SISTER MARY GILES BRANDT, age 96, died at Caritas Christi, the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in Greensburg, on March 18, 2014. A native of Swissvale, Sister Mary Giles entered the congregation of the Sisters of Charity on March 25, 1934, from Saint Anselm Parish, Swissvale. Preceded in death by her parents, Giles A. and Mary Estella (Fisher) Brandt, two brothers, Lawrence E., William J. Brandt, four sisters, Mrs. Marie ( Joseph W.) Beck, Mrs. Rosalia (Raymond C.) Born, Mrs. Louise (Henry T.) Brawley and Mrs. Anne (Eudore A.) Zabeau, a paternal aunt, Sister Mary Regina Brandt, SC and a cousin, Sister Jean Ann Wilburn, SC, she is survived by nieces and nephews, including the Most Reverend Lawrence E. Brandt, fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Greensburg and a cousin, Sister Irene Mary Wilburn, SC. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English, social studies from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in elementary administration from Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH. Sister Mary Giles ministered as a teacher and administrator in schools of the Altoona-Johnstown, Greensburg, Pittsburgh dioceses, the Archdioceses of Washington and Los Angeles. From 1954-1960, she was principal of Visitation School, Johnstown, and was then named principal of Holy Innocents School, Sheraden, from 1963-1969. She was appointed principal at Saint Pancratius School, Lakewood, California in 1969, where she continued to serve until 1979, when she was assigned to teach at Saint James School, in Wilkinsburg. Sister Mary Giles was an instructor in education during the summer sessions, 1955-1961, at Seton Hill University. After she retired from the classroom in 1985, Sister Mary Giles served a pastoral minister and assisted in the parish records-archives department at Saint Peter Parish on the North Side of Pittsburgh until 2000, when she retired to Caritas Christi. Selfless, serene and stately, Sister Mary Giles believed and lived the words of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, “God is with me and what can I fear? I look neither behind, nor before, only up.”
