FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY LIFE OF TERESA KEARNEY

(MOTHER MARY KEVIN KEARNEY, OSF)

Irish Born and Raised

Mother Kevin (Maria Teresa) as a young girl

The Servant of God Mother Mary Kevin Kearney was Irish born and raised. Ireland, especially the Southern part was staunchly Catholic depicted in the many Irish Saints on the Church Calendar: Patrick, Oliver Plunket, Bridget, Columban and many others. Mother Kevin Kearney thus, “showed with hundreds of other Irish children, a life governed by eternal truths that placed emphasis on spiritual values. She was reared in that atmosphere of solid Catholic spirituality which is the glorious heritage of her country.”[1] The Servant of God belonged to the Kearney family whose linage existed in Ireland way back in the 17^th Century and probably before that. About Mother Kevin’s ancestry O’Hara writes, “The name of Kearney had achieved great prominence both in the religious and secular life of Ireland. There had been notable churchmen in the family, particularly Fr. Barnabas Kearney, S.J., who had lived and worked in the vicinity in the early seventeenth century, and the Most Rev. David Kearney, Archbishop of Cashel from 1603 to 1625… James Kearney, was secretary to the King, and his family was prominent in French legal circles during the eighteenth century.”[2]

Maria Teresa Kearney, the later Mother Kevin Kearney, was born in Arklow, Co. Wicklow, in a little village of Knockenharan in Ireland. Below are some of Teresa Kearney’s immediate family members, that is, from her grandparents down to her father, Michael Kearney as written down by Frances Kelly, nee Walsh, who was a relative of the Servant of God. James Kearney, commonly known as ‘Jimmy Kearney of the Fields’ was Mother Kevin’s grandfather. Jimmy Kearney married Elizabeth, or Betty. He had two brothers; John Kearney, a widower lovingly called by children as ‘Dadda John,’ and Edward Kearney who lived and married in Dublin. James Kearney had seven children five boys and two girls; John, Bernard, Bridget (Biddie), James, Celia, William and Michael (Mother Kevin’s father) who was the youngest.

John Kearney married Elizabeth Lambert and they lived at Wicklow and had four children.
Bernard Kearney married Theresa O’Farrel and had several children; Elizabeth (Lizzie), John. James, Bernard and Teresa (Tessie) Kinsella, Molley Garvey and George.
James never married and eventually lived in Liverpool in England.
Bridget Kearney got married to James O’Brien, and settled at Rathdrum, Wicklow. They were blessed with four children; John, Stephen, Hannah and James.
Celia Kearney married Peter Fortune. They had three children; James who became Br. Charles Benedict, I.C.B. His brother Joe entered religious life and was known as Br. Pacificus and Katie, their sister.
Mother Kevin’s Family Lineage

William Kearney married Ellen Carty of Wicklow and later settled in Utica, New York. They had seven children. Eliza was born in Ireland while James, William, Patrick, John, Edward and Michael were born in Utica.
Michael Kearney married Teresa Grennell Kearney and had three girls; Elizabeth (Lizzie) who later migrated to the United States of America and married Ellis. (One of her children, Elizabeth Ellis, became a religious Sister in the Religious Institute that Mother Kevin founded in Africa). Anna May Scott, also married in America. Their last child Teresa (Tessie) became a religious Sister in the Franciscan Institute of St. Mary’s Abbey, London. She later became Mother Mary Kevin, Foundress of the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa and a great missionary Africa, South of the Sahara, has ever known! The above information concerning the family tree of Mother Kevin was a narrative that Frances Kelly shared with Sr. Leonie Kindiki in their conversation.

 [1] Sr. M. Louis, O.S.F. Love is the Answer: The Story of Mother Kevin O.S.F. Belfast; Cahill & Company, Ireland, 1964, p. 5-6.
[2] Ibid. p. 5.

Parentage

Michael and Teresa Kearney were simple farmers. The couple was blessed with two little girls; Lizzie and Anna. The family was happy and closely knit till tragedy struck. When Mrs. Kearney was six months pregnant with her third child, Michael Kearney met with a fatal accident and died. Three months later on April 28^th 1875, Teresa brought forth her baby. On the following day, on April 29^th 1875, the child was baptized by Rev. Fr. M. Barry in the Parish Church of Saints Mary and Peter, Arklow in the Diocese of Dublin. She was christened Maria Teresa, after the Saint of Avila. Sometime after her husband’s death Mrs. Kearney married again. Her second husband Patrick Byrne also a farmer moved in with her and were blessed with three children; Thomas, Hannah, and Mary Byrne.

Maria Teresa’s childhood

Maria Teresa grew up an ordinary child with nothing spectacular about her except her naughtiness which distinguished her from the rest of the children of her age. Tessie, for that was what her family called her, was the instigator of every mischief at Knockenrahan; hiding among the trees when called to collect eggs, taking a frog to class to frighten the poor little children, hitting her sister Liz for combing her hair, climbing trees and coming back from her mischiefs with torn clothes and lost ribbons! For Tessie, being a real Kearney “meant living on the farm, now called ‘Kearney Byrney’s place’, and sharing in the close-knit family ties. This was the environment which influenced her life and gave her that indestructible wisdom which is one of the priceless blessings of a humble upbringing.” As a child Tessie was courageous, fearless, daring, merry, generous, forgiving, yet quick-tempered and given to flashes of jealousy.

Her self-awakening

Teresa was by no means angelic; she had her strong and weak points; her lights and shadows, but God intervened in the life of this chosen child. He did not leave her to grow wild but pruned her early enough for the work He intended her to carry out later on in life. There is a saying among the Irish that God writes straight on crooked lines! Her awakening to the reality of sin and its consequences on others happened when she was five years of age. In one outstanding incident Tessie depicted her quick-silver temper and jealousy on her younger sibling. Tessie in a passion of anger and jealousy moved forward and slapped the baby her mother had tenderly caressed. Looking back at this event she said that “she suddenly saw herself as she knew God must see her – angry, jealousy, selfish – a wave of sorrow filled her soul. It was a moment of profound self-knowledge which she never forgot. From then on, she tried not to offend God and others though it was not easy for her. High-spirited Tessie found it hard to resist her impulses, but was always filled with remorse when anyone was hurt or offended.” Young Teresa later recalled the occurrence as an unforgettable experience. God in His own way had to come to write straight in the heart of His future instrument. Teresa’s self-awakening had a great impact on the Religious Sisters she later founded. In O’Hara’s Love is the Answer, we learn that Mother Kevin was vigilant that the Sisters fight their base nature and so live in union peace and charity. She was wont to say in her pedagogical teaching, “Sisters we must really fight for self-victory no matter how our nature may be like. God wants us to become Saints just as we are.”[1]About jealousy she says, “Get rid of jealousy which is worse than leprosy and cancer.”[2]

[1] Leonie, Kindiki. LSOSF. Ed. Wisdom of the Servant of God. Office of the Cause of Beatification of Mother Kevin. Amil Products Iganga-Uganda, 2017, p. 41.
[2] Ibid, p. 40

A sudden end of a happy childhood

God’s Will was slowly unfolding in the life of Teresa Kearney, bitter though it seemed to be. In a way the Most High God was preparing her for a life of detachment from family ties so that she could be entirely His as a missionary in hinterland Africa. At the age of ten, on March 17^th 1885, Mrs. Teresa Kearney died leaving the Kearney children doubly orphaned! Sensitive Teresa was filled with indescribable grief; “I felt my heart broken. I kept on saying: ‘God, God. Why did you take our Mama?’ I had a terrible dread that there was sorrow in store for us.”[1] Her premonition became a reality when Byrne took over the Kearney family farm and the Kearney girls were left homeless. The two older girls left for England and later crossed the Atlantic for the United States of America, never to return.

[1] Love is the Answer, p. 7.

Under granny Grennell’s wings at Curranstown

Elizabeth Grennell was Teresa’s maternal grandmother; a strict but loving woman. She knew her character and that “it would be ‘all or nothing’ with Teresa; there would be no half-measures. She was guide and mentor to her grandchild for the next seven years of her life and moulded her character with love and firmness.”[1] From the start Granny stressed self-control, self-denial, devotions to Our Lady, Angels, Saints and the Passion of Jesus; “Our Lord loves you. He suffered and died for you. Our sins are offences against His love.”[2] Granny’s teaching made a deep impression on young Teresa that she later passed on these devotions to the Sisters in Community and their influence is still felt in the Sisters’ lives today. It was during this period that Teresa made her First Holy Communion and was also confirmed by Cardinal McCabe in the Parish Church at Arklow, taking the name of de Paul. Much of what Mother Kevin was came from her grandmother: practical common sense, wisdom, the ability to face challenges with courage, faith and hope. To her dying day, Mother Kevin was grateful to Granny Grennell who had lovingly but firmly made her into a person that she was

[1] Ibid. p. 8.
[2] Ibid. P. 8.

A scanty education

Teresa’s education was minimal probably due to poverty and her grandmother’s failing health. She went to school at the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, but dropped out of school due to reasons above. She would have loved to be a fully trained teacher, but because she did not have the money to take her to college, she settled for a cheaper alternative – a school governess.

Death of Teresa’s grandmother

On 17^th March 1892, on the death anniversary of Teresa’s mother, Granny Grennell, Teresa’s bulwark against life’s bitter moments, died leaving the seventeen-year-old girl virtually alone. She had no time for self-pity but took her life in her hands. With deep faith in the Paternity of God she faced the problems before her with that characteristic courage that marked her missionary activities in tropical Africa. To improve herself, “she continued to add to her store of knowledge, taking lessons in home-nursing and first aid and, in this way, gained experience which matured her and gave confidence in facing life and its problems.”[1]Little did she know that the medical knowledge she acquired would be invaluable in Uganda where she started a chain of hospitals, dispensaries, and a leprosy research centre into the possible cure of the disease. Mother Kevin Kearney did incredible work in bringing healing to God’s people through her medical work.

[1] Love is the Answer, p. 11.

Teresa Kearney in search of a job

At this time, she opted to move to England in search of job and in Essex she was taken up by the Sisters of Charity to work as an Assistant Nursery teacher. When one sees the great things that Mother Kevin did in the sectors of education, health and social services for the people in Africa, one is truly amazed how someone who had had very little education worked so hard to improve the lives of millions of others so that they could have the opportunity that she had missed in life! The hundreds of schools from kindergarten to tertiary institutions in East Africa still tell the story of this selfless woman with no academic papers to fall back to, except her compassionate heart and love of God. She would later say with humility, “I am only a poor a poor untrained Irish woman, whom God has seen fit to use as an instrument for His work, so that the glory would be His alone.”[1]

[1] Wisdom of the Servant of God, Mother Mary Kevin Kearney, OSF, p.44.

Engagement to a banker

At eighteen years of age, Miss Teresa Kearney contemplated marriage and her suitor was a young banker of good standing. Both were happy and Teresa planned to introduce him to her relatives, who were indeed pleased to hear the good news. However, God has different plans for Teresa and the engagement was called off.