Sister Carol Anne O'Marie
Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, born on August 28, 1933, in San Francisco, California, is a notable figure within the Roman Catholic order of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She entered the religious order in 1954 and pursued her education, earning a B.A. and a master's degree in teaching from St. Mary's College. Throughout her career, O'Marie served as a teacher and principal at various parish elementary schools and held the position of development director at Carondelet High School from 1978 to 1988. Additionally, she contributed to journalism as an associate editor for the Sacramento Herald and the San Francisco Catholic.
O'Marie is also recognized for her philanthropic efforts, co-founding A Friendly Place, a homeless women's center in Oakland. As an author, she created the Sister Mary Helen mystery series, featuring a nun who solves crimes, with the first book published in 1984. The character of Sister Mary Helen shares many parallels with O'Marie's own life experiences, as she navigates various mysteries while reflecting the complexities of faith and service. This series offers a unique blending of spirituality and detective fiction, placing O'Marie within a literary tradition that includes notable figures like G.K. Chesterton and Ellis Peters.
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Sister Carol Anne O'Marie
Writer
- Born: August 28, 1933
- Birthplace: San Francisco, California
- Died: May 27, 2009
Biography
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie was born on August 28, 1933, in San Francisco, California. She entered the Roman Catholic order of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1954. In 1960, she earned a B.A. at St. Mary’s College, and she received a master of arts degree in teaching from the same institution in 1973. She was a teacher and principal at several parish elementary schools from 1954 until 1974, and she was development director for Carondelet High School, in Concord, California, from 1978 to 1988.
O’Marie was an associate editor of the Sacramento Herald from 1974 to 1976 and an associate editor of the San Francisco Catholic in 1985 and 1986. In 1990, she cofounded A Friendly Place, a homeless women’s center in Oakland, California.
O’Marie also is the author of the Sister Mary Helen mystery series, a group of novels that feature a nun as the protagonist. The first book in the series, A Novena for Murder, appeared in 1984, and O’Marie published the tenth book in the series, Murder at the Monks’ Table, in 2006. By creating the character of a sleuthing cleric, O’Marie joins the ranks of other novelists who wrote about detectives who were also members of religious orders. At the beginning of the twentieth century, G. K. Chesterton wrote a series of novels featuring Father Brown, a Catholic priest and detective. At the end of the century, Ellis Peters had created a series about a medieval monk, Brother Cadfael, which was adapted for a popular television series in the 1990’s.
The character of Sister Mary Helen is a nun who, like O’Marie, was a teacher and principal in parish schools before her retirement. She is active, funny, and reads mystery novels. The character is clearly based on O’Marie’s life. For example, the novels Requiem at the Refuge and The Corporal Works of Murder find Sister Mary Helen trying to solve murders at a San Francisco women’s homeless shelter, The Refuge. Murder at the Monks’ Table is a slight departure from the other novels in the series; in this book, Sister Mary Helen and her friend, Sister Eileen, go to Ireland, where they try to solve a murder case.