Maryknoll, NY: Sister Margaret Hennessey died on July 30, 2024 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY. She was 94 years old and a Maryknoll Sister for 77 years.
On March 13, 1930 Frances Margaret Hennessey was born in Flushing, NY to Frances (McNally) and John F. Hennessey. She had two brothers and four sisters, all who have predeceased her. Many nieces and nephews survive her.
From 1943 – 1947 Sister Margaret attended Bishop McDonnell High School in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her R.N. degree at St. Catherine’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1953 in Brooklyn, NY. She attended Mary Rogers College in 1971-1972 and received her Bachelor of Arts in Community Service.
She entered the Maryknoll Sisters at Valley Park, MO on October 31, 1947 from her home parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, Brooklyn, NY. She pronounced her First Profession of Vows on May 8, 1950 in Valley Park and her Final Vows on May 8, 1953 in Maryknoll, NY.
In 1953, she received her first mission assignment to Cochabamba, Bolivia working in a parish clinic for three years. She then went to the jungle mission of Riberalta, Beni, Bolivia, where she worked in the Sisters’ hospital. In 1960 she was assigned to the town of Azangaro in the Altiplano of Peru, where she did home visiting and nursing in an outpatient clinic. She moved to the town of Juli, Peru. There she continued nursing in a government clinic. In Juli she saw the need for health education and began to teach in the newly formed Instituto de Educacion Rural (IER) – the Rural Life Institute – located on the outskirts of Juli.
Returning to Peru in 1972, she continued her nursing and health education as well as the training of Health Promoters in the town of Ilave, also in the Altiplano.
In 1976, Peggy moved to Lima, Peru, where she, along with Maryknoll Father Tom Garrity, founded the Associacion Peruana de Misioneros (APM) – Peruvian Missionary Society, promoting the Peruvian lay missionary vocation and accompanying with formation and support. Together with the APM team, Peggy researched and help set up the first mission in Ayacucho, a place in the sierras of extreme poverty. In 1978, Peggy journeyed to Rome to represent APM at a worldwide gathering of Missionary Institutes. APM was the only institute from the Third World.
Peggy continued APM formation work for the next years based initially in our regional Center House in Lima, then San Juan de Miraflores across from Ciudad de Dios where our sisters were present, both located on the margins of Lima. In 1984, she moved to Villa El Salvador-Pachacamac continuing formation together with Maryknoll Father Marty Murphy while becoming active in the parish, nursing those afflicted with tuberculosis. While living in Pachacamac, some of her neighbors were afflicted with HIV/AIDS so she started to learn more about the disease. This led to becoming part of a pastoral/medical team of doctors, nurses, social and pastoral workers that visited HIV/AIDS patients both at home and in the hospital, focusing their work with the poor and homeless, which included monthly retreat days. Peggy continued to care for people with TB and began Health-Life and Hope, a parish solidarity group that helped members overcome isolation and despair. They look after each other with home visits, going to the market, washing clothes, cooking for one another, helping with house repairs, and even paying for hospital bills and medicines.
In 2012, Peggy returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY as part of the Chi-Rho community. She loved volunteering at Neighbors Link in Ossining to teach English as a Second Language to Spanish speakers. Even as her own health declined over the years, she continued to befriend many of the staff and sisters present at the Center, continued to keep in heart and prayer many in Peru who are doing the same. Now together we say to you, our dear Sister Peggy: “Go now in peace, faithful friend of God, as you take our love into paradise. God’s holy angels will lead you home to the wide waiting arms of the Lord.” (Dan Schutte, Song of Farewell)
Funeral Services:
A Vespers Service will be held for Sister Margaret Hennessey on Monday, August 5, 2024 at 4:15 p.m. in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, August 6, 2024 at 10:00 A.M. at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.