Maude Michelle Barber was born October 3, 1932, in Springfield, Ky., the 13th of 14 children born to Maude Estelle and Philetus Swift Barber III. She was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Fredericktown, Kentucky. She later attended Fredericktown Public Schools for 12 years — which were run by the Ursuline Sisters. Although two of her sisters chose the nearby Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, upon her high school graduation Sister Catherine chose to enter the Ursuline community in 1952. She entered the novitiate on August 14, 1953, and took the name Sister Catherine Therese.
For the next 22 years she taught and she learned, graduating from Brescia College in 1966 with a BA degree in English and education, and from Western Kentucky University in 1973 with a Masters in Guidance and Counseling, and a minor in Elementary Education. In Kentucky schools throughout the Diocese of Owensboro and the Archdiocese of Louisville, Sister Catherine nurtured students from the second through the seventh grades, while admitting that the sixth graders were possibly her favorite age.
She taught in Saint Columba, Saint Leonard, and Saint Denis Catholic Schools in Louisville; at Saint Christopher in Radcliff; Saint Thomas More in Paducah; Immaculate in Owensboro; and at Saint Francis in Saint Francis. It was there that she encountered her most famous student – William Medley, who in 2010 became Bishop of the Diocese of Owensboro. He remembered Sister Catherine with great fondness and – to her everlasting delight – asked her to deliver one of the readings at the Mass for his ordination as Owensboro’s Bishop.
In 1977, with the Ursuline community needing more assistance for their aging members, Sister Catherine accepted the call to leave education and begin to work in health care and pastoral care at Mount Saint Joseph for 10 years. In 1986 and 87, she studied and participated in Chaplain Internships and Pastoral Care through the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. Over the next decade, Sister Catherine became a patient representative for the Mercy and the Owensboro Health Systems, serving as the personal contact between patients and their families and the complexities of the health system. From the beginning she garnered high praise for the “prayerful care she gave to each individual she encountered.”
Sister Catherine explored new ways of serving at Maple Mount — sharing hospitality at the Mount Saint Joseph Archives and the Conference and Retreat Center, serving as Receptionist and Sacristan, and assisting in Mission Advancement. She even served a few years as the Campus Center Receptionist at Brescia University.
Sister Catherine was a lifelong learner, especially concerning justice issues. In 2006 and 2007, she helped initiate a request that Kentucky State Senator David Boswell introduce a bill in the General Assembly making human trafficking a felony, and she went to Frankfort to witness Governor Ernie Fletcher sign the bill. When Kentucky Highway 56 was resurfaced, she sent regular and forceful letters and made calls to help gain white safety stripes along the road’s edges.
Sister Catherine died in Saint Joseph Villa on March 25, 2026 — the feast of the Annunciation — in her 73rd year of religious life. Her funeral was held March 31 in the Motherhouse Chapel, with her former student, Bishop William Medley, presiding. Father Ray Goetz, chaplain, and Father John Okoro, pastor of nearby St. Alphonsus Parish, concelebrated the Mass. Sister Catherine’s remains are buried in the convent cemetery.