Sister Sarah McMahon, CSJ
March 21, 1924 - June 8, 2023
(S. Marguerite Marie)
Welcoming, open to the Spirit, joyful
Sarah was born to John and Margaret (Gallagher) McMahon of Savannah, Georgia, on March 21, 1924. Two sisters and a brother preceded her. When Sarah was nine, her parents died within a year of each other. Fortunately, an aunt and uncle took in Sarah and her siblings. One of her sisters entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia, receiving the name Sister Mary Raymond. In 1942, Sarah also entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia, receiving the habit and the name Sister Marguerite Marie. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history/education from the College of St. Teresa, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1959.
In 1944, Sister Sarah began teaching in Augusta, Georgia, at Mt. St. Joseph School. This was followed by Sacred Heart, Savannah (1951); Mt. St. Joseph (1952); St. Joseph, Marietta (1953); Sacred Heart, Savannah (1955), and St. Mary on the Hill in Augusta (1958). After the Georgia province united with St. Louis, Sarah left Georgia in 1963 and spent two years in St. Joseph, Missouri, at St. Patrick School. Returning to Georgia, she taught at St. John the Evangelist in Valdosta.
In 1966, S. Sarah was back in Missouri, this time in Kansas City where she spent four years at Visitation School. Then, in 1970, she returned to Marietta for a year at St. Joseph School. A year later, she found herself at Little Flower School
in Mobile, Alabama. In 1972, S. Sarah moved to Michigan, teaching at St. Michael in Marquette for two years and then a year in Hancock, where she taught religious education at the Cathedral Religious Center Hancock-Houghton.
Back in Georgia, S. Sarah was a religious education coordinator in Athens at St. Joseph Parish (1975), and then returned to St. Mary on the Hill School (1977). She ministered at St. Joseph School in Muskogee, Oklahoma (1978), followed by two years at Valle School in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. In 1981, S. Sarah taught at the Village of St. Joseph, Atlanta, Georgia, until 1985 when she took time off for a sabbatical at Little Flower School in Mobile, where she remained until she moved to Sacred Heart in Festus, Missouri (1988).
Sister Joyce Bringer, of Mobile, recalls both times Sarah was in Alabama:
In the 70s, she taught school. In the 80s, she was involved with our Golden Age Club. She made many friends here in Mobile. She was a quiet influence in the work she did, much like St. Joseph.
In 1989, S. Sarah moved to Immaculate Conception School in Union, Missouri. The St. Joseph Provincial House in St. Louis welcomed her as a staff member in 1991 until she returned to the classroom three years later as a tutor at St. Francis de Sales School in Denver, Colorado.
She moved to Nazareth Living Center in 1999 and joined the ministry of prayer and presence. When Sister Barbara Volk was recovering from knee surgery at Nazareth, she remembers that “S. Sarah was a ray of sunshine. Always pleasant and happy. ... Meeting S. Sarah was a highlight [of] my day. Sarah radiated joy!”
By Sister Helen Oates