Jeanne Monahan, who became Sister Esther Regis with the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, dies at 98

Jeanne Monahan was an intensely spiritual person. "Until the moment of her death, she was a person of God," said her brother, John Monahan, of Alexandria, Virginia.

She served for 72 years as a Sister of St. Dominic, taking the name Sister Esther Regis. She dedicated her life to education, demonstrating the power of knowledge and how it can enrich lives.

Sister Esther Regis died of natural causes on Jan. 24 at age 98.

Jeanne Monahan was born on July 8, 1927, in St. Albans, Queens. She graduated from Mary Louis Academy High School in Jamaica in 1944, and then attended the College of Saint Elizabeth (now Saint Elizabeth University), where she earned her bachelor's degree in French. She received her master's degree from Hunter College in Manhattan and a doctorate from Fordham University in the Bronx. She then taught in New York City schools for two years.

"We came from teachers — our mother taught English and our father was a language teacher — and Jeanne kind of followed that," her brother said. "She was ahead of her time in trying to see the impact of religion in schools."

Monahan taught elementary education for several years before moving up a few grades to teach high school English. She later continued her academic pursuits as an assistant professor and chair of the Education Department at Molloy College (now Molloy University) in Rockville Centre.

Sister Joy Castiglione, of Amityville, said she met Monahan at Molloy in 1965 and found her to be "a woman of faithfulness and commitment to God throughout her 98 years of life."

"She taught a fun class, and we learned how to teach creatively," Castiglione said. "She was a brilliant woman who was quite linguistic — speaking French and Spanish — I was always impressed by her intelligence."

After receiving her master's, Monahan decided she wanted to join a religious order.

"They taught her in elementary school and had a profound influence on her," her brother said. "While she went through the two-year novitiate mission to become a nun, they realized she had a lot of education and could be helpful to nuns even while going through training."

Monahan entered the novitiate at Amityville on Sept. 5, 1952, and was clothed in the Dominican habit on Aug. 4, 1953, where she received her religious name, Sister Esther Regis. She took her first vows on Aug. 7, 1954, and her final vows on Aug. 7, 1957.

According to Sister Carolann Masone, of Amityville, Monahan was "a person of deep prayer and spirituality" who was "fully dedicated to her ministry as an educator."

"She prepared future teachers with pedagogy methods and an understanding of what it means to be a teacher with heart," Masone said of her friend. "She really believed that the most important relationship you have, you are defined by your love of God and your relationship with God."

Monahan's time in religious education and pastoral ministry spanned both the Rockville Centre and Brooklyn dioceses. In 1968, she assumed the position of supervisor for elementary schools in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. In 1976, she accepted the same position in the Diocese of Hartford, Connecticut. She retired from education in 2005 and spent her time writing poetry, painting and continuing her devotion to God.

In addition to John, Monahan is survived by another brother, George; sister-in-law Carol; and nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Feb. 5. Interment was at St. Dominic Cemetery on the motherhouse grounds in Amityville.