REQUIEM MASS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 July 1936, Page 5

REQUIEM MASS

MOTHER M. AGATHA. At St. Mary’s Church, Christchurch, on Wednesday morning, Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of the soul of Rev. Mother Marv Agatha McDonnell, of St. Mary’s Convent, Colombo Street, whose death occurred on Monday night. Bishop Brodie was the celebrant, Dr. J. Kennedy assistant priest, Very Rev. Fathers .». Long (Greymouth) and T. Hanrahan (Riccarton) were deacon and sub-deacon at the throne. Rev. Fathers A. Burger, S.M. (rectoi- of St. Bede's College) and J. Kilgour (Riecarton) were deacon and sub-deacon of the Mass, and Fathers P. Timoney and J. Hendren S.M., were masters of ceremonies. Rev. Father P. Smyth (Timaru), and Monsignor Cahill (Auckland) were present in the sanctuary, and the music of the Mass was sung by a choir of priests, representative of all city and suburban parisnes of North anil South Canterbury and of the West. Coast, where Mother Mary Agatha spent her girlhood, and where she laboured for 29 years of her life as a religious. Miss D. Blake was organist, and the pupils of St. Mary’s College sang an appropriate hymn and also formed a guard of honour in the church grounds. The chief mourners were Rev. Mother M. Agatha’s brother. Mr. E. McDonnell, of Greymouth, and members of his family, and Sisters of Mercy of the foundations in Christchurch and Timaru. In a short address, Bishop Brodie extolled the work of Rev. Mother M. Agatha during the 45 years she had been a nun. As one entrusted with the care of souls, he said, he was ever grateful to God for the zest and devotion with which succeeding generations manifested the faith that was in them by entering religions communities. In Rev. Mother ,M. Agatha’s family there had been seven vocations —six of the family had become Sisters of Mercy, and one was a priest. “As it is a holy and. a wholesome thought to pray for the dead," he concluded, “I exhort you all, in thanksgiving and gratitude for a life dedicated to God and to the saving of souls, to pray for the eternal rest of the soul of Mother M. Agatha. After Mass, the funeral left the church for the Waimairi cemetery, where the service at the graveside was conducted by Bishop Brodie, assisted by Rev. Fathers Burger and Kilgour.