Obituaries | Sr. Mary Nicoletta Petillo, ASCJ

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Sr. Petillo

A funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 23 at Sacred Heart Manor Chapel in Hamden, Conn., for Sister Mary Nicoletta Petillo, an Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who ministered at parishes and schools, including eight years in St. Louis.

Sister Mary Nicoletta, 97, died Feb. 21at Sacred Heart Manor. Born in New York, she entered the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1939 in New Haven, Conn., and professed first vows in 1941 and perpetual vows in 1946.

Sister Mary Nicoletta spent most of her more than 60 years of active ministry teaching in elementary and high schools in Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Missouri and California. In the St. Louis Archdiocese, she taught at St. Ambrose School in the Hill nieighborhood of South St. Louis and at Our Lady Help of Christians School in North St. Louis.

Sister Mary Nicoletta also taught at the Collegio Santa Margarieta in LaPlata, Argentina, from 1971-74. In the later years of her ministry, she served in parish ministry in California and then in pastoral ministry in Connecticut. Sister Mary Nicoletta shared her great love for the Eucharist with the students. Throughout her life, she had a special love for the less fortunate and graciously provided for the needs of the poor wherever she ministered.

Her educational background included earning a bachelor's degree in education from St. Louis University in St. Louis, a master's degree in education from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and a diploma in Spanish from the Real Universidad Maria Cristina in El Escoriol, Spain. She retired to Sacred Heart Manor in Hamden in 1987, where she ministered to the sisters as a nursing aide until her health no longer enabled her to do so.

Burial was in All Saints Cemetery in North Haven, Conn.