Sister Rosaria Schaefer, OSB, 96, a Benedictine Sister of Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, Kans., died on January 25, 2012 at the monastery. The vigil will be at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 29 in the monastery chapel and the Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated there on Monday, January 30 at 10:30 a.m.

Born March 25, 1915, the youngest daughter of Joseph M. and Agnes Clare Magrane Schaefer, Sister Rosaria was raised in St. Joseph parish, Hays, Kans. She graduated from Mount St. Scholastica Academy, and made monastic profession in 1936, living to celebrate her 75th anniversary last year. She received her B.A. in English with minors in history and music from Mount St. Scholastica College and earned the M. A. in education in 1954 at Notre Dame University.
She did postgraduate work in educational administration at Notre Dame and at Creighton University, and in both English and Corporate Ministry at St. Louis University. Sister Rosaria taught at Guardian Angels, Lillis High School and Donnelly College in Kansas City, Mo.; St. Joseph High School, Shawnee, Kans.; in Steinauer and Beatrice, Nebr.; Panama, Iowa; and at the Mount Academy, as well as being principal at Baileyville, Kans. and Salisbury, Mo. She was registrar at Benedictine College, Atchison, 1972-79 and later a parish assistant at Hanover, Kans., and at St. Mary-St. Anthony, Kansas City, Kans. Sister Rosaria then ministered to the elderly in Hays while caring for her sister Agnes. She served her monastic community as liturgist and volunteered in the Mount Academy alumnae office and in the sisters' development office.
Sister Rosaria was predeceased by her parents, her siblings Mary Zita (B.A.) Brungardt, Margaret (Henry) Hermann, Agnes, Sister Mary Felix (also a Mount Benedictine), Leo, Joseph, Victor, Paul, George, Richard and Theodore. She is survived by nieces and nephews and by her monastic community.

Let us remember her gratefully in our prayers.


S. Rosaria's memorial card:

"Your deeds, O Lord, make me glad,
Because of what you have done, I sing for joy."
Ps. 92:3-4

Sister Rosaria, born to Joseph and Agnes Magrane Schaefer of Hays, Kans., entered the Mount community in 1934, made monastic profession in 1936, and celebrated the 75th anniversary of her profession in 2011. A graduate of Mount St. Scholastica Academy and College, she earned a master of arts in education from Notre Dame University, taught in community schools in four states for 36 years, and was principal at Salisbury, Missouri, and Baileyville, Kansas. She taught English, religion, Latin, drama, film and music, and directed parish choirs. After serving as registrar at Benedictine College in the 1970s, she was a parish minister in Hanover, Kansas., and St. Mary-St. Anthony in Kansas City, Kansas. She was community liturgist and senate member, cared for her sister for several years, and volunteered at the Mount Academy alumnae office and in the monastery's development office. A gracious woman, gentle, self-effacing, lover of beauty in word and in music, Sister Rosaria had an almost instinctive sense of the appropriate. She was a devoted and appreciative Partner in Prayer with college students. She also compiled the Schaefer genealogy as a gift to her family. Sister Rosaria was skilled in embroidery, enjoyed reading, sharing poetry and listening to music. Let us remember her in grateful prayer.