June 30, 1942 – November 19, 2024

Sister Mary Bridget Haase, OSU, died peacefully on Nov. 19, 2024, in Waterville, Maine, at age 82. She was a teacher, author, speaker, storyteller and aid worker whose broad ministries touched people’s lives in Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts, Maine, Mexico and Africa.

The daughter of Boris Conrad (Buster) Haase, Jr. and Rita Tangue Haase, she was born on June 30, 1942, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She entered the Ursuline community on July 15, 1959, and professed her vows on Jan. 16, 1962. She received a bachelor’s degree in French from the College of New Rochelle and a master’s degree in spiritual studies from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Sister Bridget began her many decades of ministry teaching elementary grades. In the St. Louis area, she taught at St. Peter School in Kirkwood from 1965-67 and St. Joseph School in Clayton from 1967-68. She taught at St. Angela School in New Orleans from 1968-69 and elementary grades at Ursuline Academy of New Orleans from 1969-75. She taught at Marquette High School in Alton, Illinois, from 1975-79 and in elementary schools in the Appalachian town of Dunlow, West Virginia, from 1979-84.

During the famine of the late 1980s, she ministered in the desert of Sudan, East Africa, feeding starving children, and served the poor in Senegal, Africa, from 1987-90. She served in the Ursuline province in Mexico from 1990-92.

Upon her return to the United States, she taught pre-K and kindergarten at San Juan de Los Lagos Parish in San Antonio, Texas, from 1992-93 and at Westside Catholic Elementary School, also in San Antonio, from 1993-96.

Sister Bridget moved to the Northeast in 1996. She was an infant and early child-care educator in a HIV/AIDS daycare center in Mattapan, Massachusetts, from 1996-98 and taught at St. Brendan’s Learning Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, from 1998-2003. She spent the next 13 years on the spirituality team serving adults in long-term care at Boston Home in Dorchester and was “Sister Storyteller” in Boston preschools for the following six years.

Sister Bridget was the author of six books and numerous articles on faith and spirituality. As a speaker, she gave days of reflection, individual talks and spoke at parish missions across the country. Along with her brother Albert, a Franciscan priest, she co-hosted a weekly radio show, “Spirit and Life,” on Relevant Radio Network from 2010-15. She received many honors and awards and was featured on “Making a Difference” on NBC Nightly News in 2009.

She is survived by a sister, Sister Courtney Haase, COC, and three brothers: Boris Conrad Haase III, Francis Phillip Haase, and Father Albert Haase, OFM.

Arrangements are pending.