In Loving Memory
Sister Maureen Kelly, 90, died on November 20, 2020, at St. Francis Convent, Little Falls, Minn.
Maureen was born on April 3, 1930, in Minneapolis, Minn. She was the first of two girls born to the late Thomas and Hanna (Holst) Kelly. Maureen had one sister, Barbara Walther. The girls grew up in Minneapolis and attended public school. They spent some months living in Los Angeles, and Maureen was proud of doing service as a rationing clerk for the War Production Board in the summer of 1943. However, that year their parents divorced and the girls completed their elementary education at Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Belle Prairie, Minn., and then went to high school at St. Francis High School in Little Falls.
She was very close to her mother, who in later years, lived in Little Falls, but it was only when she was doing ministry in the Twin Cities that she really got to know her father. It was through him that she developed her love of the Minnesota Twins and her pride in her Irish heritage.
Maureen entered the postulancy of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls on December 8, 1947 as a senior in high school. She was accepted as a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, Minnesota, on August 12, 1948 and given the name Sister M. Michaelyn. She returned to her baptismal name in 1962. She made her first profession of vows on August 12, 1950, and final vows on August 12, 1953. She was a Franciscan Sister for 72 years.
Sister Maureen earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minn.; a master’s certificate in religious education from Corpus Christi College, London, England; and a master of arts degree in religious studies/spirituality, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash.
She ministered as an elementary teacher, primarily teaching first or second grades, and principal, pastoral, ecumenical and retreat minister and prayer center director, spiritual renewal minister, and novice minister. She was also a core member of the original Franciscan House of Prayer, a regional director and assistant minister in her Franciscan Community.
Sister Maureen served in Elk River, Waite Park, St. Cloud, Morris, Alexandria, Princeton, Little Falls, Prior Lake, Sauk Rapids, Little Canada, St. Paul, Minn.; Selmer, Tenn.; and at Berakah House of Prayer in Pittsfield, NH. She also did ecumenical ministry at St. John’s University in Collegeville where she ministered with and became a close friend of the renowned priest and professor Henri Nouwen.
Sister Maureen was a quiet, reflective and gentle person with a profound love for God and for God’s people to whom she ministered. She appreciated the strength and companionship she knew through all the joy-filled and pain-filled experiences of her life, day-by-day and year-by-year. She often asked herself, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” When she celebrated her golden jubilee she said, “I consider myself very fortunate to be living at this time in history when we have come to know more about Francis and Clare through their writings and other research made more available to us. As I enter into the future unfolding one day at a time, I hear Francis continue to say: ‘I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what you are to do.’”
Sister Maureen was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Barbara Walther. She is survived by her nieces Ann Doyle and Nancy Walther, her nephew Allen Walther, her close friend Joanne Wessman and her Franciscan Community.
A private burial service was held on November 21, 2020. A memorial Mass was celebrated December 13, 2021.
