Montgomery

Sister Anne Montgomery, R.S.C.J.

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Sister Anne Montgomery, R.S.C.J., a prominent peace and social justice activist, died Aug. 27 at Oakwood, the Society of the Sacred Heart’s elder care facility in Atherton, Calif. She was 86.

She was imprisoned several times for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to protest, among other things, the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

She also was a teacher, serving at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan, 1959-1969. She also taught in Albany.

After training in the education of children with learning disabilities, she returned to New York to work with high school dropouts in East Harlem in the mid-1970s.

In the late 1970s she began full-time ministry for peace and social justice at the Catholic Worker House in Manhattan and as an activist for nuclear disarmament through non-violent action. Her witness for peace led her to areas of conflict including Iraq, the West Bank, Hebron and the Balkans. She was also a member of Pax Christi and the Catholic Worker movement.

She was last arrested in 2009 at age 83, when she took part in her final “plowshares disarmament” protest action, spending two months in jail and four months under house arrest. One week before her death she received 2012 Courage in Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Mass.

Born in San Diego, she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1948 and professed final vows in 1956. She held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Manhattan College and a second master’s from Columbia University.

A Funeral Mass will be offered on Saturday, Sept. 15, at Oakwood, with burial to follow in Oakwood Cemetery.

Sister Anne Montgomery, R.S.C.J.