Dr. Sarah Loft

Matushka Dr. Sarah Loft reposed in the Lord at 4 p.m. on May 13, 2025 at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She was 73 years old, and at the time of her repose was surrounded by her four children and parishioners of St. Mary Magdalen. Above all else, Sarah was a wonderful teacher, mother, friend, sister, artist, and faithful servant of the Lord.

Born June 8, 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of the late William and Virginia (Hamilton) Loft. Sarah grew up in Brazil as a Christian missionary and she was fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, which she put to great effect in her time spent teaching at a bible college in Puerto Rico and obtaining a PhD in chemistry from New York University. After becoming an Orthodox Christian and marrying, she founded St. Mary Magdalen as an independent community with her ex-husband, the first priest of the new parish. For decades, she served the Lord humbly-at home by raising her four children and homeschooling them, and at church as choir director, chief florist, missionary at heart, and compassionate and fiery advocate.

Her home and any place she frequented were decorated gloriously with brightly colored, oftentimes floral imagery, always showing evidence of Sarah's artistic imagination. Out of painting, arranging, and love for living creatures arose a special dedication to iconography, with which she lifted up many hearts to God and His saints. At Columbia University, she is remembered as an influential organizer for the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, arranging over many years hundreds of events, iconography workshops, and church services, and playing an important role in the conversion of countless undergraduates, law students, and others. One of her most consistent prayers and hopes was for the realization of Orthodox jurisdictional unity in the United States. In her neighborhood, she is known in later years for her sometimes wild rides on an electric wheelchair, from which she watched, photographed, conversed, and prayed.

Sarah is survived by her four children, Zach Morris, Rebekah Bromwell, Catherine Morris, and Luke Morris, as well as her longtime companion and goddaughter Shelley Olson. Resting in the Kingdom of God, she leaves behind three grandchildren, five siblings, countless family members, an unknown, but ever-prayed-for, number of godchildren, as well as loving friends and parishioners past and present at St. Mary Magdalen Orthodox Church.

The Funeral will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at St. Tikhon's Monastery Church, 175 St. Tikhon's Road, Waymart, PA 18472.

Interment will follow in St. Tikhon's Monastery Cemetery on Saturday.

On Sunday 22 June 2025 we will conduct a panikhida at St. Mary Magdalen in NYC. May the memory of Matushka Sarah be eternal!

Please direct any memorial donations to St. Mary Magdalen Orthodox Church in NYC. Thank you!

Arrangements are entrusted to Howell Family Funeral Home, Inc., Edward R. Howell, Funeral Director, 269 Belmont Street, Waymart, PA 18472. www.HowellFamilyFuneralHome.com