Sister Muriel Ratigan | Educator, 95

Sister Muriel Ratigan, 95, an educator and an administrator for her religious society, died of heart failure Friday, Sept. 17, at Holy Child Center, the retirement residence of the Sisters of the Holy Child in Rosemont.

A native of New York City, Sister Muriel earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the College of Mount St. Vincent there. She was then an accountant at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York.

In 1947, she entered the convent of the Holy Child. For many years, she was known by her religious name, Mother St. Agnes.

Sister Muriel taught for two years at the Rosemont School of the Holy Child, and from 1952 to 1955 taught at the former St. Leonard's Academy in University City. She also taught in Holy Child schools in New York, Illinois, and California.

For six years, Sister Muriel was a member of the Provincial Council for the Western Province of the Sisters of the Holy Child; for two years, she was business manager for the society's American Province in Drexel Hill; and for nine years, she was on the staff of the society's Generalate in Rome.

From 1993 to 1997, Sister Muriel taught English as a second language to adults at Providence Center, a Holy Child ministry in North Philadelphia. She then was a math tutor to elementary students at St. Thomas-Our Mother of Good Counsel School in Bryn Mawr until 2006, when she was 91.

Sister Muriel is survived by a brother, William, and nephews and nieces.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at New Sharon Chapel, 1341 Montgomery Ave., Rosemont, where friends may call after 10. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken.