Religious Milestones: Mercy Sister Rose Mary Malague, 75 years

Mercy Sister Rose Mary Malague said she encountered no challenges in becoming a religious. More than 30 years after entering the Sisters of Mercy religious order, however, she faced a health trial. “In 1981, I had a ruptured brain aneurysm while I was in the midst of my teaching career,” recalled Sister Rose, who became a Mercy Sister in 1948. 

She said she “miraculously recovered” from the ruptured aneurysm, which the Mayo Clinic website describes as a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain that can become life-threatening. But Sister Rose also said the health scare affected her memory. She said she had difficulty remembering names and being an educator unable to recite her students’ names, she said it made her feel insecure. “I made the decision to give up teaching,” she said.

Sister Rose took a year sabbatical to be trained in a different religious ministry, and that led to her becoming spiritual director at a diocesan prayer house in Mount Holly. She later entered parish ministry.

Now, as she marks her 75th anniversary of serving with the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Rose is retired and lives with other religious at Mount Saint Mary Academy, Watchung.

Sister Rose, who grew up in Belleville, attended Catholic schools from -- St. Peter’s, Belleville) through Villanova University (Pa.), where she earned a master’s degree in mathematics.

She credits her family for inspiring her to enter the religious life. “I come from a very faith-filled family,” she stated.

She was surrounded by Sisters of Mercy, including her aunt, Sister Mary Victorine, another of her mother’s siblings and a cousin. Sister Rose said the religious who were also her relatives used to come to vacation at their home in Belleville, exposing her from a young age to the calling to serve.

They introduced her specifically to the Sisters of Mercy, a worldwide order associated with education, founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831 by Venerable Catherine McAuley.

“I was always very serious about living out my religious vocation,” Sister Rose said, “and that has kept me focused on following Jesus as a Sister of Mercy for 75 years.”

Sister Rose taught primary grades in St. James School, Woodbridge. She also spent many years teaching mathematics in various high schools in the dioceses of Camden, Trenton and Metuchen, and was vice principal at the now-closed St. Mary’s High School, South Amboy.

After her school ministry, Sister Rose ministered in several places throughout New Jersey. She was spiritual director of St. Francis House of Prayer, Mount Holly; pastoral associate at St. Bartholomew Parish, Scotch Plains; and served in ministry at Holy Family Parish, Union Beach.

She earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgian Court College, now University, Lakewood.

While only saying for this story that she encourages any young woman considering a vocation to join the Sisters of Mercy “because I know the Mercy community best of all,” Sister Rose, in a 2018 interview, also recommended talking it out with a spiritual adviser, and consider taking a weekend retreat to pray and learn more about religious life.

Sister Rose’s life is proof that anyone’s vocational role can positively evolve when a medical issue forces change.