Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 261
D.O.B. 17.01.1929
First Profession: 06.04.1953
Died: 03.02.2008 Aged: 79 years

Mary Brigid Reynolds came from Co. Leitrim where her father was a medical practitioner.  She had two brothers and an older sister, Margaret.  Mary was educated at the local convent and then by the Ursuline Sisters in Sligo.  After leaving school, Mary went  to St. Mary’s College of Domestic Science, Dublin, to study household and institutional management.  Having obtained her certificates she followed in her sister Margaret’s footsteps and entered MMM.

All through formation Sr. Mary was assessed as ‘a very good and conscientious Religious’.  She had a humble, gentle, and kind manner and was well-liked by other Sisters.  Following first profession she worked in the nunciature in Dublin and then in the maternity hospital and IMTH kitchens and stores.  In 1964 she became Sister-in-charge at Rosemount for nine months, before going on her first overseas mission to Ethiopia.

Sr. Mary worked in Ethiopia for the next eleven years. She spent the first five years in the nunciature in Addis Ababa and then went to Gambo.  In 1976, Mary went to the USA and spent eight years in Winchester, Massachusetts.  During her time there she obtained four units of clinical pastoral education (CPE).

In 1985, Mary returned to Ireland.  She was directress of temporary professed Sisters and Sister-in-charge at Temple Villas. She was later directress of the temporary professed and provider of pastoral care in the IMTH.  She loved pastoral care work, which she continued with until her retirement in 2003.

Mary’s life was spent trusting in her heavenly Father. She served him in prayer and in ministering to the sick, bereaved, and her MMM family and the wider community.  She did this with kindness and understanding.  Her final illness was quite short and she accepted it with her usual quiet grace and trust in God.  When the end came it came quickly and peacefully.  She was in her own bed, surrounded by her MMM family and holding her beloved sister Margaret’s hand.  The following quote was in Mary’s bible: ‘This is what the Lord asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8).  This sums up Mary’s life very aptly.