Sr. Marie Therese (Sr. Jeanne de la Croix) Ebacher, SSCh

Sr. Marie Therese was born in Amesbury MA, the youngest child of Philias and Rose (Pinault) Ebacher.  In her large family of eight children, she was one of four who entered religious life. That the Ebachers were devoted to their faith is more than evident. The children went to the parish school, Sacred Heart, and were taught by the Sisters of St. Chretienne. Beatrice, Margaret and Marie Therese entered the congregation.  As the novitiate was in Giffard, Quebec, God’s call was strong in the heart of each of these young women as they left their close family. Marie Therese pronounced her first vows in 1948.  She was missioned to Pawtucket RI to teach in the parish elementary school, and later in Ipswich MA.

In 1960, as the Sisters were beginning a mission among the Muslim people, Marie Therese was asked to go to the country of Djibouti in Africa.  She spent some 20 years there teaching the girls in a culture where women had few opportunities.  She had a gift for the language and a special devotion for the poor in the outlying area of Ali Sabieth located in a very hot desert.  She went to Rome for two years to study the Arabic language and the Quran and then returned to Djibouti for several more years.

In 1980, Sr. M. Therese returned to the US.  She joined the staff at St. Mary’s Church in Newport RI.  Later, she was asked to go to Evry in France for three years to set up a diocesan office for Christian/ Muslim relations.  Again back in the US, she served as a secretary at St. John the Evangelist parish in Swampscott MA.  In 2002, she came to Marlboro to the Sisters’ retirement community where she helped as receptionist and sacristan. 

Since 2016, her health having declined significantly, Marie Therese devoted herself to a ministry of prayer.  In these last few years, she received special care at Bethany Health Center in Framingham with the Sisters of St. Joseph.  She had lost the ability to speak but communicated with us through loving gestures, holding our hands and throwing kisses.  Her inner life with God radiated outwardly, and the nurses just loved her.  As Marie Therese spent her life caring for God’s children, she has now been wrapped in Jesus’ embrace, and she is finally with her dear mother and her beautiful family.  Besides her parents, she was predeceased by her stepmother, Rose Alice (Tremblay) Ebacher, her brothers Lucien, Joseph Philias (Bill), Raymond, and Roger (Fr. Marie Jerome, OCSO) and her sisters Annette, Sr. Beatrice, SSCh and Sr. Margaret, SSCh.   She is mourned by her sister-in-law, Gloria Ebacher and many loving nieces and nephews.   Her Sisters in religious life, the Sisters of St. Chretienne, will miss her dearly.  They wish to express gratitude to the staff and nurses both at their former residence in Marlborough and at Bethany Health Center.

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