Sister Kathleen Curtis, OSB passed away peacefully on January 16, 2026, at the age of 75 following a courageous struggle with cancer. She was accompanied in her final days by her sons, Jesse and Matthew Curtis, and by her monastic community.

Although Sr. Kathy was born, on September 25, 1950, in Cortland, New York, she moved at an early age to the Gulf Coast of Florida and spent most of her life prior to entering the Mt. Tabor Benedictines as a true Floridian. One of her many gifts to the community at Mt. Tabor was her experience raising two sons as a single mother, supporting the family as a waitress and with other low-income jobs; her experience opened her monastic community’s eyes to the challenges faced by many of the families the Mt. Tabor community lives and works among, and gave Sr. Kathy the strength to lead this community as Prioress from 2021 to 2025.

While raising her family, Kathy also found the time to mentor her sons’ friends and many others in that community, and to serve as an Elder at Christ Presbyterian Church in Clearwater, Florida. She graduated from Boca Ciega High School, and in 1993 earned a certificate in paralegal studies from St. Petersburg College.

Kathy first moved to Kentucky to volunteer with Crossroads Missions as Office Administrator and Outreach Coordinator of the Maytown Center in Langley, KY. Displacement from that location due to a severe flood led her to Mt. Tabor for temporary housing and sparked her interest in discerning a vocation as a vowed Sister with this ecumenical Benedictine monastery. Sister Kathy made her first Monastic Profession on October 15, 2011 and her Perpetual Monastic Profession on May 2, 2015.

While at Mt. Tabor, Sr. Kathy served the local community by her work with the “Grow Appalachia” program through St. Vincent Mission, helping local families build sustainable family farms to provide nutritious food for their families. She was a member of Community Farm Alliance and served in a leadership role with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. Sr. Kathy also hosted a radio program called “Breaking Beans” through the media center AppalShop, discussing home-grown food issues important to this rural community, and mentored women in recovery at Hope in the Mountains residential program.

Sr. Kathy was pre-deceased by her parents, Billy S. Curtis and Mary Jane (McQuade) Curtis, her two sisters, Judy and Debbie, and her close friend Vonnie Klein. She is survived by her sons, Jesse Curtis (Heather) and Matthew Curtis (Sabrina), her brother Bill Curtis and numerous grandchildren and friends.