Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Wurtz, Marciana, Sister June 22, 1903
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Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 May 22, 2022, 10:26 am

Virginian-Pilot  June 23 and 25, 1903
SISTER OF CHARITY DIES AFTER 62 YEARS' SERVICE

Sister Marciana Wurtz, who for over sixty years has been a sister of charity, 
fifty of which have been devoted to ministering to the needy and afflicted in this 
city and section, passed away at St. Mary's asylum at 11 a.m. yesterday.  She was 
a woman of pure and exalted character, the beauty of whose life shone out 
resplendently in all her relations in the humane work in which she was engaged.

She was born in Pennsylvania and had reached the ripe age of 82 at the time of her 
death.

Those whose lives came into close and intimate contact with the deceased pay the 
just tribute to her of being one of the most amiable and charitable in spirit they 
have ever known and they will hold her in loving remembrance.  In her ministry of 
mercy, she has consecrated a self-sacrificing life.  During the yellow fever 
epidemic in Portsmouth of 1855, she displayed moral and Christian heroism of the 
truest type.  Since then, her entire life has been devoted to the relief of the 
needs of the sick and orphaned in this section.  For many years she has been 
assistant at St. Mary's asylum in this city.  Her fatal illness was of only three 
week's duration.  Her funeral will be held from St. Mary's Catholic Church 
Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock.

FUNERAL OF SISTER MARCIANA WURTZ

The remains of Sister Marciana Wurtz, who for over half a century had ministered 
to the sick and needy and befriended the orphans of this city, were yesterday laid 
to rest in St. Mary's Cemetery after that most solemn ceremony of the Catholic 
Church-a high requiem mass-had been chanted in her memory and for the repose of 
her soul.

Sister Marciana, as she was known in the religious world, was, with one exception, 
the oldest member of the Sisters of Charity.  She nursed the stricken in Norfolk 
during the yellow fever plague of '55 and soothed the sufferings of many a wounded 
soldier during the years of the Civil War.

At her funeral yesterday were many women who were raised by her while orphans in 
St. Mary's asylum in this city.

The services in St. Mary's church yesterday began at 8 o'clock with the following 
priests officiating: Celebrant, Rev. Father Doherty, of St. Mary's; deacon, Father 
Smith, of St. Vincent's hospital; sub-deacon, Father Syce, of St. Joseph's; master 
of ceremonies, Father Walsh, of St. Mary's.  The following priests were in the 
sanctuary: Rev. Father Brady, of Portsmouth; Father Irwin, of Raleigh, N. C.; 
Father Butch, of St. Joseph's, Norfolk; Father Kennedy, of Germantown, Pa.; Father 
O'Donohue, of Emmettsburg, Md.; Father Drake, of Sacred Heart church, Norfolk.

In the church were the little orphans of the asylum and hundreds of people who had 

known and revered the deceased religeuse during life.

The pallbearers were:  Captain John Twohy, Mr. John B. Loughran, Mr. James 
O'Rourke, Mr. Peter Smith, Mr. William Hart, Mr. Samuel C. Phillips, Mr. Alan G. 
Burrow and Mr. Edward Barry. 

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