Scottish Catholic Observer

Sr Mary of the Holy Spirit from the Carmelite monastery in Dysart, Fife travelled to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in Ireland where Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, conferred her degree.

Sr Mary of the Holy Spirit, who entered religious life 59 years ago, started her degree four years ago with a focus on Edith Stein, St Teresa of Avila and their work with women.

Sr Mary said: “It was just a part-time degree as you can’t neglect your prayer life or commitment to community life.

“The course was online and it was quite easy to do. It was good in some ways because you could do all your research online. But it could also be quite isolating as you didn’t have people who were doing it with you to chat about it.

“I did my dissertation on Edith Stein, I was looking at her conversion, the things leading up to it and looking at her work on the equality of women.”

Edith Stein

Edith Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who became a Carmelite nun and died at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1942.

Speaking of her work on Edith Stein, Sr Mary (right) said: “It’s not that we (women) are equal to men in everything but we are different and have our own qualities, she did a lot of work lecturing to women on this before she entered religious life.

“I wanted to make a connection to St Teresa of Avila’s work with women and how she inspired Edith Stein’s own work.

“It gave me things to think on, you could get wee nuggets of information that does help your spiritual life and gives you something to focus on.”

Unique

On her travels to Maynooth for her conferral Sr Mary highlighted the uniqueness of her visit noting that her most recent travels outside of the monastery had been to the hospital.

“Nowadays we have a general permission for things which are necessary, we don’t get out of the enclosure just for anything, so that was something special,” she said.

“It was a lovely day, when we got there we put on our cloaks and went to Mass at St Mary’s Oratory, it was impressive.”

Her degree was conferred by Archbishop Eamon Martin who commented that it was a ‘joy to meet her and confer her degree’ adding that she was the ‘epitome of life long learning.’

Further studies

When hearing the comment Sr Mary of the Holy Spirit laughed in reply: “Oh yes I’m not a youngster!”

Her age is something she says she’ll have to consider if she wishes to take on any further studies.

“I would like to go on to further study, in some ways at my age, you don’t know if it’s feasible but I would like to do some studying,” she said.

Sr Mary said she had been fortunate to have the opportunity to study in her later years: “The Carmelites didn’t have the opportunities that we have now with the Carmelite institute. It is only now that we have been able to have the possibility to do studying like this.”

A Carmelite representative added: “She will soon be 80 years old but is still as eager as ever to grow in her knowledge and love of God!”