Dominican Sister of Peace Barbara Ann Rioux, a native of Fall River, Massachusetts, died on September 19, 2025, at Sansbury Care Center, St. Catharine, Kentucky. Sr. Barbara Ann was born in 1928 in Fall River, Massachusetts.
A Dominican for 73 years, Sister Barbara Ann spent more than 50 years of her life ministering in Kentucky which included time spent as a teacher at SS Simon and Jude (Louisville) and Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Campbellsville). She also served as principal at the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Louisville) and spent several years as the coordinator at Sansbury Care Center. Sr. Barbara was also as an outreach minister at St. Brigid/St. James Parishes (Louisville). She moved to St. Catharine Motherhouse in 2010 where she provided community service and in 2021, Sr. Barbara Ann moved to Sansbury Care Center, where she began a ministry of prayer and presence.
Sr. Barbara Ann’s ministry in Massachusetts included time spent as a teacher at St. Mel Day School (Gloucester), as religion coordinator/teacher at Dominican Academy and as coordinator at Guzman Hall (both in Plainville). She also ministered as a case worker at King Philip Elder Service (Foxborough), Health and Social Services Consortium (Wrentham) and at Bristol Elder Services in her birthplace of Fall River.
She spent several years in New York serving as religious coordinator /teacher in a Brooklyn parish and as a teacher at Queens Village at Our Lady of Lourdes. She was in Memphis in the 1960s, teaching at the Congregation’s founded school, St. Dominic School for Boys.
Sr. Barbara Ann earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education/Social Science from Catherine Spalding College (Louisville) and a Master of Arts in Religious Education from Spalding College, also in Louisville.
Sr. Barbara Ann Rioux is survived by one sister, Sr. Nancy Rioux of St. Catharine.
A memorial service was held at Sansbury Chapel on October 2. Sr. Janie Keenoy, OP, offered the reflection, adding a quote from Thomas Merton, ‘Love comes out of God and gathers us to God to pour itself back into God, through all of us. We become doors and windows through which God shines’… The image of becoming doors and windows of God spoke to me especially as I reflected on the gift Sr. Barbara Ann Rioux was to us. For the hundreds of students, teachers, parishioners, patients, residents of Sansbury, and for us gathered in this chapel, Barbara Ann has been a door and window to God.”
Memorial gifts in Sr. Barbara Ann’s memory may be sent to the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Office of Mission Advancement, 2320 Airport Drive, Columbus, OH 43219 or submitted securely at oppeace.org.
Click here to donate in honor of Sr. Barbara Ann Rioux .