Sr. Mary de Sales Fleury

ATLANTA--Sister Mary de Sales Fleury, CSJ, former English teacher at St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, and volunteer at St. Joseph’s Church in Marietta, is celebrating her 60th year as a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1999.

Although born in Baltimore, Sister Fleury considers Savannah her home. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in Augusta in 1938, she said, “because I wanted to dedicate my life to the South.” On March 19, 1939, she was received into the novitiate.

Sister Fleury spent most of her active years as a secondary teacher of English. She began teaching in 1941 at Mt. St. Joseph in Augusta. From 1952 to 1965, she taught English at St. Pius and returned there as the school’s resource center coordinator from 1972 to 1985. She also taught in Peoria, Ill., and St. Louis, and has lived in Brunswick, Ga., and Augusta. In 1991 she moved to Nazareth Living Center, the sisters’ retirement center.

Sister Fleury said she continues to find Religious life attractive.

“The companionship of many admirable women, living under the very roof of the very God who called me to Religious life, I feel deeply grateful for my life as a Sister of St. Joseph,” she said.

Sister Fleury celebrated with other jubilarians at Nazareth Living Center with a special Mass March 21.