Sister Estelle Marie Farrell, CSC

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Sister Estelle Marie Farrell, CSC

September 8, 1918 ~ December 19, 2019

Holy Cross Sister Estelle Marie Farrell went home to God just before dawn during the Third Week of Advent.

Stella Eleanor Farrell was born in Warren, Arizona on September 8, 1918, the third of seven children born to Jeremiah Farrell, an auditor, and Louisa Huston Farrell, a homemaker and bookkeeper. In 1923 the Farrells moved to Los Angeles, California, where they set down roots in Saint Agnes Parish.

Prior to entering religious life, Stella lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s. She was employed at the War Department during the 1940s while also working in the business world as a personnel manager, administrative assistant and secretary. At the age of 27, Stella Farrell heard God’s call and entered the Sisters of the Holy Cross in July 1946, having been educated by the sisters in her home parish. Upon reception of the holy habit on February 2, 1947, she received her name in religion, Sister Estelle Marie. In her first years of ministry she used her clerical skills in Holy Cross hospitals in Fresno, California and Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1950, she began 30 years in elementary education in Holy Cross schools in California and Utah. Sr. Estelle Marie responded immediately to the renewal of the Second Vatican Council and provided her faculty and parents with ongoing education and formation in the spirit of the council, opening new opportunities for teachers to teach and students to learn.  

In the 1970s, Sr. Estelle Marie had an increasing sensitivity to the needs of families dealing with the illness of loved ones. Her experience, along with that of her siblings, in caring for their father, planted a seed for her to change from education in 1980 to becoming a pastoral care intern in Saint Agnes Hospice, Saint Agnes Medical Center, Fresno, California. The internship confirmed her initial interest and sustained skill in hospice ministry in Fresno and later in North Hollywood, where she directed a facility now known as Providence St. Elizabeth Care Center.

Sr. Estelle Marie retired in 1999 to Saint Catherine by the Sea, Ventura, California, moving in 2004 to Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Indiana, where she lived out her ministry of prayer until her death at Saint Mary’s Convent.

A funeral Mass was celebrated December 23 at the Church of Our Lady of Loretto, Notre Dame, Indiana. Kaniewski Funeral Home handled arrangements.