Sister Michael Mary Madden
1919-2008

At the beginning of her interview with Sister Jean Tobin, Sister Michael Mary Madden said:

I was born on August 19, 1919, to Michael and Kathryn (Collins) Madden… Since I was the oldest, I can remember my mother telling me to watch out for my brothers and sisters whenever they were around. Not only that, but they were to stay with me so that no harm would come to them.

Kathryn Collins was a Chicago native of Irish ancestry. Michael Madden was from County Tipperary in Ireland. They met in Chicago, married, and became the parents of six children. He worked as a carpenter for the Chicago Park District, and provided well for his large family.

Two of their daughters became Adrian Dominicans and one, a Sister of Mercy. In order of birth, the six children were: Mary Elizabeth (Sister Michael Mary, OP), Joseph, Colette (Sister Colette, OP), Patricia, Jerome, and Bernadette, (Sister Amata, RSM).

Mary Elizabeth was the first child baptized at the new parish, Our Lady of Peace in Chicago. The new parish had been established and the pastor appointed, but the church had not yet been built. She was, therefore, baptized at St. Philip Neri Church, but her baptism was recorded at Our Lady of Peace.

At first the family lived in an apartment, owned by Mary Elizabeth’s Grandfather Collins, on Chicago’s south side across from Hamilton Park where there were all kinds of activities for everyone. In 1931, when Mary Elizabeth was in sixth grade, Kathryn Madden died, and her husband hired a young woman from Ireland as a live-in caregiver for his children. Shortly thereafter, he built a house for the family, and they moved into it when Mary Elizabeth was in eighth grade. There was some talk in the neighborhood about the young Irish woman who was living with the Maddens, and after a time she left. By then, however, the father felt that his children were old enough to take responsibility for themselves. Sister Michael Mary told a rather humorous little story. She read the newspaper quite thoroughly, and took some of the columnists’ advice to heart.

I decided, my father has no wife so I will do the things for him that my mother would do if she were living. I remember one night Dorothy Dix said to have your husband’s slippers out when he comes home from work… I thought that was pretty good advice, so I got my dad’s slippers out and put them in the living room where he always sat for a few minutes when he came home from work. He said, “What are my slippers doing out here in the living room? They don’t belong here.” I quickly took them back to the bedroom and realized that I couldn’t raise my father on Dorothy Dix.

The family lived in St. Carthage Parish, and all the children attended St. Carthage School. When it was time for high school, scholarships to Mount St. Mary Academy in St. Charles were being offered, and Mary Elizabeth accepted a scholarship. She was very much attracted to religious life; and with her father’s permission, she entered the Adrian Congregation on February 1, 1937, the middle of her senior year. The Great Depression was raging, and she knew that graduation would be expensive. She had enough credits for graduation, however, and received her diploma from Mount St. Mary Academy.

Reception of the habit and her religious name occurred on August 23, and she professed her first vows on August 24, 1938.

Within a short time she was on the way to Joliet, Illinois, where she taught in the primary grades at St. Patrick School for nine years. The next twenty-seven years were in the Western part of the country. In her interview she said, “I went West when Mother Gerald [Barry] was opening several places there.” Her first assignments were in California. First she ministered as a first grade teacher at St. Louis Bertrand in Oakland. At the end of her first year there, in June 1948 as a result of summer study, Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian bestowed upon her a Bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in Latin and history.

After four years at St. Louis Bertrand, she spent six years at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Oceanside as its first superior and principal. In her interview, she said:

We were part of Camp Pendleton. It is like a town within a military town. It was good because almost all of the children were from military parents and had been all over the world with their families. They were very bright but there was a lot of movement. They were changed every two years.

It was during her time there, in March 1954, that she returned to Chicago for her beloved father’s funeral.

In 1957, as a result of summer study at the University of California in Berkeley, she received a Master’s degree in English, and in September 1957 she returned to St. Louis Bertrand as a seventh grade teacher. In 1961 she was assigned to Bishop O’Dowd High School, also in Oakland, where she taught English and business subjects.

Her assignment for 1965 was as principal and superior at Our Lady of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the wake, Sister Frances Lombaer shared some memories from that time:

Those were turbulent times. We shortened our habits, went from a very structured life to being able to make choices regarding prayer and other matters in our daily lives. We began dialoguing in small groups. We still had reading at meals. Sister Michael Mary used the Vatican II documents as each was promulgated in our house. The documents were published in The New World, the Catholic newspaper from the Chicago Archdiocese which she received. I have been very grateful that she made that decision. She had the foresight to know how important the documents would become, and she wanted us to know about them early on.

Then, with her English background, she was assigned to teach a number of us young sisters American Literature so that we could finish our Bachelor’s degrees. She revived my love of reading with that course. She struggled at times with being principal, superior, teacher, and choir director in the midst of all the changes in religious life.

In 1967, Sister Michael Mary was assigned again to Bishop O’Dowd High School. Until 1970 she taught religion and English, and in 1970 she became vice principal. At the wake Sister Mary O’Neill, who at that time was Co-Provincial in the West, said:

O’Dowd was a Diocesan high school, and the pride of the Diocese at that time. Adrian always sent excellent educators there, as well as excellent vice principals. A priest was always the principal, and Bishop Mark Hurley always appointed outstanding priests. Most of them, however, knew little about running a school. So the role of the vice principal was being a leader in education and also quietly educating the principal to the realities of the day.

When, one July in the 1970s, I made my last trip to O’Dowd to see the nuns, Sister Michael Mary was in school, but everyone else had finished for the summer. She said that the students had graduated, the scholarships were given, the teachers had completed their work, but she still had a pile to do. She had given her time to the ministry of students in need, teachers who needed to talk, and sharing Christ with anyone who asked. Her door was open to everyone. She still had paper work to finish. This was definitely pastoral leadership on a high plane.

Sister Michael Mary was a remarkable woman and a remarkable Dominican. Her gifts were many—compassion, pastoral care, outstanding commitment to study.

Sister Michael Mary returned to Michigan in 1974 and served on the staff at St. Henry Center in Lincoln Park, Michigan. During that time she attended Madonna College in Livonia and earned a second Bachelor’s degree in gerontology.

Three years later she went back to Las Vegas as a pastoral minister at Our Lady of Las Vegas, where she served for eight years. In 1985 she was again in the Midwest as coordinator at Star of the Sea Convent in Chicago. Sister Cyrilla Zarek sent a communication that was read at the wake.

When she came to Chicago from the West in the eighties, I had the privilege of engaging in the CPE process with her in the Bridgeport-Canaryville parish-based program. She interacted easily and well with younger CPE students. Her clinical assignment, an ethnic parish now closed, was a challenging one. It included a housing project which the pastor and staff chose to neglect. Sister Michael took it on. Her ministry there was faithful, compassionate, and effective. I vividly recall her pastoral care of a woman whose son had been murdered. Sister Michael not only helped with funeral arrangements, but also followed up with grief support for her.

She was a living expression of what it means to be a Dominican. She was a contemplative. She was a lifelong learner. She was a preacher… For me personally, she was an inspiration and a challenge.

After three years at Star of the Sea, Sister Michael Mary began her seventeen-year service at St. Albert the Great Parish in Burbank, Illinois. For eleven years she directed the parish ministry of care, served five years as a pastoral associate, then retired and volunteered her services for a year. At the time of her retirement, a tribute to her service appeared in the parish bulletin.

Sister has worked diligently with many of the parish organizations including visitation and Communion minister to the homebound, hospitals, and nursing homes. She is the chairperson of the Spiritual Life Committee, member of the Pastoral Associates of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Advocate for the Matrimonial Tribunal, member of Stickney Township Council on Aging, and member of St. Albert’s Pro-Life Committee… She has also administered the RCIA Program, our weekly Holy Hour and Morning Prayer sessions.

As a staff member, we have relied on Sister’s expertise, knowledge, and compassion for many of the varied aspects of parish life. She will be greatly missed by all!

In July 2005, the pastor of St. Albert rented the convent to a group working with retarded children and the sisters moved out. Sister Michael Mary decided to join her sister, Sister Colette, in Adrian, and she took up residence in the Maria Building of the Dominican Life Center. She and Sister Colette spent much time together, and Sister Colette’s death in February 2006 was very hard for her older sister to bear. Death came to Sister Michael Mary almost two years later, on January 30, 2008. She was eighty-eight years of age, and had been a Dominican for seventy years.

A wake-remembrance service was held for her on February 1 in St. Catherine Chapel. It is interesting to note that her wake was held on the seventy-first anniversary of her entrance into the postulate. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapel, opened the service, extended sympathy, and welcomed those who were present: Sister Bernadette, Sister Michael Mary’s sister-in-law, her cousin Father Dan Collins, several nieces and nephews, and many Dominican friends. Sister Joan summarized Sister Michael Mary’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last days.

When she arrived, she lived on the first floor. She attended daily Mass and prayed with the community. She was a prayerful and realistic woman. She had her computer and really did very well.

She was a calm patient, peaceful person—one who was gracious, hospitable, and sensitive. She was also a prolific reader. She devoured books!

Her health declined gradually. Recently, she gave her computer away when she found it difficult to handle. Increasingly she lost weight and wasn’t able to get around as much as she had… She declined food, drink, and medications. She simply wasn’t hungry!

Dan Madden, Sister Michael Mary’s nephew, spoke for the family. He expressed the family’s gratitude for the care given his aunt.

She was very dear to me. As I grew to know her, I realized that she was a very well read person with a brilliant intellect, very much interested in what was going on in the world. She was a wonderful person to talk to, and very much loved by all her family.

Sister Michael Mary’s funeral liturgy took place on February 2, the Feast of the Presentation. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist. In his homily, Father spoke of anointing her.

This past Wednesday afternoon her sister Sister Bernadette, Sister Donna Markham, and several others gathered at her bedside for a final anointing. I was in the room about ten minutes before we prayed, and Sister had been very restless, calling out from time to time in a wordless cry. During the time we prayed, she grew very quiet and even seemed to join us in her own way.

Father reminded the assembly that Sister Michael Mary always seemed to find time to help people with their problems, but that she has now passed beyond “our world of time.” She is in the timeless eternity with her God and with the loved ones who have been awaiting her.