31 January 1947 – 1 April 2024
On Easter Monday our beloved Sr. Mary Grace Barile left for the House of the Lord to celebrate Easter with Jesus Christ, our Savior. Sr. Mary Grace’s life as a religious, echoes the words of Mary: “The Lord who is almighty has done great things for me; and, holy is His Name.”
Sr. Mary Grace Barile, S.A.C., was born January 31, 1947. She was the daughter of the late Salvatore and Minnie A. Puccio Barile. She was the oldest of three children. She is survived by her two beloved brothers, Salvatore P. Barile and Philip C. and his wife Cheryl and their son Logan, her loving nephew.
She was raised in a strong, Italian family, and even though she moved to Maryland from New York at the age of ten, she always referred to herself as a New Yorker and a Sicilian—especially when it came to her driving and tenaciousness.
She graduated from Pallotti High School in Laurel, MD where she met the Pallottine Missionary Sisters. Upon graduation from high school, Sr. Mary Grace entered the Pallottine Missionary Sisters in1964. She took her first vows on August 15, 1967, at St. Mary’s Hospital Chapel and made her final vows six years later in 1973 in Florissant, Missouri.
When the novitiate moved from McCoy Road, Huntington to Missouri, she was one of the founding sisters of Pallottine Formation and Renewal Center, Florissant, Mo. She was transferred back to Huntington in 1969, where she was employed at St. Mary’s Hospital doing bookkeeping. After receiving her degree at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, she became chief cashier at the hospital.
In 2017, Sister Mary Grace was elected Provincial of Pallottine Missionary Sisters and was made President of Pallottine Health Services, Inc. With the selling of St. Mary’s Medical Center to Cabell Huntington Hospital, Sr. Mary Grace, as Vice President of Mission Integration, was a strategic member of the St. Mary’s team that helped our staff and employees during this transition.
Sister served on the Board of Trustees for the following:
– St. Mary’s Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital of Buckhannon,
– Mountain Health Network, Pallottine Renewal Center and St. Vincent Pallotti High School
She also served as Board Chair for: Pallottine Foundations of Huntington & Buckhannon.
She was a parishioner at St. Stephen’s Parish in Ona. She served there on the parish council and was a member of the church choir.
As a Pallottine Sister, Sr. Mary Grace consecrated her life to God and the Church by the act of religious profession. She followed faithfully the footsteps of St. Vincent Pallotti, the founder of our Pallottine International Community; and like him, impelled by love of Christ, she dedicated herself to serving others in various ways, carrying faith, hope, love and joy – always smiling and always helping.
Today we say goodbye to someone who recognized God’s call and responded to it with love and generous heart, offering herself completely, both in her early years and during the time of illness and passing. Becoming the messenger of God’s love, she embodied all the values represented by the name given to her on Baptism: Mary and Grace.
Dear Sister Mary Grace, rest in peace with the Lord, and with your beloved ones.
We thank you and we love you.
Text and Photo: Pallottine Missionary Sisters
