1925 – 2016

Sister Rita Bourassa, O.S.U., also known as Sister Clotilde Angela, died peacefully at St. Mary’s Hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

She was born on July 24, 1925, to Melinda Fontaine Bourassa and Jean Baptiste Bourassa, in Lewiston, in the very hospital in which she died.

Sister Rita grew up in Lewiston, where she attended St. Mary’s Elementary School. She attended high school at Mount Merici Academy, in Waterville, as a boarder. On July 16, 1943, she entered the Ursuline Sisters of the Northeast and made her vows on Jan. 16, 1946.

Higher education for Sister Rita included study at the College of New Rochelle in New York, Regina Mundi in Rome, St. Mary’s in Indiana, and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, and two master’s degrees, and she enjoyed advanced study of French at Grenoble University in Paris.

Her education and her unique gifts prepared her for 34 years of ministry in Springfield and Dedham in Massachusetts, and in Waterville, where she served as a teacher, and in a number of administrative positions including provincial leader of the Northeast Province, school principal, provincial councilor, provincial treasurer and provincial secretary.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a brother, Robert Bourassa; and a sister, Doris Bourassa Murkland.

Sister Rita died in the company of her Ursuline Sisters. One of her final joys was the simple acknowledgment of her 70 years of service in religious life on Jan. 16 at St. Mary’s daily Mass.

Online condolences and sharing of memories may be expressed at www.lynchbrothers.com.

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