Sister Mary Thérèse

Sister Mary Thérèse                     ND 4917                    PDF Download

Rose Eileen Gleeson

Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld (Kettering)

Date and Place of Birth:              27 September 1930    Nottingham, England
Date and Place of Profession:    08 August 1954          Hoddesdon, England
Date and Place of Death:            14 May 2020               Nazareth House, Northampton, England
Date and Place of Burial:            tba                                Kettering, England

“Courage! … He is calling you.” (Mark 10:49)

Sister Mary Thérèse (Rose Eileen Gleeson) and her brother Joe were born the eldest of five children. Growing up in Nottingham, the twins attended the local non Catholic school. At the age of eleven, Eileen went to the Catholic school and was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. She left school at the age of fourteen and went to work in a dressmaking factory where she became an expert seamstress.

While still at home she joined The Grail, a federation for Catholic women who met for prayer and reading, and she began to see her way to God through the religious life. Reading a Catholic paper she saw an advertisement calling young women to a life with The Sisters of Our Lady. She was struck by this title.

Following it up she entered with the Sisters in Hoddesdon on 7^th 0ctober 1951. She received the habit and the name Sister Mary Thérèse the following summer. Two years later she made her first vows into the hands of Mother Maria Raphaelita. During her tertiate she helped in the houses in Hoddesdon and Cambridge and worked towards her state exams ready to go to college. She began her teacher training in Liverpool soon after her final vows which she made in Rome together with Sisters Mary Anita and Mary Bernadette.

For thirty four years she taught in parish schools in Hoddesdon ad Kettering. She was deputy head teacher twice in different schools and was a much loved teacher. While in Kettering she became a scout leader for the “Brownies” (junior girl scouts) and with Sister Mary Bernadette became “Brown Owl and Tawny Owl” respectively. She belonged to the parish choir and was a Eucharistic minister. Her treasured ministry was the preparation of children for the sacraments. Having retired from teaching she helped adults with their spiritual life through the Ascent Movement.

When the number of Sisters in England diminished and it was necessary to look for a smaller convent, Sister Therese decided it was time for her to join Sister Mary Anita in Nazareth House Care Home in Northampton. She was quite a figure there in the five and a half years of her residency. Having had only a couple of treatments at the local hospital it was a great shock to us all when God gently took her from us.

May God accept her true fidelity to himself and the Congregation to which she had given herself.