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February 22, 2011
Redemptoristine Sister Margaret “Peg” Banville died February 21 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Monastery in Esopus, NY, after a long illness. She was 85.A viewing will be held February 23 from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at the monastery, with a vigil prayer service beginning at 7:30 p.m.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. in the monastery chapel. Burial will follow at Mount St. Alphonsus cemetery.
Sister Peg was born October 9, 1925 in Toronto, Canada. She served in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps from 1943-46 and was discharged as a sergeant. She professed vows as a Redemptoristine January 23, 1951 and took the name Sister Mary Gemma of the Blessed Sacrament.
She professed final vows in 1954, and in 1957 she was one of five Redemptoristines who came from Toronto to Esopus, NY, to established a new monastery on the grounds of Mount St. Alphonsus, which was then serving as the Redemptorists’ North American seminary.
Sr. Peg served in a variety of roles in the community, including prioress and novice mistress. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1968.
Read more about Sister Peg’s life and vocation at the Contemplative Horizon blog, written by Redemptoristine Sister Hildegard Pleva.
The Redemptoristines are an order of contemplative monastic sisters founded in 1731 in Scala, Italy, by Venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa. Venerable Maria Celeste was a friend of St. Alphonsus Liguori, who founded the Redemptorists a year later.