Posted December 2, 2013

Medical Mission Sister Mary Conahan, 95, died Nov. 22 after a brief illness, in Meadowbrook, Montgomery County. 

Born in Morea, Pa., near Bethlehem, Sister Mary earned her B.S. degree from Chestnut Hill College before entering the Medical Mission Sisters in 1941. After her profession of vows she was assigned to publicity work for her community for 14 years, eight of which she spent at the order’s motherhouse in Philadelphia’s Fox Chase section, and six years at its formation house in Los Altos, Calif.

After 10 years working in international leadership in Rome and teaching student nurses at Holy Family Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Sister Mary returned to Philadelphia where she assisted with the many hospitality needs of sisters returning from or en route to missions overseas.

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She then completed a course in clinical pastoral education at Allentown State Hospital, worked as assistant chaplain in the Pennhurst Center for the Mentally Handicapped in Phoenixville, served as a counselor at the St. Petersburg Free Clinic in St. Petersburg, Fla., and as a pastoral team member at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, Calif.

From 1985-1990, Sister Mary lived at St. Matthew Parish in Philadelphia where she did pastoral work. She then began a period of active retirement at her community’s North American Headquarters in Fox Chase, coordinating the activities of the older sisters living there. She recently moved to St. Joseph Manor in Meadowbrook, where she died.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated Dec. 4 at the North American Headquarters.