S. Marie Concetta Papania

For 55 years, from 1931 to 1986, S. Marie Concetta Papania devoted her life to music. Teaching others to appreciate music was a part of the fiber of her being. In addition she directed choirs of novices and postulants, served as diocesan music supervisor, and composed. Besides sacred music she published “Sing, Dance and Play” a collection of songs for primary grades with accompanying teachers’ editions and study guides.

Most Sisters recall the long hours they spent learning S. Marie Concetta’s “Missa Solemnis” and the times the composer would exhort them: “Sisters, stop at all the bars and hold onto your men!” (when singing the A-men). But the long practices turned into exulting experiences when they sang this Mass in a chapel bursting with the sound of hundreds of voices raised in vocal prayer.

“Music was my aunt’s road to God,” remarked her niece, S. Marie Re. “She prayed it; she lived it.” And she carried this spirit of God’s presence into her relationships with others.