Please Pray for the
Peaceful Repose of the Soul of
Sister Rita (Mary Modesta) Fantin, RSM
in Burlingame on September 11, 2013, at the age of 89.
Born in Taylorville, IL, the sixth of the seven children of Italian immigrants Modesto and Mary Rosetto Fantin, Sister Rita's family moved to the Bay Area when she was six and settled in San Mateo. The heritage of a close-knit Italian community was very important to her throughout her life. Rita graduated from St. Matthew's Catholic School, and went on to Mercy High School, Burlingame, graduating in 1941. She entered the Sisters of Mercy that same year and professed vows as Sister Mary Modesta in 1944, named after her father.
Rita taught elementary school for the next nine years at St. Peter's and St. Gabriel's Schools in San Francisco, Our Lady of Angels and St. Catherine's Schools in Burlingame, and St. Charles School, San Diego. In 1953 Rita moved to high school, teaching at Mercy High School, San Francisco, and Mercy High School, Burlingame. Sister Judy Cannon, then a student, remembers that in addition to Latin and religion, Rita was assigned to teach knitting at Mercy San Francisco as a part of a Christian living course. "We didn't guess that Rita didn't know how to knit," said Judy. "Every night another sister who did knit prepared her for the class. We had no idea she was winging it!"