Sr Mary Moylan passed away peacefully to Eternal Life on Saturday, 19th July at 3.15pm.
Removal of remains to Convent Chapel, Magheramore, Co Wicklow on Wednesday 23rd July at 5.30pm
Funeral mass at 11.30am on Thursday 24th July followed by internment in the Convent cemetery.
Homily: Sr. Kathleen Coyle on the Occasion of Sr. Mary Moylan’s Funeral Mass on July 24 2025
In an occasional light moment Mary Moylan loved to relax and sing, especially if there was a piano at hand, she played her favourite tunes. Invariably she began with ‘On top of the world, looking down on creation.’ And she was off! Today Mary is on the top of creation not only looking down on creation but on all of us gathered here and no doubt, she is singing her Hosannas with the angels, the Hosannas she played on so many occasions in this chapel as she led us into the Eucharistic prayers of the Mass. We have come here this morning to accompany her on her final journey home. The heavenly harpists had come to accompany her home and what heavenly music she must have heard in her heart as she breathed her last.
Mary’s life has been one of commitment and service to family and friends and to her missionary calling. Her mother died when she was young and she had begun studies in University College Galway. Being the eldest in the family she took time off from college to look after them all. Some years later, having graduated from college she took a teaching post with the Dominicans in Galway but she continued to return home to Loughrea at the weekends to look after the family and the management of their family business. It was only when they were able to manage on their own that she was free to fulfil her own commitment in life, and that was to a life of missionary service.
In October 1959 Mary came to Magheramore and entered the novitiate. After her profession in 1962 she was assigned to Olongapo City, Philippines, from 1963 – 1969. At that time Olongapo was a city like no other. There was an American naval base there with all the challenges that that presented. St. Columban’s College was a peaceful oasis in the midst of this confusion and upheaval. Mary Moylan as the college dean felt a great responsibility for the faculty and students. She was very concerned about the influence of the city’s environment on the students. She reminded the faculty that they had a special commitment to care for and guide the students through the many challenges that they found themselves in.
She felt that, as religious, we are committed to the mission of being in, with, and for the poor and are invited to accept the implications of that commitment by working for the cause of justice and peace. The physical and the spiritual interpenetrate one another. Like the prophet Elijah she heard the “still, small voice of silence” and she realized that she needed to act with the boldness of a prophet. The poor, the marginalized and those with special needs were forgotten.
The words of St. Luke “put out into the deep,” originally spoken by Jesus to Peter, were recharged with new meaning on the school campus. To unite the pastoral with the academic, she set up short weekend programs for business men. They met in the college at weekends and reflected on ways to offer new life to the city.
Because of the relatively large number of deaf students in the city she set up a special program for them. Their program not only focused on academics, but on training the hard of hearing to independently use public transportation, and go shopping with confidence etc. She invited students from the only Deaf College in the United States to come and spend a month in Olongapo with the city’s deaf students, as a support to help build up their courage and confidence. These American students lived in the community with us and I noticed that the only sound they ever heard was the vibrations of airplanes overhead.
After a six-year term of mission in Olongapo Mary took a break and enrolled in a graduate course in the United States. I was together with her for this program and the new insights opened up a whole new world for us. Mary especially appreciated a Jewish Rabbi professor who taught a course on psycho-theology and she often wondered how it felt for him having 25 Gentiles in his class. On her return from studies Mary was re-assigned to Olongapo from 1971 – 1977. The Vietnam War was raging until 1975 and war planes scooped over the college as they prepared to land in Subic. Classes were often disrupted by the constant noise. Mary, as dean representing the college, visited the Admiral in his office on the base. He offered to air condition the classrooms but he said the planes would continue to land. And they did.
Mary was more concerned than ever that the students should understand that the Gospel has a social message for us. In the Ecclesiology course offered in the college, the students visited the city jail on Saturdays. There they saw the effects of crime life in the city. They realized that it was the street children, the abused women and the migrant workers who suffered the most. Sociology classes in the college also helped students to reflect on the manipulative structures that were so destructive of family life. The college arts club invited a drama club who presented this message on stage in the college.
In 1977 Mary was ready for another break and she spent the next year between our communities in Chicago and Hyde Park, Boston. On her return to the Philippines she was assigned to Labrador, a small fishing town in Pangasinan where our Columban High School catered for students from the town and nearby villages. Following on Labrador, she spent eleven years in London in the Philippine chaplaincy where she met many college graduates. She had shared her energy and insights to enrich students’ lives. It is time now to say goodbye.
In 2011, after 50 years of Columban missionary service in Asia she was assigned here to Magheramore, where she continued to remain active until eventually, she needed Nursing Home care. Her earthly pilgrimage was coming to an end. In the words of Mary Oliver, she was ready now:
“to cast aside the weight of facts
And maybe even
To float a little
above this difficult world.”
Mary, we have accompanied you today as far as we can go together. In this Eucharistic celebration we will sing our hosannas in your name, as you sing yours with the angels and as we bid you farewell. The saints have already taken you by the hand and walked you into the presence of God.
Agus anois, in the name of your family here present and Columban sisters, we say
Suaimhneas siorraí duit I bFaitheas Dé.