Sister Ann Joseph Sullivan, MM

Born: August 8, 1911
Entered: October 15, 1928
Died: September 16, 1939

In October, 1928, Frances Sullivan of Dorchester, entered as a postulant at Maryknoll. She was only seventeen and brought with her the shining, joyous spirit of a gentle child.

A year later, as a novice, Sister Mary Ann Joseph — the name she received in religion — was badly burned, and from then on to her death, September 16, 1939, she went gallantly from one crucial, crucifying illness to another. For ten years she knew little else physically save pain. But her lovely spirit never wavered; rather, it became a glowing torch kept alight with the precious fruits of her agonies, and placed with childlike faith and confidence in Our Lady’s hands for the help and healing of others.

Maryknoll has its active and its cloistered branches, working and praying for the extension of God’s Kingdom. Sister Ann Joseph represented Maryknoll suffering for the same end, and though she never saw the mission fields already whitened for harvest, heaven alone knows how many souls she garnered through her holocaust. May her sweet soul rest in peace