Patricia M. Brennan, of Lindenhurst, New York, passed away on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, at age 83. She was the loving wife of Robert and devoted mother of Diocese of Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan, Theresa Kemp (Russell), Daniel Brennan (Susan), Patricia Conlon, Thomas Brennan (Patricia), and the sister of Margaret McGurk.
In his homily at her Funeral Mass, Bishop Brennan fondly remembered his mother’s selfless devotion to family.
“Never in her whole life did my mother ever live for herself,” Bishop Brennan said. In closing, Bishop Brennan said, “Patricia Miriam Brennan belongs to the Lord.”
A wake was held at the Claude R. Boyd- Spencer Funeral Home, Babylon, N.Y. on Monday, Jan. 22. A Funeral Mass was celebrated Tuesday, Jan. 23, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Lindenhurst, N.Y. Interment was scheduled in the family plot at St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.
Sister Lucide Maytrott, O.P., was called home on January 11 by the God she had served so well. Sister Lucide was five days shy of her 97th birthday, and she had been a Sister of St. Dominic of Amityville for 78 years.
On Jan. 16, 1927, Laurette Anne Maytrott was born in Queens Village. She went on to graduate in 1945 from Dominican Commercial High School where she met the Dominican Sisters.
On Sept. 8, 1945, Lucide entered the Novitiate of the Dominican Sisters of Amityville. On Aug. 4, 1946, Laurette received the habit and her religious name, Sister Lucide. She professed first vows on Aug. 7, 1947, and final vows on August 7, 1949.
Lucide received a Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University and a Master of Arts in elementary education degree from Hunter College. She later received a Master of Arts in theology from St. Michael’s College in Vermont.
Sister Lucide began her long ministry as an educator in 1947 in St. Martin of Tours, Amityville. She then moved on to Fourteen Holy Martyrs School in Brooklyn and then back to Queens to Incarnation School and to St. Margaret School in Middle Village.
Always a spiritual person, Lucide felt called to contemplative life, and in 1959 she received permission to transfer to Corpus Christi Monastery, Bronx. Yet after a short time, she felt drawn back to her educational ministry with the Amityville sisters.
She continued to teach elementary grades in schools in Brooklyn and Long Island from 1961 through 1983. Sister Lucide later learned Braille and was an itinerant teacher of blind children in Brooklyn while stationed at Holy Cross Convent from 1961-1965.
In 1983, she moved to Christ the King Convent in Commack and began teaching religion (theology) at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington. She retired in 2006 as an assistant librarian and general office worker.
In the almost 30 years that she lived in Commack, she parked her bike outside the back door, and she rode throughout the parish.
Sister Lucide moved to Rosary Hall in Amityville in 2011, and part of her daily routine was to go upstairs to visit with the sisters who either were living in Carlin Hall or were recovering there from illnesses. When she herself moved to Carlin Hall, she remained independent and self-directed and could be depended upon to knock on a door and say, “Get your jacket, and let’s go for a walk.”
Sister Lucide is now among the wise and faithful who line the halls of heaven.
The wake and funeral for our Sister Lucide Maytrott took place in St. Albert Chapel on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. The Mass of Christian Burial and Interment were in St. Dominic Cemetery on the Motherhouse grounds.
Sister Jean Toolan, IHM, (formerly known as Sister M. Dermot) of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023, at Our Lady of Peace Residence in Scranton, PA. She was 101 years old.
Born on Dec. 13, 1922, in Carbondale, PA., Jean entered the IHM Congregation on Sept. 8, 1940, and made her temporary profession of vows on May 10, 1943, and her final profession of vows on May 10, 1946. Sister Jean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Marywood College, and a Master of Arts degree in English from Notre Dame.
Sister Jean also served as assistant superintendent of secondary schools at the Catholic Schools Office for the Diocese of Scranton from 1980 to 1993; administrator of the IHM Center in Scranton, PA, from 1993 to 2000; and as receptionist at the Adult Day Program at St. Joseph’s Center in Scranton, PA, from 2000 to 2012. From 2012 until the time of her death, Sister Jean was a prayer minister at Our Lady of Peace Residence in Scranton.
The funeral was held Monday, Jan. 8, with Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Peace Residence, Dunmore, PA. Interment followed the Mass at St. Catherine’s Cemetery in Moscow, PA.