Sister Antoinette Popovic

October 21, 1919 - January 26, 2018

Sister M. Antoinette Popovic died on January 26, 2018, at Marian Hall Home in Pittsburgh, Pa. She was 98 and in her 80th year of religious life.

Sister Antoinette entered the community in 1936 from St. John Nepomucene Church in Lyndora, Pa. She professed her first vows in 1938 and, in 1944, made her final profession at Mount Assisi Convent in Pittsburgh, Pa. Sister earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Mount Mercy College (Carlow University) and a master’s degree in education from Duquesne University, specializing in educating students with learning disabilities. 

During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Sister taught the primary grades at St. Gabriel School in Pittsburgh, Pa., and at Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary School in Jersey City, N.J. Beginning in 1947, she taught the middle and upper grades in various schools in Pennsylvania and at St. Joseph School in San Antonio, Texas. For eight of those years – while teaching – she also served as principal in three schools in Pennsylvania.

Sister spent 1978 through 1988 assisting residents at Marian Hall Personal Care Home at Mount Assisi Convent, followed by two years of community service. Sister had a great love for teaching and, for 20 years, devoted herself to ministering at Mount Assisi Academy Preschool. From 2010 until her death, Sister spent her time in her ministry of prayer.

Sister enjoyed watching the news and couldn’t resist chocolate or Lays potato chips. She exceled at cooking and baking, especially her special-recipe nut and apricot horns. Sister loved children and is remembered for her helpfulness and peaceful presence. “If she promised to pray for you, she prayed,” remembers one of our sisters. “She was very faithful to her God, her vocation and her life of prayer.”

The daughter of the late Rudolph and Julia (Vodovic) Popovic, Sister Antoinette was preceded in death by her brothers, Joseph and Rudolph, and sisters Stephanie Benson and Mary Moskala. She is survived by her religious community, her sister Margaret Prokopchak, her nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews and her friends from the preschool.

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