Sister Miriam David (Peterson), CSC
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Read the memories shared at Sister Miriam David’s funeral.
Sister Miriam David, CSC
(Catherine Veronica Peterson)
July 5, 1923—April 14, 2018
Word has been received of the death of Sister Miriam David (Peterson), CSC, in Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana. Sister Miriam David entered the Congregation from Boise, Idaho on July 25, 1941. Her initial profession of vows took place on February 2, 1944
Imagine Sister Miriam David’s family portrait, from another time and place. Her father David Peterson, a former Boise, Idaho, carpenter, is dressed in his best suit and sits next to his wife, prim and proper Martha Weaver, looking as if she just came from Sunday mass. The parents are surrounded by ten adult children, half of them in clerical garb. Sister Miriam David is dressed in the habit of a Sister of the Holy Cross, having entered the Congregation in 1941. Standing alongside her are her three sisters who are all Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. One of the six brothers, is a priest of the Diocese of Boise and the other five are married men who raised families. Ironically Mr. Peterson, for whatever reason, was alienated for years from the Catholic Church until near his death.
Sister Miriam David was dedicated to her family and felt she needed to help care for her brothers in their last illnesses while she was still involved in ministry. Her special mission, however, was to encourage priests with whom she was associated in parochial elementary schools from 1944 to 1991, throughout Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah and Washington or priest chaplains at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, during her last years of full-time ministry in home health and patient support from 1991 to 2008.
In November 1940, her own pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Boise, Idaho, Father John J. Creegan, had written that Catherine Peterson was “a young lady of excellent habits, of a fine family and is highly respected in the community.” He had felt very safe in highly recommending her to the Sisters of the Holy Cross as a candidate for religious life. as did Sister M. Coaina (Mulligan), CSC, in 1941, who had known her from the commercial courses in which Catherine was very adept at St. Teresa’s Academy, Boise. “She is steady and responsible, and should fill her place in an admirable manner in the ranks of Holy Cross. God bless her and give her every grace to persevere in God’s great work entrusted to us.” Seventy-seven years later, Sister Miriam David had truly persevered in an admirable manner, dying at Saint Mary’s Convent at the motherhouse where she had lived since 2008, fulfilling her ministry of prayer and service to the larger family of God.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of the Holy Cross Ministry with the Poor Fund in Sister’s name.
Written by Sister Catherine Osimo, CSC
