MARLBOROUGH - Sister Mary Nativity, RGS (Mary Rose Pauline Berard) died Friday, May 24, 2013, at Bethany Health Care Center of Framingham after a long illness. She was 101 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good Shepherd for 75 years. Sister Mary Nativity was born in Holyoke, the daughter of Ludger and Marie (Gouin) Berard. She was educated by the Sisters of the Presentation in South Hadley Falls Elementary School and South Hadley Falls High School. In 1938 she entered the Good Shepherd Novitiate from St. Patrick's Parish, South Hadley Falls and professed her First Vows in Peekskill, N.Y., August 28, 1941. During her novitiate she began her formal training in the community's mission of rehabilitation, focusing on the marginalized of society, particularly teenage girls, helping them to develop self-esteem and useful values as they continued their education. She also taught women coping skills and a marketable occupation by which they might be become financially independent and loving, competent homemakers.

Sister Nativity was first assigned to the Good Shepherd program in Springfield, where for nine years she taught the girls domestic science, hand and machine sewing, and laundry skills. In 1948 she served for two terms as Superior of the Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Springfield, after which she was asked to manage Food Service for the Good Shepherd convent and school in Wickatunk, N.J.  Once again, she was asked to become Superior of the Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Morristown, N.J. before moving on to become Supervisor at Euphrasia Hall, a residence for young women attending high school, college, or going out to work in Hartford, Conn. After 15 years in this post, she was missioned to Good Shepherd Center in Marlborough to assist the health care personnel in the Sisters' Infirmary. She attended to the needs of the elderly, sewing and mending their clothing, operating the laundry, and doing pastoral care. She continued to provide gracious, sisterly service to the community until she was transferred to Bethany Health Care Center in Framingham in 2012 due to failing health.  Among Sister Nativity's happiest memories were her Jubilee trip to Lourdes, Rome, and Angers in 1971, her tertianship in Philadelphia at the time of the Eucharistic Congress in 1976, and her Golden Jubilee celebration in 1988, when the Mass was offered by her nephew, Rev. Thomas Dupre.  Sister Mary Nativity is survived by her sisters Annette Tetrault of Ludlow, Viola Westall of  Scappose, Ore., Eileen Goodwin of Hope Valley, R.I, her brother, Rene Berard of Belchertown, her nephew, Rev. Thomas Dupre,  and several nieces and nephews. She was the sister of the late Germaine Berard, Loretta B. Dupre, Alice Vilbon, Corinne Padden, Rita Raymond and Wilfred Berard.

A Mass of Christian burial will be offered for Sr. Mary Nativity at Good Shepherd Center Chapel on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. by Rev. Robert Rivard. Visiting hours will be held at Good Shepherd Center Chapel on Tuesday, May 28, from 4-8 p.m. with a Prayer Service at 7:00 p.m.  Interment will be at Notre Dame Cemetery, South Hadley Center.  Expressions of sympathy may be made in Sr. Mary Nativity's memory to the Good Shepherd Retirement Fund, 406 Hemenway Street, Marlborough. Arrangements are under the direction of Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home ( www.CollinsFuneral.com ), 378 Lincoln Street, Marlborough. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, a worldwide congregation was founded in France in 1835 by St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, who sent the sisters to make a foundation in the U.S. in Louisville, Ky. in 1843.  The sisters came to Boston in 1867, to Springfield in 1888, to Marlborough in 1964 and to Harwichport in 1993.