By Rachel Curry
A woman both of action and of deep prayer, a free spirit, a Vatican II person, a wonderful teacher and a good friend, are just some of the words used to describe Sister Bernadine Daly RSM.
Sr Bernadine passed away peacefully on 6 May, after almost 80 years of living out the Sisters of Mercy charism.
Her sisters, Sr Teresa Daly RSM and Rita Murphy, along with friend and colleague, Sr Beverley Stott RSM, shared their memories of this unique woman with The eRecord journalist Rachel Curry.
This article also contains excerpts of the eulogy by Sr Bernadette Kennedy RSM, who joined Sr Bernadine in her ministry to Aboriginal people, the poor and the imprisoned.
Sr Bernadine was born Patricia Agnes Daly on 11 July 1920 into a large blended family headed up by her Irish father, Patrick, and her English mother, Alice.
Arriving in the middle of a sequence of four boys, Sr Bernadine was a tom boy growing up and even liked to compare her muscles to her brothers’.
However, her passion for teaching and inherent kindness were also clear for all to see, her sisters recalled.
“I remember she liked going around and being the teacher. She used to love to help us,” Sr Teresa said.
“She was very patient with us. We used to come home for lunch and I would want to walk along the curb and she would just hold my hand,” Rita added, “so she was patient and kind with people who were a nuisance.”
Sr Bernadine had wanted to be a religious sister since she was a child and initially planned to join the Carmelites at the then new convent in Nedlands.
But when she discovered that she would need to be a skilful sewer to make Church vestments as a Carmelite, she had a rethink, apparently stating years later, “I couldn’t sew to save myself so that was the end of that”.
Instead, she joined the local West Perth Sisters of Mercy, who had educated her, and went on to become a teacher herself.
After studying at the University of Western Australia, she went on to teach at St Brigid’s West Perth, St Mary’s Leederville and St Brigid’s Lesmurdie, where she had a profound influence that lasts to this day.
“At her funeral, lots of people met me who said they had become teachers themselves because of Bernadine,” Sr Beverley said.
“They used to copy her methods of teaching History and French. They also very much remembered her social justice emphasis about how to be socially responsible people in their adulthood.”
Unfortunately for the teaching profession, Sr Bernadine left the vocation when she was in her fifties.
She told her friends and family that she had received a call from God to begin a shelter for alcoholic and homeless Aboriginal people, which became St Norbert’s in East Perth.
Sr Beverley said it was an unusual move at the time.
“In those days, it wasn’t usual for people to give up the works of the congregation which, for us, was education, and go into something so radical as Aboriginal street people and homelessness,” she said.
“She was a forward thinker in that area and influenced a lot of us to go out and help her here and there.”
It was a characteristic decision for Sr Bernadine, who never let rules and regulations stop her from following God’s will.
She was even arrested once during the Swan Brewery protests of 1989, her sister, Rita, recalled, despite the misgivings of police.
“They were arresting the Aboriginal people but they didn’t want to arrest her. She said ‘If you’re arresting them, you’re arresting me’,” she said.
Alongside her fierce sense of right and wrong, Sr Bernadine had deep confidence in God’s providence.
Sr Teresa said her sibling sometimes struggled to attract enough donations to keep St Norbert’s open, but she never lost her faith.
“Once, she was visiting her place at Norbert Street and she was quite concerned because she had a debt and didn’t have the money to pay,” she said.
“She opened the post and there was the exact amount of money she needed. She had that trust in God; it was her motto: ‘My God in thee I trust’.”
Sr Bernadine was also a strong advocate for prisoners, particularly Aboriginal prisoners who were abruptly cut off from their country and family.
She was a foundation member of Prison Fellowship in Perth, started the Gethsemane Prison Group and sponsored the first serious discussion of restorative justice in WA.
During the eulogy, Sr Bernadette explained that Sr Bernadine was often misunderstood at a time when prisoners were demonised and law and order issues used for political gain.
“She really did believe that, in matters of good and evil, it was not ‘them’ and ‘us’. Rather, the line between good and evil runs within each of our hearts,” she said.
Sr Bernadine received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her tireless work, although her deep humility meant she had to be persuaded to accept it.
She spent her last years in the Mercy Community in Leederville and at Mercyville in Craigie, where she wrote her final words – included below – which were read out at her funeral.
I, Patricia Agnes Daly, in religion Sr Bernadine Daly, gratefully a Sister of Mercy, West Perth Congregation, thank you for coming today to pray for me on my burial day, the day I return to Mother Earth who has meant so much to me.
I would like to thank all those who have assisted me over the years – my family, my congregation, friends, especially Bernadette Kennedy, those connected with my ministries, especially the poor, the Aborigines and the imprisoned.
I would like to ask pardon of anyone I may have hurt in any way and I pardon anyone who may have hurt me.
I ask you to pray for me as I enter my final stage of this life journey.
I ask you to help the poor as much as possible and so have your life enriched, as well as making theirs more bearable.
I love you.
Life is wonderful. Sorrows do turn into joys.
Mary will stand by you in your hour of need as she did by the Cross of Jesus.
Once again, thanks and love. Bernadine.