(formerly Sister Raymond Teresa)

We remember with gratitude the life of Sister Barbara Hanagan who was a Sister of Notre Dame for 76 years. She died peacefully at Mercy Retirement and Care Center (MRCC) in Oakland, where she was lovingly cared for during the past nine years.

Sister Barbara entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1945 after graduating from Notre Dame High School, Marysville, Calif. A beloved elementary and high school teacher for more than 35 years, she served in schools in Chico, Alameda, Watsonville, Salinas, San Jose, Belmont, Marysville, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Seattle. An avid student of California history, she was the author of "Sisters of Notre Dame, Marysville, 1856-1972", written to preserve the significant educational contribution the Sisters made in her home town.

In 2003 Sister Barbara became a member of the Belmont Notre Dame Province Center community. There she continued her active involvement as a Eucharistic Minister and elementary school tutor. In 2013 she moved to MRCC, where one of her ministries was to accompany Sisters as they were dying. Given this special gift, it is quite appropriate that Sister Barbara died on April 8, the anniversary of the death in 1816 of Notre Dame Foundress St. Julie Billiart.

St. Julie was known for her simplicity, charity, and obedience, qualities that Barbara expressed throughout her life. Known also for being gentle, soft-spoken, attentive to others, and very kind, Sister Barbara enjoyed community living and stated that "the presence of God is the greatest blessing of my years as a Sister. In the ordinariness of life, in the small miracles - it is being present in quiet in the community of prayer."

Daughter of Raymond and Genevieve Hanagan, sister of Raymond Hanagan, Gloria Booth, and Alice Andreason, and aunt of David Hanagan (all deceased), she is lovingly remembered by her nieces Barbara Thompson and Maureen Harra, nephews Stephen, Paul, and John Hanagan, friends, former students and her Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

A Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated on Thursday, May 26th in the Chapel at the SNDdeN Province Center, 1520 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, Calif. at 11:00 a.m. Further information about Sister Barbara's life can be found at snddeneastwest.org/barbara-hanagan/. Contributions in her memory may be made to Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Ave, Belmont, CA 94002 or online at snddeneastwest.org .