Missionary nun retires to live as hermit

A County Meath nun who has spent forty years working as a nurse in Zambia is now retiring to live as a religious hermit in Mullingar.

Sr Veronica Moore made her profession of vows for the eremitical life in the Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar at a ceremony at which Bishop Michael Smith officiated.

Sr Moore, who grew up in Oldcastle, took vows to live a life of simplicity, solitude and prayer and is to do so in Mullingar.  She said the transition from being a busy nurse in Zambia to “doing nothing” would be “relatively easy” because “God has taken over quietly and gently.”

“I really believe that more things are wrought by prayer that this world could even dream of," she explained.

Bishop Smith paid tribute to Sr Moore’s work with the Mercy Sisters mission in Zambia where she cared for people who are among the poorest in the world.  “Leaving this life of active service, Sr Veronica now finds a new way of offering her life to God and her brothers and sisters,” he said.

The bishop said her new life would be one, “of quiet witness and constant prayer, uniting herself more closely to the Lord and assisting all of us with her daily prayer.”  Dr Smith said the life of the Church flowed from the strength of prayer and the vocation to pray was “rooted deep in the mystery of the human person.”

“Each one of us called to grow in closer friendship with the Lord, who is the source of our peace.”

“When we pray for others and for the needs of the world, we are offering a powerful gift to the life of our community," he said.

Sr Moore is the third person in recent years to decide to live as a hermit in the diocese of Meath.

She joins Sr Patricia Conway in Multyfarnham and Sr Una Kearney in Moate and a fourth person - Fr David Jones from Duleek in Co. Louth - is planning to make a similar commitment later this year.

by Fintan Deere