Sister Barbara Anne Masterson died on July 3rd, 2018 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY. She was 89 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 71 years.

She was born in Syracuse, NY on August 20th, 1928 to Florence and Charles Masterson, both of whom are deceased. She has one brother, Charles Jr. and three sisters: Irene, Genevieve and Mary.

Barbara graduated from St. Michael’s Cathedral High School in Springfield, MA in 1946. She entered the Congregation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY from Holy Cross Parish, Springfield MA, in the diocese of Springfield. At her Reception she received the name Sister Rose Christelle. She made her First Profession of Vows on April 6th, 1949 and her Final Profession of Vows on April 6th, 1953 both at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

From 1949 –1951, Sister Barbara studied at St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in Hartford, CT. Her first assignment was to Bethany House, in Ossining, NY, caring for the Congregation’s infirm and elderly. Later she went to Monrovia, CA to serve at the tuberculosis hospital run by the Congregation. In 1959, she was assigned to Hawaii where she worked at the Maui Children’s Home in Paia and St. Anthony Convent in Wailuku. From 1968-1970, she studied at Mary Rogers College in Maryknoll, NY and received an Associate of Arts Degree. She then continued her studies at Brockport State University in Brockport, NY, earning her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing in 1973.

In 1974, Sister Barbara Anne received her first overseas mission assignment to the Pando Vicariate, Bolivia. She worked as a nurse in the Riberalta Hospital, while studying the Spanish language. From 1975-1979, she worked in Cobija, Boliva doing public health with health promoters in the rural area. Later that year, she moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia and worked with CEVIFA: Archdiocesan Family Life Center until 1987.

Sister Barbara returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center where she gave service in the Congregational Health Service Department until 1991. She was then assigned back to Bolivia, to work with women and in health services at the Cochabamba’s Cristo Rey Parish until 2001; when she retired to Monrovia, CA. In 2008 she returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in New York where she died peacefully on July 3, 2018.

A Vespers service will be held for Sister Barbara on Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 4:15 p.m. in the Main Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center

A Mass of the Resurrection will follow on Friday, July 6, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. also in the Main Chapel at the Center. Interment will follow in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery on the Center grounds.