utah.  In 1965, while principal of St. Joseph’s School in Pocatello, Idaho, she earned her master’s degree in education from Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, California.  In 1987, she began a ministry involving health care and retired seniors. She completed an internship with Mercy Housing in Denver and became the property manager at one of the company’s single-room housing facilities for homeless persons, The Plaza on Platte, from 1997-2008.  She then became an active community member in residence at the sisters’ convent, St. Catherine by the Sea in Ventura, California, where she resides to this day.

70 YEARS Sister Therese O’Grady, OSB

Sister Therese O’Grady entered Benet Hill Monastery in 1954 and worked as a teacher in Catholic schools. She later switched to adult faith formation, with a focus on prayer and spiritual guidance. She earned a master’s degree in theology from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She also served as vocation director and led spiritual retreats at Benet Pines.  

70 YEARS Sister John Vianney Martinez, SCL

Sister John Vianney Martinez entered the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth on Aug. 19, 1954. She taught elementary school in Butte, Montana, for the next eight years. She then taught at St. Bernadette School in Lakewood for a year before moving to Leadville. For the next 25 years, she worked as a teacher, pastoral assistant, and director of religious education in Leadville. In 1990, she moved to Denver to help manage three low-income housing complexes. 

65 YEARS Sister Michelle Micek, OSF

Sister Michelle Micek is a native of Nebraska who entered the Sisters of St. Francis in 1959. She earned advanced degrees in education and mainly served as a teacher and principal in the Diocese of Gallup and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Sister Michelle later served as both Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent of Schools in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She was instrumental in establishing the New Mexico Association for Nonpublic Schools, which lobbied at both the state and national level. In 2006, she was elected Provincial Vicar for the Sisters of St. Francis and moved to Mount St. Francis in Colorado Springs. Currently she is the Coordinator for the St. Clare Convent and Director of Housekeeping.

65 YEARS Sister Immaculata Park, OSF 

Sister Immaculata Park was born in North Korea in 1937, the seventh of eight children. After World War II, her family fled to South Korea. She received the religious habit in 1959 in South Korea, and in 1975 she transferred to the Sisters of St. Francis in Colorado Springs. Having a love for pastoral ministry, she attended Clinical Pastoral Education courses at Loyola Medical School in Chicago and became a certified chaplain in 1989. Thus began her long career of 39 years as a chaplain at Penrose-St. Francis Hospital. From 2008 until 2022, she ministered as a volunteer at the Penrose Radiation Oncology Center and currently volunteers in Spiritual Services at Mount St. Francis Nursing Center.

65 YEARS Sister Clarann Weinert, SC 

Sister Clarann Weinert entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati on Feb. 2, 1960. She worked as a registered nurse at several hospitals, including Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs from 1969-1970. She then earned a master’s degree and doctorate in sociology and joined the faculty of the College of Nursing at Montana State University in Bozeman. She retired in 2011 and current resides in Mother Margaret Hall at Mount St. Joseph. 

60 YEARS Sister Patricia Malarkey, SC

Sister Patricia Malarkey entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati on Sept. 8, 1964. She spent the next 20 years as a teacher in Ohio and spent her summers volunteering at El 
Pomar Retreat House. When the retreat house needed an administrator in 1988, she applied and became co-director. She remained at El Pomar until 1993, when she completed her gerontology certification. She returned to the Midwest in 1994 and served as pastoral minister at Bayley Senior Care for 10 years. Today, she resides in Mother Margaret Hall in Cincinnati. 

60 YEARS Sister Mary Mullaly, FMA

Sister Mary Mullaly is a native of Los Angeles who entered the Daughters of Mary Helps of Christians, commonly known as the Salesian Sisters, in 1964 in Newton, New Jersey. She later earned a doctorate in Catholic Educational Administration from the University of San Francisco and taught school at every level for 40 years in California, Texas, Florida, Louisiana and New Jersey. From 1992-2003, she taught prospective high school teachers at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and was a director of the Catholic School Leadership master’s degree program at the university. She served as Director of Total Catholic Education for the Diocese of Colorado Springs from 2003-2005, where she also oversaw parish religious education program, youth ministry and campus ministry. She was then named Director of Education and Mission Integration for the Salesian Sisters’ Western province in San Antonio, Texas. Due to illness, she is no longer in active service.

50 YEARS Sister Marie Therese Summers, OSB

Sister Marie Therese (MT) Summers is a native of Pueblo who discerned a calling to religious life as a teenager. After high school, she entered Benet Hill Monastery in 1974. She attended Iliff School of Theology and Regis University in Denver, earning a bachelor’s degree in education with an emphasis in health, physical education and recreation. She became the head of the physical education department and athletic director at Benet Hill Academy, a girls’ high school in Colorado Springs. She later earned a master’s degree in religious studies from Gonzaga University and became head of the school’s religion department until it closed in 1982. She then served in parish youth ministry. From 2011-2021, Sister Marie Therese served as treasurer for Benet Hill Monastery. In June 2021, she was elected prioress of the monastery and was installed on Aug. 15, 2021.

50 YEARS Sister Regina Marie Massarotti, OSF

Sister Regina Marie Massarotti is a native of Trinidad, Colorado, who is the oldest of seven children born to Frank J. and Elizabeth J. Massarotti.  Following high school graduation, she entered the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in St. Louis, Missouri.  After attending the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she received her bachelor’s degree, she taught music, social studies and religion in the Midwest.  Sister Regina Marie professed final vows in August 1981.  In 1986, she transferred to the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Colorado Springs. For the next six years, she served as liturgist and Music Director for the Colorado Springs province of her congregation and St. Francis of Assisi Parish.  She earned a Master of Arts Degree in Pastoral Studies from Aquinas Institute of Theology/St. Louis University in 1993. She then ministered as liturgist, music director and RCIA/RCIC Director in the Archdiocese of Denver and Pueblo. Before retiring she served as the Director of Liturgy, Music and the RCIA/RCIC at Most Holy Trinity Parish in Trinidad.