Margaret D’Ath RSCJ

Margaret and her twin sister Joan were born in Levin NZ on June 30, 1924. Margaret attended the mainly Maori convent school and spent her childhood roaming the countryside among hills, rivers and beaches, often on her bike with her seven brothers and sisters . At age 5, Margaret resolved to become a nun.  Shortly afterwards, Margaret and her five sisters were sent to Sacré Coeur, Island Bay, NZ.

Margaret loved Sacre Coeur, its ethos, its sense of internationality, the kindness of the nuns and the classic arts-based curriculum. Margaret was completely set on her hope to live in the love of the Sacred Heart and was Head Girl for two consecutive years.

When she left school, Margaret enrolled for war-work in the Customs Department in Wellington, and attended daily Mass before going down to the waterfront for work each day. In 1942, Japanese submarines lurked in Sydney Harbour but she was allowed to go by flying boat to Rose Bay and took to religious life in the Melbourne Noviceship.   After completing an Arts degree at Sydney University and going to “Probation” in Rome in 1951, she began ten very happy years in our secondary schools of Kincoppal, Baradene and Island Bay, teaching religion, history, maths and languages.  Margaret also taught singing, staged operettas and loved playing the organ in the chapel.

From 1961-1969 Margaret was a lecturer at Loreto Hall Teachers College, teaching adult students mainly from other Religious Orders. Two years on the staff of Christ College in Melbourne followed, in a much broader co-educational context. From 1972-197, Margaret worked as a Primary Schools Adviser, touring the Auckland Diocese from the Hokianga to Taumarunui.

In the mid-Seventies, the post-Vatican II “changes” began in the Church and the Society and Margaret spent five unsettled years, partly doing further studies at Melbourne University and partly being “renewed” by roaming alone through Israel and Europe, based in RSCJ communities. For two years, she taught at Woldingham, one of our sister schools in England. On her return to New Zealand in 1982, Margaret worked first for eight years in the Catholic Education Office in Wellington, then for eight years in Christchurch, where the NCRS and other Adult Education programmes took her driving all over the South Island.

Then, after being in charge at Baradene, from 1999 to 2001, Margaret joined the “Westie” community at Massey and spent seven happy years combining parish activities there with ten years as a Defender of the Bond in the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal. After a fall in 2015 she had to give up driving, was confined to a walker and finally took off her veil which she had worn faithfully up to that point as a matter of principle.

Margaret spoke of her life in these last years as having for a roadmap a paragraph from our Constitutions:

When old age makes it impossible for us to continue in a full-time apostolate, we look for new ways of manifesting the love of Jesus. We are called not only to accept the love and service of others, but to give to others the love that we have drawn throughout life from the Heart of Christ.

The Baradene community will miss Margaret but we can rejoice together that her steadfast faith is now receiving its reward and that she now sees the great Love of her life, and in that joy is reunited with her beloved parents and Molly, Pat, Marie, Bill, Joan, Jean and Peter.

Margaret passed away peacefully on 5 February 2024.

Requiescant in peace

This is an extract from the eulogy prepared by Elizabeth Snedden RSCJ and read by Anne de Stacpoole RSCJ who attended Erskine College (formerly Sacré Coeur, Island Bay) with Margaret D’Ath RSCJ.