Sister Patricia A. Murtagh, RSM, (Sister Mary Benedicta), 95, of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, died at McClure-Miller Respite House on Feb. 28 in her 77th year of her religious life. She was born in Montpelier on Dec. 3, 1928, the daughter of Anne (Morse) and George Murtagh. She entered the Sisters of Mercy on Sept. 8, 1946 and professed her vows on Aug. 25, 1949.

Sister Murtagh received a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Burlington and did post- graduate studies in science at the University of Vermont and Murray State Collage in Murray, Kentucky, and clinical pastoral education at Andover Newton Theological School in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

Sister Murtagh taught in parochial schools in Burlington, Barre, and Middlebury. She also taught religion classes in the surrounding parishes and was an active part of the diocesan religious education program for the developmentally disabled. She served in parish ministry and as the director of religious education in Woodstock, Enosburg Falls, and Northfield. She ministered for several years in the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York, as a pastoral associate and director of religious education. She represented the Sisters of Mercy of Vermont on the Council for Religious in that diocese and as vice president, president, and treasurer. Sr. Patricia ministered at the Howard Mental Health Services in Burlington and the Tewksbury St. John’s Hospital in Tewksbury. She also volunteered at Birthright and Hospice.

She is survived by her sister-in-law, Terri Murtagh, and her nieces, nephews, cousins, and her sisters in religion, the Sisters of Mercy. She was predeceased by her parents, her brothers, Father George O. Murtagh and Tom Murtagh and her sisters, Rose Mary Murtagh, Helen Peslin, and Betty Hutchinson.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on March 16 at 11 a.m. in the Sacred Heart Chapel at Mater Christi School (former Mount St. Mary Convent), 100 Mansfield Ave., Burlington, with visiting hours prior to the funeral Mass from 10 to 11 a.m.

Burial will follow the funeral in the Mount St. Mary Cemetery.