Sister Mary Christina Bryce, 89

By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

BALTIMORE — Sister Mary Christina Bryce, a grade school teacher who taught in schools in three states over five decades, died of congestive heart failure July 20 at Maria Health Care Center in Baltimore. She was 89 years old and had been a professed member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame for more than 68 years.

Theresa Mary Bryce was born Aug. 15, 1922, in Lowell, Mass. She was raised by her foster mother, Catherine Chisholm, in Malden, Mass., and was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame from her earliest days in school. In 1940, she joined the congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. As a novice, she was given the religious name Mary Christina, and she professed her first vows in August 1943.

Sister Christina’s first assignment was Grade 1 at St. Joseph School in Verona, Pa., (1943-44). She also taught first grade at St. Boniface in Philadelphia (1944-46), St. Thomas Aquinas in Baltimore (1946-54) and Mount Calvary in Forestville, Md. (1954-59) before being missioned to Florida, where she would serve in grade schools for most of the next 20 years.

Among the schools where she taught in Florida were Blessed Trinity in Miami Springs (1959-62), Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Tampa (1962-66), and Visitation School in Miami (1966-72 and 1973-79). It was at Visitation School that she first individualized instruction by establishing a learning center where children could work independently.

Sister Christina continued her innovative work in learning resources after being assigned in 1981 to St. Peter School in Philadelphia where she served in various roles until 1997.

That year, she moved to Villa Assumpta in Baltimore, today home to retired sisters of the Atlantic-Midwest Province. She lived at Maria Health Care Center, adjacent to Villa Assumpta, since 2005.

A Mass of Christian burial was held for her on July 25 at the Chapel at Villa Assumpta. Burial followed at Villa Maria Cemetery in Glen Arm, Md.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame is an international congregation of women religious with 3,400 sisters serving in nearly 30 countries. For more information about the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Atlantic-Midwest Province, visit www.amssnd.org.