Sister M. Loyola Melley, IHM

Sister M. Loyola Melley, IHM, of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary died on Tuesday, December 20, 1927, at St. Agnes Place in Elmhurst, PA.

She was born on July 13, 1855 in Tamaqua, PA, and given the name Ann. She was the daughter of Thaddeus and Honora McMonigle Melley. She entered the IHM Congregation on October 16, 1876, received the religious habit on November 27, 1877, and made profession of her vows on December 31, 1879.

Sister Loyola served as a teacher at the following schools: St. Patrick School in Scranton, PA; Holy Rosary School in Scranton, PA; and St. Patrick School in Olyphant, PA.

Sister served as superior at Holy Rosary Convent in Scranton, PA; St. Patrick’s Convent in Olyphant, PA; St. Patrick’s Orphanage in Scranton, PA; St. Rosalia’s Convent in Pittsburgh, PA; St. Andrew’s Convent in Portland, OR; and St. Joseph’s Convent in Spokane, WA. She served as principal at St. Rose Academy in Carbondale, PA; and St. Joseph Elementary School in Spokane, WA

Sister Loyola also had charge for a short time of the Sisters of Cyril and Methodius.

The funeral will be Friday, December 23, with a high mass of requiem at St. Catherine’s Church in Moscow, PA, with interment to follow at St. Catherine’s Cemetery, Moscow, PA.

“Hundreds, yes, thousands, of Scranton and Lackawanna valley men and women we read the news of the death of Sister M. Loyola, a senior sister in the order of the Immaculate Heart of the Scranton diocese, will recall her splendid qualities of mind, ability as a teacher and the energy which she put into her work. Sister Loyola taught at St. Patrick’s, West Scranton; Holy Rosary, Providence; St. Patrick’s in Olyphant. She had been a member of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart since 1876, although not professed until 1879. A greater part of her long life in the order was spent in the Scranton diocese. Sister Loyola was, I believe, one of the original groups of nuns who opened St. Patrcik’s prochial school in West Scranton in 1886. On inquiry yesterday I learned that three others of this group of sisters who were at St. Patrick’s when that school opened – Sister Sebastian, Sister Angela and Sister Agnes – are still alive. Like Sister Loyola, these good women were splendid teachers and gave their best efforts to the work which they loved. Sister Loyola was not only devout in her love of God, zealous in the practice of her religion but imbued with the spirit and purpose of inculcating love of God and man and right living in the minds and hearts of the boys and girls who came under her care. Her life was a useful one.”

from “Personal and …. Pertinent” section published in the The Scranton Times, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Fri, Dec 23, 1927, Page 6