Loyola wouldn’t change a thing
BORN on August 9, 1928, in Causeway, County Kerry, Ireland, Mary Philomena was one of the 10 children of Nora (Sweeney) and Terence Boyle.
Her brothers, John, Robert, Michael, Terence, Patrick, Joseph and her sisters Brigid, Nora and Teresa, have predeceased her.
After attending the National School, Mary (Phil) and her sister Brigid (Cis) went to Timoleague, Co Cork in 1943 in preparation to leave their loved homeland Ireland to join the Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy.
World War II interrupted their plans and they eventually arrived in Brisbane on June 25, 1947.
At her reception later that year, Mary was given the name Sister Mary Loyola, a name she proudly retained for 70 years.
Loyola taught at Roma and Boonah.
In 1962 she responded to the call within her heart to be a missionary and spent 12 years at the mission stations of Ulupu, Toremi and Kairiu Island in Papua New Guinea.
During those years she
taught in the schools and also at the minor seminary.
She made herself at home in the villages and the pupils loved and respected her.
She was a great story teller and her stories of her adventures and escapades in PNG were many.
Loyola referred to her time in PNG as the “most rewarding of my teaching career”.
In 1974, Loyola was called back to Australia and transferred to St Saviour’s Toowoomba where she was given the charge of the boarders and some part-time teaching.
Although she was strict, she loved the boarders and cared for them like a mother.
She spent three years in Roma before returning to Toowoomba.
During that time she suffered the sadness of the death of her sister Cis, Sister Mary Ambrose.
Following five years in Maryborough, where she taught at the co-educational Brothers Secondary College, she returned to Toowoomba, living at Fatima.
She ministered for 17 years in St Thomas Moore’s Parish, involved with the St Vincent de Paul Society and visiting a number of nursing homes.
She visited people in their homes and her love and compassion was boundless.
The God whom Loy loved and knew, she shared with so many.
When aged 80, Loyola thought it was time to retire from active ministry and moved for a short time to Nudgee, before joining the community at the Mater Convent.
The people of Toowoomba held a special place in her heart and she returned to visit whenever she could catch a lift or found an occasion.
When Bethesda opened in 2014, Loyola willingly accepted her need for more care and was one of the girl group of residents there.
Loyola said, when leaving Toowoomba: “If I had my life all over, I don’t think I would change anything.
“It has been wonderful and I thank God that He has walked with me along this journey of faith, love and compassion.
“I arrived in Australia, a product of the land of my birth, and yet my whole life has been fashioned by this new land.
“For this, I will be forever grateful.
“What does the future hold for me? Only God knows. All I can do is put my hand in His and walk the rest of the road just as I have done these past years. In you, Lord, I put my trust, and I thank you Lord, for being my guiding star.”
Loyola died at Bethesda in Nudgee on July 9, 2017.