Sr. Martha Starrett, OP
Dominican Sister of Peace Martha Starrett, OP, died at Mohun Health Care Center (Columbus, OH) on March 29, 2017. She was born in 1931 in Zanesville, OH. In 1949 she entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs, now the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
Sr. Martha earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from the College of St. Mary of the Springs, now Ohio Dominican University, and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Notre Dame.
Her first 24 years of ministry were spent educating elementary and high school students in Ohio and New York, meeting the challenge of teaching social studies and religion to adolescents during the turbulent 60s and early 70s.
For the next nine years, Sr. Martha shared her gifts and talents by ministering to the sick and elderly, first at Mohun Health Care Center and later at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Zanesville, OH. She saw these years as a “way of preaching God’s love,” but she acknowledged that “…the most satisfying and interesting” ministry was her retreat work because she loved “…working one-on-one with people and being a witness to the wonderful miracle that God continues to work in people’s lives.” She worked as Spiritual Director and Retreat Director at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville, MA, for a total of 24 years. In this ministry she had frequent opportunities to use her artistic abilities to create a prayerful atmosphere with art, music, clay, and dance. Continue reading →