Sister Rose Marie Broadbent, FSP, formerly known as Sr. Mary John, died peacefully at St. Cabrini Nursing Home on May 3, 2023.

Rose Marie had four siblings, Mary, George, John, and Thomas. She spent her entire childhood and teenage years in West Paterson, New Jersey, where the Passaic River was her playground. It was there that she attended St. Bonaventure’s Elementary and High School where she was taught by the Franciscan Sisters. After graduating from high school in 1953, Rose Marie entered the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Peekskill, and professed her first vows in 1955. This was her 70th year of religious life!

Sister Rose Marie pursued higher education at Ladycliff College in Highland Falls, graduating with a BA degree in French. Later, she studied at Pius X School of Liturgical Music at Manhattanville College where she earned a degree in Sacred Music.

Sr. Rose Marie was one of 112 founding members of the Franciscan Sisters of Peace established in 1986.                                                                                                   

Throughout her years of ministry, she taught in New Jersey and New York at the elementary level and shared her love of music with her students. She was known to create wonderful musical productions, encouraging her students to give it their all! In later years, she fully embraced directing parish adult and children’s choirs, providing music at nuptial masses, and parish and community celebrations, and generously shared her ability to provide musical enrichment wherever she ministered.

In 2003 she retired from her ministry and served as a substitute organist for Mount Saint Francis in Peekskill, NY, volunteered to drive sisters to doctors’ appointments, became Liaison to our Associate Members, and was an organist for Marian Woods Convent in Hartsdale. In early 2019, due to declining health, Sr. Rose Marie moved to Marian Woods, a collaborative adult care facility for women religious from various communities. Despite her ailments, she continued to gift the community there with her music, deeply rooted within her early on. In addition, her presence was sprinkled with a good sense of humor that she was able to see in the ordinary things of life.

Since the fall of 2022, she has been a resident of St. Cabrini Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, where she joined our other sister residents in community. It was there that she befriended several residents and staff ministering in her own special way to all she encountered, sharing her spirit of joy and gratitude for the many blessings in her life as a Franciscan Sister of Peace.

Sr. Rose Marie is survived by her brother, Thomas, her sister-in-law Carol Broadbent and numerous nieces and nephews, and several grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

A wake service will be held at Marian Woods Chapel on Monday, May 8, 2023 (2:00 p.m.– 5:00 p.m.). Her life will be celebrated at a Mass of Resurrection, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at Marian Woods Chapel, in Hartsdale.

Interment will take place at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Yonkers, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.