Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce (born Margaret Alice Joyce; 18 January 1884 – 1 March 1964) was an Irish

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

nun and musician.

Early life and family

Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce was born Margaret Alice Joyce at 41 Brighton Square West,

Rathgar Rathgar (), is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It was originally a village which from 1862 was part of the township of Rathmines and Rathgar; it was absorbed by the growing city and became a suburb in 1930. It lies about three kilometres south of ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

on 18 January 1884. She was the second eldest child of ten surviving children of

John Stanislaus Joyce John Stanislaus Joyce (4 July 1849 – 29 December 1931) was the father of writer James Joyce, and a well known Dublin man about town. The son of James and Ellen (''née'' O'Connell) Joyce, John Joyce grew up in Cork, where his mother's family ...

and Mary (née Murray). Through her grandmother, Ellen O'Connell Joyce, she was related to

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

, her older brother, was 18 months older than her. He called her "Poppie" due to a red cloak she wore to

sodality In Christian theology, a sodality, also known as a syndiakonia, is a form of the "Universal Church" expressed in specialized, task-oriented form as opposed to the Christian church in its local, diocesan form (which is termed ''modality''). In Eng ...

meetings. It is said that she was his favourite sister. The Joyce family lived at 16 different addresses in Dublin and Bray owing to the differing fortunes of their father. Joyce was educated by Mrs Elizabeth Conway, a family governess, later attended St Catherine's Dominican Convent at

Sion Hill Sion Hill is a National Historic Landmark in Havre de Grace, Maryland, notable as an example of high-style Federal architecture and as the home of a family of prominent officers of the United States Navy. Work began at Sion Hill around 1785 ...

and Dominican College, Eccles Street. After the death of her mother on 13 August 1903, when Joyce was 19, she cared for her younger siblings. She had to beg her father for money for food and other necessities, caught between the promise she made to her mother and her father's demands. Joyce's difficulties in raising the younger children with her father was the basis of the "Eveline" story in ''

Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writt ...

''. Joyce was the first person that her brother James told that he was in love with

Nora Barnacle Nora Barnacle (21 March 1884 – 10 April 1951) was the muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce. Barnacle and Joyce had their first romantic assignation in 1904 on a date celebrated worldwide as the "Bloomsday" of his modernist novel '' ...

. She tried to talk James and Nora from going to the continent. She took Nora shopping for some clothes before they left in 1904, and helped the couple with their travel arrangements. She also tried to get James to reconcile with their father.

Career

Joyce entered the Convent of Mercy Missionary College,

Callan, County Kilkenny Callan () is a town and civil parish in County Kilkenny in Ireland. Situated 16 km (10 mi) south of Kilkenny on the N76 road to Clonmel, it is near the border with County Tipperary. It is the second largest town in the county, and had a ...

on 20 August 1909. She originally intended to become a nun in Germany, but James suggested she go to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. She left for New Zealand on 10 November 1909. James was in Dublin at the time of her departure, and saw Joyce off from North Wall to England where she would sail to New Zealand. He promised her that if she ever wished to return he would send her the fare. She never returned to Ireland or saw any of her family again. On 30 December 1909 she entered the Convent of Mercy,

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

, New Zealand, receiving the habit on 13 July 1910. Taking the name Sister Mary Gertrude, she professed on 13 July 1912. From 1912 to 1949, Joyce taught piano, violin and singing in Greymouth and Runanga. She left to teach the boys of Loreto College in

Papanui Papanui is a major suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated five kilometers to the northwest of the city centre. Papanui is a middle socio-economic area with a population of 3,645 consisting predominantly of Pākehā (NZ Eur ...

, Christchurch, teaching until three weeks before her death at age 80. When she was told she was dying, she requested that her letters and photographs be destroyed which included 30 years of weekly letters from James and other members of the Joyce family. She had never read any of her brother's works, possibly until 1962, when Fr Godfrey Ainsworth gave her a copy of ''

A portrait of the artist as a young man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional alter ...

''. Joyce died in Calvary Hospital, Christchurch on 1 March 1964, and was buried in Waimairi cemetery, Christchurch.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, Mary Gertrude Nuns from Dublin (city) 1884 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Irish nuns Sisters of Mercy 20th-century New Zealand Roman Catholic nuns People from Rathgar