Sister Claire Descoteaux, OP

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Sister Claire Descoteaux, OP, who passed away on Thursday, May 15, at age 84.  Sister Claire was born in Lewiston, the daughter of Lucien and Antoinette Descoteaux.  She joined the Dominican Sisters of the Roman Congregation in 1953, after graduating from St. Dominic Regional High School in Lewiston. She made her first religious profession two years later and was assigned to Japan, where she ministered for 13 years, working in an orphanage and as an English and French teacher, while continuing her studies.

When she returned to the United States, she taught French at St. Patrick School in Watertown, Mass, and then returned to her home parish to teach at Ss. Peter sand Paul School in Lewiston.  After receiving a B.S. from the University of Maine, she went to Staten Island, NY to teach, then to New Mexico, where she was also a youth minister.  In 1981, she returned to Maine and taught at Our Lady of the Rosary School in Sabattus, then earned an LPN degree and worked in healthcare including at the St. Marguerite d’Youville pavilion and Marshwood Nursing Home in Lewiston, and Bolster Heights in Auburn.  She then studied clinical pastoral education She returned to Japan in 1998 as an English teacher, then went to Iowa City, Iowa where she volunteered at a parish, a Catholic bookstore, served meals to the homeless, and visited the homebound and those in nursing homes. She then retired from active ministry and returned to Maine.

Please pray for the repose of her soul and for the consolation of her natural and religious families.