Sister Mary Scholastica Hartnett celebrated her 100th birthday on August 22 with her sisters and friends at Mercyville Hostel, Craigie.
Her special day was celebrated in style, commencing with Mass in the Craigie Chapel with Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey, and three priest friends, including Whitford parish priest Fr Joseph Tran.
This was followed by morning tea and an interview on ABC720 with Geoff Hutchinson where she acquitted herself very creditably with memories of an early Perth and advice about how to live a good life, all the time expressing deep gratitude for the goodness of her family, friends and sisters in community.
In the afternoon, sisters and friends gathered for afternoon tea and cutting of the cake. Words of appreciation were given by Sr Joan Buckham and congratulatory messages from Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, WA Governor Malcolm McCusker, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd were read.
Since her birthday, Sr Scholastica has also received letters from the Queen and State Opposition leader Mark McGowan.
Sr Scholastica was born in 1913 at Ballyheigue just 10km north of Tralee on the west coast of Ireland, where her father’s farm was situated close enough to the North Atlantic Ocean for its citizens to be able to smell the salt in the air.
Luckily, the family was still living in this house when Scholastica made her first visit to the land of her birth in 1959.
Sr Scholastica grew up in a time of political tension and passionate discourse as Ireland was evolving into its present state of nationhood.
On the world scene at the time of her birth, the first World War was about to ignite.
By the time she left Ireland aged 20 to join the Sisters of Mercy in West Perth, the bitter struggles of Irish nationalism were being resolved and Eamon De Valera was about to become head of government in Ireland.
Margaret Mary Hartnett left Ireland 80 years ago with 15 young Irish women on the steamship Bendigo and joined the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy at Leederville in 1933. Sr Scholastica is the last surviving member of this group.
Sr Mary Scholastica is a beloved member of the former West Perth Congregation, now part of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Her years in ministry were spent as a primary school teacher in the schools of the Congregation and as that period in her life was drawing to a close, she assisted in the Congregation archives and could always be counted on to hold the community household together.
She lived in the convent houses at St Brigid’s, West Perth; St Mary’s, Leederville; St Kieran’s, Osborne Park; Our Lady of Lourdes, Nollamara and St Bernard’s, Kojonup.
Sr Scholastica taught in the schools attached to those houses as well as at St Patrick’s in Havelock Street.
Sr Scholastica also served the inner life of the community and was appointed the Novice Mistress at one point and later was elected the Vicar of the Congregation during Mother Phillip Shine’s term of office in the 1960s.
She is a figure of trusted serenity and her advice is still sought today for its good sense and practicality. Her sense of humour is much appreciated.
She is often consulted on points of Congregation history and she is the centre of all hospitality which is enjoyed in the sisters’ sitting room at Craigie.
She is all neatness and care and to this day writes in an elegant, graceful handwriting style.