Sister Margaret Beaudette, S.C.

Sister Margaret Beaudette, S.C., a renowned sculptor whose works grace churches and other Catholic institutions across the archdiocese, the nation and the world, died March 12 at Mount St. Vincent Convent in the Bronx. She was 89.

Sister Margaret sculpted at DePaul Studio at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx for three decades, beginning in 1987. She also was a part-time art teacher there and at St. Athanasius School, the Bronx, 1969-1974. She served as chairperson of the art department, associate professor and art teacher at Elizabeth Seton College, Yonkers, 1969-1989. She was an art teacher at St. Joseph-by-the-Sea High School, Staten Island, 1963-1969, and a teacher at St. Barnabas, the Bronx, 1961-1963, and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Scarsdale, 1957-1961. She also taught in Brooklyn.

She began to work full time as a sculptor in 1987. Her work, which includes more than 60 major statues, is displayed across the United States in hospitals, churches, shrines and places of burial. She has sculptures in Canada, France, Bermuda, Haiti and South Korea.

In 1976, the first dedication of one of her sculptures was held at Sacred Heart Church in Manhattan. That was followed by the commission of a bronze statue of Paul the Apostle for St. Paul Church, Manhattan. A bonded bronze sculpture of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton the school teacher with a child stands in Boyle Hall at Mount St. Vincent with additional castings at the New York Catholic Center in Manhattan and the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, N.J.

A 14-foot-tall steel cross at the approach of the Sisters of Charity Center at Mount St. Vincent is also by Sister Margaret. She modeled the cross, with the sun’s rays imposed on it, on a pin worn by the Sisters of Charity.

Born in Astoria, Queens, she entered the Sisters of Charity of New York in 1947 and made final vows in 1951. She was formerly known as Sister Marie Gerard. She attended Blessed Sacrament High School and Hunter College, both in Manhattan.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in art from the College of Mount St. Vincent and a master of fine arts from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with a major in sculpture.

A Funeral Mass was celebrated March 17 at Immaculate Conception Chapel at the College of Mount St. Vincent. Burial of cremains will take place at a later date.