Mary Devonport (1920 - 2003)

Born 21 Aug 1920 in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

Ancestors

Died 14 Jul 2003 at age 82 in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Angela Devonport [send private message]

Biography

Mary was born in 1920. She was the daughter of John Devonport and Mary Ann McCartin. She passed away in 2003. ^[1]

Frank Devonport reflections about his sister:

Mary (Molly) Devonport (Sister Teresita) 21-8-1920 – 14-7-2003

Born in Christchurch on 21 August 1920. Her mother wanted her to be called “Mary” but her father wanted “Molly” Hence she was baptised “Mary” but called “Molly”. In her teens she wanted the family to call her “Mary” – but it didn’t always work.

Teresita, or Molly as she was then called, started school at Elmwood and was there for three months. At the end of that time (1926) the Priests at St Mary's found out that there was a Catholic family called Devonport at the Elmwood school. Fr McKenna immediately went round to the home to discuss with the parents the matter of sending the children to a Catholic School. The outcome was that the three younger members received their primary education at St Mary's Parish School. Jack had left school by then. Alec went to St Bede's. Molly then attended St Mary's Primary School.

She attended St Mary’s Parish Primary until 1931 and completed the Proficiency Exam in 1931. On one occasion when she and Kathleen Laffey (later Sister Chrysostom) skipped a class Molly fell over a first floor banister on to a concrete floor and only broke an arm.

Sister Mary Alacoque taught her in Standard Five. To enthuse her pupils for study, she commented that Molly could do Standards 5 and 6 in one year. Molly was delighted with this, because, lacking clarity in her thinking at this time, she looked forward to leaving school at the end of her primary education and going home to help her mother, who, at that time, was badly crippled with a broken bone behind her knee cap. Eventually, Molly and Kathleen Laffey were promoted to Standard 6 halfway through the year

In those days there was a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in St Mary’s Church at the evening devotions every third Sunday. Those at the parish school were expected to take part in the procession – the girls in their First Communion dresses and veils and distributing flower petals in the aisles before the Blessed Sacrament. I don’t know who cleaned up afterwards.

She attended St Mary’s Convent Secondary school from 1932 to 1936. The parish primary school was under the parish priest but staffed by the Sisters of Mercy for I understand a pittance – the parish school was really for those families who could not afford to pay school fees. Fees were charged at the Convent school which had both primary and secondary levels – it was mainly for girls but a few boys attended the primary division – apparently their parents could afford to pay the fees.

Although the nuns were probably untrained as teachers they gave us a good education. For example, Jack O’Callaghan and I won scholarships to St Bedes in the same year – Jack ended up as an engineer in Sydney and I as a Professor. Tony Sheehan later also won a scholarship to St Bedes and ended up as a District Court judge. No doubt others also won scholarships or made their names in many fields.

As an aside, the Mercy nuns also staffed the Papanui parish primary school (near St Bedes). After attending 6.30am Mass, the nuns had little time to think of breakfast before walking from Colombo St to Victoria St in their heavy habit and in all weathers to catch a tram to the terminus at Harewood Rd. And then walking along the Main North Rd to the Papanui Church and get there before any children turned up to school.

Although Molly could not later remember it, when I was in Form 1V in 1936 and she was in Form V1, she used help me with my Latin homework – I think that she just about did it for me. One night we fell out, she refused to help with the Latin so I did it myself – and got 6 on the rump at school for an unsatisfactory performance – maybe that helped me to start learning with my own efforts.

Molly entered the Mercy Convent in Timaru in early 1937 along with 5 or 6 others from Mercy schools. They spent about 18 months in novitiate wearing a “granny bonnet” and took their final vows on 5-9-1939. Molly took the name of Sister Mary Teresita (Terry). Dad, and sometimes accompanied by Mum and me, used to visit her in Timaru – she could be visited only on the second(?) Sunday of each month for I think a maximum of 2 hours. The train fare return on the Sunday was 5 shillings each.

There were some hard rules governing the nuns. For example, when they left the Convent walls they had to be with another nun. Most of the rules, including the restriction on visiting to the second Sunday of the month, were relaxed following Vatican 11. Sisters were not allowed to attend a Nuptial Mass. They could attend a requiem Mass but could not attend the burial in the cemetery except for the burial of another Sister.

Teresita recalls that her vocation developed gradually. When her father was on night work, she would sleep with her mother. One night, at the end of the night prayers, her mother whispered: 'And now three Hail Mary's that Molly will become a Sister'. She thought Molly was fast asleep! This may have influenced Molly to enter the Convent, but she did feel a personal attraction to enter the Religious Life. At this time, her mother was receiving treatment for her fracture of the knee, so Molly felt free to follow the call to become a Sister of Mercy. Her parents were honoured and did not encourage her to stay at home, even though she was the only girl in the family.

Molly entered the Convent on Easter Sunday 1937. Sister Mary Benignus was the Novice Mistress and they all loved her. Teresita had charge of the baby boarders. There were about five or six of them to mind. Teresita was not quite seventeen years of age at that time and had no experience of looking after young people when she was growing up.It was quite a responsibility put on her shoulders. Sr Mary Benignus was the Novice Mistress for three years and then Mother Aquin followed. The change was difficult to adjust to. Teresita looked forward to seeing her name on the list of those moving but it never appeared. In those days, those who had made their First Profession stayed on in the Novitiate until finally professed. However, during that time she was sent to Greymouth. Mother Aloysius was the Superior. Teresita was sent for the third term of the school year as Mother Enda was sick and was given time out of school to recuperate. She had to teach Commercial subjects and this was difficult as she had only a little bookkeeping knowledge. However, she soon learnt. Her time in Greymouth was from 1941 to 1945 and during those years she assisted Sisters teaching classes at various levels.

In 1946 Teresita was sent to St Mary's, Christchurch. Here she had to take shorthand and latin classes together. She had this combination of classes to teach when the Inspectors came and the only comment made by one of them was: "They are making you work very hard for your living, aren't they"? Unfortunately, there was only a limited staff as it was a small school. During this time Teresita had to teach subjects that she felt she knew little about. Commercial Practice was a subject that she swotted up the night before. She also taught History.

The story is told that one day when supervising class in a subject in which she had no expertise (commercial subjects in Geymouth?) she asked the girls to write their names on a piece of paper. One lass trying to be smart wrote her name in shorthand thinking that Molly had no knowledge of that subject. Molly could not only read it but pointed out to the girl that she had the vowels in the wrong place.

During those years she was also studying for B.A. After getting her B.A. she did M.A. in History with little time for any study, as she was full time teaching. Sister Imelda Carmody was very good to her during those years, but whenever she saw Teresita doing anything else but study, she would send her back to study. When studying for her M.A., Fr Bernie O'Brien (of St Bede's) proved a good friend. He had done his M.A. in history so he would check up on how she was doing. As exam time drew near, he would suggest some topics that he thought she would probably get on the exam paper. Whenever he asked her a few questions, she had to answer that she knew little about the topic which he was questioning her on. To which he answered "Good God, Sister, what do you know"? During those years of study, her trust in prayer grew. Teresita asked the Sister preparing the little ones for their First Communion to ask the little ones to pray that she would be able to answer the questions on the paper. Teresita says that that Sister must have got the infants to "pray their little hearts out" because she managed to scrape success in all the papers. I think that Molly was the last person allowed by the University of Canterbury to gain degrees externally and without attending any lectures.

In the 1960’s there was talk about starting up a Home Science course at St Mary’s. So Teresita was sent down to Dunedin to get a Diploma in Home Science so she would be qualified to teach it in St Mary's. It was a three-year course. Firstly, she had to get permission to go out alone, as it was the custom of the Congregation at that time to always travel in pairs. She stayed with the Sisters of St Joseph in Castle Street, and would go to the South Dunedin Sisters during the weekends. She got to know them very well. At first, she had very little knowledge of the Home Science subjects. The only cooking she had done at home when growing up was under the direction of her mother (except for heating dessert jellies for her father in the oven!!). At the beginning of the Course, the students were presented with several foolscap pages, each question followed by multiple answers to choose from. Teresita was confronted with one question, which asked if the coating on the croquette fell to pieces when put in the fat, what would be the cause? She had no idea of what a croquette was! So for that, and many of the other questions she selected her answers by a process of "eenie, meanie, miney, mo"! Sometimes it was a case of asking God to guide her to tick the right answer. When the results came out, only five or six pupils got over fifty of the questions right, and Teresita was one of them!

The University closed each year in October so Teresita would return to Christchurch and during November/December for six weeks would fill in any vacancy that occurred in the Primary or Secondary Schools owing to the absence of any teaching Sister through sickness etc.

When the Course was finished, she returned to St Mary's but the Home Science course never eventuated. There was no finance to acquire the necessary equipment, no other qualified teachers or rooms available. However, the tuition Teresita received, particularly in dressmaking stood her in good stead over the years. In Stage Three of Dressmaking she was required to make a suit. It was a valuable experience.

Teresita taught at St Mary's secondary school from 1946 until 1949. She was twice principal from 1950 until 1955 and then from 1963 until 1975.

In 1 February 1976, Teresita went with Anne Frost to attend the N.P.I. (National Pastoral Institute) Course in Melbourne. This Course gave her a new outlook on life. It aroused in her an interest in Adult Education. It was at the end of this Course that she was rung up in Melbourne and told that there was a vacancy in the Marriage Tribunal if she were interested. So she decided to devote part of her time working on the staff of the Marriage Tribunal and some of her time to adult education. While in Australia she contacted two of her cousins on our father’s side.

On her return from Melbourne, Teresita went part time to Villa Maria College. She was on the staff there for eighteen months. She began organising adult groups when she was sent down to Timaru to be on the Secondary Staff there as a vacancy had occurred when one of the Sisters there left. While there, she took adult education with groups of parents using a book called RENEW which took nine weeks to cover the programme. Those taking part loved it. Irene O'Connor and several others were much in praise of the gatherings and sharing, saying what a difference it had made in their lives.

In February, 1978 Teresita was moved to North Timaru, but she returned to the College by bus each day as she continued to do part time teaching. She started some adult education groups in North Timaru after getting the permission from the Parish Priest. But he took no responsibility so Teresita redecorated a room on the side of the Convent garage by recovering the chairs etc. To help her in this area, she took a one-day course at Polytech on recovering of urniture.

In 1985 Teresita offered to go to Brisbane to further her Adult Education work. She was given the opportunity to attend full time at the Seminary, listening in to Lectures - enrolling for classes in which she was interested. She was given free run of the Library during those days and could select the type of Lectures she wanted to attend.

In 1986 Teresita went to St Mary's and was involved in Marriage Tribunal and Adult Education.

In 1993 Teresita moved to Durham Street, when St Mary's Convent was closing. It was a lovely experience going to a smaller house where the three Sisters were keen to welcome visitors.

About 1997 she had an operation on her back, and in 1999 she had surgery on a big toe. She also had a cardioversion in 2000.

In October 1998 Teresita went to Mercy House because of ill health. By this time she had suffered a couple of slight strokes and she is not very mobile, getting around slowly sometimes with a stick or a walking frame. She had had two falls and in 1999 celebrated her diamond jubilee as a nun. eventually it was decided that it would be best for her to go to Mary Potter Hospice.

On 26 November 2001 she was admitted to the Mary Potter Hospice in Caledonian Rd. In May 2003 she was admitted to the Christchurch Public Hospital because of kidney failure and other complications. She was temporarily at Princess Margaret Hospital where she broke her hip on 9 June 2003 following which she was transferred back to the Christchurch Public Hospital. In early July 2003 the doctors at the hospital decided that little more could be done for her. She returned to the Mary Potter Hospice on 4 July where she died on 14 July 2003. The Requiem Mass was celebrated at St Mary’s Church in Manchester St on 16 July. She is buried alongside other Sisters of Mercy in the Waimairi cemetery in Grahams Rd.

Prepared by Frank Devonport, October, 2003-2009, and includes much of a summary of Molly’s life prepared by herself for the Sisters of Mercy.

Sources

1. ↑ Source will be added by Angela Devonport by 9 Jan 2024.

• Word docx compiled by her brother, Frank Devonport 2003-2009 and includes much of a summary of Molly’s life prepared by herself for the Sisters of Mercy.