Sister Lucille Ann L’Episcopo, CSJ, died Oct. 9, 2023 at home at St. Joseph Convent. She was 90 years old.
Lucille grew up in Queens. She attended Immaculate Conception elementary school and graduated from The Mary Louis Academy in January 1951. After a semester at St. John’s University, Lucille entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph, and took the name Sister Mary Luciana.
She began her teaching career at Saint Francis of Assisi in Brooklyn, followed by Holy Name of Mary in Valley Stream and then her alma mater Immaculate Conception in Jamaica Estates. Along the way, she earned a BS in mathematics from St. John’s University and moved to Sacred Heart Academy to begin her long and illustrious career teaching math. As one of her students remarked: “She was passionate about her subject and inspired all of her students to recognize the beauty of mathematics. In addition to being a great teacher, she was also a wonderful person.”
Sister Lucille answered the need for a math teacher in Ponce, Puerto Rico where she taught for three years at Academia Maria Reina. Having earned a MTS in math from The Catholic University of America, she returned to Brooklyn and enrolled in the NYU Courant Institute while teaching at St. Joseph’s College. In 1969, Sister Lucille was missioned to the Academy of Saint Joseph in Brentwood and taught math not only to the high school students but to adults preparing for a GED and teenagers at Little Flower in Wading River.
She was named assistant principal of The Mary Louis Academy in 1976 and associate principal 10 years later. In 1988, Sister briefly returned to teaching at Saint Joseph High School in Brooklyn before being called to serve as assistant treasurer of the Sisters of Saint Joseph until her retirement in 2012.
She cherished her involvement in parish life particularly as lector at Holy Family in Flushing and Saint Stanislaus in Maspeth, and as a member of the choir in Saint Patrick’s in Smithtown.
On Oct. 16, 2023, Msgr. Peter Pflomm celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial for Sister Lucille in Sacred Heart Chapel. Burial followed in Calvary Cemetery on the grounds of the congregation.