Benedictine Sister Bridget Ann (Scholastica) Donaldson, 81, died July 19 at St. Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud. The Eucharist of Christian Burial was celebrated July 26 at the Sacred Heart Chapel, St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, and was followed by burial in the monastery cemetery.
Bridget Donaldson was born March 4, 1940, to Ralph and Josephine Marie (Monarski) Donaldson in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the eighth of nine children. She attended St. Patrick’s Grade School and Regis High School in Eau Claire. On Sept. 5, 1957, she entered St. Bede Monastery, was received into the novitiate June 10, 1958, as Sister Scholastica, made first monastic profession July 11, 1959, and perpetual monastic profession July 11, 1962. Sister Bridget celebrated her golden jubilee in 2009 and her 60th jubilee in 2019.
Sister Bridget received her bachelor’s degree in education with minors in theology and social studies at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and her master’s degree in pastoral studies at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. She taught for 13 years in Wisconsin and then served as director of religious education and on the Development Advisory Board at St. Bede Monastery.
For 35 years, she served at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Holmen, Wisconsin, where she was
pastoral associate, director of Holmen Area Food Pantry, involved with a suicide prevention hotline and a member of the Monastic Council at St. Bede Monastery. She also served in various capacities as a volunteer, including Governor’s Task Force on Families and Children, Wisconsin Executive Residence Board, People to People: International Initiative for Understanding, Marriage Encounter and the Diocesan Religion Textbook Advisory Board. In 2015, she received the Iverson-Freking Ecumenical Recognition Award.
Sister Bridget is survived by members of her Benedictine community, her brother, Patrick, and sisters, Elizabeth (John) Maloney, Barbara Collins (Nate) and Rita (David) McCarthy. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brothers Robert (Mary), John, Father Thomas Donaldson, and her sister, Benedictine Sister Mary Jo Donaldson.
Please direct memorial gifts to the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict Outreach Ministries.