Sr. Rosaria Schaefer, Osb

Sister Rosaria Schaefer, OSB, 96, a Benedictine Sister of Mt. Saint Scholastica died at the Convent Infirmary.

Mass of Resurrection will be Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:30 A.M. at Mount St. Scholastica. A vigil service will be Sunday, Jan. 29th at 7:00 P.M. also at the convent. Memorial contributions are suggested to Mount St. Scholastica. The Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home is in charge of these arrangements.

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.

She is survived by nieces and nephews and by her monastic community.

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.