Sister Agnes thanks guests at the Aug. 5 luncheon to thank the Carmelite Sisters for their ministry at Marian Manor. Pilot photo/Wes Cipolla
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BOSTON -- When South Boston resident Nancy Drinan first heard that Marian Manor would shut down, it messed up her plans for the future.
Drinan lives only a few blocks from Marian Manor, the South Boston institution that provided senior living, therapy, and pastoral care to people of all faiths for 70 years. Before the pandemic, she would attend Mass there several times a week, befriending the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm who staffed the residence.
"I got to know them very well and become very close with them," Drinan told The Pilot.
On May 14, Marian Manor announced that it would have to close for financial reasons, ending a legacy of care in South Boston that began when Cardinal Richard Cushing invited the Carmelite Sisters to establish a facility in the former Carney Hospital building.
Drinan said she was saddened by the news because, if she ever had to live in a nursing home someday, she would have wanted to live at Marian Manor.
"The word that really is kind of ubiquitous when it comes to the sisters is humility," she said. "They are extremely humble women. They are hardworking, they're unassuming. They are dedicated and totally committed to their charism, to care for the elderly."
Drinan wanted to do something to honor the sisters for their decades of service.
She enlisted the help of Father Robert Casey, pastor of Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston; Father John Nichols, a senior priest who celebrates Mass weekly at Gate of Heaven and has known the Carmelite Sisters since 1963; and her fellow parishioners. She also contacted Father Robert Kickham, secretary of Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley. With all of their help, Drinan organized a farewell luncheon for the Carmelite Sisters at J.J. Foley's Café in Boston on Aug. 4.
Father Nichols and his brother, Father Henry Nichols, attended the luncheon, along with two of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master who staff Regina Cleri.
Sister Agnes, the mother superior of the Carmelite Sisters at Marian Manor, said that she was not expecting the luncheon to be such a grand occasion.
"It's so nice to see you all, all of our good neighbors and friends," she said. "So, thank you. We're very happy to have served here in South Boston. I've been here for all these years. It has been a privilege for us, serving the elderly."
Of the seven sisters currently on Marian Manor's staff, two of them, Sister Patrick and Sister Augustine, are 95 years old.
"They're both remarkable, but Sister Patrick is still working," Drinan said. "Even though she uses a walker, she goes up and down the halls on her walker, visiting patients. She's extraordinary. Really, they all are."
Boston City Councilman Ed Flynn attended the luncheon with his parents, former Boston Mayor and U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Ray Flynn and his wife Cathy.
"The Carmelite nuns were always there, serving not only the people of Boston but the people of Massachusetts as well," Ed Flynn said.
In his remarks at the luncheon, Ray Flynn said that in his long political career, he has learned that it is "the people behind the scenes that bring out the very, very best in society."
He added, "If it weren't for the nuns, if it weren't for the priests, if it weren't for the staff, there'd be no great America. They wouldn't be talking about the greatness of America. It'd be just like any other country, and it's not. It's a great country because of what these folks did to make it great."
Ed Flynn and Boston City Council member Erin Murphy read an official resolution passed by the council to commemorate Marian Manor and its staff.
"These are tough to get," Ed Flynn said.
The resolution recognized Marian Manor's "steadfast commitment toward faithfully welcoming and serving the elderly of our South Boston community for almost 70 years."
"Through your exceptional care and dedication, you have provided a warm, supportive environment where residents are treated with the utmost respect and dignity," the resolution read.
Murphy said that her grandmother was a resident at Marian Manor "for many years."
"Thank you for the love," she told the sisters. "Any time myself, my family went to visit her, it was a place that you knew that, especially the nuns, were taking good care of the patients. You will be missed in the community."
According to a statement released by Marian Manor on May 14, all of the home's current residents will be "relocated to another location of their choice," including a nearby facility also sponsored by the Carmelite Sisters, by September. Marian Manor staff members will also be offered positions at other facilities sponsored by the sisters.