MARLBOROUGH - Sister Loretta Philomena Moreau, RGS, of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Contemplative Community, died Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at MetroWest Medical Center after a short illness. She was 89 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good Shepherd for 68 years. A native of Attleboro, she was the daughter of Philip and Rose (Doucette) Moreau. In 1941, Sister entered the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Contemplative Community, in Providence, R.I., a community with a lifestyle where the Sisters spent hours in prayer and activities suited to the cloistered life. She professed her First Vows in 1943. Sister Loretta Philomena lived her Fourth Vow, to pray for the salvation of all persons, especially those served by the Good Shepherd Congregation, to the fullest. In 1955 she was missioned to Brooklyn, N.Y. to work in the altar bread department, then in 1963 to Huntington, N.Y. to continue this work and to sew baptismal robes for many churches. She had a very generous spirit and was meticulous with any work that she did. In 2008 she was missioned to Good Shepherd Center in Marlborough after the Huntington convent closed. Sister Loretta Philomena is survived by her cousins, Christine Derby and family of Hudson, Richard Derby and family of Maynard, and several other cousins, nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours will be held Thursday, Sept. 24, from 4 to 8 p.m., at Good Shepherd Center, 406 Hemenway St., Marlborough, with a prayer service at 7 p.m. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Friday, Sept. 25, at 10 a.m., by Fr. Robert Rivard at Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Marlborough. Interment will immediately follow in St. Bernard's Cemetery, Concord. Expressions of sympathy in Sister Loretta Philomena's memory may be made to Good Shepherd Center Retirement Fund, 406 Hemenway St., Marlborough, MA 01752.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home (www.CollinsFuneral.com), 378 Lincoln St., Marlborough. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, a worldwide Congregation, were founded in France by St. Mary Euphrasia in 1835. They came to Boston in 1867, to Marlborough in 1964 and to Harwich in 1993.