By Mary Frances McCarthy
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 4/22/04)

She is remembered for her bright smile, her kind words and her blue habits, worn long after other sisters dressed in secular clothes. She is remembered for her dedication to her Church, her school and her ministry. She is remembered for being the longest serving female president of a university.

"She was just a wonderful part of the growing up of the diocese," said retired Bishop Thomas J. Welsh. "She was always very helpful, always just a very lovely person to associate with."

At the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington last week, close to 1,000 friends and family of Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (R.S.H.M.) Sister M. Majella Berg, president emeritus of Marymount University, gathered to remember her many accomplishments in life.

Sister Berg died April 5 at the Marymount Convent in Tarrytown, N.Y., at the age of 87. She had been a nun for 68 years, and president of Marymount for more than 30.

Before the funeral, her casket, draped with a rosary made of red roses, stood at the foot of an empty cross draped with white cloth, a sign of the risen Lord.

"Today we gather around the table of the Lord and pray that she may behold the glorious face of God," said Sister Rosamond Blanchet, R.S.H.M. "Our hearts are filled with gratitude for Sister Majella’s life among us and the love she shared with us. As a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, she lived with deep faith the zealous mission of making God known and loved."

The funeral Mass was celebrated by Missionhurst Father William Quigley and concelebrated by nine diocesan and Missionhurst priests including Fathers Jack Peterson, campus minister of Marymount University in Arlington; Matthew Zuberbueler, parochial vicar of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington; Peter Nassetta, campus minister of George Mason University in Fairfax; Paul Grankauskas and Msgr. Roy Cosby, retired and Missionhurst Fathers Paul DeWolf, Roger VanCauwengergh, Michael Hann and Joseph Giordano.

Father Quigley described Sister Berg as the centerpiece, a chandelier to all whose lives she touched. "The lights of the chandelier may seem dim now, but (Marymount) graduates continue to live that light in their careers and faith thanks to Sister Majella," he said. "Let her life of holiness be a beacon of light in your own lives."

Sister Brigid Driscoll, R.S.H.M., president emeritus of Marymount College in Tarrytown, said that Sister Majella knew from the time she was 5 years old that she wanted to be a nun. Sister Berg, then Mae Katherine, attended grade school at St. Catherine of Alexandria School in Brooklyn, where she thought the nuns were just wonderful.

Sister Berg entered the convent in 1934 and professed her first vows at Marymount in Tarrytown at the age of 18. She made her final vows there in 1941.

Following Vatican II, many of the sisters began wearing more secular clothes. Sister always maintained her habit. She wanted to be "identified publicly and proudly with the community she chose at the age of 5," Sister Driscoll said.

"Sister Majella was a faith-filled member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and an extraordinary president of Marymount University," said Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde in a letter read at her funeral. "Sister Majella was the heart and soul of Marymount throughout her long tenure of leadership and beyond."

James Bundschuh, president of Marymount University, said "Sister Majella shaped Marymount, and her spirit will always remain here through the thousands of lives she touched and the enduring legacy of her work."

Dr. Alice Mandanis, who served as Sister Berg’s senior chief academic officer, said that during Marymount’s growth in the 1970s, Sister Berg "refused to publicly affirm any problems. She saw them as challenges to be met. When the rest of us saw a faintly flickering flame, she saw light at the end of the tunnel.

"And now we say goodbye to our own dear blue eminence," Mandanis said. "We are sad for our loss, but glad for her gain."