Sister Mary Raphael Connaughton was born in Argentina on 15 December, 1845. She was 34 when the Sisters came to Australia. She was one of the twelve who remained in Adelaide when the community was divided.
Not much is known about the work of Sister Raphael beyond that she was a teacher. One surviving story recalls the unfortunate consequences of limited spaces for children to play on the school grounds and the location of the upstairs nuns’ chapel alongside the tennis court. On one occasion a student was observed to accidently hit a tennis ball through the open sacristy window. In class the next morning, Sister Raphael, the sacristan, waved a threatening finger that this performance was not to be repeated.
She died on 23 December 1917 aged 72 and is buried in the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide.
By Sr Mary-Anne Duigan and edited By Jacqui Jury, 2024