lit a candle 4h agoMy mother went to Holy Angels Academy years before Sister Maureen's time there but she always said those Buffalo schools turned out teachers like nobody else, and I believed her more when I read Sister Maureen taught Latin for something like fifty years. Fifty years of Latin. I was out in the garden putting the beds to rest for winter when my sister called to tell me, she saw it somewhere online, and I just stood there with dirt on my hands thinking about my own Latin teacher who was nowhere near as patient. Ninety one years old and still part of that community right up to the end. Anyway. Rest well, Sister.
Their story
Sister Maureen Quigley was a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart and a teacher of Latin, Spanish and religion whose classroom career in Pennsylvania, New York and Peru spanned more than four decades. Known for much of her religious life as Sister Marie Marguerite, and to generations of students simply…
Sister Maureen Quigley was a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart and a teacher of Latin, Spanish and religion whose classroom career in Pennsylvania, New York and Peru spanned more than four decades. Known for much of her religious life as Sister Marie Marguerite, and to generations of students simply as "Sister Quig", she died on 2 November 2026, her 91st birthday, in the 73rd year of her religious life.
She was born Maureen Ann Quigley on 2 November 1935 in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Charles A. and Lillian D. Quigley. She met the Grey Nuns at Holy Angels Academy in Buffalo and entered the congregation on 8 September 1953, the year she graduated. She later recalled arriving in Philadelphia at the age of seventeen and praying on her first day: "Please let me stay here forever."
A classicist by training, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in classical languages at D'Youville College and a master's degree in classical languages at Villanova University, with further study in Spanish at LaSalle University. She taught at Melrose Academy in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, then for four years at St. Mary's Academy in Ogdensburg, New York, before returning to Melrose to teach Latin, English, religion and Spanish.
In 1972 she went to Lima, Peru, to serve with fellow Grey Nuns and the Norbertine priests at the parish of San Norberto. Over almost ten years she taught high school religion, coordinated the catechetical programme, led the Young Christian Worker Movement and taught reading and human rights to women domestic workers whose first language was Quechua. She called the experience life changing. Back in Pennsylvania she spent 21 years teaching Latin, Spanish and religion at Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, then coordinated the retired sisters at the Grey Nun Motherhouse in Yardley from 2005 to 2008.
From 2016 she lived at Holy Redeemer Lafayette in Huntingdon Valley, where she continued to serve her community. She was an avid reader and a gifted storyteller with a wry wit. She died under the care of Redeemer Health Hospice, survived by her religious congregation and many cousins. Her funeral Mass was arranged for 14 November 2026 at the Redeemer Sisters' Chapel, with burial in Resurrection Cemetery, Bensalem.
Biography adapted from Obituary via Beck-Givnish Funeral Homes (Legacy.com); Glenside Local; Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart.
In their own words
“Please let me stay here forever.”
Her prayer on arriving in Philadelphia to join the Grey Nuns at seventeen, recalled for her 70th jubilee in 2023
Photos
1by People Forever
My aunt had her for Spanish at Gwynedd Mercy, said the same thing about patience