Uganda Catholic Television

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Join UCTV for the live broadcast of the 69th Death Anniversary Celebrations of Mother Mary Kevin Kearney OSF, Servant of God from at the Mother House of the Little Sisters of St. Francis in Nkokonjeru, Buikwe District. Teresa Kearney, better known as Mother Kevin or Mama Kevina was the third daughter of Michael and Teresa Kearney of Knockenrahan, Arklow, Co. Wicklow. She was born on 27th April 1875, three months after her father was accidentally killed. Teresa was just ten years old when her mother died. She was raised by her maternal grandmother, her much loved Grannie Grennell who guided her youth and handed on her own deep faith and spiritual outlook on life. Student in Arklow The Kearney girls attended the National School run by the Sisters of Mercy in Arklow. Teresa left school at fourteen – a respectable age in Ireland of that time. Though scarcely a star student, she imbibed a love of learning and the facility of a Jill of all trades. Teresa wanted to train as a teacher but the finance was not there. So she became a JAM (Junior Assistant Mistress) and joined the band of the undervalued untrained teachers who made up the bulk of the profession. Teaching in Dublin and England Ireland at that time was not a land of opportunity and emigration was a fact of life for many. When Teresa was fifteen, her two sisters emigrated to America at the invitation of an aunt. Disappointed that no invitation came her way and feeling alone, she headed for Dublin and took a job as an assistant teacher/general dogsbody. This experience was not a happy one. Perhaps her memories influenced her later efforts to ensure that African women would be well trained for whatever they did. A mere two years later, on the death of her grandmother, Teresa herself left Ireland to teach in a school in Essex in England. Thoughts about being called It was at this time that she turned her thoughts to religious life. With a growing conviction that God was calling her to be a sister she applied for admission to the Franciscan Sisters, St Mary’s Abbey, Mill Hill, London, volunteering for work among the African-Americans. For three years she waited patiently for a posting to the American Mission, but when the call to foreign mission came, it came from Africa. On the morning of 17th October, 1957, after a night of appealing for missionary funds in Boston, Mother Kevin was found dead in her bed. Quietly and alone she had welcomed “Sister Death”. Perhaps the greatest honour of all was paid to her after her death. Her life-long friend and benefactor Cardinal Cushing of Boston, generously paid the expenses of sending her body to Ireland, where she was interred in the cemetery at Mount Oliver, but she only rested there for one month. The people of Uganda begged that her body should be returned to the country she loved and served so well. The movement to bring her body back was supported and financed by every section of the community. On December 3rd she was finally laid to rest at Nkokoenjeru among the people to whom she had given and received so much. 58 years had passed from the day she set out on her missionary journey, but what an achievement. #UCTVUpdates

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Prayer Intercession The 69th Death Anniversary of Mother Kevin Kearney Servant of God #MotherKevinKearney #PrayerIntercession #ServantOfGod #69thDeathAnniversary #CatholicPrayer #CatholicFaith #CatholicChurch #PrayerAndReflection #UCTV #UgandaCatholicTelevision

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Gospel Reading The 69th Death Anniversary of Mother Kevin Kearney Servant of God