At age 98, Presentation Sister Anna (Rosario) Flanagan went home to the Lord peacefully with a fellow sister by her side on Sept. 20 in the nursing home she had called home for the past 12 years, St. Mary’s Nursing Home in Galway, Ireland.

Sister Flanagan was born on Nov. 6, 1927, to Annie and Stanislaus Flanagan. She was one of six children. 

Sister Flanagan trained as a primary teacher, then felt called by God to become a religious sister. She entered the Presentation sisters in Mullingar, Co. Meath in 1948. She spent 10 years teaching in Ireland. Father David Sullivan was asked by the Archbishop Thomas J. Toolen of Alabama to recruit Irish Sisters for his diocese. 

Monsignor Lawrence Donazzan was pastor of St. Joseph's parish in Ensley, home to a vibrant Italian community, and in need of sisters. In 1958, four sisters arrived in Ensley to staff the parish school. In later years, Sister Flanagan spoke of how the warmth of the welcome they received and the beautiful convent and school filled their hearts with the assurance that indeed the Lord was with them. 

She taught at the school for over two decades then a short time in Robertsdale in south Alabama and Warner Robbins in Georgia. Before retiring to Ireland in 2001 after 43 years in the United States, she also ministered at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham as a patient care counselor and at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Center Point.  

Her Funeral Mass was held Sept. 23 at the Presentation Convent Chapel in Tuam, Co. Galway. Burial followed at Tuam Cemetery.

She is predeceased by her parents and siblings, Kevin, Sean, Seamus, Brendan and Mary.