Hospital minister dies a week after retirement

Published: January 20, 2017

Sister Margaret Meisner, SCN

Sister Margaret Meisner, SCN

Sister Margaret Meisner, SCN, who retired Jan. 4 after 22 years serving at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, died from cancer complications Jan. 10. She was 80.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Sister Margaret was born April 16, 1936, to parents Aloysius and Frances Meisner.

She entered the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in 1953 and made her first vows two years later. For 20 years, she taught in primary schools in Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky. She also served in parishes in Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Belize. In 1979, she lived for a year in solitude focused on prayer in a shelter she built at Transfiguration House of Prayer facility in Butler, Pa. She came to Arkansas shortly after as the religious education director at St. Theresa Church in Little Rock. On March 19, 1995, Sister Margaret began working at St. Vincent Infirmary. She was eventually moved to the emergency waiting room where she found she could better minister to people. Sister Margaret spent most of her years at the hospital in guest relations.

She told Arkansas Catholic before her Jan. 4 retirement Mass, “I don’t stop and think ‘boy, how have I touched this person? That’s immaterial. God knows and that’s what’s important … It’s been a blessing.”

She is survived by one brother, Maurice Meisner of Louisville, Ky.

A visitation and prayer service was held Jan. 12 at St. Vincent Church in Nazareth, Ky. Father Mark Stengel, OSB, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Subiaco, celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial in Kentucky Jan. 13. A memorial Mass at the St. Vincent Infirmary Chapel in Little Rock was held Jan. 17.