Sister Mary Cecile Quirke
1924-2012
Sister Mary Cecile Quirke was the first Sister to enter eternity in the year 2012. She died quietly on January 10. God allowed her to live for eighty-seven years, sixty-four of them in religious profession.
She was the first child born to Michael Joseph and Cecelia Ann (Morley) Quirke of Chicago, and came into the family on March 10, 1924. As the years passed, she was followed by three sisters, (Eileen, Catherine, and Loretta) and a brother (John).
Both parents were Irish and Catholic. Michael Quirke was from County Limerick, Cecelia Morley was from County Mayo. They met in Chicago, were married in Holy Name Cathedral, and settled in St. Columbanus Parish. Michael Quirke worked as a salesman, and provided a comfortable home and a good life for his family.
All of the Quirke youngsters attended St. Columbanus Elementary School, taught by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Mary Cecile graduated from eighth grade in 1938. Her high school years were spent at Parker High School, from which she graduated in 1942. She had taken some business courses, and after graduation she found employment in the business world for four years.
Although she attended a public high school, she kept in touch with the sisters at St. Columbanus. On September 8, 1946, at the age of twenty-two, she received the postulant’s veil in Adrian. In her short autobiography, written on September 8, 1996, she described her entrance.
Fifty years ago to the day, I ran down the steps of my parents’ home and traveled to the wide stairs leading to the oak doors which opened on the main lobby of Madden Hall. The first thing I remember seeing was the marble stairway leading to – I knew not where. In retrospect, stairs seem to symbolize the many changes, numerous locales, and variety of experiences I have enjoyed as an Adrian Dominican.
The group of young women who entered in September joined another group in February 1947, and fused into a “crowd” of forty members. They received the habit and their religious names on August 4, 1947, which was at that time the Feast of St. Dominic. From that day until the 1970s, Mary Cecile was known as Sister Michael Cecile. The group professed their first vows on August 5, 1948.
Within a short time of profession, Sister Mary Cecile was on her way to Des Moines, Iowa, where she began her teaching ministry in a classroom of middle-grade students at St. Augustin School. For five years she taught fourth and fifth graders. She studied at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian during the summers, and in 1952 she was awarded a bachelor’s degree with a major in English, and minors in secretarial science and social science. A great source of delight to her during this time was the entrance into the Adrian postulate of her sister Catherine, who later became known as Sister Kieran Therese.
In 1953 she was assigned to Hoban Dominican High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where she taught religion, business courses, and civics. The next year she was transferred to Dominican High School in Detroit, again as a teacher of business courses.
The year 1955 saw her in Miami Beach, Florida, where she was a business teacher at St. Patrick High School. Two years later she returned to the Midwest, and taught fourth grade at St. Edmund in Oak Park, Illinois, for a year. During the years she spent in Florida, she studied during the summers at Barry College (now University) in Miami.
In 1958 she was assigned to a new high school opening in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Holy Name High School in Escanaba, as a teacher of religion, business, history, and English. This was a co-educational school staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Franciscan Sisters from Manitowoc, the Adrian Dominicans, and the Christian Brothers. She taught there for five years. The Adrian Dominicans who taught at Holy Name High School lived with the Sisters at St. Patrick Convent, and daily traveled the mile or so to and from the high school. In 1959, the year after she began teaching at Holy Name, she was awarded a master’s degree in education by Barry College.
The year 1963 saw her in Illinois teaching religion, English, and guidance at Bishop Muldoon High School in Rockford. Two years later she was on the train to California and Holy Cross High School in Santa Cruz. Returning to Michigan in 1967, she taught for three years at St. Mary High School in Royal Oak, then went back to Illinois to spend two years at St. Bernadette High school in Evergreen Park, a year as assistant religious education director for the Archdiocese of Chicago, and a year at Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette.
In 1974 she left the classroom and spent five years at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, as a campus minister. An article about her, and her picture with students, appeared in The New World, a Catholic paper. Below are quotes from it.
At Triton College [Sister Mary Cecile] is the “campus minister” to some 19,000 students, almost half of whom are Catholic. She does not wear a habit, nor does she have an office she can call her own. Sister Mary Cecile works in the corridors, the lounges, and the parking lot.
Sister Mary Cecile is not alone in her efforts, even though she is the only full-time minister on the campus every day. There is much help and encouragement from the surrounding parishes in the community. Parish priests come to visit and are on call when she needs them. And the Triton faculty treats her as a staff member, even though she is technically only a guest. Students also have made her feel welcome. There was a problem with the “stereotype” most people have about nuns, but once she proved herself to be “an understanding person,” students began to seek her out.
Sister Mary Cecile studied during the summers at De Paul University, and in 1978 received a second master’s degree, this time in theology. She left Triton College in 1979. Returning to the Motherhouse, she served Central Services in Communications for two years, in public relations for a year and as director for five months.
In January 1982 she accepted a position as staff chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana, where she ministered until March 1983. She returned to Chicago, and again served the Congregation as staff assistant at Star of the Sea Convent for five years. She then spent two years in development and public relations for the Mercy Boys and Girls Homes of Chicago.
In 1990 she lived for a year in transition at St. Daniel Convent in Chicago. In her autobiography she wrote, “Realizing that the years were creeping up on me, I undertook the concentrated study of archival procedures, believing that this was an area in which I could be useful for a long time.”
In October 1991 she became archivist at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She moved to Jacksonville in 1992, and served the Diocese of St. Augustine as archivist and records manager until March 1995. At that time, illness had come upon her, and she became a resident at Maria Health Care Center in Adrian for six months, after which she moved into Regina Residence. Beginning in July 1996 she was on the Congregational History-Archives staff for a few months, then became a campus volunteer until October 1998.
From November 1998 to June 2001, she was again in Chicago, where she served as document preservation director for the Extension Society. She was now ill in earnest, and it was necessary for her to return to the Dominican Life Center/Maria in Adrian, where she remained until her death on January 10, 2012.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Mary Cecile on January 12 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, extended sympathy and welcomed all who were present: Sister Mary Cecile’s sisters Eileen and Sister Kieran Therese, her brother John, several nieces and nephews, and her many friends. Her sister Loretta was ill and unable to be present. Sister Jo summarized Sister Mary Cecile’s life and ministry, and added, “It will surprise those here at the Dominican Life Center who knew Sister Mary Cecile as a quiet woman of few words that hers was a life active and diverse, rich in experiences.”
Sister Rosemary Abramovich remembered Sister Mary Cecile as her fourth grade teacher at St. Augustin in Des Moines, Iowa.
At the time I didn’t know it was her first mission. I learned from her graciousness. She walked with such good stature. She was so straight, so gracious and smiling.
My aunt was a cake baker. Every Christmas she would bake an angel food cake and my brother and I would take it to the convent. . . . Sister Mary Cecile would smile at us, thank us so graciously, and take the cake in. The first day we came back to school she gave me something. It was a small rosary. She said that it was in thanksgiving for the cake. She was so gracious and pleasant.
I was here when she came to Adrian. She really didn’t want to be here, but she was gracious about it. She didn’t talk a lot, but she would smile and nod. I’d visit her and ask her to pray for me.
Sister Betty Condon spoke as a member of Sister Mary Cecile’s “crowd.”
Sister Mary Cecile and I have been friends for sixty-four years. We were right next to each other in age. . . . This morning several people got together to talk about our remembrances of Sister Mary Cecile. Sister Marie Schoenlein mentioned that she and Sister Mary Cecile were often asked—“chosen”—to represent the novitiate when some dignitary visited. I wasn’t chosen for that privilege, but I remember that Sister Mary Cecile was also appointed to check the outgoing mail for spelling. One day I got a letter back with a misspelled word circled. I‘d graduated from Barry College, and I didn’t like that too well. But it didn’t make any difference to our friendship.
About four years after Sister Barbara [Hubbard] and I founded Sea of Peace House of Prayer, Sisters Mary Cecile and Kathryn Noonan came for a week’s retreat. Mary Cecile and I walked on the beach and shared our stories. She was a blessing to many people.
One special time for me was a few years later when Sister Barbara and I were attending a memorial service for Cardinal Bernardin in Columbia, South Carolina. The Director of the Extension Society was one of the speakers, and at the social afterwards we approached him. He said, “Oh, I see by your logo that you are Adrian Dominicans. One of your sisters works with me, Sister Mary Cecile Quirke.” . . . We told him that we’d applied for a grant from the Extension Society, but were turned down. He replied that he was sorry, but thought highly of our ministry, and that he had a discretionary fund and would send us a check. A check for $2,500 soon arrived in the mail. That was a blessing we received because of her.
I’ll miss her. She was a dear friend over all these years. I wish her a wonderful eternity. She suffered a great deal.
Sheila Quirke, Sister Mary Cecile’s niece also shared.
It’s a privilege to be here tonight and to get to know my aunt in a different way. I’m the youngest niece. I can’t speak for my siblings, but I felt special when I realized that I had two aunts who were Sisters and that I had the experience of seeing a unique way of life. We were lucky to have Sister Mary Cecile near us through the 1970s and 1980s. She was a mythic figure of my childhood. She was always beautifully turned out. When I was a young girl, she was very much a role model for me of feminism. She was independent. . . . She said what was on her mind, and you knew just where you stood with her.
I worked for ten years in a retirement community, and went to many remembrance services. I heard many times, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That certainly fits Sister Mary Cecile.
Sister Mary Cecile’s funeral liturgy was celebrated on January 13. Father Robert Kelly, OP, the Motherhouse chaplain, was the presider and homilist, and Father William Sheridan of St. Philip Neri Parish in Chicago concelebrated. After the beautiful liturgy, Sister Mary Cecile was laid to rest in the cemetery planned in circles by Mother Camilla Madden in 1908.