Sister M. Felicitas Baxter, IHM

Sister M. Felicitas Baxter, IHM, of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary died on Thursday, April 13, 1905, at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Scranton, PA.

She was born on November 7, 1852 in Paterson, NJ, and given the name Elizabeth (Lizzie). She was the daughter of the late Peter and Elizabeth (Eliza) McNamee Baxter. By the mid 1850s the family had moved to Pennsylvania, and settled in Susquehanna Depot, PA. She entered the IHM Congregation on September 8, 1873, received the religious habit on April 13, 1874, and made profession of her vows on April 25, 1876.

Sister Felicitas was an accomplished artist, and served as an art teacher at St. Cecilia Academy for twenty-five years, and Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, both in Scranton, PA. While at St. Cecilia’s, she also had charge of the sanctuary at St. Peter’s Cathedral.

She was preceded in death by a brother, John, and a sister, Sarah.

She is survived by two sisters, Jeanette Moffitt of Wilkes-Barre, PA, and Mary Lannon of Susquehanna, PA; two brothers, Peter and George, both of Susquehanna, PA; nieces and nephews.

The funeral was held on Friday, April 15, followed by interment is at the Marywood College Cemetery, on the grounds of Marywood College in Scranton, PA.

“The next month, April 13th, death came as a happy release to dear Sister M. Felicitas Baxter after a long year of suffering. In his funeral sermon over her remains the Bishop commented on her name, Felicitas, and how well it suited her. She was always ready to greet her friends with a smile. Even during the long year she spent in the infirmary on a bed of sickness, she always wore a smile. Her life was a singularly happy one. She was happy in doing her duty, happy in lying on a bed of sickness, always happy because she served God with a perfect heart. Sister M. Felicitas taught for years in the art departments at Mount Saint Mary’s and Saint Cecilia’s. She was singularly gifted and had the faculty of drawing out and developing the latent talents of her pupils. The walls of many homes in northeastern Pennsylvania are beautified by the work that was accomplished under her able direction. For years she had charge of the sanctuary in the Cathedral. She loved the beauty of God’s House and in the adornment of the altar expended all the ingenuity that a loving heart combined with rare artistic taste could devise.

Sister M. Felicitas was the first to be buried in the little God’s Acre that a short time before had been consecrated on the grounds of Mount Saint Mary’s.”

Excerpted from The Sisters of the I.H.M.: The Story of The Founding of The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Their Work In The Scranton Diocese by Sister M. Immaculata Gillespie, IHM, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, NY, 1921, pgs. 349, 350