A funeral Mass for Sister Janet Marie Abbacchi, SSND, was celebrated June 26 at Theresa Center Chapel at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. Sister Janet Marie died June 19 at Elizabeth House-The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 91 years old.
The ninth child of Philip and Mary (Castrogiovanni) Abbacchi, she was born in St. Louis on Feb. 21, 1934. She was baptized at St. Bridget Church on April 1, 1934, and named Margaret Jane. Her parents were immigrants from Sicily, Italy. She attended Penrose School for kindergarten; Columbia School for grades 1 to 3; St. Bridget School for grades 4 and 5; and St. Leo School for grades 6 to 8; and Rosati-Kain High School.
With the assistance of her history teacher and mentor, Sister Mary Timothy Ryan, SSND, she entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Aug. 28, 1952. After four months in the candidature, she was missioned to St. Gerard School in San Antonio, Texas, to teach second grade. She was received into the novitiate on Aug. 1, 1953, and given the name Janet Marie. She professed first vows on Aug. 2, 1954, and final vows on Aug. 2, 1960. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1962 from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis and a master’s degree in elementary administration in 1970 from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.
Following profession, she taught elementary children in Missouri at St. Francis Borgia, Washington, for two years and then at St. Barbara School, St. Louis, for two years. In 1958, she began her lengthy ministry in the south. She taught at St. Gerard Majella, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for five years, and was principal at Redemptorist Junior High School in Baton Rouge and St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Greenwell Springs, Louisiana, for five years.
She then moved to San Antonio, where she served as principal at St. Gerard Majella for eight years, an education consultant for five years and Catholic schools superintendent for five years with the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
In 1986, she answered the call to be the international secretary of education for the School Sisters of Notre Dame at the Generalate in Rome. After eight years abroad, she returned to the Archdiocese of San Antonio as coordinator of the archdiocesan synod and coordinator of the pastoral office overseeing the implementation of the synod documents.
In 2008, she became the diocesan faith formation coordinator for the diocese of Amarillo, Texas. Eight years later, she was missioned to Holy Trinity Parish in San Antonio as assistant in the finance office and member of the RCIA staff. In 2022, she left Texas and moved to Theresa Center at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. In her retirement years, she volunteered at Feed My People, a thrift store located in nearby Lemay and assisted the resource development department by writing birthday cards to donors. She was hospitalized in May 2025 and then transferred to Elizabeth House-The Sarah Community for hospice care.
Sister Janet Marie is survived by her brother Anthony Abbacchi, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family members, School Sisters of Notre Dame in community, SSND associates and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Mary and Phillip Abbacchi; her sisters, Rose Fletcher, Rosella Donato, Mary Creamer and Theresa Dunn; and her brothers Vincent, James and Philip.
Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.
