Lest We Forget
Sister Elizabeth Mullen, CSJP (1927-2009)
Sr. Elizabeth was born in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, the eighth of nine children. She received her early education from the Loretto and Dominican Sisters, and also at Dun Leoghaire Technical School.
After many years of working in Dublin, she began to wonder if there was more to life than the trip into the city every day.
Interestingly, when she began to consider entering religious life it was a Dominican Sister who put her in touch with Sr. Cecilia Agnes who was the CSJP Director of Aspirants at Cabra. That was the beginning of the rest of her life.
She entered our congregation on August 15, 1950. Following a period in Cabra as an aspirant, she came to America on the S.S. America with other aspirants.
She was a graduate of Seton Hall University, and held a Master’s degree in Theology from Marywood College. In 1994 she was awarded the Jubilee Medal Pro Meritis for distinguished service within the Archdiocese of Newark.
She began her teaching career at St. Luke’s in Hohokus, and continued teaching at St. Ann’s in Fairlawn, St. Joseph’s in Medford, Holy Name in Garfield and St. Margaret’s in Little Ferry. Her last assignment was at St. Mary’s in Dumont where she was a teacher, then principal for nineteen years, and pastoral associate visiting the sick and elderly from whom she stated she learned a great deal about patience and acceptance from the homebound.
I believe this brief summary reflects a life well lived. We celebrate her outstanding work on behalf of Catholic education. I have to believe that she leaves behind her several classes of admiring students. We also say thank you to her for her faithfulness, for the sharing of her gifts, for companionship, friendship. She was a very quiet presence among us, and we will miss her. Finally, I would like to leave all of us with a quote that I found years ago in the Knock Museum: “One day we shall meet again in a place not where death ends but where life begins.”
Ann Rutan, csjp