Sister Joseph Pius Keane
Sister Joseph Pius Keane1925 – 2020
Born: 9th January 1925
Entered Religious Life: 5th February 1951
Died: 13th August 2020
Reflection given by Sr. Úna O’Neill, Provincial Leader in the Irish Province at the Funeral Mass for Sr. Pius
In the second reading from Timothy Paul says: . . the time has come for me to go. I have run the race to the finish I have kept the faith. How true that is of the woman whose life we are remembering and celebrating today. Since the almost 70 years since she joined the Sisters of Charity in February 1951 she remained steadfastly faithful to the constant core of who she was as a Sister of Charity – committed to Christ and to the service of those who were in need of any kind. She did indeed keep the faith. Born in Ballygar to Henry Keane and Mary Anne Davis on 9th January, 1925, that faith was surely gifted to her by her family and especially her parents.
She lived that faith in all her journeying and ministry – a life journey that took her from Milltown to Hackney and Walthamstow, to St. Vincent’s in the Green, to Zambia, St. Patrick’s Cork, to Caritas Convalescent Centre, to the Day Care Centre in Our Lady’s Hospice, to St. Monica’s, to Donnybrook and then finally back here as a resident in Anna Gaynor. Her longest period of time was her 27 years in Zambia where she lived and laboured in the service of the sick and dying in Chikuni and Choma and then as Regional Superior for 6 years in Kabwata. She was a formidable lady and experienced surgeons were known to cringe at her corrections even as they recognized that her standards were of the highest and her compassion and care of the poorest and most ill was evident to all.
In the Gospel St. John tells us not to let our hearts be troubled. Its interesting advice which Pius didn’t really follow because she loved sad stories and she daily predicted disaster. She was known by some as the 6th Sorrowful mystery of the Rosary. But in reality, she did trust in God and in Jesus and she easily moved from sadness to gladness and had a deep inner joy that showed itself in moments of delight and in her wry sense of humour. She loved her family and though she was not a demonstrative person one could see that love shining in her when she spoke of them and especially when her grandnieces and grandnephews were present.
Pius suffered in her growing debility and weakness these last years and all of us – family, community, friends – were saddened as she became less able and less independent. Here in the Hospice, the staff gave her great freedom and many a morning around 8.30 she could be seen pushing her wheelchair (in which she should have been sitting) down the corridor here for Mass at 10.00. She had a real ministry of compassion and caring for the visitors and staff and she also had the unwavering love and loyalty of special friends and Sisters. Sr. Catherina and the community in Donnybrook were very faithful to her – especially Sr. Maureen; Sr. Agnes Rose was almost a daily visitor as was Catherine Fallon until illness prevented her – and many, many more. A special thanks is due to the Chaplains – especially Liz and Brendan who gave her great comfort and counsel. She was loved and respected by the staff in the Restaurant and the Security staff who ‘rescued’ her in recent times when she took to ‘wandering’ – and always did so while managing to respect her dignity. She will be missed here.
On the 27th August 1848, our Foundress Mary Aikenhead wrote: “Pray that I may be faithful to the end”. In these last days she has been surrounded by those who cared for her – and in the end she let go gently and peacefully.
What do we learn from her life? Maybe she taught us that that we must live in this real world with faith and compassion; that we must listen to those who think differently; that we must take risks in our service of those who are poor, homeless, displaced, fearful, angry, oppressed. She herself took risks and gave generously – I recall that at the age of 73 she returned to Zambia for 6 months when we needed someone urgently in the clinic in Mumbezhi. In the Gospel Jesus tells us that he is our Way, our Truth and our Life. As we pray our blessings on Pius’ final journey we are assured of her presence with us in the Communion of Saints. She has enriched our lives and our best remembrance of her will be to allow her life to be a source of inspiration and thanksgiving for us. May we learn from her life a little of what it means to be faithful to Jesus by doing our best to live for others.
We are standing this morning on holy ground: the place where Mary Aikenhead spent the last years of her life as an invalid – a woman whose vision, courage and practical common-sense gave birth to our Congregation and to our long and graced history of service of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.Today we are celebrating the life of Sr. Joseph Helen, a woman who cherished that charism, serving those in need with fidelity and generosity, and who also spent the last years of her life here in the Hospice.
The readings this morning are both comforting and challenging.In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life.He invites us to put our hope and our trust in Him and in His promise to be with us, steadily and constantly as we try each day to walk his way, to speak his truth, to live his life.It is an apt description of the life and commitment of the woman whom we are remembering here.
In her 103 years of life, Sr. Joseph Helen lived through historical and global changes that are impossible for us to imagine.She experienced seismic shifts in Church and state.She witnessed wars and famines on a world scale.Through all of those yearsshe remained steadfastly faithful to the constant core of who she was as an RSC.She was born Dorothy Cunningham in Ballacolla in Portlaoise on 1st July 1908. She was an only girl, with one brother, and was much loved by all.Her childhood and youth reflected the calm ordinariness of children’s lives at that time.Following her degree studies she spent some months caring for her mother who was ill and then secured a job teaching in Mountjoy St. School in Dublin.Her father was not impressed!His comment on hearing of that place was:“It doesn’t sound like much of a job but you like working for the poor and you’ve always been good at it”.She remained there until she entered the Sisters of Charity on 5th October 1931.
In the first reading we are told that God gives strength to the wearied; that those who hope in Yahweh will soar like eagles, run and no grow weary, walk and never tire.That was so true of J. Helen throughout her active life.She was missioned back to Mountjoy St. after her religious profession and taught there for 12 years.Following a year’s further study in Scotland, she went to teach in a Secondary Modern school inWalthamstow in England for a year.And then came the call to be one of our three founding Sisters of the Zambian Region, or Northern Rhodesia as it then was.
In 1948 they set sail, travelling for four weeks by boat – The Athlone Castle -rail, bus and lorry before arriving in Chisekesi Siding on a dark morning on 28th October 1948. Sr. Helen kept a diary of the journey which was printed for the 50th anniversary and which gives a fascinating insight into their journey and how they coped with, what was for them, such a strange and almost ‘alien’ environment.
One can only imagine the anticipation and anxiety, the challenge and the loneliness, the wonder and the doubts that marked that journey and her first months in Zambia.It was a place and people that she came to love and cherish.She committed herself to the education of girls and brought the gift of knowledge and freedom to countless women who still remember her with gratitude and appreciation.There are many past pupils with sad hearts in Zambia at the moment – their sadness at her passing tempered only by their gratitude that she is free from the debilities of her age.And that mourning is echoed this morning among our sisters there in the Region and here in this Chapel in the sisters who lived with her and shared her life for those 30 years.
Her first 15 years in Zambia were spent in the Teacher training college run by the Jesuits and began her work in promoting the education of girls – beginning with the setting up of a girls secondary boarding school in Roma in Lusaka.Nine years later she was appointed Regional Leader and on Independence day 1978she was conferred with the Order of Distinguished Service for 30 years of outstanding service to the people of Zambia in the fields of Education and Social work.
While she was a formidable woman in many ways, with high standards and expectations, her devotion to her religious life and her commitment to education was recognized and appreciated by all who knew her.She was a strict disciplinarian, spoke the truth without apology and demanded very high standards.At the same time her heart was compassionate and her generosity and hospitality were known and appreciated by all.
Like all of us, Helen has known suffering and joy, tears and laughter, pain and happiness, loneliness and friendship.And she had strong relationships with herfriends – too numerous to mention – but exemplified in the love and devotion of Sr. Mary Bernadette Collins and Catherine Fallon.Up to the end she valued and enjoyed her relationships with her nieces, nephews and other family members and followed their lives with interest, with love and with prayer.
In 1978 she was missioned to Ireland and worked on our Constitutions.Subsequently she was appointed as local leader to our community in Crumlin before her appointment to our Provincial Leadership team and consequent arrival here in Our Lady’s Mount in 1981.
Sr. J. Helen’s commitment to Mary Aikenhead’s charism was single-minded and she never compromised on that.The second reading confirms her attitude to life:nothing outweighs the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him that we can find life and happiness and fulfilment.Rooted in that conviction, she endorsed and embraced anything that served the people for whom she cared in a better, more dignified or respectful way.
She suffered in her growing debility and weakness these last years and all of us – family, community, friends and colleagues – were saddened as we watched her suffering and her struggle to cope.In spite of the wonderful, caring staff who surrounded her and the sisters and friends who were her constant support,she had difficult and dispiriting days.Yet she never gave up .Her faith in Providence was the touchstone of her life.In the midst of all her pain and letting-go she was confident that he was with her, holding her, comforting her and in the end, calling her to himself.And when that call came, sheyielded her spirit to the Lord, peace-filled, calm and trusting – blest with a death that had no struggle, no pain, no fear.And perhaps I can end with some words of hers, written in the diary of which I spoke, on her arrival in Chikuni:“Now that we have reached our Promised Land we must thank God and Our Lady for our very pleasant and on the whole easy journey which we have had . . . . “Those words echo, not only the journey to Chikuni, but her life journey, now at its end as she moves, we believe, into the fullness of the Promised land of God’s life and love.
