Jane Griffin was born on the 12 May, 1827 in Ireland. She and her sister Caroline (Sister M. Joseph) were the daughters of an Irish doctor. Their father’s cousin was Gerald Griffin, a well-known Irish Christian Brother who was a poet and novelist. Both girls had been well-educated at Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham and became gifted and cultured women.
She entered the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin and was professed there, taking the Religious Name Liguori. She had had some years of nursing and administrative experience in the Jervis Street Hospital in Dublin, experience which proved invaluable in Buenos Aires. She was also admired for her magnificent soprano voice of ‘great range, power, and sweetness.’
She joined the Sisters in Argentina in October 1856, as part of the second group of pioneers. In 1858, the Sisters were asked by the Government to take charge of the Lazaretto, (or Pest House) during a yellow fever epidemic. This building remained in their care, under the leadership of Sister Liguori Griffin until 1859.
Sister Liguori was 52 when the Sisters arrived in Adelaide. When the group of 24 was divided into two groups, she remained in Adelaide, while her younger sister, Sr. M. Joseph, went to Mount Gambier.
Following Mother Evangelista’s death in June 1885, Sister Liguori, who was Evangelista’s Assistant, was elected to the role of Reverend Mother in July 1885 ‘for the time being’. Most of this ‘time being’ – which turned out to be eighteen months – she spent in acute physical suffering. She died on 25 April, 1887 aged 58, and was buried in West Terrace Cemetery, side by side with Evangelista. Both had been worn out by the lengthy period of hard work and heavy responsibility in Ireland, Argentina, and Australia.
By Sr Mary-Anne Duigan and edited by Jacqui Jury, 2024
References
(ed.) 1996, Women on the move: Mercy’s Triple Spiral, Sisters of Mercy, Adelaide.