Clad in her traditional black habit, Sister Alicia Sarre seemed to have a magnetic effect on people she encountered on her daily bus rides.
“In my habit I am everybody's sister,” she once said in an interview. “People stop and talk about their lives. They tell me things they can't tell other people.”
When Sister Sarre retired in 1982 after 30 years at the University of San Diego and its predecessor, the San Diego College for Women, she found a second career in community outreach.
As director of the Office of Hispanic Evangelization for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, she encouraged Hispanics who had been isolated from the church to return to their spiritual roots.
She also visited prison inmates in Mexico, inviting them to join her in prayer and encouraging them to further their education.
“Sister Alicia was characterized by a tenacity that some found to be sheer stubbornness,” said Sister Virginia Rodee of USD. “She refused to let people drive her to appointments because she felt riding the bus brought her closer to the people she served.
“And she kept wearing her traditional black habit, although others in the order had changed to more contemporary attire after Vatican II in 1968.”
Sister Sarre, who retired from her diocese post in 1998 after suffering a stroke, died Aug. 1 at Oakwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Atherton. She was 89. The cause of death was heart failure, said Pamela Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for the Society of the Sacred Heart.
In February 1952, Sister Sarre joined the founding faculty of the San Diego College for Women in Linda Vista. She taught Spanish, French and Latin, and helped the college merge in 1972 with the separate College for Men to create USD.
“In the classroom, she was known for being strict and demanding in classes but kind and caring,” said Sister Rodee, who was a student in one of Sister Sarre's Spanish classes.
In 1976, Sister Sarre urged Dr. Elizabeth Jones, a pediatric nutritionist, to visit what was then Project Concern Hospital in Tijuana. “Alicia told Dr. Jones that if she did the work, she (Sister Sarre) would take care of the Spanish so there would be no language barrier,” Sister Rodee said.
“I'm not Catholic, but I didn't know how to say no to a nun,” Jones told The San Diego Union-Tribune. By the 1980s, Jones had joined a Mexican colleague, Dr. Gabriel Chong, in establishing a children's clinic in Tijuana.
Sister Sarre, the 11th of 12 children in her family, was born to French and Mexican parents in Mexico City on Oct. 31, 1916.
At 16, she followed an older sister to the United States to study at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Ill. Sister Sarre professed her first vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1937.
She earned a bachelor's degree in French at Barat College in Lake Forest, a master's in French at Marquette University and a doctorate in romance languages at Stanford University.
During the 1930s and early 1940s, Sister Sarre taught in schools operated by her religious order in Lake Forest and Omaha, Neb. After earning her doctorate, she taught from 1946 to 1951 at Barat College.
On the 50th anniversary of her vows into the Convent of the Sacred Heart, she was honored at USD. “Alicia created and fostered the Spanish major here,” Sister Sally Furay, former USD provost and vice president, said at the event. “Her contributions to the university and its students are immeasurable.”
Survivors include a sister, Elena de Orvananos of Mexico City.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 15 at Founders Chapel, USD. A funeral Mass was celebrated Aug. 5 at Oakwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Atherton.
Donations are suggested to Society of the Sacred Heart, 4389 W. Pine Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108.
Jack Williams: (619) 542-4587; jack.williams@uniontrib.com
