Sister Marie-Ange Marcotte

Marie-Ange was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee. Sister Mary Angela, SSCM, delivered her, just as she had delivered all of Marie-Ange’s siblings. There were 11 children in all, but 3 died in infancy. Marie-Ange and her brother Joseph were named after two of those children. The family lived on a farm in Momence, Illinois.

Religious Sisters were a common element in Marie-Ange’s family. Her father had two sisters who became vowed religious: Sisters Regina and Bernardine. Her dad also had two cousins who entered the convent: Sisters Loretta and Leah. In fact, God seems to have liked calling her family in twos. Marie-Ange and her sister, Magdalene, also both became Sisters.

Sister Regina was the business manager at St. Patrick Parish in Momence and was instrumental in Marie-Ange’s decision to enter the convent. When she was a high school freshman, her family’s home burned down. The Sisters took the four girls in as boarding students at St. Patrick’s Academy.

Marie-Ange already felt a calling to religious life, and being around the Sisters increased the yearning. During her sophomore year of high school, Sister Regina sent Marie-Ange to the Superior, Sister Mary Eleanor, who told her that she felt Marie-Ange should enter the novitiate at the end of the year. Troubles with learning English (French was spoken in her home) and health issues interfered with her schooling, making her older than the other girls in her class. Although she needed to complete junior and senior years, she was deemed old enough to enter the convent.

She loved the stories of Father Delaplace and Mother Marie Moisan. Her family struggled financially, sometimes eating only bread with gravy for supper. Consequently, the stories of how our founders helped the poor held a special place in her heart. Marie-Ange did not know Sisters in any other congregation and never wished to look elsewhere.

Sister Carol Karnitsky was Marie-Ange’s “Angel” as she entered this new life. She knew that Marie-Ange was shy and helped her to acclimate. Sister Bette, who was the superior in our convent in Urbana, Illinois, realized that Marie-Ange was the youngest girl in the community and recognized the difficulty of being with 24 older women. She allowed Marie-Ange to stay in the suite at the convent in the old School of Nursing building and guided her on a 3-day retreat, which was very helpful for her.

Sister Marie-Ange’s ministry has always been health care related. While in Urbana, she attended commercial college and worked at Mercy Hospital, splitting her time between the business office and the lab running EKGs and assisting with stress tests. She loved the lab work because it involved working with people. Eventually, she was named head of the EKG department.

After 13 years in Champaign, Sister Marie-Ange was assigned to the Holy Heart of Mary Community in Batavia, Illinois, and worked at Mercy Hospital in Aurora. She loved working with the elderly there and decided to return to school, earning a degree in gerontology from Elgin Community College. She also went on to become a board certified chaplain. Sister Anne Bridget named Sister Marie-Ange as the Director of Pastoral Care at St Anne Center in Rockford, where she has remained for nearly 35 years It is the SSCM charism of self-giving that has been the theme of Sister Marie-Ange’s life. Even as a child, she enjoyed doing things she knew others would like. It is important to her to make others feel comfortable and cared for.