A memorial Mass was celebrated for Sister Marian Russo Feb. 12 at the Ruma Center in Ruma, Illinois. Sister Marian, an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, died Feb. 1 at the Ruma Center. She was 76 years old and had been a professed member of the Adorers for 51 years.
Additionally, a funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 7 in the chapel at St. Anne’s Retirement Community in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
Sister Marian was born Dec. 4, 1943, in Philadelphia to Marian Alice Russo and Gaston Strenck. She and her brother, Arthur Russo, were raised by foster parents, Nellie and Manus McGinley. She made her first profession on July 1, 1968, and her final vows on Aug. 15, 1973. She earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business education, her undergraduate degree from DePaul University in Chicago in 1976 and her master’s from Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1986.
She taught elementary school at St. Rochus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and St. Jerome in Chicago. She taught typing, shorthand and bookkeeping at St. Joseph Academy in Columbia, Pennsylvania, and also performed secretarial and office duties there for many years. She also assisted the provincial secretary and the director of the Precious Blood Spirituality Center in Columbia and served as archivist for the former province of Columbia.
For several years, Sister Marian worked as an administrative assistant with the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Marriage Tribunal Office for Canonical Services. She also volunteered as a librarian in Mountville, Pennsylvania, and helped process Sisters’ medical claims at the ASC Mission Center’s finance office in St. Louis.
She is survived by her mother, Marian Alice Russo Steele, and her brother, Arthur Russo. Burial was in the convent cemetery.
