Sister March Berchmans
SISTER MARY BERCHMANS QUINN (1871-1953)
Obituary : In the early morning hours of Saturday, August 29th, death came tranquilly to Sister Mary Berchmans Quinn of the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, Military Road, St. John’s, Newfoundland.The late Sister M. Berchmans was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, on May 14th 1871. Having graduated from St. Bride’s College, under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy at Callan, County Kilkenny, she came to Newfoundland and entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy at the Motherhouse in St. John’s, July 11th 1893. She was admitted to Profession of Religious Vows October 14th 1896.
During her early years in Religion she was assigned to St. Peter’s, a day school conducted by the Sisters of Mercy in the central section of the city. From 1916 to 1924, she held the office of Superior at the Convents in St. Lawrence and Burin, respectively. Conceptopm, and St. Joseph’s, St. John’s East, were also within the field of her missionary labours. The years since 1928 were spent at the Motherhouse in St. John’s where she was engaged in teaching until declining years and ill health deprived her of that which she loved so well – her contact with your children. Regardless of failing health she continued devotedly to care for the poor and distressed who came for help, a duty dear to her kind heart.
She was everywhere loved because of her quiet, unassuming disposition and her sweet charity. On the occasion of her death many “old pupils” and faithful friends came to honour her memory and ay grateful tribute to the influence of her gentle life.
On the Feast of St. Raphael 1946, Sister M. Bechmans had the happy privilege of celebrating the Golden Jubilee of her Profession in the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy. Two years later, she visited her relatives and friends in Ireland. This was her first and only visit to her native land. An ardent lover of Ireland, she also dearly loved the land of her adoption where the 60 years of her Religious Life were zealously devoted, in a humble, hidden way, to enriching souls with a deeper knowledge and love of God. Her life was an inspiration to holiness, especially for those whose privilege it was to witness the calm courage and loving resignation with which she accepted the cross of a lingering, fatal illness, whilst faithfully attending the exercises of Religious Life until one week previous to her holy death at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital. It may be truly said of her as was written of her beloved Mother Foundress:
“She has faded, but the fragrance of her gentle virtues yet wafts memories that we can ne’er forget.”
Sister Mary Berchmans was one of a large, Irish, Catholic family of which 4 became members of Religious Sisterhoods. She is survived by Sister Mary Xavier and Sister Mary Kieran of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in Australia. Sister Mary Bridgid, by whom she was predeceased, was a member of the Order of the Good Shepherd in Bangalore, India.
Sincere sympathy is offered to her Sisters in Australia, and to her many nephews and nieces in Ireland and elsewhere.
Many messages of sympathy and spiritual offerings were received by Rev. Mother M. Imeda, the Superior General. Through the Right Rev. H. A. Summers, Vicar General of the Archdiocese, was conveyed a message of sympathy and an assurance of prayers from His Grace, the Most Rev. P. J. Skinner, C.J.M, D.D., who was absent from the Province wen the obsequies were held.
The funeral Mass of Requiem was celebrated at the Cathedral at 10:00am on Monday, August 31st, by Right Rev. H. A. Summers, P.A., V.G., assisted by Rev. G. L. Hogan of St. Patrick’s Parish as Deacon, and Rev. T. Moakler as Subdeacon. Rev. C. Green acted as Master of Ceremonies. Also present in the Sanctuary were Rt. Rev. R. McD. Murphy, D.P., P.P., St. Patrick’s, Rt. Rev. E.P. maher, D.P., P.P., St. Joseph’s, Bery Rev. F. Ryan, P.P., Mount Cashel, Very Rev. G. Battcick, P.P., St. Vincent’s, Rev. P. Kennedy, Very Rev. R.Green, P.P., St. Theresa’s, Rev. C.S. Eagan, Rev. R. T. McGrath, Rev. C. Strang, S.F.M. Very Rev. J. J. Murray, P.P., The Goulds, Rev. J. O’Dwyer, Rev. A. Penney.The Mass was attended by the Superior General and Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Presentation Order, Christian Brothers, and former pupils and friends of the deceased.
The remains were interred in the Sisters’ plot at Belvedere. The last blessing at the graveside was imparted by the Rt. Rev. H. A. Summers, P.A., V.G.
THE MONITOR
September, 1953
Sister M. Berchmans Quinn, R.S.M., Observes Golden Jubilee
At a time when the nations of the world are meeting in solemn conclave to create a pattern for future peace, a humble Sister of Mercy goes about her daily tasks, indifferent to their findings and decisions, because she has carried in her heart for over half a century the secret of peace which God shares only with those who love Him. Not that she kept the secret of this peace selfishly locked up in her heart, for to hundreds of little ones entrusted to her care she made known God’s own pattern for peace, guiding their tiny footsteps along a road that was new and strange to them. Thus far she led them until with tender counsel and wise admonition, she gave them into another’s care, where her own ideals would preserve an be developed n a further preserve and be developed in a further and more mature presentation.
A Golden Jubilee. Fifty years doing the work so dear to Him who loved the little ones and who blessed those who loved them as He did. What an accomplishment, when the years and days and hours have been consecrated so nobly, lived so unselfishly, given so generously. To what human achievement could we compare it except to another similar in its motive and varying only in the sphere of activity ? truly, the acclaim will not be great because her way of life was prompted by an ideal which finds no approval in a world fearful of sacrifice. Acclaim will be limited to those who have learned to appreciate without the promptings of a sensation loving public: to those who see God’s plan unfolding itself in every human endeavour that is directed to His Honour and Glory.
Today and every day at this time men will pause in their labours and their recreations and listen with expectant hearts for some hopeful message of peace. For have not the the men of the world proclaimed that this is their purpose ? Do they not ask us to place our trust in them and in their negotiations ? And all the while so many of us are sceptical and filled with misgivings. Why ? Because a very old message of peace, to which the peacemakers pay no heed, still echoes around the world and is a warning to the statesmen as to the Sister in her Convent. “Peace, I leave to you: My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth I give unto you.” It s not the statesman that has known and has tasted that peace “that passeth all understanding.” To Sister Mary Berchmans this peace has been her portion for over fifty years.
God first made know His way of peace to her as a young Irish girl in her native County Wicklow. Soon afterwards she was kneeling before the altar in a convent in a foreign land becoming in religion Sister Mary Berchmans. On October 24th, 1896, the Feast of St. Raphael, she was solemnly professed in the Convent Chapel at Military Rd., in the presence of Archbishop Howley.
For ten years Sr. M. Berchmans taught in St. Peter’s School, Queen St., thence to St. Vincent’s, Harvey Road, and St. Joseph’s Hoylestown. In 1916 she was appointed Superior at St. Lawrence where she remained until 1922. There she is fondly remembered by all for her kindly disposition, her great and abiding love for the children under her care, her capable and wise administration. In 1922 she was appointed to Burin going from there to Conception Hr, and returning to the Convent of Mercy, Military Road, in 1928. For the past eighteen years she has been on the teaching staff at the College of Our Lady of Mercy. Sr. Mary Berchmans was not the only member of the Quinn family to leave her native Ireland for foreign shores. Two of her sisters are now in Australia, members of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy, and another sister of the Order of the Good Shepherd died in India some years ago. On October 24th, the Jubiliarian received the congratulations of her many friends and well wishers at Mercy Convent where this signal event was fittingly celebrated. The Monitor tenders to sister Mary Berchmans sincere felicitations with the hope that God may spare her many more years to continue the work for Him she has been doing so humbly and so well.
THE MONITOR
October, 1946
A Profession by Bishop Howley
At Mercy Convent, Military Road
October 24th1896
Saturday morning the beautiful Chapel of our Lady of Good counsel, Mercy Convent, was the scene of a most interesting ceremony - namely, the profession of a young lady, who was known in the world as Miss Janie Quinn, of Wicklow, but who took in religion the title of Sister Mary Berchmans. About two-and-a-half years ago she came to Newfoundland, entered the Mercy Convent, and went through her novitiate. At 7:30am the ceremony began. The nuns were all present, each sister holding a lighted candle during the profession. Father Clarke, being a relative of the newly professed nun, came into town to be present on the occasion, and acted as assistant to the bishop during the ceremony. Before mass the bishop delivered a beautiful discourse In the nature and obligations on the Holy State on which the novice was entering. His Lordship spoke at length on the nature and obligatins of the Holy Vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, with which the young novice was now about to seal the solemn contract with her Creator, by offering up unreservedly all her worldly goods ; her sentiments and aspirations, and the promptings of her will to the great work of a religious life. These three vows, together with the fourth – of serving the poor, sick and ignorant, were the four corner stones of the foundation on which is built the superstructure of the Religious Life. These virtues and duties are already prescribed by the Rules of the Order of Mercy, but the Church wishes that they should be strengthened and confirmed by these solemn vows. By the vow of Poverty you renounce the possession of, and right to, all worldly property, goods and chattels, and declare yourself content with the use of whatever is given you. This vow does not take its importance from the amount and value of the property given, but the spirit in which it is offered, the spirit of detachment from all worldly possessions. When St. Peter declared to his Divine Master that he had given up everything to follow Him (Matt. XIX, 27), Our Divine Lord thanked him, not so much for what he had given up, for in reality it was but a boat and a few nets; yet it was all and all to him, and it was his spirit of abnegation for which his Master lauded him. “Because you have followed Me”, (verse 28), you will have a hundredhold reward (verse 29). Again (Matt. V, 3), He promises the reward of eternal happiness to the virtue of the spirit of poverty; “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”.
The vow of chastity is of a still higher and holier nature, for while by the vow of poverty we abandon all claim to external objects and possessions, by this vow we renounce our very selves, our own bodies with all their charms and perfections, with all their passions and concupiscences. That this sacred virtue is pleasing to God we find in hundreds of text of Holy Scripture, “Blessed is the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt., V, 8). And we learn from St. John, in Relevations XIV, 4, that the Holy Virgins have the highest place in the Heavingly Kingdom, next to the Immaculate Saint Himself.
But the third vow of Holy Obedience is still greater than even either of these, for while by the vow of chastity we renounce what are called the lower or inferior faculties of the soul, by obedience we offer and consecrate to God the higher and nobler attributes, the will and the intellect.
People of the world, who do not understand the nature of these vows, consider them as foolish and silly ceremonies, nay, as wicked and sinful acts unworthy of a free and enlightened man. But you do not, as they think, destroy or crush out these faculties by the sacred vow. On the contrary, you only regulate them in conformity with the will of God, which is restoring them from a state of rebellion to their proper and lawful course. People who scoff at and denounce the vows of Holy Religion, very often themselves submit to bind themselves by solemn and secret oaths in worldly societies; but there is this vast and essential difference that, while the Religious vows herself to God and to the fulfilment of His Holy will, those people vow themselves to an irresponsible and unknown authority, which may, or may not, ne good or wicked, and which we know from the revelations of their secrets are, in many cases the devil himself, ,the author of all sin and wickedness. The virtue of obedience is constantly exalted in Hold Scriptures, This “obedience is better than sacrifices” (I Kings, XV, 22). In the Proverbs (XXI-28) Solomon promises reward to the obedient. “The obedient man shall speak victories” and our Divine Lord Himself says: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land”.
To the three great vows of religious life, the Order of Mercy adds a fourth, namely: “That of teaching the ignorant, visiting, consoling and relieving the sick”. The festival of the great Archangel Raphael, which we celebrate today, and which will be for you, my dear child, one of your great religious patrons, brings to our mind a most appropriate consideration on this point. One of the principal incidents which we know of the great Archangel Raphael, is in connection with the holy man Tobias. The life of this saintly old man may be summed up in the following text: “Tobias daily went about among all his kindred and comforted them, and distributed clothes to the naked and was careful to bury the dead”. (Tob. I, 19.20). And have we not here also a picture of what the true Sister of Mercy should be ? And for all these noble deeds, Tobias merited to have the Archangel Raphael sent us a special messenger from Heaven.
May 14th, 1869 – Born in Co. Wicklow, Ireland
July 11th, 1893 – Entered at Mercy Convent, Military Rd.
April 22nd, 1894 – Received the Habit
October 24th, 1896 – Professed
September 13th 1913 – St. Clare’s Home for Working Girls
1916-1922 – Superior – Convent of Mercy, St. Lawrence
1922-1924 – Superior – Convent of Mercy, Burin
1924 – Transferred to Conception Harbour
1925 – Transferred to Hoylestown (St. Joseph’s Convent, Signal Hill Rd., St. John’s)
August 1928 – Superior, Convent of Mercy, St. Lawrence
October 1928 – Resigned as Superior of St. Lawrence’s Convent
1929 – Transferred to Mercy Convent, Military Rd.
October 24th, 1946 – Celebrated her Golden Jubilee
June 10th- October 4th, 1948 – Visited relatives in Ireland
August 29th, 1953 – Died at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital