Sister Monica Gillis
1941 – 2022
Born: 28th May 1941
Entered Religious Life: 11th February 1963
Died: 01st February 2022
Mary Monica Gillis was Christened Josephine, daughter of George Gillis and Dora Nee Weadick and was born in Dublin on the 28th May 1941.
She entered the Religious Sisters of Charity in Milltown on the 11th February 1963 and was received into the Novitiate on the 19th of August 1963 receiving the name Sr Mary Monica. She was professed on the 25th August 1965 and she died on the 1st February, 2022 in Beechlawn Nursing Home, Drumcondra Dublin 9.
The following dates give a sense of the mission and ministry of Monica during her Religious Life of 59 years.
From 25th September 1965 to the 13th September 1978 Monica lived and worked in Lady Lane Convent in Waterford working as housekeeper in the mornings and helping to run a creche for physically and intellectually challenged children.
In 1972 she was sent to Castle Priory College, Berkshire, England for training to assist in the childcare of these children and returned to Waterford in 1974 where she took charge of the Creche Unit.
On 13th September 1978 Monica was appointed Local Leader and continued to work in the Childcare Creche Unit. She was transferred out of Waterford on 6th January 1985. An extract from the Annals of the Convent tells us some of her story.
Extracts from the Annals of Waterford
‘Sisters Monica Gillis had come as a ‘Bride’ from Milltown in 1965. She was housekeeper and spent her afternoons in charge of the Creche for handicapped toddlers, which, since its foundation in 1958 was housed in the old “Fanning Institute”. In 1968/69 the Creche which was still run voluntarily, moved to Lady Lane where they had the use of part of the old St. Martin’s Orphanage. In the meantime, Sr Monica had shown how caring and understanding she was of these children and their parents. In 1972 she went to College in Berkshire for a special Course of Training while at the same time the building of the Day Unit was launched. Great Credit is due to her for the excellent way in which she organised and conducted this Unit from the time of her return in 1974 until she left in December 1984. The physically and mentally handicapped children of the area benefitted enormously as a result of her knowledge, expertise and generosity of sharing by “talks” and illustrated lectures. The Department of Health under which the Unit operates, held her in high regard.
In January 1985 Sister Monica Gillis left Waterford for her new home in Basin Lane. Sister was much appreciated in Waterford for all the work she undertook for the care of the handicapped children. The Unit was a credit to her hard work and dedication. May God bless and reward her for all she did’.
On the 6th January 1985 Monica was missioned to Basin Lane Convent in Dublin and spent the first year working part time on the Parish Team in St James’ Parish Dublin 8. As her mother was ill at home, Monica was granted leave of absence to go home and care for her mother. She returned to the Congregation on 20th December 1992.
On 20th December 1992 Monica was missioned to St Mary’s Residence for the blind in Merrion where she ministered to the Adults who were visually impaired. She remained in Merrion until 10th February 2007 and is fondly remembered by residents and staff who knew her.
Monica was then granted a sabbatical and lived in St Mary’s convent, Baldoyle Dublin 13 from February 2007. When the Congregation decided to close the convent, Monica helped out with that task until 27th March 2009. She then had a short break, living in Assumption Convent, Walkinstown Dublin 12 until 16th October 2009 when she was missioned to Stella Maris Retreat Centre in Howth Co Dublin where she helped with the hospitality ministry there. She remained in Howth until 5th June 2016, was given a short break in Stanhope Street convent Dublin 7 and then joined the community there formally, remaining until 18th May 2017.
On 18th May 2017 Monica retired to Loyola Nursing Home in St Mary’s Merrion where she had worked previously. When the nursing home closed quite suddenly in June 2020, Monica moved to Beechlawn Nursing Home where she was greatly cared for until she died suddenly on 1st February 2022. During these last few years Monica was linked to the Shalom Community. Sr Pauline Mitchell, a member of that community, was extremely caring and good to Monica, bringing her out to visit her sister Rita who was in the Hospice in Harold’s Cross, seeing to her needs and staying in touch with her.
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.
