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Priscilla Greear
STAFF WRITER
ATLANTA-Whether painting feast day cards and pictures of the
Virgin Mary or surprising patients with a vase of roses at homes where she
served those terminally ill with cancer for 47 years, Sister Mary Raphael, OP,
continuously brightened the world around her with the light of her love of the
Lord.
And what a Renaissance nun she was, recalled Father Richard Lopez
at her funeral Mass Dec. 30. The Chicago-born nun grew up in Buenos Aires where
she became fluent in Spanish and developed a love of the Hispanic culture.
Educated two years at the University of Minnesota and three years at the Pratt
Art Institute in Brooklyn, the 5-foot-10-inch Virginia Kennedy left behind a
career in New York as a commercial artist designing paisley ties in her 30s to
join the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. Love of art was just one ingredient in
her powerful and heavenly remedy to suffering.
"She was a great artist, a great genius. What priest named Lopez
could not love a nun who spoke Spanish perfectly and loved all things Spanish?"
Father Lopez said. "Her artistry, her love of the arts, her love of culture
pointed to something much more profound, much more deep ... Her love of beauty
teaches us about her love of God."
Sister Raphael died Dec. 26 at age 84 at the order's Our Lady of
Perpetual Help Home in Atlanta due to complications from a fall in August. The
funeral Mass celebrating Sister Raphael's life was held at the OLPH chapel.
Archbishop John F. Donoghue celebrated the Mass and Father Richard Lopez, OLPH
chaplain, gave the homily. Those gathered included Abbot Dom Bernard Johnson,
OCSO, of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Mother General Marie
Edward, OP, and members of the OLPH auxiliary.
Sister Raphael served from 1950-67 and from 1975-78 at Rosary Hill
Home in Hawthorne, N.Y., and as superior for a time at the Holy Family Home,
Cleveland, Ohio, from 1967-73. From 1978-84 she was appointed superior of Our
Lady of Good Counsel Home, St. Paul, Minn., after which she came to OLPH where
she served as administrator until 1998. The nonsectarian homes provide free
medical care to those whose resources have been exhausted.
As the sun broke through the small chapel's stained-glass windows
lighting the Stations of the Cross, Father Lopez described Sister Raphael's
life as a "conspiracy of providence" filled with auspicious names, dates and
signs. It began with her birth on the feast day of St. Andrew, the first
apostle called and sent by Christ, where she was named Virginia after the
Virgin Mary, and ended with her death on the feast day of St. Stephen, the
church's first martyr. As Sister Raphael was raised Episcopalian, he spoke of
how she followed a call to Catholicism and Religious life through, among other
things, a simple Argentinean servant and casually picking up a Catholic
directory of nuns and finding the Hawthorne order. She professed her Religious
vows, he noted, in 1952 on the feast day of the Holy Cross.
Reflecting on Sister Raphael's love of her vocation, he then read
her account of her first interview at Rosary Hill before entering the order.
"How can I fully describe the peace and happiness of the patients,
these souls for whom all hope of recovery had been abandoned; the gentleness
and cheerfulness of the sisters; even the building itself radiated this
atmosphere of peace and, yes, holiness ... I knew instinctively that this was
where God wanted me to be."
He said she embraced poverty, chastity and obedience, leading many
of Christ's poor and sick to the Lord where she "brought them the healing power
of Christ."
He described her vocation like this: "It's like a kid in school
getting the biggest prize in school which you somehow think was not intended
for you and you go run with it and don't give it back and for the rest of your
life the joy of getting that prize remains. And that was the joy she had in her
vocation."
The Mass concluded as the casket was closed and Abbot Johnson
sprinkled water over and censed it and then spoke a prayer of repose for her
soul. The congregation then sang "Out of Many Hearts" about the founder of the
Dominican order.
Sister Mary Christopher Sheridan, OP, who served with Sister
Raphael at three different homes for those with cancer over 18 years, and many
others expressed gratitude afterwards for their warm, down-to-earth friend.
Sister Sheridan admired her commitment to the patients and their families, even
after developing severe arthritis that required her to use a cane and
eventually confined her to a wheelchair. She also led by example and was a
great friend, someone who would listen and respond to a person's problem and
spiritualize it without preaching.
"She was very much a people person. She was never too busy to take
time and help out. She loved to interact with the patients and their families"
and was eager to give any visitors a tour of the home and answer questions,
Sister Sheridan said. "She was just totally loving in every aspect. She brought
joy. She brought compassion. She brought a marvelous sense of humor. She went
out of her way to do anything she could to make them comfortable. She just gave
totally of herself, no short cuts as far as she was concerned. Anything they
wanted that was fine by her."
When patients requested an item that the sisters couldn't find,
"Sister Raphael would ask us, 'Did you look all over the house? If you don't
have it, you order it,'" she said. "Sometimes she'd get patients that wanted to
dance. She'd dance with them. She'd sing with them. She made funny posters for
them ... I never found her anything but upbeat and kind and loving towards
everybody, never harsh toward anybody. I never found her impatient," she
continued, joking that Sister Raphael just never liked to deal with paperwork.
She also recalled how "she gave a great deal of pleasure to many
people" through her art. Having made a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady
of Guadalupe, she said she often did paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe and
Spanish and Indian art in addition to designing feast day cards like the one on
her memorial card. She also served at OLPH as sacristan.
"She took great joy and pleasure in fixing the chapel for the
various feasts. She would traipse into the garden and pick up roses from
springtime till that last bloom."
With Turner Field just a ball throw away from OLPH, devout
baseball fan Sister Marian Galliers, OP, added that Sister Raphael was also a
great sports fan, always eager to pull out her turkey-sized tomahawk and
baseball cap and root for the Braves. She attended as many games as possible.
Andruw Jones was one of her favorite players, Sister Galliers recalled.
"When Andruw came up she'd go, 'Andruw, Andruw, Andruw, hit one
for me.'"
Her love of family was just as strong. Her niece Mary Dowd of
Pennsylvania said that her aunt was deeply involved with her family and was
like a mother.
"She was just always there and just stepped in. I always could ask
her for advice and visited her at her home ... She was very loving and
interested in what everyone was doing right down to her great nieces. She knew
everything about what they were doing."
Age never dimmed her spirit, Dowd added, as she had traveled to
visit friends in Minnesota in the past year and had recently visited the Norman
Rockwell exhibit in Atlanta which she loved and where she joked from her
wheelchair, "I got the kid's eye view of the Norman Rockwell exhibit."
For Tina Allen-Keen, a 25-year-old who lived at the cancer home
from 1993-95 before her cancer went into remission, Sister Raphael's joyful
spirit was a breath of fresh air. The nun, whom she called "Ma," consistently
went the extra mile caring for Allen-Keen "like a best friend."
She often did things like save special foods for her in the
refrigerator, as she was a picky eater. She surprised her with fresh cut
flowers and encouraged her in her painting and letter writing. She prayed with
her each morning and sat by her bedside nightly and read her "Guidepost."
Now married and living in Alpharetta, Allen-Keen said that she is
working on a how-to book on finding the right doctor, which Sister Raphael
partially inspired.
"I want it to be funny because she was always funny and she was
always joking about that - about how doctors were."
Allen-Keen commented on the timing of sister's death.
"She was just really the best person in the world and I think it's
appropriate that she died the day after Christmas because I think it was God
giving her wings as a Christmas gift, making her into an angel, not that she
wasn't already. God gave her wings to fly."
H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill, oversaw the funeral
arrangements. Interment followed at West View Cemetery in Atlanta.
Those wishing to make contributions in memory of Sister Raphael
may send checks payable to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home, 760 Pollard Blvd.,
SW, Atlanta 30315. |
