1945- 2025
Born: 29th May 1945
Entered Religious Life: 12th November 1969
Died: 6th December 2025
Madeleine was born in Templemore County Tipperary on the 29th May 1945 to Michael and Kathleen Meagher (nee Murphy). She was very proud of her Templemore roots. She trained as a nurse before entering the Religious Sisters of Charity on 12th November 1969 and was received into the Novitiate on the 13th May 1970 taking the name of Sr Maria Madeleine. She made her first Profession on 27th May 1972.
After Profession Madeleine was missioned to Saint Patrick’s Kilkenny for three months and then as Ward Sister in St Charles Ward on the 3rd Floor of Saint Vincent’s Hospital, Elm Park where she spent five years. She completed her Midwifery training in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda in 1977.
In August 1977 Madeleine was missioned to the Californian Region. She spent 19 years in Marycrest, nursing in the facility, studying and then working for the Home Hospice. In September 1996 she moved to Edgemont Street. Here she continued her ministry with the Home Hospice and also worked toward licensing as a Family Counsellor. She was later invited to become a Hospice Chaplain where she continued her work in counselling.
In 2004 Madeleine was missioned to San Pedro where she helped to care for the sick and elderly and took some of them for medical appointments. She continued to volunteer with the Hospice and provided support to patients and families.
While in California she served as a member of the Regional Leadership Team between 2015 and 2021.
Having spent 44 years of her life in California she was missioned back to the Irish Province in February 2021. Nursing and the healing ministry was very precious to her and it seems from a line marked in her favourite book of the psalms, that she saw nursing as a mission: She wrote in the margin: ‘you can be a healing presence this day’.
She took the two mandates from our recent Congregational Chapters: Care of the Earth and Anti Human Trafficking very seriously. She loved nature and was passionate about the environment. She marked a line in one psalm which seemed to speak to her: ‘awaken me to the holy, to the divinity of all creation’. It was this deep-rooted understanding of creation that would cause her heart to break to see our common home being destroyed. She also cared deeply for the thousands of people trafficked from one country to another and would often voice a prayer at our community Masses for these people. Again, she found inspiration for this work in the psalms, asking the Lord to ‘let your mercy and compassion wash over me that I may ever work on behalf of justice’.
Madeleine spoke some months before she died, about the three big decisions she had made in her life that she was very glad she had made. Firstly, she was glad that she had entered the Religious Sisters of Charity. Secondly that she had served and ministered in Hospice care in California and thirdly, although she had loved her time in California, she was proud and glad that she made the decision to return to Ireland.
When she retired home to Ireland she was not idle. She offered herself as a volunteer in the Anna Gaynor long-term care facility in Harold’s Cross Hospice until her health began to fail. When The Congregation offered houses and apartments in Merrion to Ukrainian refugees and then to Palestinian parents and children, she befriended them, supported them in whatever way she could and liaised on their behalf with the Red Cross and other Agencies.
Madeleine has been described as a great nurse, caring, supportive of those in need, looking out for the more vulnerable people, independent and perfectionist but also had a fun side to her personality, enjoying the company of Sisters and friends some of whom she had known since her school and nurse training days. She enjoyed days out and spending time with her much-loved family. She loved yoga, exercise and mindfulness and found these useful to her during her last illness especially. But she was a private person too. Not much given to talking about herself. If one asked her how she was, she would quickly turn the question back to the person, asking how he/she was?
Her faith we know, passed on to her through her beloved family and nurtured further in the Congregation, was very precious to her. The Mass booklet tells us something of her spiritual leanings. The hymns and readings she chose herself and left these ready long before her death.
She herself saw the need for more care and did not wish to be a burden on the community so she requested to go to the Blackrock Hospice. As there was no bed available, she opted to go to Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross Dublin, where she stayed for a month until a bed became available in Blackrock Hospice, an extension of Our Lady’s Hospice. These last two months seemed to be a great struggle for her as the cancer spread through her body.
Yet, it was in these last few months that we learned of her love of the Psalms. She often asked us when we visited her, to read a few psalms to her from her favourite book. Many of these were underlined showing what was important to her.
A psalm that she underlined shows how she saw God as the ‘Divine Seed’.
O Giver of Life, may we recognize,
The Divine Seed in every person;
May we be sensitive to all we meet along the way,
Blessing and encouraging one another;
May we know that who we are is
A reflection of You, the Divine Seed we bear.
She died peacefully at 9.20 p.m. on the 6th December 2025 with three of the community around her. Her Requiem Mass was held in the Sacred Heart Church and she is buried in the community cemetery in Donnybrook.
May she rest in peace. Amen.
