MARLBOROUGH - Sister Anita (Holy Spirit) Mulqueen, RGS, of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Contemplative Community died Thursday, May 20, 2010, at St. Patrick's Manor in Framingham after a long illness. She was 80 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good Shepherd for 60 years. A native of New York, she was the daughter of the late James and Catherine (Riech) Mulqueen. In 1950 she entered the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Contemplative Community in Peekskill, N.Y., a community with a lifestyle where the Sisters spent hours daily in prayer and activities suited to the cloistered life. She professed her First Vows in 1953 and made her Final Vows in 1959 in Morristown, N.J. Sister Anita was known in religious life as Sister Holy Spirit and had been missioned to Springfield and Dix Hills, N.Y. She learned to make ceramics, becoming quite gifted in the art, and worked making altar breads and sewing in the vestment department as she was quite a talented seamstress. In 2007 she was missioned to a ministry of prayer in Marlborough due to failing health. While in Marlborough, she spent many hours in prayer in the presence of the Eucharist.
Sister Anita fully enjoyed life and brought smiles to many faces with her quick wit. In so many ways, she was quite the entertainer and loved to make people laugh. She had a great love for the outdoors and enjoyed going for walks.
Devoted to her family throughout her life, Sister Anita is survived by one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Buck, and many wonderful and attentive nieces and nephews who were so dear to her. She was the sister of the late Mrs. Helen O'Donnell, Mrs. Eileen Russo, Mrs. Kathleen Oglesby, and John and James Mulqueen.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Monday, May 24, at 10 a.m., at Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Marlborough. Interment will immediately follow in Mt. Benedict Cemetery, West Roxbury. Visiting hours will be held Sunday, May 23, from 4 to 8 p.m., at Good Shepherd Center, 406 Hemenway Street, Marlborough, with a Prayer Service at 7 p.m.
Expressions of sympathy in Sister Anita's memory may be made to Good Shepherd Center Retirement Fund, 406 Hemenway Street, Marlborough, MA 01752.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home (www.CollinsFuneral.com), 378 Lincoln Street, Marlborough.