Obituaries

Obituaries, Week of January 25, 2025

Sister Margaret Mary Flanagan, OP, (Sister Marie Thomasine, OP), was called into the arms of the God she had loved and served so well in the early evening of Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, after a very wonderful party with the sisters and staff of St. Catherine’s Wing.

Sister Peggy was 88 years old and had served the people of God as a Sister of St. Dominic of Amityville for 64 years. On May 16, 1936, James and Margaret (Kiely) Flanagan welcomed their daughter Margaret Mary (Peggy) into their home in the Bronx.

She was received as a postulant by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville on Sept. 11, 1960, in the midst of Hurricane Donna. She received the Dominican habit and was given the religious name Sister Marie Thomasine on Aug. 5, 1961. She and her classmates became known as the “Passion Flowers” of St. Catherine of Siena. These sisters pronounced their First Vows on Aug. 8, 1962, and their Final Vows on Aug. 8, 1965.

Sister Peggy received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, both in education with a major in English, from St. John’s University, Jamaica. She also received a Master of Science in counseling education from Fordham University, Bronx. Prior to entering the congregation, Sister Peggy taught for several years at St. Francis Xavier School in Manhattan.

It may have been a Jesuit priest, Father Burns, who introduced Sister Peggy to our congregation. After completing her novitiate, Sister Peggy ministered in elementary education for 12 years at St. Bartholomew School in Elmhurst, St. Catherine of Siena School in St. Albans, and St. Clement Pope School in Ozone Park.

In 1974, Sister Peggy began teaching English on the high school level, spending two years at St. Michael’s High School in Brooklyn before beginning a 34-year ministry at Bishop Ford High School, also in Brooklyn. Sister Peggy was an excellent teacher and was well-loved by her many students.

While teaching in Bishop Ford, Sister Peggy lived in several convents in Brooklyn. She retired on Oct. 1, 2010, and moved to
Queen of the Rosary Motherhouse in 2011, where she continued using her teaching skills in The Opening Word, a literacy program for immigrant women. Mass for Sister Peggy took place on Dec. 17 in St. Albert Chapel. Interment was in St. Dominic Cemetery, located on the Motherhouse grounds.


Sister Joan Lucie Roccasalvo, formerly Sister Regina Consuelo, a Sister of Saint Joseph for seventy-one years, was called home to God on December 18, 2024, after a brief illness at Maria Regina Residence Brentwood.

Joan and her twin brothers, both of whom became Jesuit priests, were raised in a deeply religious home by their parents Lucie and Michael Roccasalvo. Joan attended her parish elementary school, Saint Marks’ Brooklyn, and then graduated from Saint Agnes Seminary High School in June 1953.

In September of that same year, she entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Sister Joan taught elementary school throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn. Students of Saint Mary Star of the Sea, Rockaway, Saint Joseph’s Pacific Street, Saint Ambrose, Our Lady of Victory, and Holy Name of Jesus, experienced her as not only a skilled teacher but one who enriched the music program of their schools and parishes.

For over twenty years, Sister Joan was a professor of music and theology at Scranton University. During those years she also served as an Assistant Campus Minister and the Coordinator of the Center for Eastern Christian Studies. Her love for music, as it intersected with her love for liturgy and theology, brought her to pursue advanced degrees in Theology (MA, Seton Hall University) and Liturgical Studies (PhD, Drew University). When Joan returned to NY, she taught undergraduate Theology at Fordham University until she retired from teaching in 2003.

Sister Joan’s world was born out of her love. Beauty which she so deeply desired to share. Thus, her prolific writings: The Church, Beauty, and the Arts”, “Called to Beauty Through Sacred Images in the Christian Tradition,” and “The Need for
Beauty to be Experienced in Architecture, Music, Liturgy, Chant”.

Sister Joan’s funeral occurred on December 27, 2024, at Sacred Heart Chapel, Brentwood, NY, with Fr. Seth N. Awo Doku presiding, followed by burial in Calvary Cemetery.