Remembering Sister Vianney Moore

Rest in Peace
Sister Vianney Moore
March 6, 1935 – April 22, 2024

Sister Vianney Moore passed away into eternal life on April 22, 2024 at 89 years of age. Her Funeral Mass and a Memorial luncheon were held on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at Mary, Seat of Wisdom Church in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Sister Vianney began life on March 6, 1935. Her parents, Mary Elizabeth McNulty and Dewey Moore, named her Elizabeth Ann, but everyone called her Betty. She was born in Riverside, California and lived there until she was 14. She lived a faith-filled Catholic childhood and describes her Confirmation at age 12 as “a time when the Holy Spirit came to me in a special way.”

She moved to Chicago at age 14 and attended St. Gregory High School. She was taught by Sister Annamarie Cook, SLW and has remained an active alumna and in contact with many of her high school friends.

She wrote, “The thought of religious life first came to me during freshman year in high school, which I quickly dispelled. It recurred again during my senior year in high school. It really struck me very forcefully one evening when I was completing my religion assignment for Father May’s class. I informed my parents immediately about my decision and was filled with consolation from that moment until I entered the Sisters of Christian Charity on August 31, 1953.”

She was extremely homesick during the first nine months that she was in the convent and decided to wait a year before being invested. In 1955 she asked to be invested, made first vows in 1957, and made final vows in 1963.

For the next few decades Sister Vianney taught lower grade children in schools in Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Iowa. It was during this time that her students began to call her Sister Beanie, a name she came to love.

In 1975 she wrote, “1975 is a year I will never forget. First of all, I came to the decision that it was time for me to leave the classroom. During April my father became very ill. I spent a week with my family at this time. My dad’s condition seemed to be improving when I left to return to Arkansas. I was very happy at this point, seeing that my father was improving and also that a group was planning to form a new community in the Church. On May 20, my father died. This was a great loss for us, but I knew my dad had reached new life.” 

“I was also very happy to join the Sisters of the Living Word because I sincerely believed that the Lord was calling me to this community, a belief I continue to hold and which was deeply increased during my grace-filled thirty day retreat in 1977.”

Sister Vianney‘s ministry also took a new turn around this time. She studied at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans for a Master’s in Religious Education and served as a Director of Religious Education at various parishes in Mississippi and New Orleans. Most recently she was ministering at Our Lady of Guadalupe in New Orleans when she was struck with dementia. She suffered through memory loss, anxiety, anger, and ultimately complete inability to talk, move, or cognitively function in any way. 

It was extremely hard for her to leave the South. She spent her last years at Resurrection Life Center where she was very well cared for, visited, and prayed with by Sisters and fellow residents often.