OBITUARY

St. Joseph Sister Jerome Mulligan’s 76 years as a religious marked by generosity, humor

By Sister Kathleen Marie Shields, CSJ | Special to the Herald

Year after year at the Easter Vigil, Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Jerome Mulligan had stood beside the white-robed newly baptized as they surrounded the baptismal pool at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Kalihi-Palama. Within the radiant glow of the paschal candle and in the joy of this most blessed night “when heaven is wedded to earth,” she and the whole parish community witnessed the culmination of the catechumenal journey and the beginning of new life in Christ.

On May 5, in Honolulu, at age 92, Sister Jerome concluded her earthly journey and began her eternal life with our Risen Christ in glory.

On a hot, humid day in Chicago, on July 23, 1914, Owen and Ellen Mulligan welcomed into their family of three boys a baby sister, soon to be named Kathleen. The devout Irish parents had prayed for a little girl. More specifically, Ellen Mulligan had told God that she wanted her newly born child to have brown eyes and to be blessed with a religious vocation. It all happened just that way.

On Sept. 16, 1930, wearing the postulant’s plain black dress and cape trimmed with a white collar and cuffs, Kathleen Mulligan entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis, Missouri. On March 19, 1931, the feast of St. Joseph, she received her habit and religious name. Sister Mary Jerome pronounced her perpetual vows on the feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1936.

What followed were the missionary years. Sister Jerome’s first mission was on the Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wis., where she and her companion sisters taught school and cared for orphanage children. The days were long, the work hard, the winters bitterly cold.

In 1940, a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sister Jerome was missioned to Holy Rosary Convent and School in Paia on Maui, the Carondelets second Hawaii mission. She and Sister Martha Mary McGaw stepped off the stately Lurline and onto the Paradise of the Pacific on Aug. 14.

Sister Jerome taught on the Valley Isle until June 25, 1951, stationed in the little plantation town, but traveling with apostolic zeal to all ends of the island, assisting parishes, establishing catechetical centers, initiating Sodalities, visiting the sick and consoling elderly shut-ins.

Those were the war years and Holy Rosary Convent became a second home for servicemen who could use a little prayer, food, recreation and hospitality. During that time, Sister Jerome created portable tabernacles with discharged shells and silk rescued from used parachutes. Discarded parachutes also became liturgical vestments through the talented sisters’ needle and thread.

The missions revealed Sister Jerome’s generosity, wholehearted service, remarkable flexibility and contagious humor. She excelled as a classroom teacher, administrator, counselor, superior, and a deeply committed Sister of St. Joseph.

Other assignments included St. Margaret, Holy Name and St. Roch Schools in St. Louis, Mo.; the Carondelet House of Studies in Kyoto, Japan; Little Flower School in Mobile, Ala., St. Anthony School, Kailua; St. Joseph School, Waipahu; and St. Theresa School, Honolulu.

All through her religious life of 76 years, Sister Jerome held fast to her early convictions:

-- Religious life is a special gift of God to be lived joyfully and generously wherever God sends you;

-- Sisters of St. Joseph find their energy and strength in Eucharistic love;

-- Community life is blessed and built with the prayer, love, and support of each Sister.

Sister Jerome lived and breathed these beliefs with compassion, kindness and a listening heart.

On the early morning of May 5, Sister Jerome’s earthly pilgrimage ended. The Risen Christ came to claim her as one of His own. We give praise and thanks to God for her radiant life and faith-filled journey of nearly 93 years of lively love.

Sister Jerome was an Easter woman all year around. She loved the aloha people of this Pacific paradise, but Christ has brought her to an even dearer home.