Sister Anna Catherine Melichar

November 12, 1916 - September 18, 2015

Sister Anna Catherine Melichar (formerly known as Sister Bonaventure) died on September 18, 2015, at Mount Assisi Convent in Pittsburgh, Pa. She was 98 and in her 83rd year of religious life.

Sister Anna Catherine entered the community from St. Michael Church in New Castle, Pa., in 1930 and professed her first vows in 1933 at Mount Assisi Convent in Pittsburgh, Pa. She received a bachelor’s degree from Mount Mercy College (Carlow University) in Pittsburgh, majoring in English and minoring in history and Latin; and a master’s degree in education from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, majoring in history and minoring in government. She also studied economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; economics/international relations at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh; and conversational Spanish at the University of Mexico and San Antonio College, both in San Antonio, Texas.

Sister Anna Catherine taught the middle grades for nine years in parishes where our sisters ministered and then spent 13 years teaching Social Studies and Latin at Mount Assisi Academy in Pittsburgh, Pa. She spent one year in the history department of La Roche College in Allison Park, Pa., followed by three years as a missionary in Chile, South America, during the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat. After returning from Chile, Sister she taught for 12 years at St. Francis Academy in San Antonio, Texas, and served at St. Frances Cabrini in Center Township, Pa. 

Among her many talents, Sister Anna Catherine was well versed in the Czech and Slovak languages and, after the fall of Communism, was asked to teach English to the sisters in the Czech and Slovak Republics from 1991 to 1993. She later spent a year at the our Generalate in Rome, Italy, as a translator. In 1995, at the age of 79, Sister Anna Catherine retired at Mount Assisi Convent and made herself available for community services.  During her free time she collected needed items for the missions and packed and sent them worldwide. She entertained the sisters during meals with many jokes and stories. Her memory was a gift for anyone who needed to know something from the past.

Sister Anna Catherine was preceded in death by her parents, John and Katerina (Badurik) Melichar; brothers John, Cyril, Francis and Joseph; and sisters Josephine Carofino, Frances Melichar, Mary Restuccio, Catherine Melichar and Sister Julie Melichar, also a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis. She is survived by her religious community and her nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.

Sister is buried in St. Francis Cemetery at Mt. Assisi Place in Pittsburgh, Pa.