Sister Elizabeth Calcagni, SNDdeN was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. She had one brother, Ken, with whom she was very close.
While a student at Ascension High School in Worcester, she grew to admire the work of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Several Sisters saw her potential and asked her if she had ever considered a vocation herself, and they encouraged her to contemplate this decision. “It was very simple,” she reflected. “It seemed obvious that it was the direction I was being led.” In 1954, she entered the novitiate, beginning 70 years of faithful service as a woman religious.
Sister Elizabeth’s first mission brought her to East Boston, where she cut her teeth as a teacher and marked the beginning of a long and rewarding career in education. She graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston in 1967 and next attended the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, where she received a certification in Montessori education. She returned to Boston to attend Wheelock College, where she received an MA in early childhood education and psychology.
She co-founded a Montessori School among the poor in Dorchester and South Boston, where she taught and impacted the lives of many children with her love, gentleness, and education for life. The school nurtured more than 1,000 children of diverse backgrounds. She enjoyed working with underprivileged children and their parents. “We were there morning, noon, and night,” said Sister Elizabeth. She continued her mission as a Montessori educator, working as director of preschool and staff development at the Notre Dame Montessori School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, for 46 years. There, she trained new teachers and worked closely with the mothers of struggling families.
At the time of her 70th Jubilee in 2024, she shared that she was grateful for the support she received from her parents, friends, fellow educators and her Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
Sister Elizabeth Calcagni, SNDdeN, went home to her good God on October 7, 2024.