Celebrating 250 Years of Service

Four OLA Sisters mark Jubilees.

Jubilarians (from left) Sr. Mary Taylor, Sr. Catherine Buckley, Sr. Bernadette Flynn pictured with Sr. Kathleen Mc Garvey, OLA Provincial Leader.

A special Jubilee celebration took place in Ardfoyle, Cork on September 3rd which saw four OLA Sisters mark 250 years of combined service to the Missions. Srs. Marciana O’Keefe and Catherine Buckley marked the seventieth anniversary of their religious profession. Sr. Bernadette Flynn celebrated her Diamond Jubilee (sixty years) while Sr. Mary Taylor marked her Golden Jubilee (fifty years).

In her welcome address, Sr. Kathleen McGarvey, OLA Provincial Leader, highlighted the “missionary service (of the four Sisters) in Ireland, England, Ghana, Nigeria, Rome and beyond; Serving in schools, hospitals, teacher training colleges, novitiates, seminaries, parishes and dioceses; Service through teaching, nursing, religious formation, pastoral care, administration, bursar, leadership….”.

Sr. Kathleen went on to thank Srs. Marciana, Catherine, Bernadette and Mary for their many years of service:

“Today we commemorate and celebrate the fact that these four great women professed their lives to God, in the service of God’s Kingdom, seventy, sixty and fifty years ago. Through these years,  they have lived the ups and downs of their life journey, they have travelled many miles and touched many lives, have known joys and sorrows, have grown in wisdom, and they are still here with us, still faithful to what they professed, still journeying with the Lord. Sisters Marciana, Catherine, Bernadette and Mary: Today, we thank God who called you, and we thank you for your generous response to that call….Thank you, Sisters, for your life of witness. ..”.

Sr. Marciana, who turned ninety last January, taught in Kaduna, Nigeria for fourteen years before serving in leaderships role for a further twenty-three years, including ten years as Superior General – the first Irish OLA to hold this position.

Sr. Catherine spent forty-three years teaching at primary and second level schools in Ghana while she also worked in a Parish in London for eight years.

Sr. Bernadette has served both in Nigeria and Ireland. Her roles included teaching, formation, leadership and community service.

Sr. Mary spent some years in Ghana and later in Nigeria as a nurse and a midwife. She also time accompanying and preparing young women in their first years of religious life.  Sr. Mary spent two years in Tanzania before being called back to Ireland for leadership. She currently lives in Rostrevor and continues her missionary apostolates to those with HIV/Aids.

In his homily, the main celebrant, Fr. Eddie Deeney, SMA spoke about the service that the four women have given and the impact that their calling has had on so many in our world. He shared a story about a young girl who happened upon many millions of starfish washed-up on a beach in Africa. The young girl began picking them up, one-by-one, and putting them back in the water. Soon after, a man comes along and tells the young girl that she is wasting her time as there are too many. Then, the young girl picked up a starfish, turned in the direction of the man and said:  ‘well, it matters to this one’.

Click here to read Sr. Kathleen Mc Garvey’s Welcome Address in full.