Framingham – Sister Mary Michael Kennedy (Anna M. Kennedy) died June 15, 2019 at St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham after an illness. She was 91 years of age and had been a Sister of the Good Shepherd for 73 years.
Sister Mary Michael was born in Holyoke in 1927, the daughter of Michael T. and Catherine Mary (Spillane) Kennedy of Ireland. Sister Mary Michael attended Sacred Heart Grammar School and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1946, and then entered the Novitiate of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Peekskill, N.Y., where she began her formal training in the mission of the Good Shepherd Sisters, serving girls and women in need of care and education.
Sister Mary Michael made her first profession in 1949 and pronounced her final vows in 1952. Sister Michael took part in a Childcare Training Program at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo. and received her certification in Child Care.
For 10 years Sister served as a childcare supervisor at the residential program in Springfield. In 1959, Sister Michael was appointed Director of Novices at the Good Shepherd Novitiate in Peekskill, N.Y., where, for nine years she trained young sisters for the mission of the Good Shepherd.
Mother Michael was a gentle woman of great wisdom, an excellent Formator and an inspiring example to all her Novices. From 1968 to 1980, Sister Mary Michael served the Province as the local community leader in the Good Shepherd communities in Hartford, Conn., and at Madonna Heights in Dix Hills, N.Y.
In 1980, Sister was missioned to Albany, N.Y. where she was involved in various community service positions. In 1989 Sister Michael returned to Dix Hills, N.Y. where she served in agency administration for the Madonna Heights residential program. In 2004, Sister Michael was appointed local community leader for the sisters at Dix Hills. In 2008 Sister Mary Michael was missioned to Good Shepherd Center in Marlborough where she tirelessly provided pastoral care to the Good Shepherd Sisters living at St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham.
She was a woman of great kindness and extraordinary generosity in the service of the Good Shepherd mission. In 2017 Sister herself was missioned to St. Patrick’s Manor due to failing health.
Sister Mary Michael was predeceased by her sister, Mary Cooney and her husband Tom of East Longmeadow. Sister leaves five nieces and nephews, Tom Cooney and his wife Lori, Chris Cooney and his wife Sandra, Michael Cooney and his wife Kim, Maryann McGrath and her husband Steve, and Carolyn Donovan. She also leaves 13 grandnieces and nephews and a great-grandniece and nephew.
Visiting hours will be held Thursday, June 20, from 9:45-10:45 a.m., at St. Patrick’s Manor Chapel, 863 Central St., Framingham. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered for Sister Mary Michael at 11 a.m. at Holy Family Chapel in St. Patrick’s Manor. Burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 421 Tinkham Rd., Springfield immediately following. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home (www.CollinsFuneral.com), 378 Lincoln St., Marlborough.
Expressions of sympathy in Sister Mary Michael’s memory may be made to the Good Shepherd Retirement Fund, 420 Hemenway St., Suite 466, Marlborough, MA 01752.
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd were founded by St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France in 1835, in the United States (Louisville, Ky.) in 1843 and in Boston 1867.
