A funeral Mass for Sister Catherine “Cate” Agnes Wagner, CSJ, was held July 22 at Nazareth Living Center chapel in south St. Louis County. Sister Cate died July 6 at Nazareth Living Center. She was 95.
Sister Catherine Agnes Wagner, baptized Jeanette Colleen, was born on Jan. 21, 1932, in Atchison, Kansas, to parents Matthias L. and Catherine M. (Schuele) Wagner. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1949 and was received into the novitiate in 1950. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the College of St. Teresa (now Avila University) in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1955 and a master’s degree in nursing education from Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1969.
In 1952, Sister Cate taught in St. Louis at St. Mary Magdalen and St. Edward grade schools.
Later that same year, she began a career in nursing that spanned 30 years. In 1955, she was a nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. She was then a clinical education/supervising nurse at St. Joseph Community Hospital in Hancock, Michigan, from 1956-66.
In 1969, after earning her master’s degree, she was a nursing school instructor at Avila College, now Avila University, in Kansas City. The following year, she was a team member on the patient care improvement project at St. Mary Hospital in Milwaukee.
In 1971, she served as the patient care improvement project coordinator at St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood for a year. She then provided home health care service for her CSJ community in St. Louis. In 1973, she moved to Houghton, Michigan, where she was a nursing educator/program developer at Michigan Tech University.
Sister Cate returned to St. Louis a year later and served as a nurse at Incarnate Word Hospital (1974-75) and Mount St. Rose Hospital (1975-83). She also served as a visiting nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association for a year.
In 1985, she attended Vaughn Richards Academy of Beauty in Ballwin. Sister Cate was a cosmetologist in St. Louis at Nazareth Living Center and at CSJ Cosmetology Service until 1996.
From 1998 to 2002, she cared for family in Atchison, Kansas.
Sister Cate moved to Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis in 2004, where she carried out her ministry of prayer and presence.
Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
