Sr Philomena passed away peacefully to Eternal Life on Monday, 13th October 2025 in the loving care of the Sisters and staff at the Loughshinny Residential Home.
Removal of remains to Convent Chapel, Magheramore, Co Wicklow on Tuesday 14th October 2025 at 5.30pm
Funeral mass on Wednesday, 15th October 2025 at 11.30am in the Convent Chapel followed by burial in the Convent cemetery
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Homily
Funeral Mass for Sr. Philomena O’Sullivan
Wednesday, 15th October, 2025
Today we are gathered here as a family to bid farewell to Philomena and to remember with gratitude the gift she was to all of us.
Philomena was born on February 2nd 1929 in Cuera Bower, Lombard town Co Cork. She entered the Columban Sisters in 1947 and made profession of vows in 1949. After her training in General and TB nursing in the Mercy hospital Cork and Brompton hospital in England, she was one of the second group of Sisters to arrive in Korea in 1955.
The journey there involved a boat trip from Cobh to New York, a journey on a Swedish freighter from Los Angeles to Tokyo via Manila, and from Tokyo to Korea. She and her companion travelled by army plane. On arrival there, they embarked on a twelve hour train journey to the Sisters convent in Mokpo in the south west of Korea.
Following some study of the Korean language, she and another Sister were assigned to Chunchon a city in the North of Korea just 90 Kilometres from the border with North Korea. The whole area was devastated by the war which had ended two years previously.
For the next seventeen years, Philomena and her companions, through the clinic they established, and their outreach ministries gave crucial care to the people impoverished by the war and its aftermath. The barrels of medicines collected by our Sisters in the US and help from the US army in Chunchon were lifesaving helps.
In 1971, Sr Philomena was transferred to Mokpo, and to better answer the needs there she returned to Ireland and studied midwifery in St Finbarr’s hospital in Cork. Back in Korea she was assigned to a newly established Clinic and outreach in Cheju Island.
In 1977 she suffered a severe stroke and had to return to Ireland to recuperate. Due to her determination and hard work, she made a great recovery and returned to Korea in 1979. Back in Mokpo she worked mainly in the Outreach programme. She had a special gra for the lepers that she encountered, and was a great support to the AA group that held their meetings in the hospital. In 2009 she celebrated her Diamond jubilee and the following year she returned to Ireland. For as long as she was able she ministered to her companions in the Nursing home.
Her recent years were ones of quiet acceptance.
How would we like to remember her?
She was first and foremost a Curea Bower woman – she was a Cork woman to the end and was awarded Cork person of the month award in January 2017. She loved the Cork Examiner and the Cork Hollybough was her precious reading during those long winter days. Philomena was a humble woman, she never sought the limelight. She was a compassionate listener – the AA clients, the patients, our families all appreciated her interest in them. Over the years I got to know a lot about Philomena’s family and she mine. In recent times every time I visited her, I shared all my family news with her and at the end she always asked “How are your family”. So much for my sharing.
Philomena chose as her motto ‘Jesus my God and my all, Mary my Mother.’ I think that none of us can doubt but that she lived that motto to the full.
Philomena now Rest with Jesus and Mary in the bosom of the Father.
By Sr Nora Wiseman