Elaine G. McGillicuddy

PORTLAND – Elaine G. McGillicuddy, 89, passed away in her home in Portland on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025.

Elaine was born in Springvale on Sept. 25, 1935, the only child of Mariange Plante Goulet and Josephat Goulet. In 1954, a few years after high school, she entered the convent. During her 15 and a half years as an Ursuline nun, she lived in Missouri, New York, Massachusetts, and Waterville, Maine. In 1968, she met Francis A McGillicuddy, then a diocesan priest. Elaine left the convent in 1970, and after Francis left the clerical priesthood, they were married on Aug. 13, 1972, and moved to Portland.  

Elaine was a teacher for most of her working life. With a B.A. in English from the College of New Rochelle in New York and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Providence College in Rhode Island, she taught English in Catholic schools as a nun for 10 years. After leaving the convent, she taught English Composition for eight years (from 1971 to 1979) at Thornton Academy in Saco.

As a member of Pax Christi since 1980, Elaine was a longtime peace activist. She and Francis were conscientious war tax objectors during the Vietnam War, and they participated in the New York rally against nuclear weapons in 1982. Elaine was also active in progressive Catholic organizations like CORPUS, a ministerial community affirming an inclusive priesthood rooted in a reformed and renewed church, which she and Francis joined in 1990. Once she retired from academic teaching in 1979, Elaine studied yoga in Boston, San Francisco, Ohio, and then she traveled to India for an extensive study of yoga for nine weeks. Upon her return in 1989, she and Francis co-founded Portland Yoga Studio, where Elaine taught yoga. As the studio grew, they hired other yoga teachers to join them. As a team, Elaine and Francis directed the studio for 16 years – until 2005. Elaine, accompanied by Francis, also taught yoga once a week at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland for eleven years (1996 – 2007). Altogether, Elaine taught yoga for 30 years. 

Elaine became a certified leader of the Dances of Universal Peace in 1999. She especially loved leading the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes chanted in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) after learning them from Aramaic scholar Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz. After leading these meditative body prayers for 17 years, she retired in 2016. In 2006, Elaine and Francis joined the Portland. Permaculture Meetup community and, in three years, put a permaculture ecosystem on their property that Elaine maintained until she died.  

After Francis died in 2010, Elaine published four books – Sing to Me and I Will Hear you – The Poems, and also a CD of her reading The Poems (2012); Sing to Me and I Will Hear you – A Love Story (2014); Sing to Me and I Will Hear you – New Poems (2015); and, in 2019 - To Commune with the Ancestors – A Widow Reflects. Writing was one of the principal things Elaine was drawn to do in dealing with the sorrow of Francis’ death.

Elaine has no “survivors”. However, this passage from her last book To Commune with the Ancestors – A Widow Reflects is revealing:

January 15, 2011   Reflecting: Being A Childless Only Child 

“I was aware from the beginning of Francis’s and my life together, which was without children because we married later in life – how my/our involvement in peace work, yoga, the dances of universal peace, and permaculture would engage us with other people. And that is exactly what happened. No progeny, but more friends. So all along, I’m realizing now, I have actually prepared for the situation I’m in. It’s a blessing.”

Elaine does, however, leave behind some of Francis’ nieces and nephews. She also leaves Lynn Kuzma, Lee Slater, and her goddaughter Rowan Slater, whom she and Francis called “our adopted family.” Despite the fact that Lynn, Lee, and Rowan moved to New Jersey in 2016, Elaine’s love for her goddaughter never subsided. Indeed, Rowan will always have a place to call home in Maine.

In her final years, Elaine enjoyed going for walks in nature and continued to practice yoga daily until the day of her death. She called yoga her “panacea.”  She was grateful to have “aged in place” and rests in peace, having fulfilled her final wish to die in the home with the rich memories that she cherished since she and Francis moved there in 1972.

Services to honor and remember Elaine will be held at Sacred Heart/Saint Dominic on Friday, March 7, starting with Mass at 10 a.m. Arrangements are under the direction of the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home of Portland. To view her memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit http://www.ConroyTullyWalker.com

In lieu of flowers, donations to Pax Christi/USA would be appreciated