Agnes Keyes was born in Gladstone, Missouri on January 17, 1874, of Irish ancestry. She entered the Clyde convent in Sept. 1888 at the age of fourteen, was invested with the Benedictine habit in May, 1889, and made her first profession on November 21, 1890. She made perpetual vows in November 1902.

Gifted with a brilliant mind, Sister M. Dorothea became an outstanding teacher and a veritable encyclopedia of information. At first she taught in local district schools, then in our own Academy. Her generous self-forgetfulness, her kindness, ingenuity in imparting solid learning and building strong characters won the lifelong gratitude of her pupils. Her sisters, Rose Agnes and Olivia, who also attended our Academy before entering the Sisters of St. Joseph, were likewise excellent teachers.

Her brother, John William, who became a diocesan priest and later a Monsignor was an outstanding member of the clergy, highly intellectual and zealous in his ministry. He built St. James Church in Kansas City of which he was the pastor, one of the most beautiful of the parish churches in the city. It lost much of its prominence when the area surrounding it became neglected with the influx of immigrants.

Due to tuberculosis Sister was in delicate health most of her life. Nevertheless, she carried on, often by sheer will power. Older Sisters remember her courage and heroism in working in the garden and potato patch during the summer months, in the bakery and elsewhere .

Sister had a deep spirit of faith and charity, and a tender devotion to St.Joseph. When passing his statue in the hall she would often throw him a kiss, or stop to shake hands and talk to him. Her strict observance of monastic discipline, especially of obedience and poverty, was edifying. She lived St. Benedict's admonition "to be content with the meanest and poorest."

Sister was a true apostle, filled with zeal for gaining converts. Perhaps it was no mere coincidence that she was born on the vigil of St. Peter's Chair and died on the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul. In her later years she devoted herself to literary work, and produced several booklets which appeared on our list under the titles: Do You Know the Church? - How to Find the True Church - Fountains of Salvation - Rays of Catholic Truth - United in Christ - Through Death to Life - and Make Your Home Ideal. In her zeal for winning converts she was akin to her brother, Msgr. Keyes, who was well known in the Midwest for his success in this apostolate. After Vatican II, however, Sister's booklets had to be withdrawn from circulation because of changed attitudes toward ecumenism.

Though in poor health for years, Sister's death came rather suddenly after an illness of only two days. She had asked our Lord to let her know at least a day beforehand when her time came to die, and apparently this request was granted, for no one believed her to be in imminent danger of death when she asked to receive the Sacraments of Extreme Unction and holy Viaticum the day before. She died in the early morning of the vigil of Saints Peter and Paul, June 28, 1945, at the age of 71. As her family name was Keyes, someone remarked that she had the keys to the gate of heaven.