Sister Rose Annette Liddell traveled the world promoting peace, studied world religions, taught religious meditation, worked in poor parishes and marched in civil-rights and anti-nuclear parades.
The energetic Liddell, a member of the Sisters of Loretto for 64 years, died March 31. She was 82.
Liddell had moved the day before her death to the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky. She was ill and told friends she wanted to be buried at the Motherhouse cemetery.
A memorial service is planned at 7 p.m. April 26 at the Loretto Center, 4000 S. Wads worth Blvd.
Liddell, a short, slight woman who never lost her Georgia accent, loved dressing up, especially when she read to preschoolers, often playing every role and singing through the stories. She was still showing up every week to read until a few weeks before her death.
“She believed in being engaged in the world,” said the Rev. Toni Cook, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church on Capitol Hill.
Liddell attended Sunday Buddhist-Christian dialogue meetings, which often involved people of Muslim, Jewish and Hindu faiths as well.
“She was honest and down to earth, not like some elevated guru-type” when she taught Christian mysticism or other classes at the church, Cook said.
The soft-spoken Liddell was “opinionated, and the injustices of the world brought out her feistiness,” said Sister Cathy Mueller, president of the Sisters of Loretto.
“She was very political and was particularly appalled at the treatment of women,” such as sex-trafficking, said Sister Mary Ann Cunningham, a Loretto member.
Liddell loved music and often played the harp for receptions and directed a choir for the Sisters of Loretto, said Sister Mary Ann Coyle, a Loretto member.
Rose Annette Liddell was born in Atlanta on Jan. 14, 1929, and baptized Helen Carey Liddell.
She took her final vows in 1952. She had a bachelor’s in music education from Webster University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in the same field from DePaul University in Chicago. She taught music at Webster University.
In the 1970s she founded the Loretto Retreat Center in Nerinx and was part of the order’s Third World Project. That took her to Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. In 1976 she worked for a parish in New Mexico. She met with leaders of other faiths and for a time directed the Thomas Merton Center in Denver.
In the 1980s she worked for the Center for Interfaith Understanding in Jerusalem.
Liddell conducted retreats in such locations as Cottonwood, Idaho, and northern Ghana.
Liddell is survived by two sisters, Ginny Fisher of Cincinnati and Mary Jane Burnette of Knoxville, Tenn., and one brother, Brendan Liddell of Peoria, Ill.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
