Sr. Maura honoured by Pope
WEXFORD native Sr. Maura Foley FCJ (79) who died on June 30 at the Laurel Hill FCJ Convent in Limerick was the youngest of nine children born to Edward and Catherine Foley of Crossabeg.
She attended Crossabeg national school before becoming a boarder in the Mercy Convent in New Ross and later in the FCJ secondary school in Bunclody.
Sr. Maura entered the FCJ Novitiate in Broadstairs, Kent in 1957 and made her first vows in 1959. She studied for an Arts Degree in UCD and subsequently worked for 11 years in Broadstairs, supporting the ministry of the Mother House.
She spent a year teaching at Bellerive FCJ Grammer School in Liverpool and during this time she discovered that despite her best efforts she did not enjoy teaching.
However, she was an excellent organiser and manager and availed of a course in Institutional Management in Manchester for a year before returning to Liverpool where she gave sterling service, using her management and organisational skills in the school. She did this with great efficiency and thoroughness while endearing hserself greatly to the staff and her co-workers. In 1980, Sr. Maura went to St. Margaret’s FCJ in Paisley, Scotland where she spent seven years as local superior of the community. She found a new ministry that she really loved in St. Paul’s Parish in Paisley where she visited the sick and housebound.
She later spent a year in Dublin where she took training in Pastoral Ministry before returning to Paisley and taking up a new ministry as Pastoral Worker in St. Paul’s Parish in Foxbar.
In 1998, Sr. Maura moved to St. Aloysius FCJ Convent in Somers Town near Euston Station in London and continued her parish ministry in Our Lady of Hal in Camden Town. She became an indispensable member of the parish Team and made a big contribution to the life of the community. Her work was acknowledged and appreciated when she received the Bene Merenti medal from the Pope in November 2012. Maura made great friends in the parish and the parishioners loved her.
In April 2016 when her health began to deteriorate she moved to the FCJ care facility at Maryville in Laurel Hill, Limerick where she was a model patient, letting go of her independence with graciousness. She was very appreciative of the great care she received from the staff who loved this gentle, unassuming and caring woman.
Sr. Maura is survived by her FCJ community; her sisters Eilis and Margaret; her nieces and nephews; grandnieces and grandnephews, by her cousins, and by her extended family, friends and carers.
Burial took place in the FCJ Cemetery in Laurel Hill, Limerick following Requiem Mass in St. Joseph’s Church, O’ Connell Avenue, Limerick.
Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dhilis.