Sister Marie Thomas Donachie, S.C.

Sister Marie Thomas Donachie, S.C., the last surviving sibling of a family of 11 children, eight of whom became priests or sisters, died Aug. 22 at Mary the Queen Convent in Yonkers. A former teacher and principal, she was 84.

She spent 33 years at SS. Peter and Paul School in the Bronx, where she taught mathematics, 1970-1994, then taught remedial reading from 1994 until her retirement in 2003.

She was principal of Visitation School in the Bronx, 1962-1968, and taught at Blessed Sacrament, Staten Island, 1968-1970; St. John the Evangelist, White Plains, 1959-1962; St. Joachim's, Beacon, 1956-1959; Incarnation, Washington Heights, 1949-1956 and 1944-1945; and St. Agatha's Home, Nanuet, 1945-1949.

The next-to-youngest of 11, she had four sisters who were Sisters of Charity and three brothers who were priests, two for the archdiocese and one a Franciscan.

In an interview for a feature article in 2004, Sister Marie Thomas told CNY that her childhood home was not unusually religious, but that her parents, Jane and Thomas Donachie, immigrants from Scotland, had strong faith and approved wholeheartedly of their children's choice to be priests or sisters. "They respected a vocation," she said.

Her mother went to daily Mass after the children were in school, and some of the children went also. Sister Marie Thomas recalled that her mother once tried to get everyone to say the family Rosary, but the youngsters jostled one another, and Hail Marys alternated with cries of "You're pushing me!" or "You're on my foot!"

"It was a tug-of-war," Sister Marie Thomas said. "My mother gave up. We said our own prayers."

Sister Marie Thomas saw three of her sisters enter the convent before she did.

"There was a natural tendency to look up to them, to see how happy they were," she told CNY. "I can't remember not wanting to be a sister." She added, "I never had any regrets. I felt that I had a true vocation."

Born in Mount Vernon, she entered the Sisters of Charity in 1944 and professed final vows in 1949. She held a bachelor's degree in history from the College of Mount St. Vincent and a master's in education from Manhattan College.

Sister Marie Thomas was predeceased by five sisters, Sisters Miriam Vincetta, S.C., Dolorita Maria, S.C., Jean Miriam, S.C., and Mary Bernard, S.C., and Emma Keating; and five brothers, Fathers Bernard and Joseph J. Donachie, Father Adrian Donachie, O.F.M., John, and Thomas, who died in childhood.

A Funeral Mass was offered Aug. 26 at her childhood parish church, St. Barnabas in the Bronx, with burial at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Yonkers.