Elaine “Bernard Marie” McTaggart (1931-2025)

“It’s more virtuous to live with imperfect people than to live with saints.”

— St. Julie Billiart

Sister Elaine completed her earthly journey on November 27, 2025, at the age of 94 after 77 years of consecrated life. 

Born in Milton, Massachusetts, Sister Elaine McTaggart, SNDdeN was the youngest of four children. She first met the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at St. Gregory High School in Dorchester, where she knew she wanted to be a teacher. After many talks with her parents, pastor and many Sisters, she decided to join the order. “I have never regretted that decision,” she said.

She earned her bachelor’s in English at Emmanuel College in 1962, and her M.ED in mathematics and her C.A.G.S. in counseling in 1983 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She served as teacher and principal at St. Rita, Lawrence; Blessed Sacrament, Cambridge; St. Charles, Woburn; St. Gregory, Dorchester; St. Lawrence, Lawrence; St. Ambrose, Dorchester and Arlington Catholic, Arlington.

She taught for 49 years in the classroom, including 25 years of math at St. Gregory High School, and later 10 years of tutoring.

As an elementary teacher, she recalled when she moved to teach the next grade, during the time when the Sisters changed from religious names back to their given names. “One boy who’d been in my class for two years was overheard saying, ‘Thank goodness I’ve got a different teacher this year!’ He was quite surprised when he entered the classroom, and it was me, again!”

Said Sister Elaine, “I believe, like St. Julie, it’s more virtuous to live with imperfect people than to live with saints.”

 Updated in 2025