June 17, 2024

OBITUARY: Sister Maria Joseph Nace, SP

REGIONAL

HOLYOKE – Sister of Providence Maria Joseph Nace died on June 15, 2024 in the 66th year of her religious life.

Born Antoinette Mary Nace in Northampton, she was the daughter of Joseph and Antoinette (Josinska) Nace. Having graduated from Easthampton High School in 1954, she enrolled in the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Holyoke and graduated in 1957. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence in 1958.
She began her ministry in healthcare in the nursery at Our Lady of Providence Children’s Center (Brightside) in West Springfield in 1961. She worked briefly as a nurse at Farren Memorial Hospital before continuing her education at the Boston College of Nursing and completing her bachelor of science in nursing degree in 1968.

She ministered for a while at Mercy Hospital and then became the health nurse for the Spanish Apostolate in Holyoke and the Migrant Workers Program in Springfield until 1971. She worked in the Sisters of Providence Infirmary until Mt. St. Vincent Nursing Home opened, where she became the director of nursing in 1972 and also served as its educational coordinator and long-range planning coordinator.
Following a sabbatical in 1980, she began a new ministry in 1981 as a self-employed, professional artist and free-lance writer/poet. She has had numerous poems published in the local newspapers and in Sisters Today, The American Poetry Anthology, Worcester Review, Review for Religious, Greater Maine Poets, and New England Poetry. Her paintings, both in oils and water colors, have both sold well and won awards at various galleries and shows, including the Chaffee Art Gallery, Rutland, Vt., the Chester (Vermont) Art and Heritage Society, the Mystic (Connecticut) Art Association, and at Longmeadow Arts.

In 2009, her book, entitled Poet With A Brush, a compilation of some of her poems and pictures of her paintings, was published. She enjoyed participating in the Greater Maine Poet’s Workshop and Bread Loaf Writers Colony. In 1997, she opened the Art of Colour Studio where she did some of her artwork and offered painting classes there for many years as well as at Bay Path, Our Lady of the Elms College, and the Mystic Art Gallery.

She is survived by her sisters in community, a niece and cousins. The wake will be held on Thursday, June 20 at 9 a.m. at the Providence Place Chapel, 5 Gamelin Street, Holyoke. The Liturgy of Christian Burial will follow 10 a.m. Memorial donations may be made to the Sisters of Providence, 5 Gamelin St., Holyoke, MA 01040.