Sister Mary Alfonsa Ronan was born in Ireland on 30 May, 1852.
Carmel Bourke, former boarder and later St Aloysius College Principal (1945 – 1953) remembers Alfonsa:
Sister Alfonsa Ronan was a lay-sister who left Ireland in 1867 to join the Sisters of Mercy in Buenos Aires, being only a girl of 15 years when she so generously left her Irish home to travel to the other side of the world. She then came out to Adelaide as one of the 24 Sisters who came here from Buenos Aires to make the new foundation. Sister Alfonsa lived a serene and hidden life, always engaged in domestic duties, and she was a great favourite with the boarders. She used to come down each evening at 6.50p.m. when the Sisters went to tea, to supervise us in our leisure time before the evening study. She had a warm, kindly personality and a delicious Irish brogue, and we used to love to get her telling us stories, especially ‘ghost’ stories, which she could tell most effectively, amid little squeals from her audience (Bourke 1991, p. 39).
At the time of Mother Evangelista’s death, Sister Mary Alfonsa claimed to see ‘a beautiful light shining over Evangelista’s head on her deathbed’ (ed. Mclay 1996, p. 46)
Sister Alfonsa died on 19 December 1928 aged 76 years and is buried at the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.
By Sr Mary-Anne Duigan and edited by Jacqui Jury, 2024
References
Bourke, C 1991, ‘Some early recollections of “Angas Street” (from 1920 to 1954)’, Convent of Mercy, Adelaide.
(ed.) 1996, Women on the move: Mercy’s Triple Spiral, Sisters of Mercy, Adelaide.