Obituaries

Sr Bartholomew Cunningham obituary: Irish missionary to South Africa

In the 1970s she began teaching accounting at night to a class of young black women

Sr Bartholomew Cunningham

Sat Mar 7 2020 - 01:21

Sr Bartholomew Cunningham
Born: December 2nd, 1919
Died: February 14th, 2020

Sr Bartholomew Cunningham spent almost her entire adult life in South Africa as a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption, working with the poorest of the poor and at times in defiance of the apartheid regime.

In the 1970s she began teaching accounting at night to a class of young black women. The initiative avoided notice until she applied to establish an examination centre. The angered regime refused this. However, she was able to arrange for her students to sit their examination with the co-operation of an Anglican school. A source of great pride was meeting Nelson Mandela in her later years.

Philomena Cunningham was born in Leitrim, Co Down, in December 1919. She was second-youngest of a family of eight to James Cunningham, a farmer, and his wife Ellen (nee Conalty). She received primary education locally, then secondary education at the Sacred Heart Grammar School in Newry.

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She was one of the first girls in her home area to play camogie, even before the local GAA club established a team. Another pioneer was an older sister, who also became a nun.

In 1939 she joined the Assumption Sisters. The following year she sailed to South Africa with a group of other postulants. Their ship was one of the last passenger vessels to sail there, as the second World War meant the suspension of passenger services.

American years

The group landed at Port Elizabeth and travelled on to Grahamstown, where Sr Bartholomew studied at Grahamstown Teachers’ Training College. She would also later train in accounting.

Sr Bartholomew took her final vows in South Africa. She taught in several parts of the country. She also filled administrative posts in several convents, being a bursar and a Reverend Mother.

In 1958 she was asked to go to the United Sates to help establish a school in Ohio. As her South African qualifications were not recognised in the US, she studied for a BA. After five years in Ohio, she returned to her adopted home of South Africa.

By that stage Vatican II had improved nuns’ lives. The church was liberalised and she was able to visit Co Down on a regular basis.

Her energy did not allow her to recognise retirement. In her 70s she worked in northeast South Africa in a camp accommodating 16,000 refugees from the civil war in Mozambique. Nuns provided medical assistance and education. She held English classes for adults under a tree with no books.

Eventually she had to accept advancing age, transferring to general administrative duties in a convent in the cooler atmosphere of an office.

She held to certain old traditions of the church. After Vatican II many nuns switched to using their Christian names, while she remained Sr Bartholomew, though always Auntie Philomena to her nieces and nephews, who survive her.

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