A founder member of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, has died in Ireland and was buried Friday. Sister M. Magdalen O'Rourke, who would have been 99 today, was one of the three pioneer sisters, including founder, Mother Mary Martin, who established the Medical Missionaries of Mary in Nigeria in 1937.
She died peacefully at the Congregation's Motherhouse in Drogheda on Tuesday evening (11th November).
Known as Brigid O'Rourke before joining the Medical Missionaries, Sr M. Magdalen was born in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim in 1909.
Educated at Rathmines Technical School, she worked for a number of years in the Civil Service and was a founding member of the Catholic Girl Guides. She was also very active in the Legion of Mary.
In 1934 following a pilgrimage to Rome with the Catholic Girl Guides she was introduced to Marie Martin - the future Mother Mary Martin - by Fr Dermot Boylan who was the spiritual director of her presidium of the Legion of Mary.
At that time the future founder was gathering her first group of helpers, who were providing assistance to the monks at Glenstal where the Boys' School was in its early years of development. At age 26, Brigid O'Rourke joined the little group in Glenstal in 1935.
The following year she trained in midwifery at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin and by December was on the high seas, heading for Nigeria with the founder, Mother Mary Martin, and fellow pioneer, the future Sr. M. Joseph Moynagh.
The little community settled at Anua, near Calabar.
The Congregation was founded on April 4 1937, although the founder was seriously ill and made her vows in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt.
Sr M. Magdalen and Sr M. Joseph began their novitiate in the Holy Child Convent in Ifuoha,
She returned to Ireland in 1938 and was instrumental in the establishment of the first Novitiate of the Medical Missionaries of Mary at Collon, Co. Louth.
She became the first Editor of the order’s publications in January 1940, and throughout her life was involved in promotion work and vocation recruitment for the Congregation, in Ireland, UK, USA and Africa.
In her latter years she was frequently called upon by younger members of the Congregation to write and talk about her early memories, which she did in a generous spirit and always with great inspiration and enthusiasm.
“Because she survived, in a way she filled the role of the founder and pioneer since the death of Mother Mary Martin in 1975,” Sr Isabella Smyth, Editor of the order’s magazine, Healing and Development, told ciNews.
The Congregation had been preparing to celebrate her 99th birthday today, when she unexpectedly died.
“She had been very alert, making plans for her birthday, although she had been weakened by a fall a while back. On Tuesday we noticed the extremities of her body were cold. She deteriorated during the day, and slipped away at 8.00pm that night,” said Sr Isabella.
A large group of priests representing the parish, the Spiritan, Marist, Redemptorist, Society of African Missions, Kiltegan Fathers and Benedictine orders, concelebrated her funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Drogheda.
The chief celebrant was Fr Pat Kelly, SPS, and Bishop Gerard Clifford presided.
Sr M. Magdalen was buried in St Peter’s cemetery in Drogheda alongside Mother Mary Martin, her beloved founder, in whose footsteps she followed for so many years.
Today there are about 400 Medical Missionaries of Mary working in fourteen countries, and a further 27 sisters in formation in novitiates in Nairobi, Kenya and Ibadan, Nigeria.
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(Source: CIN)