Sister Joseph Aloysius Devaney
1924 – 2022
Born: 10th April 1924
Entered Religious Life: 7th October 1953
Died: 18th October 2022
Winifred (Una) Devaney, daughter of John Devaney and Sabina Hynes was born in Cave, Clarinbridge, Co Galway on 10th April 1924. She entered the Religious Sisters of Charity on 7th October 1953 and was received into the Noviciate on 18th May 1954. She made her First Profession on 22nd May 1956.
During her sixty-six years of professed life, Sr Aloysius ministered in the following communities: Walthamstow, England; Seville Place; Foxford; Donnybrook and St Monica’s. In 2017 Sr Aloysius retired and sometime afterwards, needing full-time care, transferred to St Monica’s Nursing Home. When the Nursing Home closed in August 2020, Sr Aloysius was transferred to Beneavin Nursing Home, Glasnevin, where she died peacefully on Tuesday 18th October 2022.
During her long life, Aloysius ministered mainly in the area of catering and hospitality. One memory of her in her early days in Walthamstow was her dedication to the homeless men who called daily to the convent for breakfast. Aloysius took great joy in providing them their breakfast.
Wherever she served, Aloysius always did so with great kindness and generosity and her welcoming spirit to all who called always shone out. Aloysius’ gentle spirit and keen sense of humour endeared her to all whom she met and she made many deep friendships which lasted to the end of her life.
Aloysius was a woman of deep prayer. She had a very strong faith and a great devotion to Our Lady. She managed to make pilgrimages abroad to Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje. She was especially devoted to daily Mass and the rosary and she very much loved to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. In her retirement, she was often found in her room surrounded by reading material and leaflets on Mary Aikenhead and other devotional works. Similarly, when visiting her in the Nursing Home, one always found Aloysius in prayer.
Aloysius was devoted to her family and they to her. She loved their many visits from Galway and she in turn, together with Sr Sabina, delighted in going to Cave to meet up again with family, friends and extended family.
No doubt, Sr Aloysius will be deeply missed by her loving family, her community and her many friends.
May she now rest in peace.
