A funeral Mass for Sister Andrea Marie Freude, SSND, was celebrated April 17 at Theresa Center Chapel at Sancta Maria in Ripa in St. Louis. Sister Andrea Marie died April 2 at Veronica House-The Sarah Community in Bridgeton. She was 88.
She was born to Theresa (Hayden) and Jacob Andrew Freude on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, 1937, in St. Louis. She was baptized at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church on Nov. 14, 1937, and named Rose Mary. She grew up with her older brother, Francis (Frank), and several cousins who lived with them. Two younger brothers died in infancy. Her mother died when she was 4-and-a-half years old. A friend of her mother’s became a resident in the home and raised her with her father. When she went to school, her father changed her name to Mary Rose in order to avoid confusion with a cousin who was Rose Marie.
She began her education at Notre Dame de Lourdes School. In the seventh grade she went to live with an aunt and attended Our Lady of Sorrows School, where she met the School Sisters of Notre Dame. With the assistance of the principal, she enrolled at the aspiranture at Sancta Maria in Ripa. Her father felt she should attend a public high school, so she attended Valley Park High School and Roosevelt High School during her sophomore and junior year. Finally convinced of her desire to become a religious, her father granted permission for her to complete her high school education at the aspiranture and she graduated from Notre Dame High School in St. Louis in 1956.
Rose Mary entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa on Aug. 30, 1956. She was received into the novitiate on July 30, 1957, and given the name, Andrea Marie, in honor of her father. She professed first vows on July 31, 1958, and final vows on July 31, 1964.
Sister Andrea Marie’s lifelong ministry was to care for the elderly and the sick, especially members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Following profession, she served as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) at Villa Gesu, the retirement center for the former St. Louis Province. In 1965, she spent a year as an LPN at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis. She then returned to Villa Gesu for the next 15 years.
In 1981, she began to study for her degree as a registered nurse at St. Mary’s College, a branch of the Arizona College of Nursing, via their St. Louis campus. She received her registered nursing degree in 1984. She spent the next three years as a nurse at the infirmary of the former St. Louis Province motherhouse. In 1987, she returned once more to Villa Gesu and remained there until it closed in 1999. During these years, she lived at several different SSND convents and would travel back and forth to Villa Gesu. From there, she continued her ministry as a nurse at Anna House-The Sarah Community in Bridgeton until 2010. In her retirement years, she was a volunteer at various places in the St. Louis area. Sister Andrea Marie moved to Veronica House-The Sarah Community in 2019.
Sister Andrea Marie was preceded in death by her parents, Theresa and Jacob Freude, and her brother, Frank. She is survived by relatives, friends, classmates, sisters in community and SSND associates. Burial was in the Sancta Maria in Ripa Cemetery.
