January 1st 1929 – December 26th 2021

Sr. M. Catherine Therese was born in Emekuku, Owerri, Nigeria on January 1st, 1929.  As a young girl, before joining MMM, she worked in St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua, as a ward orderly.  In an interview she gave at the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 2017 she reminisced:
“I admired the way the Sisters worked, took care of the pregnant women and children. What motivated me was my first experience of a case of a pregnant woman who had smallpox. Everyone was running from her, for fear of contracting the disease.  Amazingly, unafraid, the MMM admitted, treated and cared for her until she got well and went home.  I wanted to be like these Sisters“.

Sr. Catherine Therese herself was amazing and unafraid.  Immediately after her initial religious formation she came to Ireland and studied nursing and midwifery.  On her return to Nigeria, she set out on a long missionary assignment in caring for the sick and needy.  She was matron at several of our hospitals in Nigeria, Anua, Afikpo and Ibadan.  Even in retirement she was still active in the community and interested in everything.  She had a special fondness for the young MMM Sisters in formation.  She enjoyed life right up to the end.  On Christmas Day, 2021, she enjoyed watching the festive dancing.  The next day, she became unwell and died peacefully in the afternoon of December 26th.

She was buried in the MMM plot in Benin City on January 21st, 2022.