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Marycrest Franciscan Sister Anthony dies at 83
By Julie Filby
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Photo provided |
Marycrest Franciscan Sister M. Antonia Anthony, who spent much of her 55 years of religious life advocating for the poor, died Nov. 4 as a result of an automobile accident. She was 83.
The Denver native was born Helen Anne Anthony on Aug. 20, 1928, to Ward and Eugenie Leonard Anthony. She was the youngest of six children, all educated at St. Dominic School in Denver. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree at the University of Detroit in 1950, she worked in the newspaper industry including a stint with the Denver Catholic Register.
In 1953 she entered the community of Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity in Denver, also known as the Marycrest Franciscans. She made her final profession of vows Aug. 15, 1959.
Sister Anthony spent nine years, 1956 to 1965, teaching at schools in Denver; Mission, S.D.; and Alliance, Neb. She obtained a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1963.
In 1965 she began an adventure that changed her life: 12 years serving as a missionary among the Otomi native people in south central Mexico.
Sister Anthony said in a June 7, 2006, Denver Catholic Register story that the most meaningful years of her ministry were among the Otomi people, the Mayans of Chiapas—both in Mexico—and the Lakota people in South Dakota.
“Their love of family, community and God and their willing service to their people and the Church opened my eyes to a world beyond the one I’d known,” she said.
That vision helped her continue to see the world through the eyes of the poor while ministering to Hispanics at Denver’s housing projects in Las Casitas and Sun Valley from 1978 to 1983—and on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota from 1983 to 1991.
From 1991 to 1995, she returned to Mexico to minister to Mayan descendents in the parish of Palenque in Chiapas. After returning to the United States in 1995, Sister Anthony continued to collaborate with others seeking to guarantee the rights for indigenous peoples by co-founding the Denver Chiapas Coalition, a ministry she remained very involved in up until her death.
“She was a class-act activist,” said Franciscan Sister Susan Artone-Fricke. “She really ‘walked the talk’… (and) was faithfully authentic.”
Sister Artone-Fricke described her friend as a “crusader” and a “lover” with a strong devotion to Catholic social teaching.
“She was very grassroots,” said Sister Artone-Fricke. “Very much about ‘getting out there’ to bring about something new; not just talk about it.
“She was a voice for the voiceless, and people that were otherwise underserved.”
Sister Anthony was known for making others feel loved.
“She was a good listener, very attentive and had a great laugh,” said Sister Artone-Fricke. “You just felt good in her presence … just a lovely woman; she changed a lot of lives.”
A funeral Mass for Sister Anthony was celebrated Nov. 9 at St. Dominic Church in Denver, the same church where she was baptized Sept. 8, 1928. She was cremated and her remains will be buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge among her sisters.
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